ELINA. I am his bride in the sight of God.
LADY INGER. Unhappy child,—what have you done?
ELINA (in a toneless voice). Made shipwreck of my soul.—Good- night, my mother!
(She goes out to the left.)
LADY INGER. Ha-ha-ha! It goes down-hill now with Inger Gyldenlove's house. There went the last of my daughters. Why could I not keep silence? Had she known nought, it may be she had been happy—after a kind. It was to be so. It is written up there in the stars that I am to break off one green branch after another, till the trunk stand leafless at last. 'Tis well, 'tis well! I am to have my son again. Of the others, of my daughters, I will not think. My reckoning? To face my reckoning?—It falls not due till the last great day of wrath.—That comes not yet awhile.
NILS STENSSON (calling from outside on the right). Ho—shut the gate!
LADY INGER. Count Sture's voice——!
NILS STENSSON (rushes in, unarmed, and with his clothes torn, and shouts with a desperate laugh). Well met again, Inger Gyldenlove!
LADY INGER. What have you lost?
NILS STENSSON. My kingdom and my life!