t you do that. I mean to look after myself;
over there, I am sure I can do that. Only let me get away from here.
Oh, these women!--you don't know--they have written to me today,
too--exhorting me to realise my good fortune--impressing on me how
magnanimous he has been. Tomorrow, and every day afterwards, they would
be watching me to see if I were making myself worthy of it all. I am
sick and tired of all this goodness!

Johan: Tell me, Dina--is that the only reason you are coming away? Am I
nothing to you?

Dina: Yes, Johan, you are more to me than any one else in the world.

Johan: Oh, Dina--!

Dina: Every one here tells me I ought to hate and detest you--that it
is my duty; but I cannot see that it is my duty, and shall never be
able to.

Lona: No more you shall, my dear!

Martha: No, indeed you shall not; and that is why you shall go with him
as his wife.

Johan: Yes, yes!

Lona: What? Give me a kiss, Martha. I never expected that from you!

Martha: No, I dare say not; I would not have expected it myself. But I
was bound to break out some time! Ah, what we suffer under the tyranny
of habit and custom! Make a stand against that, Dina. Be his wife. Let
me see you defy all this convention.

Johan: What is your answer, Dina?

Dina: Yes, I will be your wife.

Johan: Dina!

Dina: But first of all I want to work--to make something of myself--as
you have done. I am not going to be merely a thing that is taken.

Lona: Quite right--that is the way.

Johan: Very well; I shall wait and hope--

Lona: And win, my boy! But now you must get on board!

Johan: Yes, on board! Ah, Lona, my dear sister, just one word with you.
Look here-- (He takes her into the background and talks hurriedly to
her.)

Martha: Dina, you lucky girl, let me look at you, and kiss you once
more--for the last time.

Dina: Not for the last time; no, my darling aunt, we shall meet again.

Martha: Never! Promise me, Dina, never to come back! (Grasps her hands
and looks at her.) Now go to your happiness, my dear child--across the
sea. How often, in my schoolroom, I have yearned to be over there! It
must be beautiful; the skies are loftier than here--a freer air plays
about your head--

Dina: Oh, Aunt Martha, some day you will follow us.

Martha: I? Never--never. I have my little vocation here, and now I
really believe I can live to the full the life that I ought.

Dina: I cannot imagine being parted from you.

Martha: Ah, one can p