“That would be unfavourable. Of the others I should think, and I should feel that I was cruel; if I took all hope from them.”
“Thou wilt not be reasonable. I am not joking. Would thou marry Boris to please me?”
“Boris has offended me. He must come to me, and say, ‘I am sorry.’ He must take what punishment I choose for his rudeness to me. Then, I may forgive him.”
“And marry him?”
“Only my angel knows, if it is so written. Men do not like to do as their women say they must do. Is there any man in the Orcades who dares to say ‘No,’ to his wife’s ‘Yes?’”
“What of Sandy Stark?”
“Sandy is a Scot! I do not use a Scotch measure for a Norseman. Thou art not a perfect 89 Norseman, but yet, even in Edinburgh, there is no Scot that could be thy measure. I should have to say––‘thou art five inches taller than the Scot at thy side, and forty pounds heavier, and nearly twice as strong.’ That would not be correct to an ounce, but it is as near as it is possible to come between Norse and Scot.”
“Thou art romancing!”
“As for the Norse women–––”
“About Norse women there is no need for thee to teach thy grandfather. I know what Norse women are like. If I did not know, I should have married again.”