See! now it’s getting clear to me—your mother should not have persuaded me to this. She’s always so confident,—so—I knew—I told her—but that simple absolute confidence! If only I hadn’t allowed myself to be blinded— IDA. Ah! how seriously you take everything, William! Believe me, you will speak differently to-morrow,—as soon as you’ve once seen them all again. Then you’ll at any rate have done your part; you will have proved that you were in earnest in your wish to live at peace with your family. WILLIAM. To see it all again! all the old places! Everything comes back—so vividly, you know—the past comes so close to me—so oppressively close—one can—one is quite helpless— IDA (_embracing him with tears_). When I see you like this, William—ah, don’t think—for pity’s sake don’t think I would have urged you. I am so frightfully sorry for you! WILLIAM. Ida, I can tell _you_!—I assure you—I must get away from here! That’s evident.—I’m not equal to this struggle evidently; it might wreck me altogether! You are such a child, Ida! a sweet, innocent child—how should you know! Thank God indeed that you cannot even dream what I—what this man whom you know—I can tell _you_—Hatred!—Bitterness!—the very moment I came in— IDA. Shall we go? shall we go away? this minute? WILLIAM. Yes! For in these surroundings you—even you—I can scarcely separate you in my mind from the rest! I’m losing you! It’s criminal in me the mere fact that you should be here! IDA. If you could only explain, William, there must be—something terrible must have happened here that— WILLIAM. Here! A crime—all the more terrible because it did not count as one. Here my life was given to me, and here that same life—I can tell _you_, was—I had almost said systematically destroyed, till it grew loathsome to me—till I dragged it—bowed down like a beast of burden—crept about with it—buried myself, hid myself.—What can I say—one suffers beyond words!—Fury—hate—revenge—despair without ceasing, day and night; the same gnawing devouring pain (_pointing to his forehead_) _here_ (_pointing to his heart_) and _there_! IDA. Only—what can I do, William? I dare not trust myself to advise you in any way, I am so— WILLIAM. You should have been contented to leave me with at least the happiness that I had gained. It had all grown so mercifully dim, I realise now _how_ dim! (_overcome with excitement, he sinks on to a chair_). IDA (_with a suppressed cry_). William! MRS BUCHNER (_rushing in through the stairway to William_). William! listen to me! Only remember now what has been said between us. Now that I am so much to you—I implore you—now show your—yes, I demand it—I demand it from you, as the mother of my child! William, it rests with _you_ now—with you only, William! you have been terribly, terribly to blame; you have a terrible debt to pay—you shall be happy again; I have done it, I have spoken to your father—he—