The Prodigal Son. Hall Sir Caine

her head.

      "You said yesterday that before a girl should marry a man she ought to love him with all her heart and soul and strength. Wouldn't it be wrong to marry me while you loved somebody else like that? Is that what you call making amends, Thora?"

      "I was only trying to do what was right, Magnus; but if you think it would be wrong to marry you, then I will never marry at all. Never!"

      "What good will that be to me, Thora? Five years, ten years, twenty years hence, what good will it be to me that because you had given me your word, and could not keep it, you are living a lonely life somewhere?"

      Thora covered her face with her hands.

      "What sort of a poor whisp of a man do you suppose I am, Thora?"

      "I didn't intend to insult you, Magnus. But if I can neither marry you nor remain unmarried, what am I to do?"

      "You know quite well what you are to do, Thora."

      Thora uncovered her face; her eyes were shining.

      "You mean that I must marry Oscar?"

      "That depends upon whether you love him."

      The shining eyes were very bright in spite of the tears that swam in them.

      "Do you love him?"

      "Don't ask me that, Magnus."

      "But I do ask you, Thora. I have a right to ask you. Do you love Oscar?"

      "I admire and esteem him, Magnus."

      "But do you love him?"

      "Everybody loves Oscar."

      "Do you love him, Thora?"

      "Yes," said Thora softly, and for some moments after that there was no sound in the room but the ticking of the clock.

      "Then, as he loves you, and wishes to marry you, it is your duty to marry him," said Magnus.

      "But I have given my word to you, Magnus."

      "I give you back your word, Thora."

      The shining eyes were shedding tears of joy by this time, but while love fought for Oscar, duty and honor struggled for Magnus.

      "But I have told him it is impossible," said Thora.

      "He asks you again, Thora. Here is his letter," said Magnus.

      "He gave it to you to deliver?"

      "I asked for it."

      "And you came to speak for him?"

      "I came for myself as well."

      "How good you are to me, Magnus!"

      "Read your letter," said Magnus, and with trembling hands Thora opened the envelope.

      The fight was short but fierce. Magnus watched every expression of Thora's face. If there had been one ray of love for him in her looks of gratitude and remorse he would have clung to the hope that the time would come when all would be well; but love for Oscar shone in her eyes, broke from her lips, betrayed itself in the very insistence with which she meant to marry Magnus, and there remained no hope for him anywhere.

      Thora looked up from her letter, and said:

      "How splendid! How noble! That's what I do call brotherly! Oscar tells me that you think you can put the contract aside without involving me or reflecting upon him. You are too good--too generous--too forgiving--how can I thank you?"

      "By giving me Oscar's letter," said Magnus.

      "What do you want with it?"

      "I want to have it in my pocket when I do my work to-morrow. That's only fair--that while I am doing my part I hold Oscar's written assurance that he intends to do his."

      "You wouldn't produce it to Oscar's injury?"

      "Many a man sharpens his axe who never uses it," said Magnus.

      Thora returned the letter to Magnus, and he put it back in his pocket.

      "Now you must answer it," said Magnus.

      "Not yet, not immediately," said Thora.

      "Immediately," said Magnus, and taking pen and paper from a sideboard, he put them before her.

      The power of the man mastered her, and she sat at the table and took up the pen.

      "But why should I write to-day?" she said. "Why not to-morrow?"

      "To-morrow is the day fixed for the betrothal, and if I am to do anything then I must have everything in black and white."

      "But let me have one engagement ended before the other is begun, Magnus."

      "If Oscar does not receive your answer within an hour he will take the first ship back to England, and you will never see him again."

      "He said so?"

      "Yes."

      "You will break my heart, Magnus. I don't know what to say to you."

      "Write," said Magnus.

      "I cannot. You have driven everything out of my head."

      "Then write to my dictation: 'My dear Oscar'----"

      "'My dear Oscar'----"

      "'I have received the letter you sent by Magnus'----"

      "'Sent by Magnus'----"

      "'And I reciprocate all you say'----"

      "'All you say'----"

      "'I believe you love me very dearly, and that you will never allow anything or anybody to come between us'----"

      "'To come between us'----"

      "'Magnus has given me back my word because I do not love him'----"

      "Must I say that, Magnus?"

      "'And because he wishes to make me happy'----"

      "I cannot, Magnus, I really cannot----"

      "Go on, Thora. 'Therefore, if he can satisfy my father and yours'----"

      "'My father and yours'----"

      "'I will marry you when and where you please, because'----"

      "'Because '----"

      "'Because I love you with all my heart and soul and strength.'"

      Thora was crying when she came to the end of the letter.

      "Sign it," said Magnus, and she signed it.

      "Address it," he said, and she addressed it.

      "Seal it," he said, and she sealed it.

      "Now give it to me," said Magnus, and he took the letter off the table and put it in his breast pocket.

      "What are you going to do with it?" asked Thora.

      "Deliver it myself," said Magnus.

      "No, no!" cried Thora. "At least let me keep it for half an hour--a quarter of an hour."

      "I cannot trust you, Thora," said Magnus, and he made for the door.

      "Give it me back! Give it me! Give it me!"

      She threw her arms about him to detain him, and for a moment he stood trembling in the temptation of her embrace. Then he put her gently aside and fled out of the house.

      While he was hurrying through the streets the warmth of Thora's soft flesh was still tingling on his neck and cheek, and the devilish voice was saying in his ear, "What a fool you were! In another moment her sweet body would have been in your strong arms and she would have been yours for ever."

      He tried not to hear it, but the voice went on: "She may still be yours if you're half a man! Keep back Thora's letter and return his own to Oscar! Why not? What better does he deserve of you?"

      Magnus walked fast, but the voice followed him.