So, when I
say to her: 'not this one but that one!' I expect it to be that one,
and not this one!"
"Certainly."
"But it is not so. For three years she has persisted in thwarting me,
and for three years we have not been happy together. This is bad; and
if he is at the bottom of it, I will tell him so that you may hear it,
you, his father, that it will not do him any good. He may as well give
it up."
"Yes, yes."
Ole looked a moment at Thore, then he said,--
"Your answers are short."
"A sausage is no longer."
Here Oyvind had to laugh, although he was in no mood to do so. But
with daring persons fear always borders on laughter, and now it
inclined to the latter.
"What are you laughing at?" asked Ole, shortly and sharply.
"I?"
"Are you laughing at me?"
"The Lord forbid!" but his own answer increased his desire to laugh.
Ole saw this, and grew absolutely furious. Both Thore and Oyvind tried
to make amends with serious faces and entreaties to walk in; but it was
the pent-up wrath of three years that was now seeking vent, and there
was no checking it.
"You need not think you can make a fool of me," he began; "I am on a
lawful errand: I am protecting my grandchild's happiness, as I
understand it, and puppy laughter shall not hinder me. One does not
bring up girls to toss them down into the first houseman's place that
opens its doors, and one does not manage an estate for forty years only
to hand the whole over to the first one who makes a fool of the girl.
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