"Well, this is serious," said the Factor. "The Minister wanted him to stay at Government House over-night, but he seemed so anxious to see you----"
"To see me!" said Anna.
"Naturally, after his long absence. Strange! very strange! But do you mean to say that no traveler came here last night?"
A vague shadow of the Factor's meaning had flashed upon Anna's mind, and the terror of a moment ago had deepened to horror. What had Magnus done in the blindness of his passion and despair? But even then the desire to save her son was above all other emotions, and she was about to deny all knowledge of the traveler, when the door behind her was opened and a voice over her shoulder said:
"Yes, a traveler did come here last night, but he went away again in the early morning."
It was Magnus, and when Anna turned to look at him she drew a deep breath of relief, for she knew he was telling the truth. His face, since she saw it last, had undergone a mysterious and miraculous change. The gloomy arrogance of despair had gone, something had carried light into the darkness of his soul, and he looked like a man who had come as from the immediate presence of his God.
"But this is stranger than ever," said the Factor. "It was known that he had taken a large sum of money out of the Bank, and everybody supposed he meant to buy up this place at the auction."
"Yes," said Aunt Margret, coming out of Elin's bedroom, "to give to his old mother."
And then Elin's soft voice was heard to say, "Has the Sheriff come yet?"
"Who is asking for the Sheriff?" said the Sheriff himself, coming forward at that moment.