_Kari._

You must not make me out braver than I am. Part of my courage is recklessness. I close my eyes and let the sun shine on my face.

_Halla._

Do you never think of the future?

_Kari (earnestly)._

I do.

_Halla._

I have blamed myself much these last days. I ought to have sent you away long ago, but I could not. I had to be sure that you loved me. Last night I heard the hills calling you, and I called against them with all my soul. If you had never come back, I would have forgiven you, though it had broken my heart. (_Exultantly._) And then I saw you coming down the mountain like a G.o.d, driving a white snowslide before you!

_Kari._

Did you think I could have gone without letting you know? I remember once you had fallen asleep in my arms. The night was light. Your eyes were closed, but I could see through your eyelids. I saw a little girl with black hair. (_Fondly stroking her hair._)

_Halla (taking his right hand)._

How well I know this hand! (_Lays it on her heart._) My heart beats with joy.

_Kari._

I am like the man in the fairy-tale who fell down into a deep well. He thought he would never again see the sun, but suddenly he stood in a green meadow. There was a tall castle, and the king's daughter came out to meet him. Halla, do you understand? If I had not stolen, we two should never have met.

_Halla._

That is true.

_Kari._

The year I lived in the hills, I would sometimes get into such a rage that I wanted to give myself a good thrashing. Once I really did it-- I beat myself with a knotted rope.

_Halla._

How you must have suffered!

_Kari._

If anybody had told me in those days that I should ever become a happy man, I would have laughed at him. Then I believed riches and honors meant happiness. I used to dream of riding through the parish where I was born, dressed in fine clothes and with many horses.

_Halla (laughing)._

I did not know you were vain.

_Kari._

Nor am I any more, but I have grown stingy. The minutes are my gold-pieces. (_Takes her hand._) When I hold your hand in mine, I am happy. Before I cared for you, I did not see the sun shining, and now when it rains, all the drops prattle about you.

_Halla._

You do love me!

_Kari._

I seem to be in a church. I hold a torch in my hand and light one taper after another. For every taper that is lighted, the church grows larger and more beautiful. But I am a thief. If I am caught I must be buried alive, and now the church-bells are ringing. I hear the crowd gathering outside.

_Halla._

You frighten me.

_Kari (taking her face between his hands)._

I must have a long look at your face. If I were to become blind this moment, I should always remember it. Your soul is in your eyes. When you look at me, I feel an unseen hand fondling my face. Whenever the sun shines, I shall see your eyes. It is hard to tell you, but when the sky grows red to-morrow, I shall be on my way to the hills. I must flee this very night.

_Halla._

I knew it. (_Sits down._) Tell me how you have planned your flight.

_Kari._

I must be off before the winter sets in, and besides the letter from the south may be here any day now.

_Halla._

I know all that.

_Kari (sits down)._

When I come home to-night, I shall say that I have seen the tracks of a flock of sheep farther up in the hills than we usually go to look for them. I shall ask you for two horses. You won't refuse me them? (_Halla shakes her head._) I shall say that I must start at once, this very night, before the tracks disappear. When I don't come back, they will think I have come across outlaws or have met with an accident.

_Halla._

And where shall you go?

_Kari._

To the mountain plain where the warm springs are. I lived there before I came to you.

_Halla._

How long will it take you to reach it?

_Kari._

Three days. It is about in the middle of the country.