human
Yes; but what then? at last asked Ingeborg, with a soft smile and not withdrawing the hand that Bagger had seized.
gpt
The proper meaning of what you have told me is that your troth is plighted to another, unknown lady.
human
No: that isn't the proper meaning--
gpt
But yet it is a fact. At the moment when you stand at the altar with one, another can step forward and claim you.
human
Oh, that kind of a claim! A piece of paper without signature, sent away in the air! In law it has no validity at all, and morally it has no power, when I love another as I love you, Ingeborg!
gpt
That I am not sure of. It appears to me there is something painful in not being faithful to one's youth and its promises, and in the consciousness of having deceived another.
human
You say this so earnestly, Ingeborg, that you make me desperate. I confess that there is something ... something I would wish otherwise ... but for Heaven's sake, make it not so earnest!