Kari. He has loved you long, but never until to-night has he seen how beautiful you are. (Carried away.) Like a blue mountain rising from the mist!
Halla (stepping close to him). Close your eyes, Kari, and sleep yet a while. Kiss me!
Kari (kissing her). I will sleep with my eyes open.
[ ACT II]
A resting-place near one of the large folds into which the sheep are driven in the autumn, when they are gathered down from the hills. A grass-grown dell. On the left, a steep heather-covered slope, here and there in the heather gray, jutting stones. To the right, a low bluff, where grass, flowers, and juniper bushes grow in the clefts and on the ledges. Toward the background, the bluff becomes lower and more bushy, and bending somewhat to the left, it partly shuts off the view into a hilly, rock-studded landscape with the distant mountains beyond. In the foreground, at the foot of the bluff, several saddles. The women's saddles have broad, brass-mounted backs.
It is a fine autumn day. Gudfinna alone is busy with the luggage.
Enter Arngrim carrying a roll of paper under his arm. His face is livid and drawn.
Arngrim. So you are all alone here.
Gudfinna. Indeed I am. I did not want to leave the luggage, and it seemed a pity to keep the boy from the folds.
Arngrim. Is Halla up at the folds?