Read Ebook: Hadda Pada by Gu Mundur Kamban

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Ebook has 802 lines and 17726 words, and 17 pages

RANNVEIG. It's a strange joy then, to want to make other people miserable! To use the beauty God has given her, against those who cannot resist it.... Why do you suppose the new engineer has stopped coming here since the son of the Chief Justice returned from Copenhagen--and he seemed like such a sweet boy too! It is not the first or the second time she has changed her mind.

HADDA PADDA. When a true and deep love comes to her, she will not change her mind.

RANNVEIG. It's no use to stand up for her; she wheedles them all.

HADDA PADDA. But still you told me, dear, that you would be fonder of me if I did not marry.

RANNVEIG. How can you say that, Hadda dear? I said that marriage doesn't always bring happiness. HADDA PADDA. I know. You told me that only to console me, because I am now twenty-six years old. Runa is nineteen, prettier than most girls, and a wild little imp, surrounded by young men all the time. And they play upon her vanity only to make her cruel.

RANNVEIG. At her age you were prettier, and are, still, but you were not like that. No, she hasn't your character.

KRISTRUN . The prince is coming! Now I'll dance for you, Veiga dear.

INGOLF .

HADDA PADDA. How do you do! You promised to be here earlier, dear.

INGOLF. What time is it?

HADDA PADDA . I don't know. But I felt the moment slipping by, when you should have been here.

INGOLF .

HADDA PADDA. While I was sitting there, in the arm-chair, waiting for you, I closed my eyes, and do you know what I saw?

INGOLF. No.

HADDA PADDA . I saw the crystal ball through my eyelashes.

INGOLF . Then you did not close your eyes--

HADDA PADDA. No, I cheated. ... and then I began to throw the crystal ball to Runa, do you know why?

INGOLF. No--?

HADDA PADDA. So as to lure back an old recollection.... Do you remember, it was your last winter at the Latin school. One day you came home, and we two were alone in the room here, you took the ball, threw it to me, and called: WISHING--! I caught it, and said:--STONE! And so we continued to play, till you called HADDA! I didn't quite follow your trick at first, but caught the word: PADDA! Then you laughed and said: From now on, you shall never be called anything but HADDA PADDA. Do you remember?

INGOLF. I do.

HADDA PADDA. Everybody calls me that now, except my nurse.

RANNVEIG . Don't let me hear that name. Hf! Padda! That's an insect!

HADDA PADDA . Then I asked you what christening gift I was to have. You gave me your first kiss.

INGOLF . Hadda Padda! You don't know how I love that name. You don't know how many times I have wrapped you in it, as in some fantastic mantle. After you had left Copenhagen last spring, and I sat reading all the live-long day, until at last I went to bed, my lips did not close on your name, till my eyes had closed on your picture.

HADDA PADDA. You must never call me anything but that. Each time you say it, it brings back the joy of your first kiss.

INGOLF. Were you really in love with me then?

HADDA PADDA. You don't know?... Then I did succeed in hiding it?

INGOLF. Why did you hide it, Hadda? Why, I almost believed you bore me a grudge. You seemed to hold more aloof each day.

HADDA PADDA. And even that did not betray me?

INGOLF. Why did you hide it, Hadda?

HADDA PADDA . Don't you understand, dear, I was afraid of knowing the certainty. The stronger my love grew, the more carefully I had to hide it. I dared not risk those beautiful dream-children of uncertainty for a disguised certainty. Whenever we talked together, and you looked up at me, I was startled. I thought you understood, and your hurried glance reached me only after the fear of seeing the answer in it.

INGOLF. You, the most sincere of women, could cherish so strong a love and seem so cold.

HADDA PADDA. Now I have made too great a virtue of my love. Some of my reserve was pride. Just think, you lived with us during your entire schooltime, and in the summer sister and I were by turns at your home. We grew up, you, handsome and manly, and a lord of pleasures; and you always seemed to be careful not to pay me greater attention than the other girls, especially at parties. That was why I drew back.--I was eighteen, you were twenty; you were graduated and went abroad. And poor, proud little Hadda Padda was left alone.

INGOLF. Poor proud little Hadda Padda.

HADDA PADDA. Then when you came back the next spring, it was Kristrun's turn to go to the country. And since then, you have not been home during the summer.

INGOLF. And when you went to Copenhagen the following winter, it just happened to be the only year I stayed home.

HADDA PADDA. Then I thought it surely was the will of fate to separate us. But I loved you even more. I could not give up hope. Not even when you wrote home, the year before last, that you had decided to live abroad. I got that news on the shortest day of the year. I watched the twilight darken into night until the very blackness swam before my eyes in blood-red spots. It was then I made up my mind to go.

INGOLF. Yes, you came in the autumn.

HADDA PADDA. And it was not before December, at a meeting of the Icelandic Society--we sat alone, in an outer room. Then I placed my fate in your hand.

INGOLF. Then you placed your hand in mine.

HADDA PADDA. Then I placed my life in your hand. I willed all my power into my hand and placed it in yours. That instant, nothing but my hand lived. Had you thrust it away, I would not now be living.

INGOLF. How silently happiness steals upon us. We sat alone in the room, far from the din of the dance. Then it came. I heard its tread in the quiver of your breath.... Then I felt it in my hand.

HADDA PADDA. And yet you sat there immovable, and made the very seconds fight for my life. When I held your hand, I was afraid lest a single finger tremble--till you closed your hand around my wrist, and drew me to you.

INGOLF. Do you know what attracted me most to you?

HADDA PADDA. You don't know yourself.

INGOLF. Why not...?

HADDA PADDA. Because you love me.

INGOLF. But I think I know now.

HADDA PADDA. Well, what is it?

INGOLF. The thing that kept us apart so long.

HADDA PADDA. And that is?...

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