Kroll (getting up). Is that speaking as befits a clergyman?

Rosmer. I am a clergyman no longer.

Kroll. Yes, but--what of the faith you were brought up in?

Rosmer. I have it no longer.

Kroll. You have it no longer?

Rosmer (getting up). I have given it up. I had to give it up,
Kroll.

Kroll (controlling his emotion). I see. Yes, yes. The one thing
implies the other. Was that the reason, then, why you left the
service of the Church?

Rosmer. Yes. When my mind was clearly made up--when I felt the
certainty that it Was not merely a transitory temptation, but
that it was something that I would neither have the power nor
the desire to dismiss from my mind--then I took that step.

Kroll. So it has been fermenting in your mind as long as that.
And we--your friends--have never been allowed to know anything of
it. Rosmer, Rosmer--how could you hide the sorrowful truth from
us!

Rosmer. Because I considered it was a matter that only concerned
myself; and therefore I did not wish to cause you and my other