"There's an adopted daughter, isn't there?"
"There is, sir, and anybody would be glad to have her for a helper, but the master won't hear of letting her go. 'Elin shall be servant to nobody,' he says."
"It isn't Magnus Stephenson's fault if misfortune has overtaken him," said Jon. "He has the strength of Samson and has done the work of six men."
"How does he bear his troubles?"
"Badly," said Gudrun. "He never goes to church now or reads the prayers at home either."
"Yes," said Jon, "he has lost his religion, poor fellow, and when a man loses that he loses everything, you know."
"People are afraid of him," said Gudrun. "He looks like a man with no luck, and he is always beating his arms about him and driving away the good spirits that walk by a man's side."
"And what do people say is the cause of the change in him?"
"The Bank and bad times," said Jon.
"And a bad brother," said Gudrun. "His brother is dead and the old mistress has made a saint of him, but she daren't mention his name before Magnus, or he gets up and goes out of the house."