Kristrun.  I myself say that you must choose between us.

Ingolf.  My heart has chosen, Kristrun.  And now my hand chooses. [He slowly takes the ring off his finger.] Are you satisfied now?

Kristrun.  Why do you ask so sadly?  Do you do this half-heartedly? ...  I don’t know whether I can trust you.  Only yesterday, when she called you away from me, my heart throbbed with joy.  The air about me sang:  It is you he loves!  But after a while, when she came out, she passed me with a look of supremacy in her eyes.  I saw it, I saw it ... you are completely in her power.

Ingolf.  Before the sun sets to-night, you will have to take back those words.

Kristrun.  I fear the strength of her words when she pleads her own cause.  It is as though she could charm you into her power by some magic.  Do you know what she did yesterday?  She came up to me afterwards, and tried to arouse my anger, and so sure was she of her victory, that she gloried in it.  She said that I could flirt with any one I wanted—­she held the love of the finest man in Iceland.

Ingolf.  Now do you think she said it because she was so sure?

Kristrun [does not answer].  “She held the love of the finest man in Iceland! ...”  Do you love me, Ingolf?

Ingolf.  You don’t need to ask, Kristrun.

Kristrun.  Do you love me?

Ingolf.  I love you.

Kristrun [runs to the chaise-longue, and throws herself upon it; she sobs audibly].

Ingolf.  What is the matter with you, Kristrun?

Kristrun.  Why don’t you take me in your arms?

Ingolf.  Now I am—­Do you still doubt?  I lived behind a dark, dark wall.  Through a crack in the wall a streak of light came in.  I loved this streak.  Then one day the wall tumbled down, and I bathed in a white sea of sunshine.  Now I see that I only cared for Hrafnhild because of the natural likeness between you.

Kristrun.  Do you think I would ever have let you suspect that I cared for you, if I did not know that you had stopped loving Hrafnhild.  I began to care for you a long time ago, Ingolf.  When I saw how happy Hrafnhild was, it seemed to dawn upon me how splendid you are.  Every one envied her.  You can imagine how I tried to crush my love.  But it grew stronger each day,—­it grew like a thorn into my heart.  Yet, that did not matter.  As long as I knew you loved Hrafnhild, I felt a greater obligation to my sister than to my love.  But not any longer.  Even were I to sacrifice all now, what would she gain, since you don’t care for her?

Ingolf.  I’ll try to break off our engagement as gently as possible.

Kristrun.  You promised to do it, before the sun sets to-night.

Ingolf.  Surely, when I tell her I don’t love her, she won’t try to hold me any longer.