"But is there no way out of it?"
"No, no, no!"
"No way at all, Oscar?"
"Let us go," he said, and he had got down to the door before he remembered that he had left his hat behind him in the organ loft.
Thora had tea ready when they got back to the Factor's. She was kneeling before a cozy fire, making toast, after cutting the bread and butter, and she looked up at them as they entered with a nervous, questioning, tearful smile.
"Poor little soul! She must never know--never, never!" thought Oscar.
V
Thora knew already, and the big heart in her little breast was breaking. She had begun to think that what had happened to Magnus when Oscar came back was now happening to her--Oscar was falling in love with Helga, and she, like Magnus, was being left alone.
Yet she could not reconcile herself to this suspicion without a hard battle, and the first skirmish of the sweet heart was to fight for the enemy--Oscar had made a great, great sacrifice when he agreed to marry her; it was not to be wondered at if he had spasms of regret sometimes. She hinted as much to Aunt Margret in one of the long hours in which they were left together.
"Don't you think that Oscar was very unselfish when he signed that contract?" she said.