CECILIA. MARIE. AXEL. LINDGREN.
LINDGREN. [Enters in high spirits] Well, what a lot of skirts! And Marie, too—like the cuckoo that's in every nest! Now listen, Axel!
AXEL. I hear you even when I don't see you. You're in a fine humour—what new misfortune has befallen me?
LINDGREN. I was only a little sour this morning because I hadn't had a chance to get wound up. But now I've had a bite to eat—Well, you see—at bottom you don't owe me anything at all. For what I did, I did out of my heart's goodness, and it has brought me both honour and pleasure—and what you got was a gift and no loan!
AXEL. Now you are altogether too modest and generous.
LINDGREN. Not at all! However, one favour calls for another. Would you mind becoming my surety on this note?
AXEL hesitates.
LINDGREN. Well, you needn't be afraid that I'm going to put you in the same kind of fix as your brother did——
AXEL. What do you mean? It was I who put him——
LINDGREN. Yes, to the tune of two hundred crowns—but he got your name as surety for five years' rent——