"I know nothing about that. I only know that I was to marry Thora, and that in two days' time we were to be betrothed."
Then Thora said nervously, with quivering lips and voice, "It wasn't altogether my fault, Magnus--you know it was not. It was all done by other people, and I had nothing to say in the matter. I was never asked--never consulted."
"But I asked you myself, Thora."
"That was when everything had been settled and arranged, Magnus."
"But if you had told me even then, Thora--if you had told me that you did not wish it--that you could not care for me----"
"I didn't know at that time, Magnus."
"You didn't know, Thora?"
"I didn't know that the love I felt for you was not the right love--that there was another kind of love altogether, and that before a girl should bind herself to any one for better or worse until death parts them, she ought to love him with all her heart and soul and strength."
"And do you know that kind of love now, Thora?" asked Magnus, and Thora faltered, "Yes."
That word was like a death-knell to Magnus. He stared blankly before him and muttered beneath his breath, "My God! My God!" and then Thora broke down utterly.