aughty eyes seem veiled with thought.--Ah, if
I but dared--(aloud). Mistress Elina!

ELINA (stops at the door). What will you? Why do you pursue me?

NILS LYKKE. You err; I pursue you not. I am myself pursued.

ELINA. You?

NILS LYKKE. By a multitude of thoughts. Therefore 'tis with
sleep as with you:--it flees me.

ELINA. Go to the window, and there you will find pastime;--a
storm-tossed sea----

NILS LYKKE (smiles). A storm-tossed sea? That I may find in
you as well.

ELINA. In me?

NILS LYKKE. Ay, of that our first meeting has assured me.

ELINA. And that offends you?

NILS LYKKE. Nay, in nowise; yet I could wish to see you of
milder mood.

ELINA (proudly). Think you that you will ever have your wish?

NILS LYKKE. I am sure of it. I have a welcome word to say
to you.

ELINA. What is it?

NILS LYKKE. Farewell.

ELINA (comes a step nearer him). Farewell? You are leaving
Ostrat--so soon?

NILS LYKKE. This very night.

ELINA (seems to hesitate for a moment; then says coldly:) Then
take my greeting, Sir Knight! (Bows and is about to go.)

NILS LYKKE. Elina Gyldenlove,--I have no right to keep you here;
but 'twill be unlike your nobleness if you refuse to hear what I
have to say to you.

ELINA. I hear you, Sir Knight.

NILS LYKKE. I know you hate me.

ELINA. You are keen-sighted, I perceive.

NILS LYKKE. But I know, too, that I have fully merited your
hate. Unseemly and insolent were the words I wrote of you
in my letter to Lady Inger.

ELINA. It may be; I have not read them.

NILS LYKKE. But at least their purport is not unknown to you;
I know your mother has not left you in ignorance of the matter;
at the least she has told you how I praised the lot of the man
who----; surely you know the hope I nursed----

ELINA. Sir Knight--if it is of that you would speak----

NILS LYKKE. I speak of it only to excuse what I have done; for
no other reason, I swear to you. If my fame has reached you--as
I have too much cause of fear--before I myself set foot in Ostrat,
you must needs know enough of my life not to wonder that in such
things I should go to work something boldly. I have met many
women, Elina Gyldenlove; but not one have I found unyielding. Such
lessons, look you, teach a man to be secure. He loses the habit
of roundabout ways----

ELINA. May be so. I know not of what metal those women can
h