"Scold me?" said Melitta, and her lips trembled with pain. "Ah, Oswald, I wish you could come with me, and forever!"
"Perhaps Baron Oldenburg will permit us," replied Oswald, who had noticed how the baron's gray eyes continually watched Melitta and himself, while he seemed to devote himself altogether to little Miss Klaus.
Melitta said nothing, but the tear which suddenly glittered in her long eyelashes, and which she quickly wiped away with a quiet gesture, was answer enough.
"Pardon me, Melitta," whispered Oswald, "but I am very unhappy."
"I am not less so--perhaps more so--and that is exactly why I wish you at least were happy, and I could make you so."
"You can do it by a word."
"What is that, Oswald?"
"Tell me that you love me."
"Oswald, love does not ask so; that is jealousy."
"Is there any love without jealousy?"