"Magnus?"
"Magnus Stephenson, and he had his mother to provide for already."
"Then Elin is at Thingvellir! And Magnus has been bringing her up all these years! How good of him! And now he is a broken man himself, poor fellow!"
"Serve him right if he is," said the Factor. "I've no pity for him either--he was the beginning of all the trouble."
"But when a brave man who has borne other people's burdens----"
"A brave fool, you mean, sir. Fortune comes to every man once, sir, and it came to him, but he wouldn't have it. Look at this room, sir. You may not believe it, but I used to have four assistants eating and drinking with me here, and Magnus Stephenson was one of them. He had good ideas in those days, and if he had stayed with me we should have kept out the free traders, and he would have been the first man in the west of Iceland by this time. I gave him every chance, too. I was willing to make him my partner and marry him to my daughter Thora. But no, grasp all lose all, he insulted my girl and turned up his nose at my contract. And now he's down, but he's not done yet. What gets wet on a fool gets dry on a knave, and Magnus Stephenson will be worse than a bankrupt before we've heard the end of him."
"Mr. Neilsen," said Christian Christiansson, who was breathing heavily, "you are wrong again, and you ought to know it."
"Who says I am wrong, sir? And what am I wrong in?"
"You are wrong in thinking that when Magnus Stephenson refused to marry your daughter Thora he did so from selfishness."
"If it wasn't selfishness, sir, what was it?"