his face in his hands.)

Rebecca (coming quietly up behind him). Listen to me, John. If it were
in your power to call Beata back--to you--to Rosmersholm--would you do
it?

Rosmer. How can I tell what I would do or what I would not do! I have
no thoughts for anything but the one thing which is irrevocable.

Rebecca. You ought to be beginning to live now, John. You were
beginning. You had freed yourself completely on all sides. You were
feeling so happy and so light-hearted

Rosmer. I know--that is true enough. And then comes this overwhelming
blow.

Rebecca (standing behind him, with her arms on the back of his chair).
How beautiful it was when we used to sit there downstairs in the
dusk--and helped each other to plan our lives out afresh. You wanted to
catch hold of actual life--the actual life of the day, as you used to
say. You wanted to pass from house to house like a guest who brought
emancipation with him--to win over men's thoughts and wills to your
own--to fashion noble men all around you, in a wider and wider
circle--noble men!

Rosmer. Noble men and happy men.

Rebecca. Yes, happy men.

Rosmer. Because it is happiness that gives the soul nobility, Rebecca.

Rebecca. Do you not think suffering too? The deepest suffering?

Rosmer. Yes, if one can win through it--conquer it--conquer it
completely.

Rebecca. That is what you must do.

Rosmer (shaking his head sadly). I shall never conquer this completely.
There will always be a doubt confronting me--a question. I shall never
again be able to lose myself in the enjoyment of what makes life so
wonderfully beautiful.

Rebecca (speaking over the back of his chair, softly). What do you
mean, John?

Rosmer (looking up at her). Calm and happy innocence.

Rebecca (taking a step backwards). Of course. Innocence. (A short
silence.)

Rosmer (resting his head on his hands with his elbows on the table, and
looking straight in front of him). How ingeniously--how
systematically--she must have put one thing together with another!
First of all she begins to have a suspicion as to my orthodoxy. How on
earth did she get that idea in her mind? Any way, she did; and the idea
grew into a certainty. And then--then, of course, it was easy for her
to think everything else possible. (Sits up in his chair and, runs his
hands through his hair.) The wild fancies I am haunted with! I shall
never get quit of them. I am certain of that--certain. They will always
be starting