Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/488

And that same foolish fire you now are fain
To light, that game of hazard you would dare.
See, that is why I call to you—beware!
The game is perilous! Pause, and think again!

Falk.

No, to the whole tea-caucus I declared
My fixed and unassailable belief—

Guldstad [completing his sentence].

That heartfelt love can weather unimpaired
Custom, and Poverty, and Age, and Grief.
Well, say it be so; possibly you're right;
But see the matter in another light.
What <g>love</g> is, no man ever told us—whence
It issues, that ecstatic confidence
That one life may fulfil itself in two,—
To this no mortal ever found the clue.
But <g>marriage</g> is a practical concern,
As also is betrothal, my good sir—
And by experience easily we learn
That we are fitted just for <g>her</g>, or <g>her</g>.
But love, you know, goes blindly to its fate,
Chooses a woman, not a wife, for mate;
And what if now this chosen woman was
No wife for you—?

Falk [in suspense].

                    Well?

Guldstad [shrugging his shoulders].

                           Then you've lost your cause.
To make a happy bridegroom and a bride
Demands not love alone, but much beside,