"Helga!" said Oscar, when they slowed down again, "you wouldn't like to have lived in those old days I suppose?"
"Certainly I should," said Helga.
"What? And share your husband with another woman?"
"That's nothing. Women do the same in these days, you know."
And then they laughed again, though with a dubious gaiety, and broke into a canter once more.
"I'm a brute," thought Oscar. "And badly as I have injured Thora the wrong I have done to Helga is still more terrible. For her there is no outlook, no prospect, no future. She must go back to Denmark and I must go on with my duty. But why shouldn't we have one day of happiness first? One day of delight before the dream is over?"
They drew up at a river that ran by the road to water their ponies and to take off their cloaks and pack them behind their saddles, for the sun was now bright and the air was warm.
"There's one curious point about the patriarchs," said Oscar.
"And what's that?" asked Helga.
"Clearly they thought it possible for a man to love more than one woman."