Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/135

 Stensgård.

I am here to ask for your daughter's hand, Chamberlain.

The Chamberlain.

You you? Won't you sit down?

Stensgård.

Thanks, I prefer to stand.

The Chamberlain.

What do you say to this. Doctor?

Stensgård.

Oh, Fieldbo is on my side; he is my friend; the only true friend I have.

Fieldbo.

No, no, man! Never in this world, if you

The Chamberlain.

Perhaps it was with this view that Doctor Fieldbo secured his friend's introduction into my house?

Stensgård.

You know me only by my exploits of yesterday and the day before. That is not enough. Besides, I am not the same man to-day that I was then. My intercourse with you and yours has fallen like spring showers upon my spirit, making it put forth new blossoms in a single night! You must not hurl me back into my sordid past. Till now, I have never been at home with the beautiful in life; it has always been beyond my reach

The Chamberlain.

But my daughter?