Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/418

.

No, I have seen it for long.

.

[Shrugging his shoulders.] One doesn't grow younger. One doesn't grow younger, Frau Maia.

.

It's not that sort of ugliness that I mean at all. But there has come to be such an expression of fatigue, of utter weariness, in your eyes—when you deign, once in a while, to cast a glance at me.

.

Have you noticed that?

.

[Nods.] Little by little this evil look has come into your eyes. It seems almost as though you were nursing some dark plot against me.

.

Indeed? [In a friendly but earnest tone.] Come here and sit beside me, Maia; and let us talk a little.

.

[Half rising.] Then will you let me sit upon your knee? As I used to in the early days?

.

No, you mustn't—people can see us from the hotel. [Moves a little.] But you can sit here on the bench—at my side.