OLAF SKAKTAVL. [_Shakes her by the hand._] Thanks for those words! I am loath indeed to think evil of you.—Yet, touching your design towards this knight, methinks ’tis a venturesome game you would play. What if you had misreckoned? What if your daughter—? ’Tis said no woman can stand against this subtle devil. LADY INGER. My daughter? Think you that she—? Nay, have no fear of that; I know Elina better. All she has heard of his renown has but made her hate him the more. You saw with your own eyes—— OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, but—a woman’s mind is shifting ground to build on. ’Twere best you looked well before you. LADY INGER. That will I, be sure; I will watch them narrowly. But even were he to succeed in luring her into his toils, I have but to whisper two words in her ear, and—— OLAF SKAKTAVL. What then? LADY INGER. ——She will shrink from him as though he came straight from the foul Tempter himself. Hist, Olaf Skaktavl! Here he comes. Now be cautious. [NILS LYKKE _enters by the foremost door on the right._ NILS LYKKE. [_Approaches_ LADY INGER _courteously._] My noble hostess has summoned me. LADY INGER. I have learned through my daughter that you are minded to leave us to-night. NILS LYKKE. Even so, to my sorrow;—since my business at Östråt is over. OLAF SKAKTAVL. Not before I have the papers. NILS LYKKE. True, true. I had well-nigh forgot the weightiest part of my errand. ’Twas the fault of our noble hostess. With such gracious skill did she keep her guests in talk at table—— LADY INGER. That you no longer remembered what had brought you hither? I rejoice to hear it; for that was my design. Methought that if my guest, Nils Lykke, were to feel at his ease in Östråt, he must forget—— NILS LYKKE. What, lady? LADY INGER. ——First of all his errand—and then all that had gone before it. NILS LYKKE. [_To_ OLAF SKAKTAVL, _as he takes out the packet and hands it to him._] The papers from Peter Kanzler. You will find in them a full account of our partizans in Sweden. OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is well. [_Sits down by the table on the left, where he opens the packet and examines its contents._