"Go any farther!" said the Factor. "Why shouldn't he go farther? It isn't fair play between the wind and a straw, but why shouldn't he beat me about a little more? Anything else to ask, sir?"
"Yes," said Magnus, without the change of a muscle. "By this contract my wife is to inherit half her father's fortune at his death--she must inherit the whole of it."
"Good Lord!"
The exclamation seemed to come from everybody in the general chorus of condemnation which followed.
"Are you dreaming?" cried the Governor. "Do you forget that the Factor has another daughter?"
"No, sir, I do not forget it," said Magnus. "But the other daughter has gone away with her mother; she may never come back; and after Thora has spent her life by her father's side--cheering him up and making his home bright, as mother says--and, perhaps, nursing him in his last days--is somebody else, who has done nothing, to sweep off half of all he leaves behind? No! My wife--if I marry--must have everything!"
The older people, both strangers and members of the family, broke into loud expressions of dissent, while the Factor looked round at them, and said, "An eagle isn't displeased with a dead sheep, is it? And so, Mr. Governor's son," he said, wheeling about on Magnus, "these are the only terms on which you will do me the honor to marry my daughter?"
Without noticing the sneer, Magnus answered "Yes."
"Well, I must say I'm deceived in Magnus," said Aunt Margret. "I didn't think he had a selfish thought in his heart."
"I didn't think," said the Factor, who was not laughing any longer, "I didn't think the son of anybody in Iceland could afford to turn up his nose at a daughter of mine."