Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/63



[Gazing straight before him.] When I look back over my life—and my fortunes—for the last ten or eleven years, it seems to me almost like a fairy-tale or a dream. Don't you think so too, Asta?

Yes, in many ways I think so.

[Continuing.] When I remember what we two used to be, Asta—we two poor orphan children

[Impatiently.] Oh, that is such an old, old story.

[Not listening to her.] And now here I am in comfort and luxury. I have been able to follow my vocation. I have been able to work and study—just as I had always longed to. [Holds out his hand.] And all this great—this fabulous good fortune we owe to you, my dearest Rita.

[Half playfully, half angrily, slaps his hand.] Oh, I do wish you would stop talking like that.

I speak of it only as a sort of introduction.

Then do skip the introduction!