Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/135

 :in the black chest myself to be driven away!
 * Oh, what must a mortal abide and live through!
 * God help me in mercy! The whole house is bare!
 * What the Hegstad-churl left now the bailiff has taken.
 * Not even the clothes on my back have they spared.
 * Fie! Shame on them all that have judged so hardly!
 * [Seats herself on the edge of the bed.]
 * Both the land and the farm-place are lost to our line;
 * the old man was hard, but the law was still harder;-
 * there was no one to help me, and none would show mercy;
 * Peer was away; not a soul to give counsel.

KARI
 * But here, in this house, you may dwell till you die.

ASE
 * Ay, the cat and I live on charity.

KARI
 * God help you, mother; your Peer's cost you dear.

ASE
 * Peer? Why, you're out of your senses, sure!
 * Ingrid came home none the worse in the end.
 * The right thing had been to hold Satan to reckoning;-