"Please, Oscar, please, please!" And when Oscar continued to hesitate the Rector said:
"Tut, tut, Oscar, refusing your wife's first request is a bad beginning."
"I'm not refusing," said Oscar, "and if Helga herself really and truly thinks she would like to go with us----"
"Would you like to go, Helga?" asked the Factor, and then there was another moment's hesitation, in which Helga, biting her lower lip with a fierceness which betrayed the struggle in her soul, looked across at Oscar as if trying to read in his face what her answer was to be.
"Tell her to say yes, Oscar," said Thora.
"Yes," said Helga, and at the next moment Thora was clapping her hands in triumphant delight and making the room ring with her laughter.
Neils Finsen had sat down to the piano and the servants were clearing the table to make way for dancing, when Anna came up behind Thora and whispered:
"Somebody outside wishes to see you, Thora."
"Is it perhaps----?"
"Yes, dear," said Anna, and Thora followed her out of the room.