Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/104



I thought it was the right thing to do.

[Patting her hand.] Yes, yes, it was the right thing to do, Asta. And then when we were left alone in the world, we two. Are you done already?

Yes. [Putting together her sewing-materials.] It was really a beautiful time for us, Alfred. We two alone.

Yes, it was—though we had to toil so hard.

You toiled.

[With more life.] Oh, you toiled too, in your way, I can assure you—[smiling]—my dear, faithful—Eyolf.

Oh—you mustn't remind me of that stupid nonsense about the name.

Well, if you had been a boy, you would have been called Eyolf.

Yes, if! But when you began to go to college. [Smiling involuntarily.] I wonder how you could be so childish.