“You mean that I must put off my marriage for a year.”
“Exactly. Under present circumstances–––”
“Oh, sir, that is not thinkable! It would be 252 too mortifying! I could not go back to Edinburgh. I could not put off my marriage!”
“You will be obliged to do so. Do you imagine the Ragnors will hold wedding festivities, while their eldest son is dying, or his broken body on its way home for burial?”
“I thought the ceremony would be entirely religious and the festivities could be abandoned.”
“Is that what you wish?”
“Yes, Bishop.”
“Then you will not get it. A year’s strict mourning is due the dead, and the Ragnors will give every hour of it. Boris is their eldest son.”
“They should remember also their living daughter Thora will suffer as well as myself.”
“You are not putting yourself in a good light, John Macrae. Thora loves her brother with a great affection. Do you think she can comfort her grief for his loss, by giving you any loving honour that belongs to him? You do not know Thora Ragnor. She has her mother’s just, strong character below all her gentle ways, and what her father and mother say she will endorse, without question or reluctance. Now I know that Ragnor had resolved on a year’s separation and discipline, 253 before he heard of his son’s dangerous condition.”