[Embarrassed.] No, I cannot!

PEHR. Cannot? What is it?

LISA. He is not singing for us now. He sings to his sweetheart, so you
must know what he is saying.

PEHR. How should I know that!

LISA. He says like this: [Running off] "I love you, I love you!"

PEHR. Stay! Shall you run away from me? Lisa! Lisa! She's gone! Very
well then! Come hither palace and plates and wines and horses and
chariots and gold--gold!

SCENE TWO.

A luxurious Banquet Hall. Servants bring on a table, with food and
wines; other servants carry in a chest containing gold; others, again, a
table covered with plates, vases, candle-sticks, etc.--all of gold.

PEHR. [Walks about and looks around.] So this is the rich man's
abode! Well, it looks rather promising. Slaves! Give me my best
holiday-coat--but it must be of gold. [Servants hand him a gold-cloth
coat.] A chair! [They place a gold chair at table.] Now, Pehr, you shall
enjoy life! and that is your right. Haven't you been up mornings at
four o'clock; and rung for early Mass; haven't you swept the church on
Fridays and scoured the stairs on Saturdays; haven't you eaten bread and
herring three hundred and sixty-five days in the year and rinsed them
down with cold water; haven't you slept on pease-bolt which was so badly
threshed that you could feel the pease in your knee-joints? Oh, yes, you
have--therefore enjoy yourself! [Wants to sit at table.]

BUTLER. [With staff in hand.] Pardon, Your Grace! The table is not laid.

PEHR. Isn't it?

BUTLER. In a couple of hours the roasts will be ready.

PEHR. I don't want any roasts.

BUTLER. [Intercepts Pehr with staff.] It can never be that one sits down
at an unlaid table!

PEHR. Who forbids me in my own house?

BUTLER. Etiquette, Your Grace, does not under any circumstances permit
it.

PEHR. Etiquette! What kind of torment is that?

BUTLER. Your Grace, listen to an old man's word! He who in Your Grace's
position violates the rules of etiquette is lost.

PEHR. [Frightened.] What a harsh gentleman! I shall have to submit,
although I'm beastly hungry--But, wait! Is there nothing that will move
that gentleman? I have heard that gold--[Goes over to chest and takes
out a handful of gold coins.] Would not--

BUTLER. Your Grace! I stand above the servants; above me stands Your
Grace, but above us all stands--Conventionality. Its laws are perpetual,
for they have their foundation both in common sense and in what we call
historical hypo