INGOLF [gets up]. Did you lie to me, Kristrun? The other night, when I told you, without speaking, for the first time, just as plainly as now with words, that I loved you: we heard footsteps, you ran away, you turned around and kissed me, and disappeared—did this sweet kiss then lie, was it only a moment's impulse that played with a sacred feeling?
KRISTRUN. It was not, Ingolf.
INGOLF. But—?
KRISTRUN. It was a moment's impulse that played with a moment's impulse.
INGOLF. Perhaps for you, but not for me.
KRISTRUN. I thought your silent confession that evening was sincere. The next day, I overheard a conversation between you and Hrafnhild, you didn't know I was there. Perhaps she has noticed the change in you. She used her voice, her intelligence, her beauty, her whole appeal, to get your caresses. And she got them, many and warm.
INGOLF. You yourself say that I have changed. You yourself say that I love you.
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.