Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/448

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I imaged that which I saw with my eyes around me in the world. I had to include it—I could not help it, Irene. I expanded the plinth—made it wide and spacious. And on it I placed a segment of the curving, bursting earth. And up from the fissures of the soil there now swarm men and women with dimly-suggested animal-faces. Women and men—as I knew them in real life.

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[In breathless suspense.] But in the middle of the rout there stands the young woman radiant with the joy of light?—Do I not stand so, Arnold?

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[Evasively.] Not quite in the middle. I had unfortunately to move that figure a little back. For the sake of the general effect, you understand. Otherwise it would have dominated the whole too much.

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But the joy in the light still transfigures my face?

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Yes, it does, Irene—in a way. A little subdued perhaps—as my altered idea required.

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[Rising noiselessly.] That design expresses the life you now see, Arnold.