"What do you say, Baron Langen," he said, after some time, "if in return for my information you were now in your turn to give me some information about the company? Who, for instance, is that old gentleman there in the blue dresscoat with the white hair and red face, who speaks so fearfully loud, as if he wished to make himself heard by somebody standing on the other side of a mountain torrent?"
"That is Count Grieben, one of our richest noblemen. Do you know the pretty story they have about him and the king?"
"No, please let me hear it."
"The king was on a journey and came to our seaport. At the wharf, where the highest officials, the nobility, and so forth had formed in order to receive him, stood the count's carriage with six magnificent bays; on each wheel-horse a jockey in the count's rich livery. The king admired the superb turnout 'All my own raising, your Majesty,' cries the count, with a bold gesture of the hand. 'Including the jockeys?' replied the witty monarch."
"Not so bad," said Oswald; "and who is that fat lady with the masculine features who is just coming in with her three pretty daughters?"
"A Baroness Nadelitz. She is a Catherine of Russia in miniature. Formerly she kept the geese of her future husband. She is said to have been so wonderfully beautiful that everybody fell in love with her, and yet so kind-hearted that no one went away mortified. Their marriage, however, was not over happy."
"At all events, she has very pretty daughters," said Oswald. "Then the baron is dead?"
"Yes, and since then she is virtually the master. She shows it literally, for I have seen her myself walking across the fields with her steward, in top-boots and heaven knows what. To be sure the soil was clay, and she sank every moment in above the ankles."
"Who are the two pretty girls who are just now coming across the room, walking arm in arm?"
"Emily von Breesen and Lisbeth von Meyen. They have but just been confirmed last Easter, and wear to-day, as far as I know, for the first time, long dresses. Shall I introduce you?"