LADY KIRSTEN. I shall remedy that all right, in case Lord Arne is not prepared to do so.
HEMMING. Thanks, thanks, Lady Kirsten! Heaven reward you for your kindness!
LADY KIRSTEN. But you will keep this that we have been speaking of to yourself.
HEMMING. That I promise.
LADY KIRSTEN. Then hold yourself in readiness; the guests will assemble out here in a little while now, and do you be on hand.
[She goes over to the door of the store house and looks for ALFHILD.]
HEMMING. [To himself.] No, this is to me like a strange illusive dream. Ingeborg and I,—we are to belong to each other! Ah, can it be true? So high I never dared let my thoughts ascend;—it seemed to me in the morning that I had been guilty of the greatest presumption if during the night I had dreamed about it.—Hm! I know very well of course that it is not for my sake that Lady Kirsten goes to all this trouble. She has something up her sleeve; she thinks it necessary to break the agreement with Lord Arne, and now that she has noticed that Ingeborg cares for me she will use that as an excuse. Well, I have so often given my master warning, but he will never believe me.
ARNE. [Calls outside to the left.] Hemming! Hemming!
LADY KIRSTEN. [Comes forward.] Your master calls! Go now! After a while I shall speak to him; he will agree. Believe me, he shall follow his page to the church in the same hour that he leads his daughter thither.
HEMMING. Thanks, thanks, Lady Kirsten! Truly, you confer a blessing on us all.