Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 3).djvu/86



One I make, No more; don't set your life at stake. Keep up our family and name, That's all the gratitude I claim. Then see that nothing go to waste,— Naught be divided or displaced;— Add much or little, as you will; But O preserve, preserve it still!

[After a short pause.]

One thing needs clearing 'twixt us two. From childhood I have thwarted you;— You've been no mother, I no son, Till you are gray, my childhood gone.

I do not ask to be caress'd. Be what you please; I am not nice. Be stern, be fierce, be cold as ice, It will not cleave my armour'd breast; Keep, though you hoard it, what was mine, And never let it leave our line!

[Going a step nearer.]

And if I took it in my head To strew it to the winds, instead?

[Reeling back.]

Strew, what through all these years of care Has bent my back and bleach'd my hair?