Chapter 3

FALK [throws his arms about STIVER's neck]. Hurrah! the trumpet's dulcet notes proclaim A brother born to you in Amor's name! [Drags him to the others.

MISS JAY [to the gentlemen]. Think! Lind and Anna--think!--have plighted hearts, Affianced lovers!

MRS. HALM [with tears of emotion]. 'Tis the eighth in order Who well-provided from this house departs; [To FALK. Seven nieces wedded-always with a boarder-- [Is overcome; presses her handkerchief to her eyes.

MISS JAY [to ANNA]. Well, there will come a flood of gratulation! [Caresses her with emotion.

LIND [seizing FALK's hand]. My friend, I walk in rapt intoxication!

FALK. Hold! As a plighted man you are a member Of Rapture's Temperance-association. Observe it's rules;--no orgies here, remember! [Turning to GULDSTAD sympathetically. Well, my good sir!

GULDSTAD [beaming with pleasure]. I think this promises All happiness for both.

FALK [staring at him]. You seem to stand The shock with exemplary self-command. That's well.

GULDSTAD. What do you mean, sir?

FALK. Only this; That inasmuch as you appeared to feed Fond expectations of your own--

GULDSTAD. Indeed?

FALK. At any rate, you were upon the scent. You named Miss Halm; you stood upon this spot And asked me--

GULDSTAD [smiling]. There are two, though, are there not?

FALK. It was--the other sister that you meant?

GULDSTAD. That sister, yes, the other one,--just so. Judge for yourself, when you have come to know That sister better, if she has not in her Merits which, if they were divined, would win her A little more regard than we bestow.

FALK [coldly]. Her virtues are of every known variety I'm sure.

GULDSTAD. Not quite; the accent of society She cannot hit exactly; there she loses.

FALK. A grievous fault.

GULDSTAD. But if her mother chooses To spend a winter on her, she'll come out of it Queen of them all, I'll wager.

FALK. Not a doubt of it.

GULDSTAD [laughing]. Young women are odd creatures, to be sure!

FALK [gaily]. Like winter rye-seed, canopied secure By frost and snow, invisibly they sprout.

GULDSTAD. Then in the festive ball-room bedded out--

FALK. With equivique and scandal for manure--

GULDSTAD. And when April sun shines--

FALK. There the blade is; The seed shot up in mannikin green ladies!

[LIND comes up and seizes FALK's hand.

LIND. How well I chose,--past understanding well;-- I feel a bliss that nothing can dispel.

GULDSTAD. There stands your mistress; tell us, if you can, The right demeanor for a plighted man.

LIND [perturbed]. That's a third person's business to declare.

GULDSTAD [joking]. Ill-tempered! This to Anna's ears I'll bear. [Goes to the ladies.

LIND [looking after him]. Can such a man be tolerated?

FALK. You Mistook his aim, however,--

LIND. And how so?

FALK. It was not Anna that he had in view.

LIND. How, was it Svanhild?

FALK. Well, I hardly know. [Whimsically. Forgive me, martyr to another's cause!

LIND. What do you mean?

FALK. You've read the news to-night?

LIND. No.

FALK. Do so. There 'tis told in black and white Of one who, ill-luck's bitter counsel taking, Had his sound teeth extracted from his jaws Because his cousin-german's teeth were aching.

MISS JAY [looking out to the left]. Here comes the priest!

MRS. HALM. Now see a man of might!

STIVER. Five children, six, seven, eight--

FALK. And, heavens, all recent!

MISS JAY. Ugh! it is almost to be called indecent.

[A carriage has meantime been heard stopping outside to the left. STRAWMAN, his wife, and eight little girls, all in traveling dress, enter one by one.

MRS. HALM. [advancing to meet them]. Welcome, a hearty welcome!

STRAWMAN. Thank you.

MRS. STRAWMAN. It is A party?

MRS. HALM. No, dear madam, not at all.

MRS. STRAWMAN. If we disturb you--

MRS. HALM. _Au contraire_, your visit Could in no wise more opportunely fall. My Anna's just engaged.

STRAWMAN [shaking ANNA's hand with unction]. Ah then, I must Bear witness;--Lo! in wedded Love's presented A treasure such as neither moth nor rust Corrupt--if it be duly supplemented.

MRS. HALM. But how delightful that your little maids Should follow you to town.

STRAWMAN. Four tender blades We have besides.

MRS. HALM. Ah, really?

STRAWMAN. Three of whom Are still too infantine to take to heart A loving father's absence, when I come To town for sessions.

MISS JAY [to MRS. HALM, bidding farewell]. Now I must depart.

MRS. HALM. O, it is still so early!

MISS JAY. I must fly To town and spread the news. The Storms, I know, Go late to rest, they will be up; and oh! How glad the aunts will be! Now, dear, put by Your shyness; for to-morrow a spring-tide Of callers will flow in from every side!

MRS. HALM. Well, then, good-night [To the others. Now friends, what would you say To drinking tea? [To MRS. STRAWMAN. Pray, madam, lead the way.

[MRS. HALM, STRAWMAN, his wife and children, with GULDSTAD, LIND, and ANNA go into the house.

MISS JAY [taking STIVER's arm]. Now let's be tender! Look how softly floats Queen Luna on her throne o'er lawn and lea!-- Well, but you are not looking!

STIVER [crossly]. Yes, I see; I'm thinking of the promissory notes.

[They go out to the left. FALK, who has been continuously watching STRAWMAN and his wife, remains behind alone in the garden. It is now dark; the house is lighted up.

FALK. All is as if burnt out;--all desolate, dead--! So thro' the world they wander, two and two; Charred wreckage, like the blackened stems that strew The forest when the withering fire is fled. Far as the eye can travel, all is drought. And nowhere peeps one spray of verdure out!

[SVANHILD comes out on to the verandah with a flowering rose-tree which she sets down.

Yes one--yes one--!

SVANHILD. Falk, in the dark?

FALK. And fearless! Darkness to me is fair, and light is cheerless. But are not you afraid in yonder walls Where the lamp's light on sallow corpses falls--

SVANHILD. Shame!

FALK [looking after STRAWMAN who appears at the window]. He was once so brilliant and strong; Warred with the world to win his mistress; passed For Custom's doughtiest iconoclast; And pored forth love in paeans of glad song--! Look at him now! In solemn robes and wraps, A two-legged drama on his own collapse! And she, the limp-skirt slattern, with the shoes Heel-trodden, that squeak and clatter in her traces, This is the winged maid who was his Muse And escort to the kingdom of the graces! Of all that fire this puff of smoke's the end! _Sic transit gloria amoris_, friend.

SVANHILD. Yes, it is wretched, wretched past compare. I know of no one's lot that I would share.

FALK [eagerly]. Then let us two rise up and bid defiance To this same order Art, not Nature, bred!

SVANHILD [shaking her head]. Then were the cause for which we made alliance Ruined, as sure as this is earth we tread.

FALK. No, triumph waits upon two souls in unity. To Custom's parish-church no more we'll wend, Seatholders in the Philistine community. See, Personality's one aim and end Is to be independent, free and true. In that I am not wanting, nor are you. A fiery spirit pulses in your veins, For thoughts that master, you have works that burn; The corslet of convention, that constrains The beating hearts of other maids, you spurn. The voice that you were born with will not chime to The chorus Custom's baton gives the time to.

SVANHILD. And do you think pain has not often pressed Tears from my eyes, and quiet from my breast? I longed to shape my way to my own bent--

FALK. "In pensive ease?"

SVANHILD. O, no, 'twas sternly meant. But then the aunts came in with well-intended Advice, the matter must be sifted, weighed-- [Coming nearer. "In pensive ease," you say; oh no, I made A bold experiment--in art.

FALK. Which ended--?

SVANHILD. In failure. I lacked talent for the brush. The thirst for freedom, tho', I could not crush; Checked at the easel, it essayed the stage--

FALK. That plan was shattered also, I engage?

SVANHILD. Upon the eldest aunt's suggestion, yes; She much preferred a place as governess--

FALK. But of all this I never heard a word!

SVANHILD [smiling]. No wonder; they took care that none was heard. They trembled at the risk "my future" ran If this were whispered to unmarried Man.

FALK [after gazing a moment at her in meditative sympathy]. That such must be your lot I long had guessed. When first I met you, I can well recall, You seemed to me quite other than the rest, Beyond the comprehension of them all. They sat at table,--fragrant tea a-brewing, And small-talk humming with the tea in tune, The young girls blushing and the young men cooing, Like pigeons on a sultry afternoon. Old maids and matrons volubly averred Morality and faith's supreme felicity, Young wives were loud in praise of domesticity, While you stood lonely like a mateless bird. And when at last the gabbling clamour rose To a tea-orgy, a debauch of prose, You seemed a piece of silver, newly minted, Among foul notes and coppers dulled and dinted. You were a coin imported, alien, strange, Here valued at another rate of change, Not passing current in that babel mart Of poetry and butter, cheese and art. Then--while Miss Jay in triumph took the field--

SVANHILD [gravely]. Her knight behind her, like a champion bold, His hat upon his elbow, like a shield--

FALK. Your mother nodded to your untouched cup: "Drink, Svanhild dear, before your tea grows cold." And then you drank the vapid liquor up, The mawkish brew beloved of young and old. But that name gripped me with a sudden spell; The grim old Volsungs as they fought and fell, With all their faded aeons, seemed to rise In never-ending line before my eyes. In you I saw a Svanhild, like the old,(3) But fashioned to the modern age's mould. Sick of its hollow warfare is the world; Its lying banner it would fain have furled; But when the world does evil, its offence Is blotted in the blood of innocence.

SVANHILD [with gentle irony]. I think, at any rate, the fumes of tea Must answer for that direful fantasy; But 'tis your least achievement, past dispute, To hear the spirit speaking, when 'tis mute.

FALK [with emotion]. Nay, Svanhild, do not jest: behind your scoff Tears glitter,--O, I see them plain enough. And I see more: when you to dust are fray'd, And kneaded to a formless lump of clay, Each bungling dilettante's scalpel-blade On you his dull devices shall display. The world usurps the creature of God's hand And sets its image in the place of His, Transforms, enlarges that part, lightens this; And when upon the pedestal you stand Complete, cries out in triumph: "Now she is At last what woman ought to be: Behold, How plastically calm, how marble-cold! Bathed in the lamplight's soft irradiation, How well in keeping with the decoration!" [Seizing her hand. But if you are to die, live first! Come forth With me into the glory of God's earth! Soon, soon the gilded cage will claim its prize. The Lady thrives there, but the Woman dies, And I love nothing but the Woman in you. There, if they will, let others woo and win you, But here, my spring of life began to shoot, Here my Song-tree put forth its firstling fruit; Here I found wings and flight:--Svanhild, I know it, Only be mine,--here I shall grow a poet!

SVANHILD [in gentle reproof, withdrawing her hand]. O, why have you betrayed yourself? How sweet It was when we as friends could freely meet! You should have kept your counsel. Can we stake Our bliss upon a word that we may break? Now you have spoken, all is over.

FALK. No! I've pointed to the goal,--now leap with me, My high-souled Svanhild--if you dare, and show That you have heart and courage to be free.

SVANHILD. Be free?

FALK. Yes, free, for freedom's all-in-all Is absolutely to fulfil our Call. And you by heaven were destined, I know well, To be my bulwark against beauty's spell. I, like my falcon namesake, have to swing Against the wind, if I would reach the sky! You are the breeze I must be breasted by, You, only you, put vigour in my wing: Be mine, be mine, until the world shall take you, When leaves are falling, then our paths shall part. Sing unto me the treasures of your heart, And for each song another song I'll make you; So may you pass into the lamplit glow Of age, as forests fade without a throe.

SVANHILD [with suppressed bitterness]. I cannot thank you, for your words betray The meaning of your kind solicitude. You eye me as a boy a sallow, good To cut and play the flute on for a day.

FALK. Yes, better than to linger in the swamp Till autumn choke it with her grey mists damp! [Vehemently. You must! you shall! To me you must present What God to you so bountifully lent. I speak in song what you in dreams have meant. See yonder bird I innocently slew, Her warbling was Song's book of books for you. O, yield your music as she yielded hers! My life shall be that music set to verse!

SVANHILD. And when you know me, when my songs are flown, And my last requiem chanted from the bough,-- What then?

FALK [observing her]. What then? Ah, well, remember now! [Pointing to the garden.

SVANHILD [gently]. Yes, I remember you can drive a stone.

FALK [with a scornful laugh]. This is your vaunted soul of freedom therefore! All daring, if it had an end to dare for! [Vehemently. I've shown you one; now, once for all, your yea Or nay.

SVANHILD. You know the answer I must make you: I never can accept you in your way.

FALK [coldly, breaking off]. Then there's an end of it; the world may take you!

[SVANHILD has silently turned away. She supports her hands upon the verandah railing, and rests her head upon them.

FALK [Walks several times up and down, takes a cigar, stops near her and says, after a pause: You think the topic of my talk to-night Extremely ludicrous, I should not wonder? [Pauses for an answer. SVANHILD is silent. I'm very conscious that it was a blunder; Sister's and daughter's love alone possess you; Henceforth I'll wear kid gloves when I address you, Sure, so, of being understood aright.

[Pauses, but as SVANHILD remains motionless, he turns and goes towards the right.

SVANHILD [lifting her head after a brief silence, looking at him and drawing near. Now I will recompense your kind intent To save me, with an earnest admonition. That falcon-image gave me sudden vision What your "emancipation" really meant. You said you were the falcon, that must fight Athwart the wind if it would reach the sky, I was the breeze you must be breasted by, Else vain were all your faculty of flight; How pitifully mean! How paltry! Nay How ludicrous, as you yourself divined! That seed, however, fell not by the way, But bred another fancy in my mind Of a far more illuminating kind. You, as I saw it, were no falcon, but A tuneful dragon, out of paper cut, Whose Ego holds a secondary station, Dependent on the string for animation; Its breast was scrawled with promises to pay In cash poetic,--at some future day; The wings were stiff with barbs and shafts of wit That wildly beat the air, but never hit; The tail was a satiric rod in pickle To castigate the town's infirmities, But all it compass'd was to lightly tickle The casual doer of some small amiss. So you lay helpless at my feet imploring: "O raise me, how and where is all the same! Give me the power of singing and of soaring, No matter at what cost of bitter blame!"

FALK [clenching his fists in inward agitation]. Heaven be my witness--!

SVANHILD. No, you must be told:-- For such a childish sport I am too old. But you, whom Nature made for high endeavour, Are you content the fields of air to tread Hanging your poet's life upon a thread That at my pleasure I can slip and sever?

FALK [hurriedly]. What is the date to-day?

SVANHILD [more gently]. Why, now, that's right! Mind well this day, and heed it, and beware; Trust to your own wings only for your flight, Sure, if they do not break, that they will bear. The paper poem for the desk is fit, That which is lived alone has life in it; That only has the wings that scale the height; Choose now between them, poet: be, or write! [Nearer to him. Now I have done what you besought me; now My requiem is chanted from the bough; My only one; now all my songs are flown; Now, if you will, I'm ready for the stone!

[She goes into the house; FALK remains motionless, looking after her; far out on the fjord is seen a boat, from which the following chorus is faintly heard:

CHORUS.

My wings I open, my sails spread wide, And cleave like an eagle life's glassy tide; Gulls follow my furrow's foaming; Overboard with the ballast of care and cark; And what if I shatter my roaming bark, It is passing sweet to be roaming!

FALK [starting from a reverie]. What, music? Ah, it will be Lind's quartette Getting their jubilation up.--Well met! [To GULDSTAD, who enters with an overcoat on his arm. Ah, slipping off, sir?

GULDSTAD. Yes, with your goodwill. But let me first put on my overcoat. We prose-folks are susceptible to chill; The night wind takes us by the tuneless throat. Good evening!

FALK. Sir, a word ere you proceed! Show me a task, a mighty one, you know--! I'm going in for life--!

GULDSTAD [with ironical emphasis]. Well, in you go! You'll find that you are in for it, indeed.

FALK [looking reflectively at him, says slowly]. There is my program, furnished in a phrase. [In a lively outburst. Now I have wakened from my dreaming days, I've cast the die of life's supreme transaction, I'll show you--else the devil take me--

GULDSTAD. Fie, No cursing: curses never scared a fly.

FALK. Words, words, no more, but action, only action! I will reverse the plan of the Creation;-- Six days were lavish'd in that occupation; My world's still lying void and desolate, Hurrah, to-morrow, Sunday--I'll create!

GULDSTAD [laughing]. Yes, strip, and tackle it like a man, that's right! But first go in and sleep on it. Good-night!

[Goes out to the left. SVANHILD appears in the room over the verandah; she shuts the window and draws down the blind.

FALK. No, first I'll act. I've slept too long and late. [Looks up at SVANHILD's window, and exclaims, as if seized with a sudden resolution: Good-night! Good-night! Sweet dreams to-night be thine; To-morrow, Svanhild, thou art plighted mine!

[Goes out quickly to the right; from the water the CHORUS is heard again.

CHORUS.

Maybe I shall shatter my roaming bark, But it's passing sweet to be roaming!

[The boat slowly glides away as the curtain falls.

ACT SECOND

Sunday afternoon. Well-dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking coffee on the verandah. Several of the guests appear through the open glass door in the garden-room; the following song is heard from within.

CHORUS.

Welcome, welcome, new plighted pair To the merry ranks of the plighted! Now you may revel as free as air, Caress without stint and kiss without care,-- No longer of footfall affrighted.

Now you are licensed, wherever you go, To rapture of cooing and billing; Now you have leisure love's seed to sow, Water, and tend it, and make it grow;-- Let us see you've a talent for tilling!

MISS JAY [within]. Ah Lind, if I only had chanced to hear, I would have teased you!

A LADY [within]. How vexatious though!

ANOTHER LADY [in the doorway]. Dear Anna, did he ask in writing?

AN AUNT. No! Mine did.

A LADY [on the verandah]. How long has it been secret, dear? [Runs into the room.

MISS JAY. To-morrow there will be the ring to choose.

LADIES [eagerly]. We'll take his measure!

MISS JAY. Nay; that she must do.

MRS. STRAWMAN [on the verandah, to a lady who is busy with embroidery]. What kind of knitting-needles do you use?

A SERVANT [in the door with a coffee-pot]. More coffee, madam?

A LADY. Thanks, a drop or two.

MISS JAY [to ANNA]. How fortunate you've got your new manteau Next week to go your round of visits in!

AN ELDERLY LADY [at the window]. When shall we go and order the trousseau?

MRS. STRAWMAN. How are they selling cotton-bombasine?

A GENTLEMAN [to some ladies on the verandah]. Just look at Lind and Anna; what's his sport?

LADIES [with shrill ecstasy]. Gracious, he kissed her glove!

OTHERS [similarly, springing up]. No! Kiss'd it! Really?

LIND [appears, red and embarrassed, in the doorway]. O, stuff and nonsense! [Disappears.

MISS JAY. Yes, I saw it clearly.

STIVER [in the door, with a coffee-cup in one hand and a biscuit in the other]. The witnesses must not mislead the court; I here make affidavit, they're in error.

MISS JAY [within]. Come forward, Anna; stand before this mirror!

SOME LADIES [calling]. You, too, Lind!

MISS JAY. Back to back! A little nearer!

LADIES. Come, let us see by how much she is short.

[All run into the garden-room; laughter and shrill talk are heard for a while from within.

[FALK, who during the preceding scene has been walking about in the garden, advances into the foreground, stops and looks in until the noise has somewhat abated.

FALK. There love's romance is being done to death.-- The butcher once who boggled at the slaughter, Prolonging needlessly the ox's breath,-- He got his twenty days of bread and water; But these--these butchers yonder--they go free. [Clenches his fist. I could be tempted--; hold, words have no worth, I've sworn it, action only from henceforth!

LIND [coming hastily but cautiously out]. Thank God, they're talking fashions; now's my chance To slip away--

FALK. Ha, Lind, you've drawn the prize Of luck,--congratulations buzz and dance All day about you, like a swarm of flies.

LIND. They're all at heart so kindly and so nice; But rather fewer clients would suffice. Their helping hands begin to gall and fret me; I'll get a moment's respite, if they'll let me. [Going out to the right.

FALK. Wither away?

LIND. Our den;--it has a lock; In case you find the oak is sported, knock.

FALK. But shall I not fetch Anna to you?

LIND. No-- If she wants anything, she'll let me know. Last night we were discussing until late; We've settled almost everything of weight; Besides I think it scarcely goes with piety To have too much of one's beloved's society.