LOUISE. I don't know. Happy ... that's a strange word. VENNEMA. Why strange? Are you happier here than--with us. LOUISE [_leaning forward on her hands_]. Than with you? [_Looking up._] I prefer to be here. VENNEMA. Don't you miss us all, just the least little bit? LOUISE. Sometimes, when I'm alone. All the same, I'd rather be here. VENNEMA. Aren't you deluding yourself? Wasn't your life with us at home better? LOUISE. Better? What do you mean, better? VENNEMA. You know what I mean. Don't you regret running off with ... him ... and spreading sorrow in our hearts? LOUISE. I loved him. And then I yearned for freedom, for the pleasures of life and travel. At home everything was so dull and monotonous. I couldn't stand the smug people at home. Their life is one round of lying and gossiping, of scolding and backbiting. VENNEMA. But what of this sort of existence? You don't quite appreciate the damage you have done. How you have stained the fair reputation of your parents. I wonder whether that has ever occurred to you? You say that you do not like the people who are our neighbors back home, but it is these very people who make and unmake reputations. We must live with them. Can't you realize that? LOUISE. Father, I'm sorry, but I couldn't go back to them. The commonplace tattlers with their humdrum, uneventful lives scarcely exist for me. VENNEMA. They don't exist for you, you say. But, remember, that they despise you. They and their contempt do not reach you, but they reach us. LOUISE [_almost inaudibly_]. Yes. VENNEMA. But your future? Have you thought of that? What will it be? Wretchedness and contempt. When I came in and saw you stretched out in that condition, I.... LOUISE. Father, I want to forget. I don't want to think of the past. VENNEMA. In order not to think of the past, you resort to drink? LOUISE. Sometimes it is hard to forget. VENNEMA. Tell me, Louise: does he love you, and do you love him? And even if this be true, will he continue to love you always? Won't the time come when he will grow indifferent to you? LOUISE [_getting up_]. Never ... never. Not he. You don't believe that such a thing is impossible? He cannot forget me. I have given him everything ... my love, myself ... all that is truly myself. VENNEMA. Aren't you a little too optimistic? LOUISE. Not when it concerns him. He knows what I have sacrificed. He knows what I have given him. There is no room for doubt, father. VENNEMA. Very well, we will not speak of it again. But how about us, Louise? Don't you ever think of us? Don't you ever long to come back to us, to the old home where you were born? Wouldn't you like to see it again? LOUISE [_sadly_]. Yes. VENNEMA [_anxious and excited_]. Then come back with me. Come back to us. You know my motive for coming. Won't you come back home with me? Everything is in perfect readiness for you: your little room, the flowers, the trees ... everything. Louise.... LOUISE. Father, that can never be. Never.