n each other's arms? Had it been any
one else, Ingolf, any one else, I might have tried to bear it; but SHE,
in YOUR arms, that thought I cannot endure... I have no enemy but her.
The blood that flows in her veins deceives. It understands the secrets
of kinship, and knows what weapons can beat me.... She was but a little
girl when I saw the smile of the conqueror in her look, if she felt that
young men who called on us paid her greater attentions than me. But it
did not touch me. I was no rival. In my heart, there was only place for
you. Don't you see what life would be for me, should she triumph now,
too.

INGOLF [keeps silent.]

HADDA PADDA [kneels down, grasping his knee]. Ingolf, for nine years
have I run up the stairs at home, just as you did, on the day you went
away--two steps at a time.

INGOLF. Get up, Hrafnhild. [He moves a step nearer to the door. Hadda is
dragged along on her knees.]

HADDA PADDA [strokes her hand over his knee]. Ingolf, Ingolf,--

INGOLF [takes a step back]. Get up, Hrafnhild.

HADDA PADDA. Ingolf, I laid bare my love, to clothe yours. I did it, so
that no one could take you from me. Do you remember when I gave you
all a woman can give? The past closed behind me, and I was a different
being. I took your head in both my hands. "Now you must always be kind
to me," I said. "Always," you said. You are not kind to me now, Ingolf.
Had you not stripped me of the only support which a woman must have
to bear life alone, I might have been able to endure it. But you have
awakened passions hidden in me, from the very depths of my nature.
Whenever you were away, they cried out for you with voices like
children.

INGOLF. Stop, Hrafnhild. I gave you my word, it is true; but since I no
longer care for you, will you still hold me to an old promise that was
made when I loved you? HADDA PADDA [gets up]. Not an old one, Ingolf.
You aren't telling the truth now. [Pointing out of the window.] Is it
old, the water that flows down the river? Hasn't every day we have lived
together been a renewal of this promise?

INGOLF. Maybe, but one day the water stopped flowing.

HADDA PADDA. Now you have spoken the terrible truth. Your love was not
rich enough, and you knew it from the first. You are not deceiving me
to-day. You deceived me the day you made me believe that you loved me,
but you were not strong enough to be sincere. You felt that the burning
love of a devoted woman would give you a new spirit; that