Modern Icelandic Plays - LightNovelsOnl.com
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I don't understand how you can pity a felon and a thief.
_Halla._
Nor do I understand it myself, but somehow I do. You have just asked me if I would be your wife. Surely you will grant me the first thing I ask of you!
_Bjrn._
One would think you were pleading for your best friend.
_Halla._
I may have cared more for him than I knew myself. If you will let him get away, I shall have no objection to making our two farms into one.
_Bjrn._
I never thought your overseer would be the means of my getting you for a wife, but I yield on those terms. Once we are married, you will surely forget him. But he must be gone from here within twenty-four hours, and I want you to know that if he ever shows himself in these parts again, he will have to take his punishment.
_Halla._
You need have no fear that he will ever come back here.
_Bjrn._
Then let us forget all about him. You have saved him from jail for a time, but he's sure to end there any way. (_Goes to her._) Who would have thought that you should become my little wife! (_Tries to put his arm around her waist._)
_Halla (draws back)._
So many things happen that we do not look for.
_Enter Kari._
_Bjrn._
You are just in time. It will surely please you to hear that your mistress is to marry me within a short time.
_Kari (turning to Halla)._
What does this mean?
_Bjrn (laughing)._
You hadn't expected this. (_Goes to Halla._) My sweetheart might give me a kiss.
_Halla (warding him off)._
No, no!
_Kari_ (_grasping Bjrn's arm_). That man lies! She is mine. (_To Halla._) If you two get married to-morrow, still you are mine.
_Bjrn._
Has my brother's wife become a harlot? [_Exit._
_Halla._
What have you done, Kari? It was to save you I promised to be his wife.
I hoped to get a chance to speak to you. He has the letter and is going to give you up to the judge to-day.
_Kari._
I could not bear that man to touch you.
_Halla._
You must run for the horses and flee!
_Kari._
That would be madness. The others have just as good horses. We must take what comes. I shall deny everything.
_Halla._
What good would that do? It is impossible to mistake the description.
I have read it myself.
_Kari._
Did you really mean to marry the bailiff to save my life?
_Halla._
I lied to him, so that I could flee with you. I hate him.
_Kari._
I love you, Halla.
_Halla (in rising fear)._
What shall we do? (_Wrings her hands._) It is all my fault for holding you back. (_On the point of weeping._) I am an unhappy woman.
_Kari._
You must not cry. Even if I faced the death warrant, I should not be sorry that I stayed. (_Kisses her hands._) These summer days we have had together-- in all eternity no one can take them from us.
_Halla (withdraws her hands excitedly)._
Don't you know of any way? Say that the bailiff is your enemy and has had the letter framed up.
