ressions and burdens yet awhile. Why murmur
at that, when you see that we, your leaders, are as ill bested
as you?---- ---- Take all the weapons back to the hall. You
shall know my further will hereafter. Go!

(The Retainers take back the arms, and the whole crowd then
withdraws by the door on the right.)

ELINA (softly to BIORN). Do you still think I have sinned in
misjudging--the Lady of Ostrat?

LADY INGER (beckons to BIORN, and says). Have a guest chamber
ready.

BIORN. It is well, Lady Inger!

LADY INGER. And let the gate stand open to all that knock.

BIORN. But----?

LADY INGER. The gate open!

BIORN. The gate open. (Goes out to the right.)

LADY INGER (to ELINA, who has already reached the door on the
left). Stay here!---- ---- Elina--my child--I have something
to say to you alone.

ELINA. I hear you.

LADY INGER. Elina---- ----you think evil of your mother.

ELINA. I think, to my sorrow, what your deeds have forced me
to think.

LADY INGER. You answer out of the bitterness of your heart.

ELINA. Who has filled my heart with bitterness? From my childhood
I have been wont to look up to you as a great and high-souled woman.
It was in your likeness I pictured the women we read of in the
chronicles and the Book of Heroes. I thought the Lord God himself
had set his seal on your brow, and marked you out as the leader of
the helpless and the oppressed. Knights and nobles sang your praise
in the feast-hall, and the peasants, far and near, called you the
country's pillar and its hope. All thought that through you the
good times were to come again! All thought that through you a new
day was to dawn over the land! The night is still here; and I no
longer know if I dare look for any morning to come through you.

LADY INGER. It is easy to see whence you have learnt such
venomous words. You have let yourself give ear to what the
thoughtless rabble mutters and murmurs about things it can little
judge of.

ELINA. "Truth is in the people's mouth," was your word when they
praised you in speech and song.

LADY INGER. May be so. But if indeed I had chosen to sit here
idle, though it was my part to act--do you not think that such
a choice were burden enough for me, without your adding to its
weight?

ELINA. The weight I add to your burden bears on me as heavily
as on you. Lightly and freely I drew the breath of life, so long
as I h