(_He goes to door, opens it; a moment later she enters._) MICH. Well? AUDR. Why didn't you take my warning? Why didn't you beat me, drive me, hound me away from you as I told you? MICH. What now? AUDR. Say you'll forgive me before I tell you! No, don't forgive me! MICH. I don't understand you. Is anything discovered? AUDR. What does that matter? Oh, don't hate me. If you say one unkind word to me I shall kill myself. Read the letter which came here to me just now. (_He takes the letter wonderingly._) MICH. Whom did it come from? AUDR. My husband. MICH. Your husband? (_She nods._) Your husband! He is alive? (_She nods._) AUDR. (_with a laugh_). Didn't I tell you I should ruin you body and soul? (_He stands overwhelmed._) Why do you stand there? Why don't you do something? (_Laughing at him._) I say, ghostly father, we make a pretty pair, you and I, don't we? What shall we do? Confess in white sheets and candles together, you and I? Why don't you do something--(_Laughing at him._) And you stand there like a stone saint. (_Comes up to him._) Kill me and have done with me! MICH. You said your husband died after two years. AUDR. I said I never saw him again--alive. I thought then that I never should. MICH. But--you believed he was dead. You believed he was dead--(_She does not reply._) You didn't know the night before last that your husband was living? AUDR. Don't I tell you to kill me and have done with it. MICH. (_horrified_). You knew he was living? AUDR. (_very imploringly_). I love you, I love you. Say one word to me! Say one word to me! Say you forgive me. MICH. I forgive you. (_Stands overwhelmed._) Take this letter---- (_Offering it._) AUDR. I didn't mean to do this. Do make excuses for me. We lived unhappily together. When I came into all my money I bargained with him that we would never see each other again. It was a fair bargain--a contract. He went away to America--I gave out he was dead. From that time to this I have never had a thought of his return. He was dead to me. He has no right to come and spoil my life. Read that letter from him. MICH. No--take it. (_Gives the letter back._) AUDR. Tell me what to do. MICH. I'm not fit to advise you. AUDR. What can we do? MICH. I don't know. We're up a blind alley with our sin. There's no way out of this. AUDR. I shall defy him. MICH. No. AUDR. Yes. A bargain's a bargain. I shall go back and defy him. I'll never see him again. But then--what then? What will you do? MICH. Don't think of me. AUDR. Speak to me. Say one word. Oh, it has been on the tip of my tongue so many times to tell you all, but I couldn't bear to lose your love, so I deceived you. (_He walks about perplexed. She goes to him very gently and coaxingly._) Say you aren't sorry--say that deep down in your inmost heart you aren't sorry for what is past! MICH. Sorry? No. God forgive me. I'm not sorry. I can't be sorry. I wish I could.