PEHR. [Eyeing him.] Oh, thanks, thanks--very well indeed, as--ahem--you see. Pray take a chair and sit down.

FIRST FRIEND. Why, bless my soul! I've just had dinner, but I'll go into your ante-room and wait there while you finish yours.

PEHR. No, that is just what you shall not do! I remarked a while ago that I thought life so empty when one must sit alone at table. Take a chair and sit down.

FIRST FRIEND. Dear old friend, if you insist I will sit beside you while you dine; but it actually looks as though I had come here for a meal.

PEHR. What matter even if it were so.

FIRST FRIEND. [Protests.] Oh--!

PEHR. Wait a bit--I'm not saying that it is so!

FIRST FRIEND. [Seats himself.] So now you are in clover, as they say. It is pleasant to contemplate that fate can be so kindly, and it must ever rejoice a sensitive soul to see that some one is favored by fickle fortune. Not all--more's the pity!--can praise fickle fortune.

PEHR. Indeed! Have you any grievances?

FIRST FRIEND. I?

PEHR. Yes--for I don't want to hear any hard-luck stories now, when I'm eating. Won't you be good enough to favor me by trying a hazel-grouse?

FIRST FRIEND. If you speak of favors, my friend!

PEHR. Then you mustn't say "my friend"; you must call me by name.

FIRST FRIEND. Christopher! You ask a service of poor me--can I then deny you! [He begins to eat, his appet.i.te increases during following repartee. Pehr regards him with open-eyed wonder.]

PEHR. One should never deny another anything?

FIRST FRIEND. Well said! One should never deny oneself anything--one another, I mean.

[Enter Second Friend.]

SECOND FRIEND. [Walking straight up to the table.] Good day, Goran! Do you remember me? [Pehr Stares at him.] No you don't, but I remember you.

You see, I never forget my old friends! In the hour of need I look them up. Here you sit and eat and I have nothing to eat, therefore I say right out: Boy, here am I! [Seats himself at table.]

FIRST FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Who is that tramp? He eats as though he had not seen food from Christmas to Easter!

PEHR. Oh, he's a friend of mine.

SECOND FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Who is that beggar? He stuffs himself like a.

wolf in the springtime!

PEHR. Oh, he is a good friend of mine.

FIRST FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Beware false friends, Pehr!

SECOND FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Beware false friends, Pehr!

PEHR. Yes, yes!

FIRST FRIEND. [To Pehr.] You'll see, he is going to borrow money from you.

SECOND FRIEND. [To Pehr.] If he asks for a loan from you, you must say no--for he never pays.

PEHR. You don't say so! Well, good friends, don't you think this an excellent repast?

SECOND FRIEND. I never flatter!

FIRST FRIEND. No, my friend, you only stuff yourself! I never flatter, either, but I cannot therefore mask the truth and must acknowledge that anything of this sort I have never before had a share in, and it has to be Christopher that offers such a treat! Your health, brother Christopher!

PEHR. [Aghast.] Christopher?

SECOND FRIEND. I'm a plain, everyday sort of man, and cannot make pretty speeches--which I scorn, and the expression of which from such a source I can ascribe only to a secret desire to get money. That is my plain, everyday opinion.

FIRST FRIEND. What insolence!

PEHR. I must beg that no serious discussions interrupt this delightful gathering, which would be even more agreeable if it were sweetened by some charming representative of the opposite s.e.x.

[A Woman appears.]

PEHR. Behold!

WOMAN. So you couldn't wait for me! That was most impolite, but I forgive you since you are my friend. There's my hand!

PEHR. [Kisses her hand.] I beg a thousand pardons, my beauty, but I must have been mistaken as to the day? Meanwhile, be seated. Will my friends make room at my side? [Friends crowd nearer to him.] No? Well, he who is the younger must do so. That perhaps you do not know? Then he who is my best friend will voluntarily give up his place, for he is always just as near to my heart anyhow. [Both friends give up their places.] I see that you are both my best friends.

WOMAN. And I your best friend among women. Am I not, Alonzo?

PEHR. Quite right. And now as I raise the b.u.mper, I want to drain it to Friendship! Friendship is like gold, for it is pure.

WOMAN. [To friends.] How prettily he speaks!

PEHR. Friendship is like the moon--

THREE FRIENDS. Bravo! Bravo!

PEHR. For it borrows its gold--[Three Friends exchange glances]--from the sun. And it darkens when the sun departs; true, is it not?

ALL THREE FRIENDS. [Sullenly.] Very well said!

PEHR. But friendship is a fire; it must be fed if it is to be kept burning. You have given me your friendship, what have I to give you?

[Three friends glance around.] You look on my gold. Alack, it is but dust as compared with your friendship!

WOMAN. [Adroitly.] One must not despise the temporal because the eternal exists.

FRIENDS. Admirably expressed!