Axel. As soon as she was left to depend on herself alone, I realised the great wrong I had done to Laura. She used to tremble when I came near her, and before long she used to tremble just as much before any one. At first I felt the humility of a strong man who has triumphed; but after a time I became anxious, for I had acted too strongly. Then I dedicated my love to the task of winning back, in a Jacob's seven years of service, what I had lost in one moment. You see this house--I made everything smooth in it for her feet. You see what we have round us--I set that before her eyes. By means of nights of work, by exerting myself to the uttermost, I got it all together, bit by bit--in order that she should never feel anything strange or inhospitable in her home, but only what she was accustomed to and fond of. She understood; and soon the birds of spring began to flutter about our home. And, though she always ran away when I came, I was conscious of her presence in a hundred little loving touches in my room--at my desk-- Laura (ashamed). Oh, it isn't true! Axel. Don't believe her! Laura is so kind-hearted--her fear of me made her shy, but she could not withstand her own kind impulses and my humble faithfulness. When I was sitting late in my room, working for her, she was sitting up in hers--at any rate I often thought I heard her footstep; and when I came home late after a wearisome journey, if she did not run to welcome me, it was not because she was wanting in wifely gratitude--Laura has no lack of that--but because she did not wish to betray her happiness till the great day of our reconciliation should come. (LAURA gets up.) Father. Then you were not reconciled immediately? Axel. Not immediately. Mother (anxiously, in a subdued voice). My goodness, Laura did not say a word about that!