Tekla.  Of course, I did!

Adolph.  And then—­

Tekla.  I grew tired of him!

Adolph.  And if you should tire of me also?

Tekla.  But I won’t!

Adolph.  If somebody else should turn up—­one who had all the qualities you are looking for in a man now—­suppose only—­then you would leave me?

Tekla.  No.

Adolph.  If he captivated you?  So that you couldn’t live without him?  Then you would leave me, of course?

Tekla.  No, that doesn’t follow.

Adolph.  But you couldn’t love two at the same time, could you?

Tekla.  Yes!  Why not?

Adolph.  That’s something I cannot understand.

Tekla.  But things exist although you do not understand them.  All persons are not made in the same way, you know.

Adolph.  I begin to see now!

Tekla.  No, really!

Adolph.  No, really? [A pause follows, during which he seems to struggle with some—­memory that will not come back] Do you know, Tekla, that your frankness is beginning to be painful?

Tekla.  And yet it used to be my foremost virtue In your mind, and one that you taught me.

Adolph.  Yes, but it seems to me as if you were hiding something behind that frankness of yours.

Tekla.  That’s the new tactics, you know.

Adolph.  I don’t know why, but this place has suddenly become offensive to me.  If you feel like it, we might return home—­this evening!

Tekla.  What kind of notion is that?  I have barely arrived and I don’t feel like starting on another trip.

Adolph.  But I want to.

Tekla.  Well, what’s that to me?—­You can go!

Adolph.  But I demand that you take the next boat with me!

Tekla.  Demand?—­What arc you talking about?

Adolph.  Do you realise that you are my wife?

Tekla.  Do you realise that you are my husband?

Adolph.  Well, there’s a difference between those two things.

Tekla.  Oh, that’s the way you are talking now!—­You have never loved me!

Adolph.  Haven’t I?

Tekla.  No, for to love is to give.

Adolph.  To love like a man is to give; to love like a woman is to take.—­And I have given, given, given!

Tekla.  Pooh!  What have you given?

Adolph.  Everything!

Tekla.  That’s a lot!  And if it be true, then I must have taken it.  Are you beginning to send in bills for your gifts now?  And if I have taken anything, this proves only my love for you.  A woman cannot receive anything except from her lover.

Adolph.  Her lover, yes!  There you spoke the truth!  I have been your lover, but never your husband.