He could not answer, but took her head between his hands and kissed her forehead.
“Poor Henry!” she said again. “I never thought people could be so unkind.”
When at last he rose, he said in a kind of exalted indignation: “I’ll pay them out for this!”
[CHAPTER VIII]
MADS HERLUFSEN in the meantime sat for hours together looking across at Norby. In his eyes Norby Farm was a kind of fox’s den away there under the fir-clad slope, upon which he must keep watch to see what Reynard was doing.
At the approach of crises in forest prices, and of political elections, it was always against Norby that Mads Herlufsen directed his moves. When he won he slapped his thigh and was in good spirits for more than a week. If Norby were successful he was as ashamed as if he had done something wrong himself. But although these two little kings thought of nothing but doing one another harm, at the same time they were good friends when they met. They warred upon one another chiefly because there was no other worthy opponent within a wide area.
Mads Herlufsen now sat pursing up his mouth, looking across at Norby and wondering. “What does he mean by this?” he thought; for he was always accustomed to think this when Norby did anything. “It certainly isn’t that he wants to quarrel with Wangen, nor is it for the sake of the money. There must be something behind.”
At last he discovered that Norby wanted to get Wangen punished in order to frustrate his composition, and thus force the brickfields under the hammer. It was the brickfields that Reynard wanted to get hold of this time.
For a little time Mads Herlufsen sat rubbing his nose in disappointment at not being able to think of a counter-move. He did not care in the least whether Wangen were guilty or not; his only care was for Norby.