Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/200

 you, even if I would?—You came by night; you knocked upon my door;—and I opened to you. You spoke to me. What was it you said? You gazed in my eyes. What was the mystic might that turned my brain, and lured me as into a magic net? [Hides her face on his shoulder.] Oh, look not on me, Nils Lykke! You must not look upon me after this—True, say you? Do you not own me? I am yours;—I  be yours—to all eternity.

Now, by my knightly honour, ere the year be past, you shall sit as my wife in the hall of my fathers!

No vows, Nils Lykke! No oaths to me.

What ails you? Why do you shake your head so mournfully?

Because I know that the same soft words wherewith you turned my brain, you have whispered to so many a one before. Nay, nay, be not angry, my beloved! In nowise do I reproach you, as I did while yet I knew you not. Now I understand how high above all others is your goal. How can love be aught to  but a pastime, or woman but a toy?

Elina,—hear me!