Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/489

 Relations one can meet with satisfaction, Ideas that do not wholly disagree. And marriage? Why, it is a very sea Of claims and calls, of taxing and exaction, Whose bearing upon love is very small. Here mild domestic virtues are demanded, A kitchen soul, inventive and neat handed, Making no claims, and executing all;— And much which in a lady's presence I Can hardly with decorum specify.

And therefore—?

Hear a golden counsel then. Use your experience; watch your fellow-men, How every loving couple struts and swaggers Like millionaires among a world of beggars. They scamper to the altar, lad and lass, They make a home and, drunk with exultation, Dwell for awhile within its walls of glass. Then comes the day of reckoning;—out, alas, They're bankrupt, and their house in liquidation! Bankrupt the bloom of youth on woman's brow, Bankrupt the flower of passion in her breast, Bankrupt the husband's battle-ardour now, Bankrupt each spark of passion he possessed. Bankrupt the whole estate, below, above,— And yet this broken pair were once confessed A first-class house in all the wares of love!

[vehemently].

That is a lie!