There was silence for some moments, in which nothing was heard but the quick breathing of the three, and then Magnus found his voice--a choking utterance--and he fell on Thora with loud reproaches.
"What does this mean?" he said. "It is only six days since I parted from you, and now I find you like this! Speak! Can't you speak?"
But Thora could only gasp and moan; and Oscar, who had struggled to recover himself, stepped out to defend her. "It's not Thora's fault, Magnus. It's mine, if it is anybody's, and if you have anything to say you must speak to me."
"You!" cried Magnus, wheeling round on him. "What are you, I'd like to know? A man who betrays his own brother! Is that what you came home to do--to make mischief and strife and break up everything? In the name of God why didn't you stay where you came from?"
"Magnus," said Oscar, trying to hold himself in, "you must not speak to me like that. You must not talk as if I had stolen Thora's affections away from you, because----"
"Then what have you done? If you haven't done that, what have you done?"
"Because Thora never loved you--never--though I am sorry to say it--very sorry----"
"Damn your sorry!" said Magnus.
"And damn your insolence!" cried Oscar. "And if you won't hear the truth in sorrow, then hear it in scorn--Thora's engagement to you is nothing but a miserable commercial bargain between her father and our father by which she has been bought and sold like a slave."
The blow went home; Magnus felt the truth of it; he tried to speak, and at first he could not do so; at length he stammered: