KING. [Escorting him to the door] Good-bye, Herman, old friend!

HERMAN ISRAEL goes out.

The KING'S MOTHER-IN-LAW enters from the left in the white dress of a Cistercian nun.

KING. [Greeting her kindly] Good morning, mother-in-law.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. Are you busy?

KING. Very much so.

MOTHER-IN-LAW. But not so much that you cannot hear the justified complaint of a subject.

KING. You are too modest. However, let me decide whether your complaint be justified or no. I must hear too many unjustified ones, God wot!

MOTHER-IN-LAW. If I condescend to make a complaint, you may be sure that I have reasons for it.

KING. But they must be good. Most reasons are no good at all.—Is it a question of Anders Persson and Mons Nilsson?

MOTHER-IN-LAW. No, of myself.