"Here, take her in and give her some barley cake and syrup, and for goodness' sake, woman, don't sniffle as if you had a cold. What is it, Magnus? Am I the only one who doesn't know? Tell me plainly--is he in disgrace again?"
"Have courage, mother," said Magnus.
She looked at him and understood everything. "Wait," she said, and she went down on her knees in the hall and prayed for some moments. After that she got up, pale but calm, and said:
"Now tell me everything--I am ready."
Magnus told her what he had heard and all that had happened: how he had gone to town with murder in his heart, intending to punish Hans, the sailor; how some one had warned him and Hans had taken refuge in a schooner that was to sail for Norway; how he had hired a boat to follow the man when the mail steamer dropped anchor in the bay and somebody shouted from the deck that Oscar was dead, and it was the same as if a hand from heaven had stopped him.
"Dead, did he say?"
"Dead in France, he said, and he threw down a Danish newspaper. Here it is, mother, but God knows if I should read you the report in it."
"Read it," said Anna.
He read it--it was the same which had appeared in Paris--and she listened without drawing breath.
"Then he died in a gaming-house--by his own hand, too--and to save himself from further disgrace!"