Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 4).djvu/140

 I could nor laugh nor weep from the depths of my heart. I knew not for sure how you might be minded; I knew but for sure what I should do and must do.

But your father?

In all of God's wide earth I have none I can call either father or mother. I have loosed me from all of them.

Solveig, you fair one— And to come to me?

Ay, to you alone; You must be all to me, friend and consoler.

[In tears.

The worst was leaving my little sister;— But parting from father was worse, still worse; And worst to leave her at whose breast I was borne;— Oh no, God forgive me, the worst I must call The sorrow of leaving them all, ay all!

And you know the doom that was passed in spring? It forfeits my farm and my heritage.

Think you for heritage, goods, and gear, I forsook the paths all my dear ones tread?