QUEEN. But....
KING. He is bad through and through, and he is spoiling Eric. Whatever may be the cause of his badness, I cannot dispose of it, but I can check the effects. Have you any more protégés of the same kind?
QUEEN. I won't say anything more now.
KING. Then we can talk of something else. How is my mother-in-law?
QUEEN. Oh, you know.
KING. And Johan? Where is Johan?
QUEEN. He is not far away.
KING. I wish he were still nearer—nearer to me—so near that he could succeed me when the time comes.
QUEEN. It is not right to think like that, and still less to talk like that, when a higher Providence has already decided in favour of Prince Eric.
KING. Well, I can't tell whether it was vanity that fooled me into looking for a foreign princess or wisdom that kept me away from the homes of our Swedish nobility—one hardly ever knows what one is doing.