You have the means and the power to do it. And you intend to do it. But my mind--all my thoughts, all the longings and desires of my soul--these you cannot bind! These will rush and press out into the unknown that I was created for, and that you have kept from me!
Wangel (in quiet sorrow). I see it, Ellida. Step by step you are slipping from me. The craving for the boundless, the infinite, the unattainable will drive your soul into the darkness of night at last.
Ellida. Yes! I feel it hovering over me like black noiseless wings.
Wangel. It shall not come to that. No other deliverance is possible for you. I at least can see no other. And so--so I cry off our bargain at once. Now you can choose your own path in perfect--perfect freedom.
Ellida (stares at him a while as if stricken dumb). Is it true--true what you say? Do you mean that--mean it with all your heart?
Wangel. Yes--with all my sorrowing heart--I mean it.
Ellida. And can you do it? Can you let it be so?
Wangel. Yes, I can. Because I love you so dearly.
Ellida (in a low, trembling voice). And have I come so near--so close to you?
Wangel. The years and the living together have done that.
Ellida (clasping her hands together). And I--who so little understood this!
Wangel. Your thoughts went elsewhere. And now--now you are completely free of me and mine--and--and mine. Now your own true life may resume its real bent again, for now you can choose in freedom, and on your own responsibility, Ellida.
Ellida (clasps her head with her hands, and stares at WANGEL). In freedom, and on my own responsibility! Responsibility, too? That changes everything.
(The ship bell rings again.)
The Stranger. Do you hear, Ellida? It has rung now for the last time. Come.
Ellida (turns towards him, looks firmly at him, and speaks in a resolute voice). I shall never go with you after this!
The Stranger. You will not!
Ellida (clinging to WANGEL). I shall never go away from you after this.
The Stranger. So it is over?
Ellida. Yes. Over for all time.
The Stranger. I see. There is something here stronger than my will.
Ellida. Your will has not a shadow of power over me any longer.
To me you are as one dead--who has come home from the sea, and who returns to it again. I no longer dread you. And I am no longer drawn to you.
The Stranger. Goodbye, Mrs. Wangel! (He swings himself over the fence.) Henceforth, you are nothing but a shipwreck in my life that I have tided over. (He goes out.)Wangel (looks at her for a while). Ellida, your mind is like the sea-- it has ebb and flow. Whence came the change?
Ellida. Ah! don't you understand that the change came--was bound to come when I could choose in freedom?
Wangel. And the unknown?--It no longer lures you?
Ellida. Neither lures nor frightens me. I could have seen it--gone out into it, if only I myself had willed it. I could have chosen it. And that is why I could also renounce it.
Wangel. I begin to understand little by little. You think and conceive in pictures--in visible figures. Your longing and aching for the sea, your attraction towards this strange man, these were the expression of an awakening and growing desire for freedom;nothing else.
Ellida. I don't know about that. But you have been a good physician for me. You found, and you dared to use the right remedy--the only one that could help me.
Wangel. Yes, in utmost need and danger we doctors dare much. And now you are coming back to me again, Ellida?
Ellida. Yes, dear, faithful Wangel--now I am coming back to you again. Now I can. For now I come to you freely, and on my own responsibility.
Wangel (looks lovingly at her). Ellida! Ellida! To think that now we can live wholly for one another--Ellida. And with common memories. Yours, as well as mine.
Wangel. Yes, indeed, dear.
Ellida. And for our children, Wangel?
Wangel. You call them ours!
Ellida. They who are not mine yet, but whom I shall win.
Wangel. Ours! (Gladly and quickly kisses her hands.) I cannot speak my thanks for those words!
(HILDE, BALLESTED, LYNGSTRAND, ARNHOLM, and BOLETTE come into the garden. At the same time a number of young townspeople and visitors pass along the footpath.)Hilde (aside to LYNGSTRAND). See! Why, she and father look exactly as if they were a betrothed couple!
Ballested (who has overheard). It is summertime, little Missie.
Arnholm (looking at WANGEL and ELLIDA). The English steamer is putting off.
Bolette (going to the fence). You can see her best from here.
Lyngstrand. The last voyage this year.
Ballested. Soon all the sea-highways will be closed, as the poet says. It is sad, Mrs. Wangel. And now we're to lose you also for a time. Tomorrow you're off to Skjoldviken, I hear.
Wangel. No; nothing will come of that. We two have changed our mind--tonight.
Arnholm (looking from one to the other). Oh!--really!
Bolette (coming forward). Father, is that true?
Hilde (going towards ELLIDA). Are you going to stay with us after all?
Ellida. Yes, dear Hilde, if you'll have me.
Hilde (struggling between tears and laughter). Fancy! Have you!
Arnholm (to ELLIDA). But this is quite a surprise--!
Ellida (smiling earnestly). Well, you see, Mr. Arnholm--Do you remember we talked about it yesterday? When you have once become a land-creature you can no longer find your way back again to the sea, nor to the sea-life either.
Ballested. Why, that's exactly the case with my mermaid.
Ellida. Something like--yes.
Ballested. Only with this difference--that the mermaid dies of it, it, while human beings can acclam--acclimatise themselves. Yes yes.
I assure you, Mrs. Wangel, they can ac-climatise themselves.
Ellida. In freedom they can, Mr. Ballested.
Wangel. And when they act on their own responsibility, dear Ellida.
Ellida (quickly holding out her hand to him). Exactly. (The great steamer glides noiselessly out beyond the fjord. The music is heard nearer land.)
