The Stranger. Vows bind no one, neither man nor woman. If I hold so steadfastly to you, it is because I cannot do otherwise.
Ellida (in a low, trembling voice). Why didn"t you come before?
w.a.n.gel. Ellida!
Ellida (bursting out). Ah! All that attracts, and tempts, and lures into the unknown! All the strength of the sea concentrated in this one thing!
(The STRANGER climbs over the fence.)
Ellida (stepping back to w.a.n.gEL). What is it? What do you want?
The Stranger. I see it and I hear it in you, Ellida. After all, you will choose me in the end.
w.a.n.gel (going towards him). My wife has no choice here, I am here both to choose for her and to defend her. Yes, defend! If you do not go away from here--away from this land--and never come back again--Do you know to what you are exposing yourself?
Ellida. No, no, w.a.n.gel, not that!
The Stranger. What will you do to me?
w.a.n.gel. I will have you arrested as a criminal, at once, before you go on board; for I know all about the murder at Skjoldviken.
Ellida. Ah! w.a.n.gel, how can you?
The Stranger. I was prepared for that, and so--(takes a revolver from his breast pocket)--I provided myself with this.
Ellida (throwing herself in front of him). No, no; do not kill him!
Better kill me!
The Stranger. Neither you nor him, don"t fear that. This is for myself, for I will live and die a free man.
Ellida (with growing excitement). w.a.n.gel, let me tell you this--tell it you so that he may hear it. You can indeed keep me here! You have the means and the power to do it. And you intend to do it. But my mind--all my thoughts, all the longings and desires of my soul--these you cannot bind! These will rush and press out into the unknown that I was created for, and that you have kept from me!
w.a.n.gel (in quiet sorrow). I see it, Ellida. Step by step you are slipping from me. The craving for the boundless, the infinite, the unattainable will drive your soul into the darkness of night at last.
Ellida. Yes! I feel it hovering over me like black noiseless wings.
w.a.n.gel. It shall not come to that. No other deliverance is possible for you. I at least can see no other. And so--so I cry off our bargain at once. Now you can choose your own path in perfect--perfect freedom.
Ellida (stares at him a while as if stricken dumb). Is it true--true what you say? Do you mean that--mean it with all your heart?
w.a.n.gel. Yes--with all my sorrowing heart--I mean it.
Ellida. And can you do it? Can you let it be so?
w.a.n.gel. Yes, I can. Because I love you so dearly.
Ellida (in a low, trembling voice). And have I come so near--so close to you?
w.a.n.gel. The years and the living together have done that.
Ellida (clasping her hands together). And I--who so little understood this!
w.a.n.gel. Your thoughts went elsewhere. And now--now you are completely free of me and mine--and--and mine. Now your own true life may resume its real bent again, for now you can choose in freedom, and on your own responsibility, Ellida.
Ellida (clasps her head with her hands, and stares at w.a.n.gEL). In freedom, and on my own responsibility! Responsibility, too? That changes everything.
(The ship bell rings again.)
The Stranger. Do you hear, Ellida? It has rung now for the last time.
Come.
Ellida (turns towards him, looks firmly at him, and speaks in a resolute voice). I shall never go with you after this!
The Stranger. You will not!
Ellida (clinging to w.a.n.gEL). I shall never go away from you after this.
The Stranger. So it is over?
Ellida. Yes. Over for all time.
The Stranger. I see. There is something here stronger than my will.
Ellida. Your will has not a shadow of power over me any longer. To me you are as one dead--who has come home from the sea, and who returns to it again. I no longer dread you. And I am no longer drawn to you.
The Stranger. Goodbye, Mrs. w.a.n.gel! (He swings himself over the fence.) Henceforth, you are nothing but a shipwreck in my life that I have tided over. (He goes out.)
w.a.n.gel (looks at her for a while). Ellida, your mind is like the sea--it has ebb and flow. Whence came the change?
Ellida. Ah! don"t you understand that the change came--was bound to come when I could choose in freedom?
w.a.n.gel. And the unknown?--It no longer lures you?
Ellida. Neither lures nor frightens me. I could have seen it--gone out into it, if only I myself had willed it. I could have chosen it. And that is why I could also renounce it.
w.a.n.gel. I begin to understand little by little. You think and conceive in pictures--in visible figures. Your longing and aching for the sea, your attraction towards this strange man, these were the expression of an awakening and growing desire for freedom; nothing else.
Ellida. I don"t know about that. But you have been a good physician for me. You found, and you dared to use the right remedy--the only one that could help me.
w.a.n.gel. Yes, in utmost need and danger we doctors dare much. And now you are coming back to me again, Ellida?
Ellida. Yes, dear, faithful w.a.n.gel--now I am coming back to you again.
Now I can. For now I come to you freely, and on my own responsibility.
w.a.n.gel (looks lovingly at her). Ellida! Ellida! To think that now we can live wholly for one another--
Ellida. And with common memories. Yours, as well as mine.
w.a.n.gel. Yes, indeed, dear.