Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/203

 his falcon on his wrist. Even so do you go your way through life;—your name rings out before you whithersoever you fare.—All that I desire of the glory, is to rest like the falcon on your arm. Like him was I, too, blind to light and life, till you loosed the hood from my eyes and set me soaring high over the tree-tops.—But trust me—bold as my flight may be, yet shall I ever turn back to my cage.

[Rises.] Then will I bid defiance to the past! See now;—take this ring, and be  before God and men— ,—ay, though it should trouble the dreams of the dead.

You make me tremble. What is it that?

'Tis nought. Come, let me place the ring on your finger.—Even so—now are you my betrothed!

I Nils Lykke's bride! It seems but a dream, all that has befallen this night. Oh, but so fair a dream! My breast is so light. No longer is there bitterness and hatred in my soul. I will atone to all whom I have wronged. I have been unloving to my mother. To-morrow will I go to her; she must forgive me where I have erred.

And give her consent to our bond.