They arrived at last, left the horses in the back-yard and marched with a certain solemnity up to the steps. Beerencreutz and Julius supported Captain Lennart between them.
“Pull yourself together, Lennart,” they said to him, “you are at home. Don’t you see that you’re at home?”
He got his eyes open and was almost sober. He was touched that they had accompanied him home.
“Friends,” he said, and stopped to speak to them all, “have asked God, friends, why so much evil has passed over me.”
“Shut up, Lennart, don’t preach!” cries Beerencreutz.
“Let him go on,” says Sintram. “He speaks well.”
“Have asked Him and not understood; understand now. He wanted to show me what friends I had; friends who follow me home to see mine and my wife’s joy. For my wife is expecting me. What are five years of misery compared to that?”
Now hard fists pounded on the door. The pensioners had no time to hear more.
Within there was commotion. The maids awoke and looked out. They threw on their clothes, but did not dare to open for that crowd of men. At last the bolt was drawn. The captain’s wife herself came out.
“What do you want?” she asked.