home with her, won't you?

KRISTRUN. I'll do that, Hadda. [Hurries away.]

HADDA PADDA [sits down]. I think I have discovered that you don't
really enjoy your new happiness. That is why I want to talk to
you.

INGOLF. You have told me all I want to hear.

HADDA PADDA [involuntarily frowning a moment]. It is strange how
proud the imagination can be, pretending to be a strong reality.
If I had really loved you at all, I would still. I do not. So long
as you were free, I made myself believe I had a certain claim to
you. But once you were engaged to any one else, the same thing
would have happened?--I should have forgotten you in a week.

INGOLF. You need not tell me this, I know it.

HADDA PADDA. What do you know?

INGOLF. I know that you deny your own heart for the sake of
others.

HADDA PADDA. Now you think too highly of both of us. I am not so
good as you would make me, and it is not so difficult to forget
you as you imagine.--You won't believe that I have succeeded in
forgetting you. Won't you believe, either, that I have made every
effort to do it? The day before yesterday I locked myself in my
room, and took out your letters to see whether I could bear to