INGOLF. But now-? from to-day on, you must try to forget me.
HADDA PADDA [ gets up ]. Forget—? why should I forget my lover?
INGOLF. Because he cannot be your lover any longer.
HADDA PADDA. Yes, he can; he promised. He promised to love me all my life.
INGOLF. He did not know what he promised.
HADDA PADDA [ sees Ingolf's hand without the ring, grasps it with horror, whispers ]. What have you done?—Ingolf, it cannot be true. It is not she you love. I saw you push her from you, when she clung about your neck. Say she told you a lie, when she cried. Only say something—say that suddenly an earthquake came, and she threw herself in your arms from fear. I'll believe you.
INGOLF [ shakes his head. ]
HADDA PADDA. Ingolf, how could you be so hard? [ Hides her face. ] Any other, any other—but she![ Weeps bitterly. ]
INGOLF. It is not that, Hrafnhild. Now let us talk calmly. Even if you could, would you continue to be tied to a man who does not love you any longer?
HADDA PADDA. She has separated us. She has caught you in the net of her wantonness. You, too, Ingolf, you, too.... When I looked at you, you could see my love in my eyes. But she, she looked at you through a veil of wantonness, so that your imagination might create what it liked behind it—? was that what attracted you? I gave you all that I had. She took back with the left hand what she had given with her right—was that what attracted you? Ingolf, do you value such a character? Don't you know how she is? I know you think she loves you. So she has told them all. Her love is a remorseless beast of prey. She does not even spare her sister, though she knows you are the only man I ever loved. But she MUST have this triumph—this one, too. Are you going to yield to it?