Part 11 (2/2)

_The Mother._ ”Defend yourself, _Anna Liisa_.”

_Johannes._ ”Say that he lies, and I will believe you.”

Matters have gone too far. The disclosure cannot be put off.

Broken-hearted she only exclaims--

”Oh, good G.o.d!”

_Mikko_ in his mad rage fetches his old mother, who corroborates all he has said, and tells the story of _Anna Liisa's_ guilt, adding--

”And she could have been put in prison.”

”Why?” they all cry in chorus.

”Because she murdered her child.”

_Anna Liisa_ says nothing for a time, but finally she falls on her knees before her father and implores his pardon. Then she confesses that everything the woman has said is true, even the accusation that she murdered her own child.

Her father s.n.a.t.c.hes up a hatchet and tries to kill her, in which attempt he would have succeeded had not _Mikko_ interfered and dragged her away.

When the third act opens the father, mother, and fiance are found discussing the situation, and finally deciding to let their friends come to the congratulatory festival on first reading of the banns, and pretend that nothing unusual had happened. Afterwards they could rearrange the relations.h.i.+p.

The mother, who had been watching _Anna Liisa_, is afraid of her curious apathetic behaviour, and looks out of the window, when she sees her setting off in a boat, apparently with the purpose of self-destruction.

She and the fiance rush off to save her and bring her home. The girl explains in wild despair how she thought she saw her child under the water, and intended to jump in and rescue him. She raves somewhat like Ophelia in _Hamlet_, but her former lover _Mikko_ comes back to her, and whispers in her ear. She rejects him violently.

”Let me get away from here,” she murmurs to her mother, ”let me get away,” and a very sad and touching scene ensues.

The little sister bounds in straight from church, and says how lovely it was to hear the banns read, and to think the wedding was so near. She decorates the room with wreaths of pine branches, and festoons of the birch-tree, such festoons as we make into trails with holly and ivy for Christmas decorations. She jumps for joy as the guests begin to arrive, and in this strange play the father actually thinks it right for his daughter to marry _Mikko_, her seducer, whom he welcomes, and they arrange affairs comfortably between them.

This is very remarkable. In most countries it would be considered right for the father to expel his daughter's lover from his house; but in this play of _Minna Canth's_ she draws a very Finnish characteristic.

”_Se oli niin sallittu_” (”It is so ordained”) is a sort of motto amongst this Northern people. Whether it is that they are phlegmatic, wanting in energy, fatalists, or what, one cannot say, but certain it is that they sit down and accept the inevitable as calmly as the Mohammedan does when he remarks: ”It is the will of Allah.”

The festivities proceed. An old fiddler and more peasants appear. The men sit down on one side of the room, the women on the other, and the former lover, _Mikko_, thinking himself the bridegroom-elect, cheerfully invites every one to dance. The old fiddler strikes up a merry air, and they dance the _jenka_, a sort of schottische, joyously. Gaiety prevails, the girl's father being apparently as happy as his guests, when the door opens and the rector of the parish and other distinguished guests enter.

”Where is the bride?” it is asked.

No one knew exactly how to answer; _Johannes_ no longer wishes to marry her, and she refuses to marry her former lover, _Mikko_.

Again the priest asks: ”Where is the bride?”

After waiting some time the door opens slowly. _Anna Liisa_ enters and is greeted--as is usual on such occasions--by cries of _Elakoon, elakoon_ (let her live!) in chorus. Answering with the unusual words: ”Let G.o.d's Holy Spirit live in us!” the girl advanced into the room and stood before them, robed in the black gown which it is the fas.h.i.+on for peasant brides in Finland to wear. The clergyman addressed her as a bride.

”I am not a bride,” she replies, as she stands sadly alone in her black robe.

”What do you mean? the banns have just been read,” he asks.

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