The Lady From The Sea | Page 9

Hilde who let it out. I just looked in here a
little while ago, and I asked the young ladies why they were decorating
the place like this, with flowers and flags.
Ellida. Well?
Lyngstrand. And so Miss Hilde said, "Why, today is mother's
birthday."
Ellida. Mother's!--I see.
Arnholm. Aha! (He and ELLIDA exchange a meaning look.) Well,
now that the young man knows about it--
Ellida (to LYNGSTRAND). Well, now that you know--
Lyngstrand (offering her the bouquet again). May I take the liberty of
congratulating you?
Ellida (taking the flowers). My best thanks. Won't you sit down a
moment, Mr. Lyngstrand? (ELLIDA, ARNHOLM, and
LYNGSTRAND sit down in the arbour.) This--birthday business--was
to have been kept secret, Mr. Arnholm.
Arnholm. So I see. It wasn't for us uninitiated folk!
Ellida (putting down the bouquet). Just so. Not for the uninitiated.
Lyngstrand. 'Pon my word, I won't tell a living soul about it.
Ellida. Oh, it wasn't meant like that. But how are you getting on? I
think you look better than you did.
Lyngstrand. Oh! I think I'm getting on famously. And by next year, if I
can go south--
Ellida. And you are going south, the girls tell me.
Lyngstrand. Yes, for I've a benefactor and friend at Bergen, who looks
after me, and has promised to help me next year.
Ellida. How did you get such a friend?
Lyngstrand. Well, it all happened so very luckily. I once went to sea in
one of his ships.
Ellida. Did you? So you wanted to go to sea?
Lyngstrand. No, not at all. But when mother died, father wouldn't have
me knocking about at home any longer, and so he sent me to sea. Then
we were wrecked in the English Channel on our way home; and that
was very fortunate for me.
Arnholm. What do you mean?
Lyngstrand. Yes, for it was in the shipwreck that I got this little
weakness--of my chest. I was so long in the ice-cold water before they

picked me up; and so I had to give up the sea. Yes, that was very
fortunate.
Arnholm. Indeed! Do you think so?
Lyngstrand. Yes, for the weakness isn't dangerous; and now I can be a
sculptor, as I so dearly want to be. Just think; to model in that delicious
clay, that yields so caressingly to your fingers!
Ellida. And what are you going to model? Is it to be mermen and
mermaids? Or is it to be old Vikings?
Lyngstrand. No, not that. As soon as I can set about it, I am going to try
if I can produce a great work--a group, as they call it.
Ellida. Yes; but what's the group to be?
Lyngstrand. Oh! something I've experienced myself.
Arnholm. Yes, yes; always stick to that.
Ellida. But what's it to be?
Lyngstrand. Well, I thought it should be the young wife of a sailor, who
lies sleeping in strange unrest, and she is dreaming. I fancy I shall do it
so that you will see she is dreaming.
Arnholm. Is there anything else?
Lyngstrand. Yes, there's to be another figure--a sort of apparition, as
they say. It's her husband, to whom she has been faithless while he was
away, and he is drowned at sea.
Arnholm. What?
Ellida. Drowned?
Lyngstrand. Yes, he was drowned on a sea voyage. But that's the
wonderful part of it--he comes home all the same. It is night- time. And
he is standing by her bed looking at her. He is to stand there dripping
wet, like one drawn from the sea.
Ellida (leaning back in her chair). What an extraordinary idea!
(Shutting her eyes.) Oh! I can see it so clearly, living before me!
Arnholm. But how on earth, Mr.--Mr.--I thought you said it was to be
something you had experienced.
Lyngstrand. Yes. I did experience that--that is to say, to a certain
extent.
Arnholm. You saw a dead man?
Lyngstrand. Well, I don't mean I've actually seen this-- experienced it
in the flesh. But still--
Ellida (quickly, intently). Oh! tell me all you can about it! I must

understand about all this.
Arnholm (smiling). Yes, that'll be quite in your line. Something that has
to do with sea fancies.
Ellida. What was it, Mr. Lyngstrand?
Lyngstrand. Well, it was like this. At the time when we were to sail
home in the brig from a town they called Halifax, we had to leave the
boatswain behind in the hospital. So we had to engage an American
instead. This new boatswain-
Ellida. The American?
Lyngstrand. Yes, one day he got the captain to lend him a lot of old
newspapers and he was always reading them. For he wanted to teach
himself Norwegian, he said.
Ellida. Well, and then?
Lyngstrand. It was one evening