MARGIT.
Good; you may go.
[The MAID goes out to the left.
[MARGIT walks slowly across the hall, seats herself by the
table on the right, and gazes out at the open window.
MARGIT.
To-morrow, then, Gudmund will ride away
Out into the world so great and wide.
Alone with my husband here I must stay;
And well do I know what will then betide.
Like the broken branch and the trampled flower
I shall suffer and fade from hour to hour.
[Short pause; she leans back in her chair.
I once heard a tale of a child blind from birth,
Whose childhood was full of joy and mirth;
For the mother, with spells of magic might,
Wove for the dark eyes a world of light.
And the child looked forth with wonder and glee
Upon the valley and hill, upon land and sea.
Then suddenly the witchcraft failed--
The child once more was in darkness pent;
Good-bye to games and merriment;
With longing vain the red cheeks paled.
And its wail of woe, as it pined away,
Was ceaseless, and sadder than words can say.--
Oh! like the child's my eyes were sealed,
To the light and the life of summer blind--
[She springs up.
But now--! And I in this cage confined!
No, now is the worth of my youth revealed!
Three years of life I on him have spent--
My husband--but were I longer content
This hapless, hopeless weird to dree,
Meek as a dove I needs must be.
I am wearied to death of petty brawls;
The stirring life of the great world calls.
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