is only half mine. [With another outburst.] But you
shall be mine alone! You shall be wholly mine! That I have a right to
demand of you!

ALLMERS. [Shrugging his shoulders.] Oh, my dear Rita, it is of no use
demanding anything. Everything must be freely given.

RITA. [Looks anxiously at him.] And that you cannot do henceforth?

ALLMERS. No, I cannot. I must divide myself between Eyolf and you.

RITA. But if Eyolf had never been born? What then?

ALLMERS. [Evasively.] Oh, that would be another matter. Then I should
have only you to care for.

RITA. [Softly, her voice quivering.] Then I wish he had never been born.

ALLMERS. [Flashing out.] Rita! You don't know what you are saying!

RITA. [Trembling with emotion.] It was in pain unspeakable that I
brought him into the world. But I bore it all with joy and rapture for
your sake.

ALLMERS. [Warmly.] Oh yes, I know, I know.

RITA. [With decision.] But there it must end. I will live my
life--together with you--wholly with you. I cannot go on being only
Eyolf's mother--only his mother and nothing more. I will not, I tell
you! I cannot! I will be all in all to you! To you, Alfred!

ALLMERS. But that is just what you are, Rita. Through our child--

RITA. Oh--vapid, nauseous phrases--nothing else! No, Alfred, I am not to
be put off like that. I was fitted to become the child's mother, but not
to be a mother to him. You must take me as I am, Alfred.

ALLMERS. And yet you used to be so fond of Eyolf.

RITA. I was so sorry for him--because you troubled yourself so little
about him. You kept him reading and grinding at books. You scarcely even
saw him.

ALLMERS. [Nodding slowly.] No; I was blind. The time had not yet come
for me--

RITA. [Looking in his face.] But now, I suppose, it has come?

ALLMERS. Yes, at, last. Now I see that the highest task I can have in
the world is to be a true father to Eyolf.

RITA. And to me?--what will you be to me?

ALLMERS. [Gently.] I will always go on caring for you--with calm, deep
tenderness. [ He tries to take her hands.]

RITA. [Evading him.] I don't care a bit for your calm, deep tenderness.
I want you utterly and entirely--and alone! Just as I had you in the
first rich, beautiful days. [Vehemently and harshly.] Never, never will
I consent to be put off with scraps and leavings, Alfred!

ALLMERS. [In a conciliatory tone.] I should have thought there was
happiness in plenty for all three of us, Rita.

RITA. [Scornfull