"Ah, yes, old wood burns slow! But I sometimes wonder if it's well to live long. Better go to bed early than sit up too late, I say."
"Any new trouble in town lately?"
"The Factor is down at last, poor fellow."
"You mean that he's----"
"Bankrupt, and about to be sold up--business, office, everything."
"Poor Margret Neilsen!"
"What about the child?" asked Magnus.
"I think he would part with it now. To tell you the truth, he is feeling bitterly about Oscar just at present. 'A dove doesn't come out of a raven's egg,' he said yesterday."
"He said that?"
"So the new Minister says--but then it was the Minister who made him bankrupt."