"Sometimes I think I was--I must have been."
"Did somebody tempt you--put the idea into your head?--somebody, perhaps, who helped you to lose and promised to help you to repay? If so, who was it?"
"I do not wish to accuse anybody, father--I suppose I have no right to do so."
"Right? Don't talk to me about rights. Think about your duties--and the first of your duties is to me, not to the person, whoever it may be, who has helped to destroy you. You have pledged my credit and my honor, but I don't want to think you altogether bad, and if anybody suggested this devilish device to pay your debts, I ought to be told who it was. Was it Helga?"
At the mention of that name Oscar's drooping head drooped lower still; the Governor saw this and then he understood everything.
"Lord God forgive us," he said, in a breathless whisper. "Then Magnus was right, after all! And the death of the poor child we buried yesterday was perhaps a part of the diabolical harvest we are reaping to-day! You needn't wince, sir--I see it's true without that."
Oscar did not attempt to excuse himself, and after some moments of silence the Governor spoke again.
"You have deceived and disappointed me, Oscar. I thought I had one son who was an intelligent man and a gentleman, not a forger and a fool. But it is of no use to prolong a painful interview. You may go."
Oscar staggered out of the room and the Governor sank into his chair.
XII