"No, but he can give his brother a sister-in-law, too," said the Rector, and then everybody laughed.
"That reminds me," said the Factor, "Helga sent us a photograph the other day. Where is it, Thora?"
"Here it is," said Thora, taking a photograph out of a drawer. Oscar held out his hand for it, and looked at it long and earnestly.
"How fine! I've scarcely ever seen such a splendid face! Quite grown up, too! Is Helga coming home soon, Factor?"
"Not very soon," said the Factor.
And then the lawyer came in with a large portfolio of papers and laid them on the table.
"Ha, ha!" laughed the Hector. "A rich man's child needs a careful christening, it seems!"
"You're right, Rector, and it has taken my clerk the entire day to engross the contract, but it was not that which kept me until now--it was this!"
"The rings!" cried the two elder women, as the lawyer took a small plush box from his pocket.
"Yes, you may remember that when the rings had to be ordered yesterday morning, Magnus could not be found anywhere, so I was compelled to order them myself. Well, I thought I gave careful instructions, but the idea is abroad in the town, do you know, that it is Oscar, not Magnus, who is to marry Thora--nobody believes anything else--so what does Olaf, the silversmith, do but write 'Oscar' on the inside of one of the rings!"