And when, you don't have me any longer?
ADOLPH. Then I shall die!
TEKLA. But you are not afraid of losing me, are you--as I am too
old to be wanted by anybody else?
ADOLPH. You have not forgotten my words yet, Tekla! I take it all
back now!
TEKLA. Can you explain to me why you are at once so jealous and so
cock-sure?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot explain anything at all. But it's possible
that the thought of somebody else having possessed you may still
be gnawing within me. At times it appears to me as if our love
were nothing but a fiction, an attempt at self-defence, a passion
kept up as a matter of honor--and I can't think of anything that
would give me more pain than to have HIM know that I am unhappy.
Oh, I have never seen him--but the mere thought that a person
exists who is waiting for my misfortune to arrive, who is daily
calling down curses on my head, who will roar with laughter when I
perish--the mere idea of it obsesses me, drives me nearer to you,
fascinates me, paralyses me!
TEKLA. Do you think I would let him have that joy? Do you think I
would make his prophecy come true?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot think you would.
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