Helmer. Nora!

Nora. Ah!—­

Helmer. What is this?  Do you know what is in this letter?

Nora. Yes, I know.  Let me go!  Let me get out!

Helmer (holding her back).  Where are you going?

Nora (trying to get free).  You shan’t save me, Torvald!

Helmer (reeling).  True?  Is this true, that I read here?  Horrible!  No, no—­it is impossible that it can be true.

Nora. It is true.  I have loved you above everything else in the world.

Helmer. Oh, don’t let us have any silly excuses.

Nora (taking a step towards him).  Torvald—!

Helmer. Miserable creature—­what have you done?

Nora. Let me go.  You shall not suffer for my sake.  You shall not take it upon yourself.

Helmer. No tragedy airs, please. (Locks the hall door.) Here you shall stay and give me an explanation.  Do you understand what you have done?  Answer me?  Do you understand what you have done?

Nora (looks steadily at him and says with a growing look of coldness in her face).  Yes, now I am beginning to understand thoroughly.

Helmer (walking about the room).  What a horrible awakening!  All these eight years—­she who was my joy and pride—­a hypocrite, a liar—­worse, worse—­a criminal!  The unutterable ugliness of it all!—­For shame!  For shame! (NORA is silent and looks steadily at him.  He stops in front of her.) I ought to have suspected that something of the sort would happen.  I ought to have foreseen it.  All your father’s want of principle—­be silent!—­all your father’s want of principle has come out in you.  No religion, no morality, no sense of duty—­How I am punished for having winked at what he did!  I did it for your sake, and this is how you repay me.

Nora. Yes, that’s just it.

Helmer. Now you have destroyed all my happiness.  You have ruined all my future.  It is horrible to think of!  I am in the power of an unscrupulous man; he can do what he likes with me, ask anything he likes of me, give me any orders he pleases—­I dare not refuse.  And I must sink to such miserable depths because of a thoughtless woman!

Nora. When I am out of the way, you will be free.

Helmer. No fine speeches, please.  Your father had always plenty of those ready, too.  What good would it be to me if you were out of the way, as you say?  Not the slightest.  He can make the affair known everywhere; and if he does, I may be falsely suspected of having been a party to your criminal action.  Very likely people will think I was behind it all—­that it was I who prompted you!  And I have to thank you for all this—­you whom I have cherished during the whole of our married life.  Do you understand now what it is you have done for me?