The happiness of three Lives is at stake to-day,—not mine alone. Don’t fancy it concerns you less than me; For tho’ base matter is my chosen sphere, Yet nature made me something of a seer. Yes, Falk, you love her. Gladly, I confess, I saw your young love bursting into flower. But this young passion, with its lawless power, May be the ruin of her happiness. FALK [_firing up_]. You have the face to say so? GULDSTAD [_quietly_]. Years give right. Say now you won her— FALK [_defiantly_]. And what then? GULDSTAD [_slowly and emphatically_]. Yes, say She ventured in one bottom to embark Her _all_, her all upon one card to play,— And then life’s tempest swept the ship away, And the flower faded as the day grew dark? FALK [_involuntarily_]. She must not! GULDSTAD [_looking at him with meaning_]. Hm. So I myself decided When I was young, like you. In days of old I was afire for one. Our paths divided. Last night we met again;—the fire was cold. FALK. Last night? GULDSTAD. Last night. You know the parson’s dame— FALK. What? It was _she_, then, who— GULDSTAD. Who lit the flame. Long I remembered her with keen regret, And still in my remembrance she arose As the young lovely woman that she was When in life’s buoyant spring-time first we met. And that same foolish fire you now are fain To light, that game of hazard you would dare. See, that is why I call to you—beware! The game is perilous! Pause, and think again! FALK. No, to the whole tea-caucus I declared My fixed and unassailable belief— GULDSTAD [_completing his sentence_].