Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/248



A feast?

Yes, Knut Gesling: you must know that it is our wedding-day; this day three years ago made me Dame Margit's husband.

[Impatiently, interrupting.] As I said, we hold a feast to-day. When Mass is over, and your other business done, I would have you ride hither again, and join in the banquet. Then you can learn to know my sister.

So be it, Dame Margit; I thank you. Yet 'twas not to go to Mass that I rode hither this morning. Your kinsman, Gudmund Alfson, was the cause of my coming.

[Starts.] He! My kinsman? Where would you seek him?

His homestead lies behind the headland, on the other side of the fiord.

But he himself is far away.

Be not so sure; he may be nearer than you think.