Ah, Goethe! Goethe! What have you not to answer for? You also did not disdain the lily because the rose was so fair, and that is why they surround your head so often with a wreath of lilies and roses. You too would have accepted Emily's great heart, and you would have smoothed her brown hair and kissed her tenderly on her tender eyes! Oh, ye everlasting stars, how lovely the child was at that moment! For, all in all, she is but a child, and to-morrow she will awake in her soft little bed and think she has dreamt the scene in the bay-window during her sleep."
Thus Oswald tried to silence the voice of his conscience--for the moment he was successful.
"Will you get in now, doctor?" the baron said, as he came up with his host. "You understand, Barnewitz?"
"Rely upon it, I'll do what I promised," said the latter, who seemed to be very much benefited by the conversation with his Mentor and the cool night air. "Rely upon it, I give you my word of honor, that I----"
"Hush! Are you comfortable, doctor? Good-by, Barnewitz! All right, Charles!"
CHAPTER III.
The horses started; the light wagon rattled over the rough road across the court-yard. In an instant the château, with its still brilliantly lighted windows, the dark barns and stables, and the little cottages all lay behind them, and they were far off between waving grain-fields and mist-covered meadows. The short summer night was already waning. In the East a faint streak of light announced the new day; the early dawn covered the whole landscape as with a thin veil. From the North, however, came sheet lightning, and rent from time to time the thick fog. All was silent yet in the fields; even the lark, the herald of day, was still asleep. Oswald was leaning back in his corner and looked dreamily into the twilight; only at times, when the smoke from the baron's cigar floated by him, he looked at the latter, who seemed to be lost in thought as he sat there, with his hat pushed back a little, the collar of his coat drawn up, and his long legs stretched out to their full length. They might have been sitting thus for a quarter of an hour, when the baron suddenly said:
"You don't smoke?"
"No."
"May I offer you a cigar?"