"Now you
must always be kind to me," I said. "Always," you said. You are
not kind to me now, Ingolf. Had you not stripped me of the only
support which a woman must have to bear life alone, I might have
been able to endure it. But you have awakened passions hidden in
me, from the very depths of my nature. Whenever you were away,
they cried out for you with voices like children.
INGOLF. Stop, Hrafnhild. I gave you my word, it is true; but since
I no longer care for you, will you still hold me to an old promise
that was made when I loved you? HADDA PADDA [gets up]. Not an old
one, Ingolf. You aren't telling the truth now. [Pointing out of
the window.] Is it old, the water that flows down the river?
Hasn't every day we have lived together been a renewal of this
promise?
INGOLF. Maybe, but one day the water stopped flowing.
HADDA PADDA. Now you have spoken the terrible truth. Your love was
not rich enough, and you knew it from the first. You are not
deceiving me to-day. You deceived me the day you made me believe
that you loved me, but you were not strong enough to be sincere.
You felt that the burning love of a devoted woman would give you a
new spirit; that is why you betrayed me.
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