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Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
page 68 of 126 (53%)
MANDERS. I!

MRS. ALVING. Yes--when you forced me under the yoke of what you
called duty and obligation; when you lauded as right and proper what
my whole soul rebelled against as something loathsome. It was then
that I began to look into the seams of your doctrines. I wanted only
to pick at a single knot; but when I had got that undone, the whole
thing ravelled out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn.

MANDERS. [Softly, with emotion.] And was that the upshot of my
life's hardest battle?

MRS. ALVING. Call it rather your most pitiful defeat.

MANDERS. It was my greatest victory, Helen--the victory over myself.

MRS. ALVING. It was a crime against us both.

MANDERS. When you went astray, and came to me crying, "Here I am;
take me!" I commanded you, saying, "Woman, go home to your lawful
husband." Was that a crime?

MRS. ALVING. Yes, I think so.

MANDERS. We two do not understand each other.

MRS. ALVING. Not now, at any rate.

MANDERS. Never--never in my most secret thoughts have I regarded you
otherwise than as another's wife.
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