thless while he was
away, and he is drowned at sea.

Arnholm. What?

Ellida. Drowned?

Lyngstrand. Yes, he was drowned on a sea voyage. But that's the
wonderful part of it--he comes home all the same. It is night-time. And
he is standing by her bed looking at her. He is to stand there dripping
wet, like one drawn from the sea.

Ellida (leaning back in her chair). What an extraordinary idea!
(Shutting her eyes.) Oh! I can see it so clearly, living before me!

Arnholm. But how on earth, Mr.--Mr.--I thought you said it was to be
something you had experienced.

Lyngstrand. Yes. I did experience that--that is to say, to a certain
extent.

Arnholm. You saw a dead man?

Lyngstrand. Well, I don't mean I've actually seen this--experienced it
in the flesh. But still--

Ellida (quickly, intently). Oh! tell me all you can about it! I must
understand about all this.

Arnholm (smiling). Yes, that'll be quite in your line. Something that
has to do with sea fancies.

Ellida. What was it, Mr. Lyngstrand?

Lyngstrand. Well, it was like this. At the time when we were to sail
home in the brig from a town they called Halifax, we had to leave
the boatswain behind in the hospital. So we had to engage an American
instead. This new boatswain Ellida. The American?

Lyngstrand. Yes, one day he got the captain to lend him a lot of old
newspapers and he was always reading them. For he wanted to teach
himself Norwegian, he said.

Ellida. Well, and then?

Lyngstrand. It was one evening in rough weather. All hands were on
deck--except the boatswain and myself. For he had sprained his foot and
couldn't walk, and I was feeling rather low, and was lying in my berth.
Well, he was sitting there in the forecastle, reading one of those old
papers again.

Ellida. Well, well!

Lyngstrand. But just as he was sitting there quietly reading, I heard
him utter a sort of yell. And when I looked at him, I saw his face was
as white as chalk. And then he began to crush and crumple the paper, and
to tear it into a thousand shreds. But he did it so quietly, quietly.

Ellida. Didn't he say anything? Didn't he speak?

Lyngstrand. Not directly; but a little after he said to himself, as it
were: "Married--to another man. While I was away."

Ellida (closes her eyes, and says, half to herself). He said that?

Lyngstrand. Yes. And think--he said it in perfect Norwegian. That man
must have learnt foreign languages very easily--

Ellida. And what th