"No, it's I, Eriksson; I ask permission to say a few words."
"Oh! Well! Eriksson has permission to speak."
"I merely want to point out that not the working men, but officials, lawyers, officers—conscripts—and journalists were to blame for the Commune at Paris. If I had the gift of making speeches, I should ask those gentlemen to express their ideas in an album of confessions."
"Does the meeting agree to the proposal?"
"Yes, yes!"
And the clerks began to write and to check and to chatter, exactly as they had done at the Parliamentary meetings.
"Are things always managed in this way?" asked Falk.
"Don't you think it amusing, sir?" said Eriksson. "It's enough to turn one's hair grey. I call it corruption and treachery. Nothing but meanness and selfishness. There isn't a man amongst them who has the cause really at heart. And therefore the things which must happen will happen."
"What things?"
"We'll see!" said the joiner, taking Olle's hand. "Are you ready? Hold your own ground, you'll be sharply criticized."