Look, canst thou feel the pain, the grief,
With which his gaze on me he bends?
Ah! when I think he has ne'er found relief,
How sharp a pang my bosom rends!'

Erik, beside himself with jealousy, finally tells her that
he has had an ominous dream, in which he saw her greet the
dark stranger, embrace him tenderly, and even follow him out
to sea, where she was lost. But all this pleading only makes
Senta more obstinate in her refusal of his attentions, and
more eager to behold the object of her romantic attachment,
who at that very moment enters the house, following her father,
who greets her tenderly. The sudden apparition of the stranger,
whose resemblance to the portrait is very striking, robs Senta
of all composure, and it is only when her father has gently
reproved her for her cold behaviour that she bids him welcome.

Daland then explains to his daughter that his guest is a wanderer
and an exile, although well provided with this world's goods, and
asks her whether she would be willing to listen to his wooing,
and would consent to ratify his conditional promise by giving
the stranger her hand:--

'Wilt thou, my child, accord our guest a friendly welcome,
And wilt thou also let him share thy kindly heart?
Give him thy hand, for bridegroom it is thine to call him,
If thou but give consent, to-morrow his thou art.'

Wholly uninfluenced by the description of the stranger's
wealth which her father gives her, but entirely won by the
Flying Dutchman's timidly expressed hope that she will not
refuse him the blessing he has so long and so vainly sought,
Senta hesitates no longer, but generously promises to become
his wife, whatever fate may await her:--

'Whoe'er thou art, where'er thy curse may lead thee,
And me, when I thy lot mine own have made,--
Whate'er the fate which I with thee may share in,
My father's will by me shall be obeyed.'

This promise at first fills the heart of the Flying Dutchman
with the utmost rapture, for he is thinking only of himself,
and of his release from the curse, but soon he begins to love
the innocent maiden through whom alone he can find rest. Then he
also remembers that, if she fail, she too will be accursed, and,
instead of urging her as before, he now tries to dissuade her
from becoming his wife by depicting life at his side in the most
unenticing colours, and by warning her that she must die if her
faith should waver. Senta, undeterred b