Evje. You seem determined to quarrel to-day?
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 Editor--whether you have any objection to my mentioning John in my paper?
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 joking?
The Editor (clearing his throat). It is already in type.
The Editor. The scene afforded an opportunity for an extremely amusing sketch, without mentioning any names.
The Doctor (to EVJE). Oh, he is only teasing you! You know him.
The Editor. What do you think of this? "Those who indirectly support so dangerous an institution will have to face exposure."--I quite agree with it.