day you went away--two steps at a time.

INGOLF. Get up, Hrafnhild. [He moves a step nearer to the door.
Hadda is dragged along on her knees.]

HADDA PADDA [strokes her hand over his knee]. Ingolf, Ingolf,--

INGOLF [takes a step back]. Get up, Hrafnhild.

HADDA PADDA. Ingolf, I laid bare my love, to clothe yours. I did
it, so that no one could take you from me. Do you remember when I
gave you all a woman can give? The past closed behind me, and I
was a different being. I took your head in both my hands. "Now you
must always be kind to me," I said. "Always," you said. You are
not kind to me now, Ingolf. Had you not stripped me of the only
support which a woman must have to bear life alone, I might have
been able to endure it. But you have awakened passions hidden in
me, from the very depths of my nature. Whenever you were away,
they cried out for you with voices like children.

INGOLF. Stop, Hrafnhild. I gave you my word, it is true; but since
I no longer care for you, will you still hold me to an old promise
that was made when I loved you? HADDA PADDA [gets up]. Not an old
one, Ingolf. You aren't telling the truth now. [Pointing out of
the window.] Is it old, the water that flows down the river?
Hasn't every day we have lived together been a renewal of this
promise?

INGOLF. Maybe, but one day the water stopped flowing.