The Lady from the Sea Part 17

The Stranger. Well, I suppose I'm looking for you.

Ellida (shuddering). Oh! (She stares at him, totters back, uttering a half-suffocating cry.) The eyes!--the eyes!

The Stranger. Are you beginning to recognise me at last? I knew you at once, Ellida.

Ellida. The eyes! Don't look at me like that! I shall cry for help!

The Stranger. Hush, hush! Do not fear. I shan't hurt you.

Ellida (covering her eyes with her hands). Do not look at me like that, I say!

The Stranger (leaning with his arms on the garden fence). I came with the English steamer.

Ellida (stealing a frightened look at him). What do you want with me?

The Stranger. I promised you to come as soon as I could--

Ellida. Go--go away! Never, never come here again! I wrote to you that everything must be over between us--everything! Oh! you know that!

The Stranger (imperturbably, and not answering her). I would gladly have come to you sooner; but I could not. Now, at last I am able to, and I am here, Ellida.

Ellida. What is it you want with me? What do you mean? Why have you come here?

The Stranger. Surely you know I've come to fetch you.

Ellida (recoils in terror). To fetch me! Is that what you mean?

The Stranger. Of course.

Ellida. But surely you know that I am married?

The Stranger. Yes, I know.

Ellida. And yet--and yet you have come to--to fetch me!

The Stranger. Certainly I have.

Ellida (seizing her head with both her hands). Oh! this misery--this horror! This horror!

The Stranger. Perhaps you don't want to come?

Ellida (bewildered). Don't look at me like that.

The Stranger. I was asking you if you didn't want to come.

Ellida. No, no, no! Never in all eternity! I will not, I tell you. I neither can nor will. (In lower tone.) I dare not.

The Stranger (climbs over the fence, and comes into the garden). Well, Ellida, let me tell you one thing before I go.

Ellida (wishes to fly, but cannot. She stands as one paralysed with terror, and leans for support against the trunk of a tree by the pond).

Don't touch me! Don't come near me! No nearer! Don't touch me, I say!

The Stranger (cautiously coming a few steps nearer). You need not be so afraid of me, Ellida.

Ellida (covering her eyes with her hands). Don't look at me like that.

The Stranger. Do not be afraid--not afraid.

(w.a.n.gEL comes through the garden, from the left.)

w.a.n.gel (still half-way between the trees). Well, you've had to wait for me a long while.

Ellida (rushes towards him, clings fast to his arm, and cries out). Oh!

w.a.n.gel! Save me! You save me--if you can!

w.a.n.gel. Ellida! What in heaven's name!

Ellida. Save me, w.a.n.gel! Don't you see him there? Why, he is standing there!

w.a.n.gel (looking thither). That man? (Coming nearer.) May I ask you who you are, and what you have come into this garden for?

The Stranger (motions with a nod towards ELLIDA). I want to talk to her.

w.a.n.gel. Oh! indeed. So I suppose it was you. (To ELLIDA.) I hear a stranger has been to the house and asked for you?

The Stranger. Yes, it was I.

w.a.n.gel. And what do you want with my wife? (Turning round.) Do you know him, Ellida?

Ellida (in a low voice and wringing her hands). Do I know him! Yes, yes, yes!

w.a.n.gel (quickly). Well!

Ellida. Why, it is he, w.a.n.gel!--he himself! He who you know!

w.a.n.gel. What! What is it you say? (Turning.) Are you the Johnston who once...

The Stranger. You may call me Johnston for aught I care! However, that's not my name.

w.a.n.gel. It is not?

The Stranger. It is--no longer. No!

w.a.n.gel. And what may you want with my wife? For I suppose you know the lighthouse-keeper's daughter has been married this long time, and whom she married, you of course also know.

The Stranger. I've known it over three years.

Ellida (eagerly). How did you come to know it?