. Well!--I shall turn him out of the house to-day!

The Editor. But that is not in accordance with your love of moderation,
Evje!

Evje. It is a scandal.

The Editor (to EVJE). But not the worst. Because, if you want to avoid
that sort of thing, there are others you must turn out of the house.
(Glances towards HARALD.)

Evje. You seem determined to quarrel to-day?

The Editor. Yes, with your "moderation."

Evje. You would be none the worse of a little of it.

The Editor. "Brandy and Moderation" is your watchword--eh?

Evje. Do stop talking such nonsense!--I know one thing, and that is that
you seem to find the brandy from my distillery remarkably to your taste!

The Doctor (interrupting them). When you are in these provoking moods
there is always some grievance lurking at the back of your mind. Out
with it! I am a doctor, you know; I want to get at the cause of your
complaint!

The Editor. You were not very successful in that, you know, when you
said my maid had cholera, and she really only was--. (Laughs.)

The Doctor (laughing). Are you going to bring that story up again? Every
one is liable to make mistakes, you know--even you, my boy!

The Editor. Certainly. But before making a mistake this time--ahem!--I
wanted first of all to enquire whether--

The Doctor. Ah! now it is coming!

The Editor--whether you have any objection to my mentioning John in my
paper?

Mrs. Evje. What has John to do with us?

The Editor. Just as much as the Association, where he delivered his
speech, has; it--ahem!--is one of the family institutions!

Evje. I have had no more to do with making John what he is than I have
had with making that Association what it is.

The Editor. Your future son-in-law made the Association what it is, and
the Association has made John what he is.

The Doctor. Or, to put it the other way round: John is Mr. Evje's
servant; John has become an active member of the Association; therefore
Mr. Evje is a patron of the Association.

The Editor. Or this way: John, being the well-known Mr. Evje's servant,
has for that reason become an active member of the Association which--as
he expressed it--his employer's future son-in-law "has had the honour to
found!"

Mrs. Evje. Surely you never mean to put that in the paper?

The Editor (laughing). They are John's own words.

Mr. Evje. Of course, he would never put a tipsy man's maunderings into
the paper. (To his wife.) Don't you understand that he is j