Mother. Laura go away?
Father. Our child?
Laura (to her MOTHER). Mother!
Axel. It would be wronging her whom I love so deeply, it would be wronging myself, and wronging you who mean so well, if now, when the power is in my hands, I had not the spirit to make use of it. Here, Laura lives only for you; when you die, life will be over for her. But that is not what marriage means, that is not what she promised at the altar, and that is what I cannot submit to. To go on like this will only make us all unhappy; and that is why Laura must go with me! (The MOTHER starts forward; LAURA goes to MATHILDE.)
Father. You cannot mean what you say.
Axel. I am in deadly earnest, and no one can shake my resolution.
Mother. Then Heaven have mercy on us! (A pause.)
Father. You know, Axel, that God gave us five children; and you know, too, that He took four away from us again. Laura is now our only child, our only joy.
Mother. We can't bear to lose her, Axel! She has never been away from us a single day since she was born. She is the spoilt child of our sorrow; if death itself claimed her, we should have to hold fast on to her.
Father. Axel, you are not a wicked man; you have not come amongst us to make us all unhappy?