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Ingrid! And the three, they that danced on the heights!
- Will they too want to join us? With vixenish spite
- will they claim to be folded, like her, to my breast,
- to be tenderly lifted on outstretched arms?
- Roundabout, lad; though my arms were as long
- as the root of the fir, or the pine-tree's stem,-
- I think even then I should hold her too near,
- to set her down pure and untarnished again.-
- I must roundabout here, then, as best I may,
- and see that it bring me nor gain nor loss.
- One must put such things from one, and try to forget.-
- [Goes a few steps towards the hut, but stops again.]
- Go in after this? So befouled and disgraced?
- Go in with that troll-rabble after me still?
- Speak, yet be silent; confess, yet conceal-?
- [Throws away his axe.]
- It's holy-day evening. For me to keep tryst,
- such as now I am, would be sacrilege.
SOLVEIG [in the doorway].
- Are you coming?
PEER [half aloud].
- Roundabout!
SOLVEIG
- What?
PEER
- You must wait.
- It is dark, and I've got something heavy to fetch.