Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/166

 if I have forgotten the oath I swore by Knut Alfson's bier.

[Shakes her by the hand.] Thanks for those words! I am loath indeed to think evil of you.—Yet, touching your design towards this knight, methinks 'tis a venturesome game you would play. What if you had misreckoned? What if your daughter—? 'Tis said no woman can stand against this subtle devil.

My daughter? Think you that she—? Nay, have no fear of that; I know Elina better. All she has heard of his renown has but made her hate him the more. You saw with your own eyes

Ay, but—a woman's mind is shifting ground to build on. 'Twere best you looked well before you.

That will I, be sure; I will watch them narrowly. But even were he to succeed in luring her into his toils, I have but to whisper two words in her ear, and

What then?

She will shrink from him as though he came straight from the foul Tempter himself.