Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/125

‘Vy! she is bekom a womman,’ the father muttered. ‘She is grown great gel. Now I vill warrk and warrk and never touch him again. You vill see the goot faters I vill be and the goot hosbands. Vill your mother say I forgif you, Sven, dis las’ time?’

Mrs. Andersen, who had been apathetically watching the pair, shrugged her shoulders.

‘Mother has forgiven you many times, father; and always you need to be forgiven again.’

‘Ah!’ said the wretched man, thrusting his hands in his hair. ‘It is true as my daughter says. It is true, and I am beast and brutes, but never more vill I touch him—dis time vill I svear.’

‘I have heard you swear before, father,’ Lena said sadly.

‘But never as dis time. If your mother vill give von forgifness then I shall be strong.’

Lena looked imploringly at her mother.

‘Well, then, listen to me, Sven,’ said Mrs. Andersen. ‘You have called yourself a beast and brute, but you may thank Lena there that you have not to stand up and call yourself a murderer as well. You came very near it last night. Do you see this mark on my cheek? Ay, you may well call yourself a brute, but when the drink’s in you, you are worse than any beast. Husband or no husband, that’s a true word. Now you listen to me, for as God lives I mean what I say. This is the last time. Do you hear that?’

‘Yes, yes; I vill svear—I vill go on mine knees———’

‘And if you break your word and come again as you did last night, then—you may take the con-