NORA. Yes, quite. That is why I will not stay here any longer. HELMER. And can you also make clear to me how I have forfeited your love? NORA. Yes, I can. It was this evening, when the miracle did not happen; for then I saw you were not the man I had imagined. HELMER. Explain yourself more clearly; I don’t understand. NORA. I have waited so patiently all these eight years; for of course I saw clearly enough that miracles don’t happen every day. When this crushing blow threatened me, I said to myself so confidently, “Now comes the miracle!” When Krogstad’s letter lay in the box, it never for a moment occurred to me that you would think of submitting to that man’s conditions. I was convinced that you would say to him, “Make it known to all the world”; and that then—— HELMER. Well? When I had given my own wife’s name up to disgrace and shame——? NORA. Then I firmly believed that you would come forward, take everything upon yourself, and say, “I am the guilty one.” HELMER. Nora——! NORA. You mean I would never have accepted such a sacrifice? No, certainly not. But what would my assertions have been worth in opposition to yours?—_That_ was the miracle that I hoped for and dreaded. And it was to hinder _that_ that I wanted to die. HELMER. I would gladly work for you day and night, Nora—bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man sacrifices his honour, even for one he loves. NORA. Millions of women have done so. HELMER. Oh, you think and talk like a silly child. NORA. Very likely. But you neither think nor talk like the man I can share my life with. When your terror was over—not for what threatened me, but for yourself—when there was nothing more to fear—then it seemed to you as though nothing had happened. I was your lark again, your doll, just as before—whom you would take twice as much care of in future, because she was so weak and fragile. [_Stands up._] Torvald—in that moment it burst upon me that I had been living here these eight years with a strange man, and had borne him three children.—Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I could tear myself to pieces! HELMER. [_Sadly._] I see it, I see it; an abyss has opened between us.—But, Nora, can it never be filled up? NORA. As I now am, I am no wife for you. HELMER. I have strength to become another man. NORA. Perhaps—when your doll is taken away from you. HELMER.