Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/92

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44
LADY INGER OF ÖSTRAT.
[ACT II.

Lady Inger.

Be it so then; but be brief; for—I must say it—this is no place of safety for you.

Olaf Skaktavl.

Östråt is no place of safety for an outlaw? That I have long known. But you forget that an outlaw is unsafe wheresoever he may wander.

Lady Inger.

Speak then; I will not hinder you.

Olaf Skaktavl.

'Tis nigh on thirty years now since first I saw you. It was at Akershus[1] in the house of Knut Alfson and his wife. You were little more than a child then; yet were you bold as the soaring falcon, and wild and headstrong too at times. Many were the wooers around you. I too held you dear—dear as no woman before or since. But you cared for nothing, thought of nothing, save your country's evil case and its great need.

Lady Inger.

I counted but fifteen summers then—remember that! And was it not as though a frenzy had seized us all in those days?

Olaf Skaktavl.

Call it what you will; but one thing I know—even the old and sober men among us thought

  1. Pronounce Ahkers-hoos.