t think you will find any difficulty.

Valborg. But if _I_ think so?--if I feel myself deeply wronged?

Sannaes. I have told you that I am willing to take all the blame upon
myself.

Valborg. No, Sannaes--I don't want charity; I want to be understood. I
have a question to ask you.

Sannaes. As you will.

Valborg. How was it that we got on so well for the first year after my
father's failure-and even longer? Have you ever thought of that?

Sannaes. Yes. I think it was because we never talked about anything but
our work--about business.

Valborg. You were my instructor.

Sannaes. And when you no longer needed an instructor--

Valborg.--we hardly spoke to one another.

Sannaes (softly). No.

Valborg. Well, what could I say or do, when every sign of friendship on
my part went unnoticed?

Sannaes. Unnoticed? Oh no, Miss Valborg, I noticed them.

Valborg. That was my punishment, then!

Sannas. God forbid I should do you an injustice. You had a motive which
did you credit; you felt compassion for me, and so you could not help
acting as you did. But, Miss Valborg, I refuse your compassion.

Valborg. And suppose it were gratitude?

Sannaes (softly). I dreaded that more than anything else! I had had a
warning.

Valborg. You must admit, Sannaes, that all this made you very difficult
to deal with!

Sannaes. I quite admit that. But, honestly, _you_ must admit that I
had good reason to mistrust an interest in me that sprang from mere
gratitude. Had circumstances been different, I should only have bored
you cruelly; I knew that quite well. And I had no fancy for being an
amusement for your idle hours.

Valborg. How you have mistaken me!--If you will think of it, surely you
must understand how different a girl, who has been accustomed to travel
and society, becomes when she has to stay at home and work because it
is her duty. She comes to judge men by an altogether different standard,
too. The men that she used to think delightful are very likely to appear
small in her eyes when it is a question of the demands life makes on
ability or courage or self-sacrifice; while the men she used to laugh
at are transformed in her eyes into models of what God meant men to
be, when she is brought into close contact with them in her father's
office.--Is there anything so surprising in that? (A pause.)

Sannaes. Thank you, at all events, for saying that to me. It has done me
good. But you should have said it sooner.

Valbor