Ingolf.  I love you, Hadda Padda.

Hadda Padda.  Your words are the light, your caresses are the warmth.  Give me both, Ingolf.  Kiss me.

Ingolf [kisses her].

Hadda Padda.  And I should not trust you?  Has not a sacred hour welded our hearts together?  And have you not placed your life in my hands?—­Do you remember last summer, when I visited your home, how you lowered me with a rope down the Angelica Gorge?  I have not often lived so exquisite an hour.  Then I became quite foolhardy.  When I came up again, I asked you to go down and let me hold the rope for you.

Ingolf.  I hardly believed you were as strong as you are.

Hadda Padda.  If you had not had courage to go down by my hands, I am not quite sure that I could be so fond of you.  I shall never forget that moment.  I saw you come up again with an angelica crown on your head.  I saw you rise up like a green-crowned sea-god from the deep.—­

Ingolf.  I can’t bear the thought that I shall leave you in a few days.

Hadda Padda [smiles].

Ingolf.  You smile?

Hadda Padda.  I am thinking of something.  Shall I tell you?

Little Skuli [comes rushing in from the right].  Hadda Padda!  Have you seen—?  Ah, Ingolf, are you here? [Runs straight up to Ingolf, catching hold of both his hands].  Why did you leave home so soon, Ingolf?

Ingolf.  Because I wanted to go to Copenhagen.

Hadda Padda.  Skuli dear, will you be a good boy and make me a ship?

Little Skuli.  Oh no, not now.

Hadda Padda.  Oh yes, your last ship was so well cut out, with great big masts. [Pats him.] You’re a dear.

Ingolf.  Then you’ll be allowed to come along with us to the country next summer.

Hadda Padda.  And sit in front, on the Sheriff’s horse, many, many times.

Little Skuli.  Then will the Sheriff give me a sheep again?

Ingolf.  Yes, my little friend, father will give you a sheep, and I will give you one too; I’ll give you one with pretty rounded horns.

Little Skuli.  Does it butt?

Ingolf.  O, of course not, it eats bread from your hand.

Little Skuli.  Then I’ll saw its horns off, and give them to Sigga--she has lots of horns she plays sheep with. [Laughter.]

Ingolf.  Well, are you going to make that ship?

Little Skuli.  Are you the one who gets all Hadda Padda’s ships?

Ingolf.  Well, I daresay I get most of them.—­What makes you think so?

Little Skuli.  Because, whenever she is with you, she always wants me to make ships. [Ingolf and Hadda look at each other and laugh.]