“Your generosity cuts me to the heart. Instead of putting me in prison, you reward me....”
But it was a mere trifle for Mack to lose a couple of hundred Daler over a burglary. It was only when he rewarded the thief himself with twice that amount that the thing became really magnificent. He said, “Look here, Rolandsen, you will find yourself in difficulties now; you will lose your place to begin with. The money will be no inconvenience to me, but it may be of real importance to you just now. I beg you to think over what I say.”
“I couldn’t do it,” said Rolandsen.
Mack took the notes and thrust them into Rolandsen’s pocket.
“Let it be a loan, then,” said Rolandsen humbly.
And this chivalrous merchant-prince agreed, and answered, “Very well, then, as a loan.” But he knew in his heart that he would never see the money again.
Rolandsen stood there looking as if weighed down by the heaviest burden in life. It was a pitiful sight.
“And now make haste and right yourself again,” said Mack encouragingly. “You’ve made a bad slip, but it’s never too late, you know.”
Rolandsen thanked him with the greatest humility, and went out.
“I am a thief,” he said to the factory girls as he went out, making a beginning with them without delay. And he gave them his full confession.