Hadda Pada | Page 5

cold.
HADDA PADDA. Now I have made too great a virtue of my love.
Some of my reserve was pride. Just think, you lived with us during
your entire schooltime, and in the summer sister and I were by turns at
your home. We grew up, you, handsome and manly, and a lord of
pleasures; and you always seemed to be careful not to pay me greater
attention than the other girls, especially at parties. That was why I drew
back.--I was eighteen, you were twenty; you were graduated and went
abroad. And poor, proud little Hadda Padda was left alone.
INGOLF. Poor proud little Hadda Padda. [They laugh.]
HADDA PADDA. Then when you came back the next spring, it was
Kristrun's turn to go to the country. And since then, you have not been
home during the summer.
INGOLF. And when you went to Copenhagen the following winter, it
just happened to be the only year I stayed home.
HADDA PADDA. Then I thought it surely was the will of fate to
separate us. But I loved you even more. I could not give up hope. Not
even when you wrote home, the year before last, that you had decided
to live abroad. I got that news on the shortest day of the year. I watched
the twilight darken into night until the very blackness swam before my
eyes in blood-red spots. It was then I made up my mind to go.
INGOLF. Yes, you came in the autumn.
HADDA PADDA. And it was not before December, at a meeting of the
Icelandic Society--we sat alone, in an outer room. Then I placed my
fate in your hand.
INGOLF. Then you placed your hand in mine.
HADDA PADDA. Then I placed my life in your hand. I willed all my
power into my hand and placed it in yours. That instant, nothing but my
hand lived. Had you thrust it away, I would not now be living.
INGOLF. How silently happiness steals upon us. We sat alone in the

room, far from the din of the dance. Then it came. I heard its tread in
the quiver of your breath. ... Then I felt it in my hand.
HADDA PADDA. And yet you sat there immovable, and made the
very seconds fight for my life. When I held your hand, I was afraid lest
a single finger tremble--till you closed your hand around my wrist, and
drew me to you. [She leans toward him.]
INGOLF. Do you know what attracted me most to you?
HADDA PADDA. You don't know yourself.
INGOLF. Why not ...?
HADDA PADDA. Because you love me.
INGOLF. But I think I know now.
HADDA PADDA. Well, what is it?
INGOLF. The thing that kept us apart so long.
HADDA PADDA. And that is? ...
INGOLF. Your reticence. That awaiting attitude you just called pride. I
have known other women. They came to me without first listening to
my heart ... but you did not.
HADDA PADDA. I looked into your eyes. I saw the flame in them
increase, the longer they gazed at me.
INGOLF. The human heart is like the mountains: they give no echo if
we get too near.
HADDA PADDA [lets herself slide down at Ingolf's knees, so that he
sits bending over her]. Let me look at you for a long time.--How long
your eyelashes are! Each time you blink, it is as though invisible petals
were sprinkled upon me.
INGOLF [closing her hands in his]. Now you have no hands. ... Shall I
give them to you again? [Lets go, but looks at her one hand lying in his.]
Your nails have a tinge like that of ice in sunshine.
HADDA PADDA [withdraws her hand, laughing, and gets up]. I am
just thinking ...
INGOLF. What are you thinking?
HADDA PADDA [walks a few steps and stops behind him]. I was
lying down outside in the garden to-day. I could not keep awake. I
dreamed I stood outside the Cathedral. It was dark inside, but all along
the church floor, on either side, was a straight row of unlit candles. I
remember all the white soft wicks, peeping half out, waiting for light.
Then a sudden gust of wind swept through the whole church, and as it

grazed the wicks, all the candles were lighted.
INGOLF [keeps silent].
HADDA PADDA. What do you think the dream means? I think it
means happiness.
INGOLF. You must not deprive your dream of its beauty by
interpreting it.
HADDA PADDA. Happiness comes to us like a beautiful dream that
we don't dare to interpret.
INGOLF. You have promised to trust me as much as you love me.
HADDA PADDA. I see the future mirrored in those days we lived
together.
INGOLF. I love you, Hadda