"Pourquoi pas, mon cher?"
"Because--oh, pshaw!--because----"
"Je suis au désespoir, mon brave; but Barnewitz has proposed you himself!"
"Are you sure?"
"You may rely on it."
He hastened back to his lady, his face beaming with joy.
"Oswald," said Melitta, "I have reconsidered it. It is better so--there is no prospect for the cotillon. Now come, give me your arm, and be good again."
The older people had gone into the dining-room first, and were standing behind their chairs; the company from the ball-room came now. Baron Barnewitz came for a moment across to see that all was right. He looked very black when he saw his wife on Cloten's arm, and Melitta standing by Oswald, and still more so when Oldenburg himself entered, leading his lady like a princess by the hand.
"Oldenburg, what a mess you have made!" whispered Barnewitz, furiously. "I do not want Cloten to sit by my they are quite enough talked about already."
"Well, my dear fellow, you told me to take the most insignificant; that left me no doubt!"