(SCENE.--A room in HALVDAN REJN's house. He is lying, supported on pillows, on a sofa on the left-hand side of the room. There is a table in the background, and another near the sofa. A lamp is hanging from the ceiling, and another standing on the table at the back. HAAKON REJN, his dress proclaiming him to be a well-to-do yeoman farmer, is sitting on a chair by the sofa.) Halvdan. So she couldn't come? Haakon. No; there are the youngsters, you know--she finds it difficult to get away. Halvdan (after a moment's silence). Remember to thank her for all her kindness to me. The happiest moments of my life have been those Sundays and evenings that she and you and I spent together at your house. (A pause.) Haakon. She wanted very much to know how you were feeling--whether you, who have suffered so much, are at peace now. Halvdan. At peace? A man who has to die with all his work unfinished, cannot easily root out all thoughts of that from his heart. Haakon. You should try to lay in God's hands all that you have striven for. Halvdan. That is what I struggle daily to do. (A pause.) Haakon. A sister of my wife's, who was a widow and badly off, died leaving three young children. But she was glad to die. "Their Heavenly Father will help them better when I am out of the way," she said. "I took up too much room," she said; "I know I have often stood in their way." (A pause.) Halvdan. You tell that just as your wife would; she told me that story once. Haakon. I was to tell you from her that she believes you are to die in order that what you have worked for may come to its fullest fruit. She thinks that when you are gone, people will appreciate better what your aims were. Halvdan. There is some comfort in the thought that I may be dying in order that what I have loved may live. I have already given up happiness-even honour-for it; I gladly give my life for it now. (A pause.) Haakon. Do you bear ill-will to any of those who have opposed you so cruelly? Halvdan. To no one. Haakon. Not even to those whose doing it is that you are lying here? Halvdan. No, to no one. (A pause.) Haakon. Could you bear to read something hateful about yourself to-day? Halvdan. I don't know. Haakon. Then you have not done with it all yet. Halvdan. No, I know I have not. It is only sometimes that the busy world outside seems to me like a ship sailing idly before the wind. More often, I am back in the midst of it again--planning, hoping, praying! I am young, you know, and have had to suffer so much--there was so much I wanted to do. (Lifts a handkerchief to his forehead. HAAKON helps him to wipe his face with it. A pause.) Haakon. But it must be a comfort to you, too, that Harald is taking up what you are laying down. There is good stuff in him. Halvdan. Yes. Haakon. And he never says more than is necessary. The country folk will understand him all the better for it.