bride; to your dwelling-place, my wife!

LADY. I'm grateful, dear friend! It's like a fairy tale!

STRANGER. Yes, it is. A whole book of fairy tales, my dear, written
by me.

(They sit down on either side of the table.)

LADY. Is this real? It seems too lovely to me.

STRANGER. I've never seen you look so young, so beautiful.

LADY. It's your own eyes. ...

STRANGER. Yes, my own eyes that have learnt to see. And your
goodness taught them. ...

LADY. Which itself was taught by sorrow.

STRANGER. Ingeborg!

LADY. It's the first time you've called me by that name.

STRANGER. The first? I've never met Ingeborg; I've never known you,
as you are, sitting here in our home! Home! An enchanting word. An
enchanting thing I've never yet possessed. A home and a wife! You
are my first, my only one; for what once happened exists no longer--
no more than the hour that's past!