the more deceived if you be not right. Marked you not at supper
how eagerly he listened to the least word I let fall concerning
Elina?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. He forgot both food and drink.

LADY INGER. And our secret business as well.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, and what is more--the papers from Peter Kanzler.

LADY INGER. And from all this you conclude----?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. From all this I chiefly conclude that, as you know
Nils Lykke and the name he bears, especially as concerns women----

LADY INGER. ----I should be right glad to know him outside my
gates?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay; and that as soon as may be.

LADY INGER (smiling). Nay--the case is just the contrary, Olaf
Skaktavl!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. How mean you?

LADY INGER. If things be as we both think, Nils Lykke must in
nowise depart from Ostrat yet awhile.

OLAF SKAKTAVL (looks at her with disapproval). Are you beginning
on crooked courses again, Lady Inger? What scheme have you now in
your mind? Something that may increase your own power at the cost
of our----

LADY INGER. Oh this blindness, that makes you all unjust to me!
I see well you think I purpose to make Nils Lykke my daughter's
husband. Were such a thought in my mind, why had I refused to take
part in what is afoot in Sweden, when Nils Lykke and all the Danish
crew seem willing to support it?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Then if it be not your wish to win him and bind
him to you--what would you with him?

LADY INGER. I will tell you in few words. In a letter to me,
Nils Lykke has spoken of the high fortune it were to be allied to
our house; and I do not say but, for a moment, I let myself think
of the matter.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, see you!

LADY INGER. To wed Nils Lykke to one of my house were doubtless
a great step toward reconciling many jarring forces in our land.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Meseems your daughter Merete's marriage with
Vinzents Lunge might have taught you the cost of such a step as
this. Scarce had my lord gained a firm footing in our midst, when
he began to make free with both our goods and our rights----

LADY INGER. I know it even too well, Olaf Skaktavl! But times
there be when my thoughts are manifold and strange. I cannot impart
them fully either to you or to any one else. Often I know not what
were best for me. And yet--a second time to choose a Danish lord
for a son-in-law,--nought but the uttermost need could drive me
to that resource