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[Deeply moved.] No, no!

Hast thou, then, been faint of heart, so that Sigurd has been put to shame?

[Overwhelmed.] Hiördis, Hiördis!

[Smiling scornfully.] Yet thy lot has been a happy one all these years! Think'st thou that Sigurd can say the same?

Enough, enough. Woe is me! thou hast made me see myself too clearly.

A jesting word, and straightway thou art in tears! Think no more of it. Look what I have done to-day. [Takes some arrows from the table.] Are they not keen and biting—feel! I know well how to sharpen arrows, do I not?

And to use them too; thou strikest surely, Hiördis! All this thou hast said to me—I had never thought of it before. [More vehemently.] But that Sigurd! That for all these years I should have made his life heavy and unhonoured;—no, no, it cannot be true!

Nay now, comfort thee, Dagny; indeed it is not