"And even to hint--only to hint--that perhaps you could point to the forger?"
Still Magnus made no answer, and dropping his cynical tone, the Governor burst out in choking anger:
"Out on you, man, out on you! I thought you were drunk, or suffering from the delusions of drink, but you are worse--you are sweltering in hatred--and it is an unnatural hatred, too--the hatred of your own flesh and blood."
Magnus flinched as if a lash had cut him through the skin.
"You are jealous of your brother--always have been, always will be--because he is clever and successful and amiable and because everybody loves him--you are as jealous of your brother as Cain was of Abel, and this is your way of destroying him."
Magnus stood with drooping head while the Governor's lash fell over him.
"Aren't you ashamed to stand before your father and parade the whole diabolical catalogue of your unnatural passions? You allow yourself to consort with my enemies, with Oscar's enemies, with your own enemies, if you had the sense to see it, while they try to bring him down at the highest moment of his success."
The Governor was walking to and fro and lashing himself into a fury.
"At the deepest moment of his distress, too! Just when the poor boy is unmanned by the loss of his wife--the dear girl he loved and you insulted. But I don't believe one word of this cock-and-bull story. That accursed document is nothing but a trick to dishonor my son and to discredit me at the very time when a pack of rascals who call themselves reformers are trying to abolish the Governorship. Let them do it if they can, but while I am Governor here I'm master in this house, and Mr. Sheriff shall be suspended and those men sent back to Copenhagen."
"Hadn't you better speak to Oscar first, sir?" said Magnus.