—Love being Happiness’s single stay—
Could you avert, then, Happiness’s fall?
Falk.
No, my love’s ruin were the wreck of all.
Svanhild.
And can you promise me before the Lord
That it will last, not drooping like the flower,
But smell as sweet as now till life’s last hour?
Falk [after a short pause].
It will last long.