Yes, we are; or, at least, we suppress the truth. For the
truth--the pure and simple truth is--that you came out there and bought
me.

Wangel. Bought--you say bought!

Ellida. Oh! I wasn't a bit better than you. I accepted the bargain. Sold
myself to you!

Wangel (looks at her full of pain). Ellida, have you really the heart to
call it that?

Ellida. But is there any other name for it? You could no longer bear the
emptiness of your house. You were on the look-out for a new wife.

Wangel. And a new mother for the children, Ellida.

Ellida. That too, perhaps, by the way; although you didn't in the least
know if I were fit for the position. Why, you had only seen me and
spoken to me a few times. Then you wanted me, and so--

Wangel. Yes, you may call it as you will.

Ellida. And I, on my side--why, I was so helpless and bewildered, and
so absolutely alone. Oh! it was so natural I should accept the bargain,
when you came and proposed to provide for me all my life.

Wangel. Assuredly it did not seem to me a providing for you, dear
Ellida. I asked you honestly if you would share with me and the children
the little I could call my own.

Ellida. Yes, you did; but all the same, I should never have accepted!
Never have accepted that at any price! Not sold myself! Better the
meanest work--better the poorest life--after one's own choice.

Wangel (rising). Then have the five--six years that we have lived
together been so utterly worthless to you?

Ellida. Oh! Don't think that, Wangel. I have been as well cared for here
as human being could desire. But I did not enter your house freely. That
is the thing.

Wangel (looking at her). Not freely!

Ellida. No. It was not freely that I went with you.

Wangel (in subdued tone). Ah! I remember your words of yesterday.

Ellida. It all lies in those words. They have enlightened me; and so I
see it all now.

Wangel. What do you see?

Ellida. I see that the life we two live together--is really no marriage.

Wangel (bitterly). You have spoken truly there. The life we now live is
not a marriage.

Ellida. Nor was it formerly. Never--not from the very first (looks
straight in front of her). The first--that might have been a complete
and real marriage.

Wangel. The first--what do you mean?

Ellida. Mine--with him.

Wangel (looks at her in astonishment). I do not in the least understand
you.

Ellida. Ah! dear Wangel, let us not lie to one another, nor to
ourselves.