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Page 21
"Yes; but what then?" at last asked Ingeborg, with a soft smile
and not withdrawing the hand that Bagger had seized. "The proper
meaning of what you have told me is that your troth is plighted to
another, unknown lady."
"No: that isn't the proper meaning--"
"But yet it is a fact. At the moment when you stand at the altar
with one, another can step forward and claim you."
"Oh, that kind of a claim! A piece of paper without signature,
sent away in the air! In law it has no validity at all, and
morally it has no power, when I love another as I love you,
Ingeborg!"
"That I am not sure of. It appears to me there is something
painful in not being faithful to one's youth and its promises, and
in the consciousness of having deceived another."
"You say this so earnestly, Ingeborg, that you make me desperate.
I confess that there is something ... something I would wish
otherwise ... but for Heaven's sake, make it not so earnest!"
As Ingeborg knew so well about it, she could not regard the matter
as earnestly as her words denoted; but for another reason she had
suddenly conceived or felt an earnestness. It would not do to have
a husband with so much fancy as Bagger, always having something
unknown, fairy-like, lying out upon the horizon, holding claim
upon him from his youth; and on the other hand it was against her
principles, notwithstanding her confidence in his silence, to
convey to him the knowledge that it was Miss Brandt who played
fairy.
She said to him, "You must have your letter, your obligation, your
marriage promise back."
"Yes," he answered with a sigh of discouragement: "it is true
enough I ought; but where shall I turn? That is just the
immeasurable difficulty."
"Write by the same mail as before."
"Which?"
"Let the whirlwind, that brought the first letter to its
destination, also take care of this, in which you demand your word
back."
"Oh, that you do not mean! Or, if you mean it, then I may honestly
confess that I am not young any more or have not received another
youth. I have not courage to write anything, for fear it should
come to others than to you."
"So I see that, after all, I may act as witch to-day. Write, and I
will take care of the letter: do you hesitate?"
"No: only it took me a moment to comprehend the promise involved
in this that you will take care of my letter. I obey you blindly;
but what shall I write?"
"Write: 'Dear fairy,--Since I woo Miss Hjelm's hand and heart,'--"
"Oh, you acknowledge it! O Ingeborg, the Lord's blessing upon
you!" said Bagger, and would rise.
"'I ask you to send me my billet back.'--Have you that?"
"Yes, Ingeborg, my Ingeborg, my unspeakably loved Ingeborg! How
poor language is, when the heart is so full!"
"Now, name, date, and address. Have you that? 'Postscriptum. I
give you my word of honor, that I neither know who you are, or how
this letter shall reach you.'--Have you that?"
"That I can truly give. I am as blind as"...
"Let me add the witch-formulae."
"O Ingeborg, you will write upon the same paper with me, in a
letter where I have written your name!"
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