Aagot. Ah! (Throws herself into her arms.)
Leonarda. Let us go home!
Aagot. Yes.
[Curtain.]
(Scene—The garden at Leonarda
FALK’S house some days later. On the left,
a summer-house with table and chairs. A large
basket, half full of apples, is on the table.
Leonarda is standing talking to Pedersen.)
Leonarda. Very well, Pedersen; if the horses
are not needed here, we may as well send to fetch
Miss Aagot home. Can we send to-day?
Pedersen. Certainly, ma’am.
Leonarda. Then please send Hans as soon as possible
with a pair of horses to the hill farm for her.
It is too cold for her to be up there now, anyway.
Pedersen. I will do so. (Turns to go.)
Leonarda. By the way, Pedersen, how has that
little affair of yours been going?
Pedersen. Oh—
Leonarda. Come to me this evening. We will
see if we can continue our little talk about it.
Pedersen. I have been wishing for that for a
long time, ma’am.
Leonarda. Yes, for the last eight or ten days
I have not been able to think of anything properly.
Pedersen. We have all noticed that there has
been something wrong with you, ma’am.
Leonarda. We all have our troubles. (Pedersen
waits; but as Leonarda begins to pick apples
carefully from a young tree and put them in a small
basket that is on her arm, he goes out to the left.
Hagbart appears from the right, and stands for
a minute without her seeing him.)
Hagbart. Mrs. Falk! (Leonarda gives a. little
scream.) I beg your pardon, but I have been looking
for you everywhere. How are you? I have
only just this moment got back.
Leonarda. Aagot is not at home.
Hagbart. I know. Has she been away the whole
time?
Leonarda. Yes.
Hagbart. Will she be away long?
Leonarda. I am sending the horses up to-day,
so she should be here by the day after to-morrow.
Hagbart. It was you I wanted to speak to, Mrs.
Falk.
Leonarda. About Aagot?
Hagbart. Yes, about Aagot—amongst
other things.
Leonarda. But couldn’t you wait—till
some other time?
Hagbart. Mrs. Falk, I came straight here from
the steamer; so you can see for yourself—
Leonarda. But if it concerns Aagot, and she is
not here?
Hagbart. The part of it that concerns Aagot is
soon said. She was perfectly right—only
I did not know it at the time.
Leonarda. Good God!
Hagbart. I do not love Aagot.
Leonarda. But if Aagot loves you?
Hagbart. She has showed me lately that she does
not. Did she not tell you so, plainly?
Leonarda. She was—how shall I put
it?—too excited for me to attach much importance
to what she said.
