[_She hides her face in her hands and weeps apparently without any reason._ LOTH But ... but Nellie! I'm not insistent; I don't want to ... HELEN Later ... I'll tell you later ... not now! LOTH As I said before, dearest. HELEN There was some one--I want you to know--whom I ... because ... because among wicked people he seemed the least wicked. Oh, it is so different now. [_Weeping against LOTH'S neck: stormily._] Ah, if I only didn't have to leave you at all any more! Oh, if I could only go away with you right here on the spot! LOTH I suppose you have a very unhappy time in the house here? HELEN Oh, dear!--It's just frightful--the things that happen here. It's a life like--that ... like that of the beasts of the field--Oh, I would have died without you. I shudder to think of it! LOTH I believe it would calm you, dearest, if you would tell me everything quite openly. HELEN Yes, to be sure. But I don't think I can bear to. Not now, at least, not yet. And I'm really afraid to. LOTH You were at boarding-school, weren't you? HELEN My mother decided that I be sent--on her death-bed. LOTH Was your sister there with you? HELEN No, she was always at home ... And so when, four years ago, I came back from school, I found a father--who ... a step-mother--who ... a sister ... guess, can't you guess what I mean! LOTH I suppose your step-mother is quarrelsome? Perhaps jealous? unloving? HELEN My father...? LOTH Well, in all probability he dances to her music. Perhaps she tyrannises over him? HELEN Oh, if it were nothing else?... No! It is too frightful!--You can't possibly guess that _that_ ... my father ... that it was _my_ father whom you ... LOTH Don't weep, Nellie!... Look, you almost make me feel as though I ought to insist that you tell ... HELEN No, no, it isn't possible. I haven't the strength!--not yet! LOTH But you're wearing yourself out this way! HELEN But I'm so ashamed, so boundlessly ashamed! Why, you will drive me from you in horror...! It's beyond anything...! It's loathsome! LOTH Nellie, dear, you don't know me if you can think such things of me! Repulse you! Drive you from me! Do I seem such a brute to you? HELEN My brother-in-law said that you would quite calmly ... But no, no, you wouldn't? Would you?--You wouldn't just ruthlessly walk over me? Oh! you won't! You mustn't! I don't know what _would_ become of me! LOTH But, dear, it's senseless to talk so. There's no earthly reason! HELEN But if there were a reason, it might happen! LOTH No! Not at all! HELEN But if you could think of a reason? LOTH There are reasons, to be sure; but they're not in question. HELEN And what kind of reasons? LOTH I would have to be ruthless only toward some one who would make me betray my own most ideal self. HELEN And surely, I wouldn't want to do that! And yet I can't rid myself of the feeling-- LOTH What feeling, dearest? HELEN