_Reb._ (_breaking out_). I _do_ mind. I am an emancipated enigma, but I retain a few little prejudices still. I _don't_ like owning to my real age, and I _do_ prefer to be legitimate. And, after your information--of which I was quite ignorant, as my mother, the late Mrs. GAMVIK, never _once_ alluded to it--I feel I must confess everything. Strong-minded advanced women are like that. Here is ROSMER. (ROSMER _enters with his hat and stick._) ROSMER, I want to tell you and Rector KROLL a little story. Let us sit down, dear, all three of us. (_They sit down, mechanically, on chairs._) A long time ago, before the play began--(_in a voice scarcely audible_)--in Ibsenite dramas, all the interesting things somehow _do_ happen before the play begins--
_Rosmer_. But, REBECCA, I _know_ all this. KROLL--(_looks hard at her_). Perhaps I had better go?
_Reb._ No--I will be short--this was it. I wanted to take my share in the life of the New Era, and march onward with ROSMER. There was one dismal, insurmountable barrier--(_to ROSMER, who nods gravely_)--BEATA! I understood where your deliverance lay--and I acted. _I_ drove BEATA into the mill-race ... There!
_Rosmer_ (_after a short silence_). H'm! Well, KROLL--(_takes up his hat_)--if you're thinking of walking home, I'll go too. I'm going to be orthodox once more--after _this_!
_Kroll_ (_severely and impressively, to_ REB.). A nice sort of young woman _you_ are! [_Both go out hastily, without looking at REB._
_Reb._ (_speaks to herself, under her breath_). Now I _have_ done it. I wonder _why_. (_Pulls bell-rope._) Madam HELSETH, I have just had a glimpse of two rushing White Horses. Bring down my hair-trunk.
[_Enter Madam H., with large hair-trunk, as Curtain falls._
_Late evening. REBECCA WEST stands by a lighted lamp, with a shade over it, packing sandwiches, &c., in a reticule, with a faint smile. The antimacassar is on the sofa. Enter ROSMER._
_Rosmer_ (_seeing the sandwiches, &c._). Sandwiches? Then you _are_ going I Why, on earth,--I _can't_ understand!
_Reb._ Dear, you never _can_. Rosmershölm is too much for me. But how did you get on with KROLL?
_Rosmer_. We have made it up. He has convinced me that the work of ennobling men was several sizes too large for me--so I am going to let it alone--