Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/456

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The day came when I could afford it easily enough; and so I bought it.

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[With a sidelong look at him.] Then do you live out there now—in our old house?

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No, I have had it pulled down long ago. And I have built myself a great, handsome, comfortable villa on the site—with a park around it. It is there that we—[Stops and corrects himself.]—there that I usually live during the summer.

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[Mastering herself.] So you and—and the other one live out there now?

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[With a touch of defiance.] Yes. When my wife and I are not travelling—as we are this year.

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[Looking far before her.] Life was beautiful, beautiful by the Lake of Taunitz.

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[As though looking back into himself.] And yet, Irene

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[Completing his thought]—yet we two let slip all that life and its beauty.