The Editor. You were not very successful in that, you know, when you said my maid had cholera, and she really only was—. (Laughs.)
The Doctor (laughing). Are you going to bring that story up again? Every one is liable to make mistakes, you know—even you, my boy!
The Editor. Certainly. But before making a mistake this time—ahem!—I wanted first of all to enquire whether—
The Doctor. Ah! now it is coming!
The Editor—whether you have any objection to my mentioning John in my paper?
Mrs. Evje. What has John to do with us?
The Editor. Just as much as the Association, where he delivered his speech, has; it—ahem!—is one of the family institutions!
Evje. I have had no more to do with making John what he is than I have had with making that Association what it is.
The Editor. Your future son-in-law made the Association what it is, and the Association has made John what he is.
The Doctor. Or, to put it the other way round: John is Mr. Evje's servant; John has become an active member of the Association; therefore Mr. Evje is a patron of the Association.