"All right," said Oldenburg, and looked among the cards till he had found the right one. "I will pay you for your unauthenticated fisherman's stories," he growled between his teeth.
"Have you done, Oldenburg?"
"Directly--now!"
"Well, baron, now let us do this: you go into the ballroom and tell every gentleman what lady he is to take in, and I will do the same in the card-room."
"Ainsi soit-il!" laughed Oldenburg, following his host
As he entered the ball-room, they were just arranging a cotillon. Immediately after that they were to go to table.
"This is a good opportunity," he said, and, like a black-feathered, long-legged bird who picks out frogs on a wet meadow, he walked up and down with great gravity behind the line of the dancers and whispered to each gentleman, as the opportunity offered, the name of his lady. Oswald was dancing with the Baroness Barnewitz, who had taken the place of Miss Klaus until the latter should have carried an important order to the kitchen; their vis-à-vis were Cloten and Melitta. Oldenburg had informed all the gentlemen of their fate, which seemed to be favorable to all, for they nodded with a well-contented air. At the very last he slipped up to Cloten and whispered to him:
"Cloten, I have given you the Barnewitz."
Then to Oswald: "Doctor, you will take Frau von Berkow."
Then he went away hurriedly.