Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/173



You lack not confidence, it seems.

What shall be the wager that you make not common cause with myself and Peter Kanzler?

Östråt Castle against your knee-buckles!

[Slaps his breast and cries:] Olaf Skaktavl—here stands the master of Östråt!

Sir Councillor!

[Rises from the table.] What now?

[To ] I accept not the wager; for in a moment you will gladly give Östråt Castle, and more to boot, to be freed from the snare wherein not I but you are tangled.

Your jest, Sir, grows a vastly merry one.

'Twill be merrier yet—at least for me. You boast that you have overreached me. You