Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/279

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[ACT I.
THE FEAST AT SOLHOUG.
231

Gudmund.

I? Nay, I meant naught. My brain

Is wildered; but ah, I am blithe and fain
To be, as of old, with you sisters twain.
But tell me,—Signë—?

Margit.

[Points smiling towards the door on the left.]

She comes anon.

To greet her kinsman she needs must don
Her trinkets—a task that takes time, 'tis plain.

Gudmund.

I must see—I must see if she knows me again.

[He goes out to the left.

Margit.

[Following him-with her eyes.] How fair and manlike he is! [With a sigh.] There is little likeness 'twixt him and—[Begins putting things in order on the table, but presently stops.] "You then were free," he said. Yes, then! [A short pause.] 'Twas a strange tale, that of the Princess who—She held another dear, and then—Aye, those women of far-off lands—I have heard it before—they are not weak as we are; they do not fear to pass from thought to deed. [Takes up a goblet which stands on the table.] 'Twas in this beaker that Gudman and I, when he went away, drank to his happy return. 'Tis well-nigh the only heirloom I brought with me to Solhoug. [Putting the goblet away in a cupboard.] How soft is