Now she has reached the Banquet Hall! She stands watching me from behind the door!
[Turns his head backwards over one shoulder, nods, and says aloud:
Come nearer, Lucia! Talk to me a little! Your mother keeps me waiting. ’Tis tedious waiting—and you have helped me to while away many a tedious hour——
[Passes his hand over his forehead, and takes one or two turns up and down.
Ah, there!—Right, right; there is the deep curtained window. ’Tis there that Inger Gyldenlöve is wont to stand gazing out over the road, as though looking for one that never comes. In there—[looks towards the door on the left]—somewhere in there is Sister Elina’s chamber. Elina? Ay, Elina is her name.
Can it be that she is so rare a being—so wise and so brave as Lucia fancied her? Fair, too, they say. But for a wedded wife—? I should not have written so plainly.——
[Lost in thought, he is on the point of sitting down by the table, but stands up again.
How will Lady Inger receive me?—She will scarce burn the castle over our heads, or slip me through a trap-door. A stab from behind—? No, not that way either——
[Listens towards the hall.
Aha!