"Nonsense!" said the Factor. "Oscar has something better to do now than to scrape catgut or blow his lungs through a steam-pipe."
"Still, an occasional flirtation with the muses," said the Hector, "you wouldn't object to that, Factor?"
"I would object to flirtations of all sorts," said the Factor, "and I should think the man a fool who put himself in the way of them."
"Surprising how many men do," said the Governor with a wink at the Rector. "Would you believe it--a certain friend of yours wrote a poem in the days of his youth!"
"Never!" cried the Rector, and while the old people laughed, the Factor said:
"When I was a child I behaved as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things."
"Well, I so far agree with the Factor that I think a man can't have his heart in two places at once," said the Governor. "What do you say, Thora?"
"I suppose not," said Thora.
"Certainly not, any more than a man can love two women at the same time," said the Governor; and then Oscar began to play.
He played as the bird sings because the song is in the soul of it, and when he had finished, the company cheered him lustily, and Helga, putting her face close to his, said in a whisper: