NILS LYKKE. Thanks, good Sir! Methinks yo have chosen a strange
mode of entrance.
NILS STENSSON. Ay, what the devil was I to do? The gate was
shut. Folk must sleep in this house like bears at Yuletide.
NILS LYKKE. God be thanked! Know you not that a good conscience
is the best pillow?
NILS STENSSON. Ay, it must be even so; for all my rattling and
thundering, I——
NILS LYKKE. ——You won not in?
NILS STENSSON. You have hit it. So I said to myself: As you are bidden to be in Ostrat to-night, if you have to go through fire and water, you may surely make free to creep through a window.
NILS LYKKE (aside). Ah, if it should be——!
(Moves a step or two nearer.)
Was it, then, of the last necessity that you should reach Ostrat
to-night?
NILS STENSSON. Was it? Ay, faith but it was. I love not to
keep folk waiting, I can tell you.
NILS LYKKE. Aha,—then Lady Inger Gyldenlove looks for your
coming?
NILS STENSSON. Lady Inger Gyldenlove? Nay, that I can scarce say for certain; (with a sly smile) but there might be some one else——