Henrik Ibsen - The Lady from the Sea (Act 4) lyrics

(SCENE.—DOCTOR WANGEL'S garden-room. Doors right and left. In the background, between the windows, an open gla** door leading out on to the verandah. Below this, a portion of the garden is visible. A sofa and table down left. To the right a piano, and farther back a large flower-stand. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs. On the table is a rose-tree in bloom, and other plants around it. Morning. In the room, by the table, BOLETTE is sitting on the sofa, busy with some embroidery. LYNGSTRAND is seated on a chair at the upper end of the table. In the garden below BALLESTED sits painting. HILDE stands by watching him.) LYNGSTRAND (with his arms on the table, sits silent awhile, looking at BOLETTE'S work). It must be awfully difficult to do a border like that, Miss Wangel? BOLETTE Oh, no! It's not very difficult, if only you take care to count right. LYNGSTRAND To count? Must you count, too? BOLETTE Yes, the stitches. See! LYNGSTRAND So you do! Just fancy! Why, it's almost a kind of art. Can you design, too? BOLETTE Oh, yes! When I've a copy. LYNGSTRAND Not unless? BOLETTE No. LYNGSTRAND Well, then, after all, it's not a real art? BOLETTE No; it is rather only a sort of—handicraft. LYNGSTRAND But still, I think that perhaps you could learn art. BOLETTE If I haven't any talent? LYNGSTRAND Yes; if you could always be with a real true artist— BOLETTE Do you think, then, I could learn it from him? LYNGSTRAND Not exactly learn in the ordinary sense; but I think it would grow upon you little by little—by a kind of miracle as it were, Miss Wangel. BOLETTE That would be wonderful. LYNGSTRAND (after a pause). Have you ever thought about—I mean, have you ever thought deeply and earnestly about marriage, Miss Wangel? BOLETTE (looking quickly at him). About—no! LYNGSTRAND I have. BOLETTE Really? Have you? LYNGSTRAND Oh yes! I often think about things of that sort, especially about marriage; and, besides, I've read several books about it. I think marriage must be counted a sort of miracle—that a woman should gradually change until she is like her husband. BOLETTE You mean has like interests? LYNGSTRAND Yes, that's it. BOLETTE Well, but his abilities—his talents—and his sk**? LYNGSTRAND Hm—well—I should like to know if all that too— BOLETTE Then, perhaps, you also believe that everything a man has read for himself, and thought out for himself, that this, too, can grow upon his wife? LYNGSTRAND Yes, I think it can. Little by little; as by a sort of miracle. But, of course, I know such things can only happen in a marriage that is faithful, and loving, and really happy. BOLETTE Has it never occurred to you that a man, too, might, perhaps, be thus drawn over to his wife? Grow like her, I mean. LYNGSTRAND A man? No, I never thought of that. BOLETTE But why not one as well as the other? LYNGSTRAND No; for a man has a calling that he lives for; and that's what makes a man so strong and firm, Miss Wangel. He has a calling in life. BOLETTE Has every man? LYNGSTRAND Oh no! I am thinking more especially of artists. BOLETTE Do you think it right of an artist to get married? LYNGSTRAND Yes, I think so. If he can find one he can heartily love, I— BOLETTE Still, I think he should rather live for his art alone. LYNGSTRAND Of course he must; but he can do that just as well, even if he marries. BOLETTE But how about her? LYNGSTRAND Her? Who? BOLETTE She whom he marries. What is she to live for? LYNGSTRAND She, too, is to live for his art. It seems to me a woman must feel so thoroughly happy in that. BOLETTE Hm, I don't exactly know— LYNGSTRAND Yes, Miss Wangel, you may be sure of that. It is not merely all the honour and respect she enjoys through him; for that seems almost the least important to me. But it is this—that she can help him to create, that she can lighten his work for him, be about him and see to his comfort, and tend him well, and make his life thoroughly pleasant. I should think that must be perfectly delightful to a woman. BOLETTE Ah! You don't yourself know how selfish you are! LYNGSTRAND I, selfish! Good heavens! Oh, if only you knew me a little better than you do! (Bending closer to her.) Miss Wangel, when once I am gone—and that will be very soon now— BOLETTE (looks pityingly at him). Oh, don't think of anything so sad! LYNGSTRAND But, really, I don't think it is so very sad. BOLETTE What do you mean? LYNGSTRAND Well, you know that I set out in a month. First from here, and then, of course, I'm going south. BOLETTE Oh, I see! Of course. LYNGSTRAND Will you think of me sometimes, then, Miss Wangel? BOLETTE Yes, gladly. LYNGSTRAND (pleased). No, promise! BOLETTE I promise. LYNGSTRAND By all that is sacred, Miss Bolette? BOLETTE By all that is sacred. (In a changed manner.) Oh, but what can come of it all? Nothing on earth can come of it! LYNGSTRAND How can you say that! It would be so delightful for me to know you were at home here thinking of me! BOLETTE Well, and what else? LYNGSTRAND I don't exactly know of anything else. BOLETTE Nor I either. There are so many things in the way. Everything stands in the way, I think. LYNGSTRAND Oh, another miracle might come about. Some happy dispensation of fortune, or something of the sort; for I really believe I shall be lucky now. BOLETTE (eagerly). Really? You do believe that? LYNGSTRAND Yes, I believe it thoroughly. And so—after a few years—when I come home again as a celebrated sculptor, and well off, and in perfect health! BOLETTE Yes, yes! Of course, we will hope so. LYNGSTRAND You may be perfectly certain about it. Only think faithfully and kindly of me when I am down there in the south; and now I have your word that you will. BOLETTE You have (shaking her head). But, all the same, nothing will surely come of it. LYNGSTRAND Oh! yes, Miss Bolette. At least this will come of it. I shall get on so much more easily and quickly with my art work. BOLETTE Do you believe that, too? LYNGSTRAND I have an inner conviction of it. And I fancy it will be so cheering for you, too—here in this out-of-the-way place-to know within yourself that you are, so to say, helping me to create. BOLETTE (looking at him). Well; but you on your side? LYNGSTRAND I? BOLETTE (looking out into the garden). Hush! Let us speak of something else. Here's Mr. Arnholm. (ARNHOLM is seen in the garden below. He stops and talks to HILDE and BALLESTED.) LYNGSTRAND Are you fond of your old teacher, Miss Bolette? BOLETTE Fond of him? LYNGSTRAND Yes; I mean do you care for him? BOLETTE Yes, indeed I do, for he is a true friend—and adviser, too—and then he is always so ready to help when he can. LYNGSTRAND Isn't it extraordinary that he hasn't married! BOLETTE Do you think it is extraordinary? LYNGSTRAND Yes, for you say he's well-to-do. BOLETTE He is certainly said to be so. But probably it wasn't so easy to find anyone who'd have him. LYNGSTRAND Why? BOLETTE Oh! He's been the teacher of nearly all the young girls that he knows. He says that himself. LYNGSTRAND But what does that matter? BOLETTE Why, good heavens! One doesn't marry a man who's been your teacher! LYNGSTRAND Don't you think a young girl might love her teacher? BOLETTE Not after she's really grown up. LYNGSTRAND No—fancy that! BOLETTE (cautioning him). Sh! sh! (Meanwhile BALLESTED has been gathering together his things, and carries them out from the garden to the right. HILDE helps him. ARNHOLM goes up the verandah, and comes into the room.) ARNHOLM Good-morning, my dear Bolette. Good-morning, Mr.—Mr.—hm—(He looks displeased, and nods coldly to LYNGSTRAND, who rises.) BOLETTE (rising up and going up to ARNHOLM). Good-morning, Mr. Arnholm. ARNHOLM Everything all right here today? BOLETTE Yes, thanks, quite. ARNHOLM Has your stepmother gone to bathe again today? BOLETTE No. She is upstairs in her room. ARNHOLM Not very bright? BOLETTE I don't know, for she has locked herself in. ARNHOLM Hm—has she? LYNGSTRAND I suppose Mrs. Wangel was very much frightened about that American yesterday? ARNHOLM What do you know about that? LYNGSTRAND I told Mrs. Wangel that I had seen him in the flesh behind the garden. ARNHOLM Oh! I see. BOLETTE (to ARNHOLM). No doubt you and father sat up very late last night, talking? ARNHOLM Yes, rather late. We were talking over serious matters. BOLETTE Did you put in a word for me, and my affairs, too? ARNHOLM No, dear Bolette, I couldn't manage it. He was so completely taken up with something else. BOLETTE (sighs). Ah! yes; he always is. ARNHOLM (looks at her meaningly). But later on today we'll talk more fully about—the matter. Where's your father now? Not at home? BOLETTE Yes, he is. He must be down in the office. I'll fetch him. ARNHOLM No, thanks. Don't do that. I'd rather go down to him. BOLETTE (listening). Wait one moment, Mr. Arnholm; I believe that's father on the stairs. Yes, I suppose he's been up to look after her. (WANGEL comes in from the door on the left.) WANGEL (shaking ARNHOLM'S hand). What, dear friend, are you here already? It was good of you to come so early, for I should like to talk a little further with you. BOLETTE (to LYNGSTRAND). Hadn't we better go down to Hilde in the garden? LYNGSTRAND I shall be delighted, Miss Wangel. (He and BOLETTE go down into the garden, and pa** out between the trees in the background.) ARNHOLM (following them with his eyes, turns to WANGEL). Do you know anything about that young man? WANGEL No, nothing at all. ARNHOLM But do you think it right he should knock about so much with the girls? WANGEL Does he? I really hadn't noticed it. ARNHOLM You ought to see to it, I think. WANGEL Yes, I suppose you're right. But, good Lord! What's a man to do? The girls are so accustomed to look after themselves now. They won't listen to me, nor to Ellida. ARNHOLM Not to her either? WANGEL No; and besides I really cannot expect Ellida to trouble about such things. She's not fit for that (breaking off). But it wasn't that which we were to talk of. Now tell me, have you thought the matter over—thought over all I told you of? ARNHOLM I have thought of nothing else ever since we parted last night. WANGEL And what do you think should be done? ARNHOLM Dear Wangel, I think you, as a doctor, must know that better than I. WANGEL Oh! if you only knew how difficult it is for a doctor to judge rightly about a patient who is so dear to him! Besides, this is no ordinary illness. No ordinary doctor and no ordinary medicines can help her. ARNHOLM How is she today? WANGEL I was upstairs with her just now, and then she seemed to me quite calm; but behind all her moods something lies hidden which it is impossible for me to fathom; and then she is so changeable, so capricious—she varies so suddenly. ARNHOLM No doubt that is the result of her morbid state of mind. WANGEL Not altogether. When you go down to the bedrock, it was born in her. Ellida belongs to the sea-folk. That is the matter. ARNHOLM What do you really mean, my dear doctor? WANGEL Haven't you noticed that the people from out there by the open sea are, in a way, a people apart? It is almost as if they themselves lived the life of the sea. There is the rush of waves, and ebb and flow too, both in their thoughts and in their feelings, and so they can never bear transplanting. Oh! I ought to have remembered that. It was a sin against Ellida to take her away from there, and bring her here. ARNHOLM You have come to that opinion? WANGEL Yes, more and more. But I ought to have told myself this beforehand. Oh! I knew it well enough at bottom! But I put it from me. For, you see, I loved her so! Therefore, I thought of myself first of all. I was inexcusably selfish at that time! ARNHOLM Hm. I suppose every man is a little selfish under such circumstances. Moreover, I've never noticed that vice in you, Doctor Wangel. WANGEL (walks uneasily about the room). Oh, yes! And I have been since then, too. Why, I am so much, much older than she is. I ought to have been at once as a father to her and a guide. I ought to have done my best to develop and enlighten her mind. Unfortunately nothing ever came of that. You see, I hadn't stamina enough, for I preferred her just as she was. So things went worse and worse with her, and then I didn't know what to do. (In a lower voice.) That was why I wrote to you in my trouble, and asked you to come here. ARNHOLM (looks at him in astonishment). What, was it for this you wrote? WANGEL Yes; but don't let anyone notice anything. ARNHOLM How on earth, dear doctor—what good did you expect me to be? I don't understand it. WANGEL No, naturally. For I was on an altogether false track. I thought Ellida's heart had at one time gone out to you, and that she still secretly cared for you a little—that perhaps it would do her good to see you again, and talk of her home and the old days. ARNHOLM So it was your wife you meant when you wrote that she expected me, and—and perhaps longed for me. WANGEL Yes, who else? ARNHOLM (hurriedly). No, no. You're right. But I didn't understand. WANGEL Naturally, as I said, for I was on an absolutely wrong track. ARNHOLM And you call yourself selfish! WANGEL Ah! but I had such a great sin to atone for. I felt I dared not neglect any means that might give the slightest relief to her mind. ARNHOLM How do you really explain the power this stranger exercises over her? WANGEL Hm—dear friend—there may be sides to the matter that cannot be explained. ARNHOLM Do you mean anything inexplicable in itself—absolutely inexplicable? WANGEL In any case not explicable as far as we know. ARNHOLM Do you believe there is something in it, then? WANGEL I neither believe nor deny; I simply don't know. That's why I leave it alone. ARNHOLM Yes. But just one thing: her extraordinary, weird a**ertion about the child's eyes— WANGEL (eagerly). I don't believe a word about the eyes. I will not believe such a thing. It must be purely fancy on her part, nothing else. ARNHOLM Did you notice the man's eyes when you saw him yesterday? WANGEL Of course I did. ARNHOLM And you saw no sort of resemblance? WANGEL (evasively). Hm—good heavens! What shall I say? It wasn't quite light when I saw him; and, besides, Ellida had been saying so much about this resemblance, I really don't know if I was capable of observing quite impartially. ARNHOLM Well, well, may be. But that other matter? All this terror and unrest coming upon her at the very time, as it seems, this strange man was on his way home. WANGEL That—oh! that's something she must have persuaded and dreamed herself into since it happened. She was not seized with this so suddenly—all at once—as she now maintains. But since she heard from young Lyngstrand that Johnston—or Friman, or whatever his name is—was on his way hither, three years ago, in the month of March, she now evidently believes her unrest of mind came upon her at that very time. ARNHOLM It was not so, then? WANGEL By no means. There were signs and symptoms of it before this time, though it did happen, by chance, that in that month of March, three years ago, she had a rather severe attack. ARNHOLM After all, then—? WANGEL Yes, but that is easily accounted for by the circumstances—the condition she happened to be in at the time. ARNHOLM So, symptom for symptom, then. WANGEL (wringing his hands). And not to be able to help her! Not to know how to counsel her! To see no way! ARNHOLM Now if you could make up your mind to leave this place, to go somewhere else, so that she could live amid surroundings that would seem more homelike to her? WANGEL Ah, dear friend! Do you think I haven't offered her that, too? I suggested moving out to Skjoldviken, but she will not. ARNHOLM Not that either? WANGEL No, for she doesn't think it would be any good; and perhaps she's right. ARNHOLM Hm. Do you say that? WANGEL Moreover, when I think it all over carefully, I really don't know how I could manage it. I don't think I should be justified, for the sake of the girls, in going away to such a desolate place. After all, they must live where there is at least a prospect of their being provided for someday. ARNHOLM Provided for! Are you thinking about that already? WANGEL Heaven knows, I must think of that too! But then, on the other hand, again, my poor sick Ellida! Oh, dear Arnholm! in many respects I seem to be standing between fire and water! ARNHOLM Perhaps you've no need to worry on Bolette's account. (Breaking off.) I should like to know where she—where they have gone. (Goes up to the open door and looks out.) WANGEL Oh, I would so gladly make any sacrifice for all three of them, if only I knew what! (ELLIDA enters from the door on the left.) ELLIDA (quickly to WANGEL). Be sure you don't go out this morning. WANGEL No, no! of course not. I will stay at home with you. (Pointing to ARNHOLM, who is coming towards them.) But won't you speak to our friend? ELLIDA (turning). Oh, are you here, Mr. Arnholm? (Holding out her hand to him.) Good-morning. ARNHOLM Good-morning, Mrs. Wangel. So you've not been bathing as usual today? ELLIDA No, no, no! That is out of the question today. But won't you sit down a moment? ARNHOLM No, thanks, not now. (Looks at WANGEL.) I promised the girls to go down to them in the garden. ELLIDA Goodness knows if you'll find them there. I never know where they may be rambling. WANGEL They're sure to be down by the pond. ARNHOLM Oh! I shall find them right enough. (Nods, and goes out across the verandah into the garden.) ELLIDA What time is it, Wangel? WANGEL (looking at his watch). A little past eleven. ELLIDA A little past. And at eleven o'clock, or half-past eleven tonight, the steamer is coming. If only that were over! WANGEL (going nearer to her). Dear Ellida, there is one thing I should like to ask you. ELLIDA What is it? WANGEL The evening before last—up at the "View"—you said that during the last three years you had so often seen him bodily before you. ELLIDA And so I have. You may believe that. WANGEL But, how did you see him? ELLIDA How did I see him? WANGEL I mean, how did he look when you thought you saw him? ELLIDA But, dear Wangel, why, you now know yourself how he looks. WANGEL Did he look exactly like that in your imagination? ELLIDA He did. WANGEL Exactly the same as you saw him in reality yesterday evening? ELLIDA Yes, exactly. WANGEL Then how was it you did not at once recognise him? ELLIDA Did I not? WANGEL No; you said yourself afterwards that at first you did not at all know who the strange man was. ELLIDA (perplexed). I really believe you are right. Don't you think that strange, Wangel? Fancy my not knowing him at once! WANGEL It was only the eyes, you said. ELLIDA Oh, yes! The eyes—the eyes. WANGEL Well, but at the "View" you said that he always appeared to you exactly as he was when you parted out there—ten years ago. ELLIDA Did I? WANGEL Yes. ELLIDA Then, I suppose he did look much as he does now. WANGEL No. On our way home, the day before yesterday, you gave quite another description of him. Ten years ago he had no beard, you said. His dress, too, was quite different. And that breast-pin with the pearl? That man yesterday wore nothing of the sort. ELLIDA No, he did not. WANGEL (looks searchingly at her). Now just think a little, dear Ellida. Or perhaps you can't quite remember how he looked when he stood by you at Bratthammer? ELLIDA (thoughtfully closing her eyes for a moment). Not quite distinctly. No, today I can't. Is it not strange? WANGEL Not so very strange after all. You have now been confronted by a new and real image, and that overshadows the old one, so that you can no longer see it. ELLIDA Do you believe that, Wangel? WANGEL Yes. And it overshadows your sick imaginings, too. That is why it is good a reality has come. ELLIDA Good? Do you think it good? WANGEL Yes. That it has come. It may restore you to health. ELLIDA (sitting down on sofa). Wangel, come and sit down by me. I must tell you all my thoughts. WANGEL Yes, do, dear Ellida. (He sits down on a chair on the other side of the table.) ELLIDA It was really a great misfortune—for us both—that we two of all people should have come together. WANGEL (amazed). What are you saying? ELLIDA Oh, yes, it was. And it's so natural. It could bring nothing but unhappiness, after the way in which we came together. WANGEL What was there in that way? ELLIDA Listen, Wangel; it's no use going on, lying to ourselves and to one another. WANGEL Are we doing so? Lying, you say? ELLIDA Yes, we are; or, at least, we suppress the truth. For the truth—the pure and simple truth is—that you came out there and bought me. WANGEL Bought—you say bought! ELLIDA Oh! I wasn't a bit better than you. I accepted the bargain. Sold myself to you! WANGEL (looks at her full of pain). Ellida, have you really the heart to call it that? ELLIDA But is there any other name for it? You could no longer bear the emptiness of your house. You were on the look-out for a new wife. WANGEL And a new mother for the children, Ellida. ELLIDA That too, perhaps, by the way; although you didn't in the least know if I were fit for the position. Why, you had only seen me and spoken to me a few times. Then you wanted me, and so— WANGEL Yes, you may call it as you will. ELLIDA And I, on my side—why, I was so helpless and bewildered, and so absolutely alone. Oh! it was so natural I should accept the bargain, when you came and proposed to provide for me all my life. WANGEL Assuredly it did not seem to me a providing for you, dear Ellida. I asked you honestly if you would share with me and the children the little I could call my own. ELLIDA Yes, you did; but all the same, I should never have accepted! Never have accepted that at any price! Not sold myself! Better the meanest work—better the poorest life—after one's own choice. WANGEL (rising). Then have the five—six years that we have lived together been so utterly worthless to you? ELLIDA Oh! Don't think that, Wangel. I have been as well cared for here as human being could desire. But I did not enter your house freely. That is the thing. WANGEL (looking at her). Not freely! ELLIDA No. It was not freely that I went with you. WANGEL (in subdued tone). Ah! I remember your words of yesterday. ELLIDA It all lies in those words. They have enlightened me; and so I see it all now. WANGEL What do you see? ELLIDA I see that the life we two live together—is really no marriage. WANGEL (bitterly). You have spoken truly there. The life we now live is not a marriage. ELLIDA Nor was it formerly. Never—not from the very first (looks straight in front of her). The first—that might have been a complete and real marriage. WANGEL The first—what do you mean? ELLIDA Mine—with him. WANGEL (looks at her in astonishment). I do not in the least understand you. ELLIDA Ah! dear Wangel, let us not lie to one another, nor to ourselves. WANGEL Well—what more? ELLIDA You see—we can never get away from that one thing—that a freely given promise is fully as binding as a marriage. WANGEL But what on earth— ELLIDA (rising impetuously). Set me free, Wangel! WANGEL Ellida! Ellida! ELLIDA Yes, yes! Oh! grant me that! Believe me, it will come to that all the same—after the way we two came together. WANGEL (conquering his pain). It has come to this, then? ELLIDA It has come to this. It could not be otherwise. WANGEL (looking gloomily at her). So I have not won you by our living together. Never, never possessed you quite. ELLIDA Ah! Wangel—if only I could love you, how gladly I would—as dearly as you deserve. But I feel it so well—that will never be. WANGEL Divorce, then? It is a divorce, a complete, legal divorce that you want? ELLIDA Dear, you understand me so little! I care nothing for such formalities. Such outer things matter nothing, I think. What I want is that we should, of our own free will, release each other. WANGEL (bitterly, nods slowly). To cry off the bargain again—yes. ELLIDA (quickly). Exactly. To cry off the bargain. WANGEL And then, Ellida? Afterwards? Have you reflected what life would be to both of us? What life would be to both you and me? ELLIDA No matter. Things must turn out afterwards as they may. What I beg and implore of you, Wangel, is the most important. Only set me free! Give me back my complete freedom! WANGEL Ellida, it is a fearful thing you ask of me. At least give me time to collect myself before I come to a decision. Let us talk it over more carefully. And you yourself—take time to consider what you are doing. ELLIDA But we have no time to lose with such matters. I must have my freedom again today. WANGEL Why today? ELLIDA Because he is coming tonight. WANGEL (starts). Coming! He! What has this stranger to do with it? ELLIDA I want to face him in perfect freedom. WANGEL And what—what else do you intend to do? ELLIDA I will not hide behind the fact that I am the wife of another man; nor make the excuse that I have no choice, for then it would be no decision. WANGEL You speak of a choice. Choice, Ellida! A choice in such a matter! ELLIDA Yes, I must be free to choose—to choose for either side. I must be able to let him go away—alone, or to go with him. WANGEL Do you know what you are saying? Go with him—give your whole life into his hands! ELLIDA Didn't I give my life into your hands, and without any ado? WANGEL Maybe. But he! He! an absolute stranger! A man of whom you know so little! ELLIDA Ah! but after all I knew you even less; and yet I went with you. WANGEL Then you knew to some extent what life lay before you. But now? Think! What do you know? You know absolutely nothing. Not even who or what he is. ELLIDA (looking in front of her). That is true; but that is the terror. WANGEL Yes, indeed, it is terrible! ELLIDA That is why I feel I must plunge into it. WANGEL (looking at her). Because it seems terrible? ELLIDA Yes; because of that. WANGEL (coming closer). Listen, Ellida. What do you really mean by terrible? ELLIDA (reflectively). The terrible is that which repels and attracts. WANGEL Attracts, you say? ELLIDA Attracts most of all, I think. WANGEL (slowly). You are one with the sea. ELLIDA That, too, is a terror. WANGEL And that terror is in you. You both repel and attract. ELLIDA Do you think so, Wangel? WANGEL After all, I have never really known you—never really. Now I am beginning to understand. ELLIDA And that is why you must set me free! Free me from every bond to you—and yours. I am not what you took me for. Now you see it yourself. Now we can part as friends—and freely. WANGEL (sadly). Perhaps it would be better for us both if we parted—And yet, I cannot! You are the terror to me, Ellida; the attraction is what is strongest in you. ELLIDA Do you say that? WANGEL Let us try and live through this day wisely—in perfect quiet of mind. I dare not set you free, and release you today. I have no right to. No right for your own sake, Ellida. I exercise my right and my duty to protect you. ELLIDA Protect? What is there to protect me from? I am not threatened by any outward power. The terror lies deeper, Wangel. The terror is—the attraction in my own mind. And what can you do against that? WANGEL I can strengthen and urge you to fight against it. ELLIDA Yes; if I wished to fight against it. WANGEL Then you do not wish to? ELLIDA Oh! I don't know myself. WANGEL Tonight all will be decided, dear Ellida—Ellida (bursting out). Yes, think! The decision so near—the decision for one's whole life! WANGEL And then tomorrow—Ellida. Tomorrow! Perhaps my real future will have been ruined. WANGEL Your real—Ellida. The whole, full life of freedom lost—lost for me, and perhaps for him also. WANGEL (in a lower tone, seizing her wrist). Ellida, do you love this stranger? ELLIDA Do I? Oh, how can I tell! I only know that to me he is a terror, and that— WANGEL And that— ELLIDA (tearing herself away). And that it is to him I think I belong. WANGEL (bowing his head). I begin to understand better. ELLIDA And what remedy have you for that? What advice to give me? WANGEL (looking sadly at her). Tomorrow he will be gone, then the misfortune will be averted from your head; and then I will consent to set you free. We will cry off the bargain tomorrow, Ellida. ELLIDA Ah, Wangel, tomorrow! That is too late. WANGEL (looking towards garden). The children—the children! Let us spare them, at least for the present. (ARNHOLM, BOLETTE, HILDE, and LYNGSTRAND come into the garden. LYNGSTRAND says goodbye in the garden, and goes out. The rest come into the room.) ARNHOLM You must know we have been making plans. HILDE We're going out to the fjord tonight and— BOLETTE No; you mustn't tell. WANGEL We two, also, have been making plans. ARNHOLM Ah!—really? WANGEL Tomorrow Ellida is going away to Skjoldviken for a time. BOLETTE Going away? ARNHOLM Now, look here, that's very sensible, Mrs. Wangel. WANGEL Ellida wants to go home again—home to the sea. HILDE (springing towards ELLIDA). You are going away—away from us? ELLIDA (frightened). Hilde! What is the matter? HILDE (controlling herself). Oh, it's nothing. (In a low voice, turning from her.) Are only you going? BOLETTE (anxiously). Father—I see it—you, too, are going—to Skjoldviken! WANGEL No, no! Perhaps I shall run out there every now and again. BOLETTE And come here to us? WANGEL I will—Bolette. Every now and again! WANGEL Dear child, it must be. (He crosses the room.) ARNHOLM (whispers). We will talk it over later, Bolette. (He crosses to WANGEL. They speak in low tones up stage by the door.) ELLIDA (aside to BOLETTE). What was the matter with Hilde? She looked quite scared. BOLETTE Have you never noticed what Hilde goes about here, day in, day out, hungering for? ELLIDA Hungering for? BOLETTE Ever since you came into the house? ELLIDA No, no. What is it? BOLETTE One loving word from you. ELLIDA Oh! If there should be something for me to do here! (She clasps her hands together over her head, and looks fixedly in front of her, as if torn by contending thoughts and emotions. WANGEL and ARNHOLM come across the room whispering. BOLETTE goes to the side room, and looks in. Then she throws open the door.) BOLETTE Father, dear—the table is laid—if you— WANGEL (with forced composure). Is it, child? That's well. Come, Arnholm! We'll go in and drink a farewell cup—with the "Lady from the Sea." (They go out through the right.)