"You know Baron Oldenburg?" continued the baroness.
"Not personally, madam; only what I heard you and the baron say when I have been kindly permitted to listen to your conversation."
"Then you know what his sad reputation is! You know that we have to endure the sorrow of seeing the last scion of one of our oldest and noblest families running with open eyes--for the baron is a remarkably gifted man--into his own destruction."
"But, dearest Anna Maria," said the baron, who was nervously moving about on his chair, "I should not think the subject of this conversation was exactly suited----"
"I know what I owe to my rank," said the baroness, "and I shall act accordingly. The baron's apostasy from the faith of his ancestors is unfortunately so notorious that I am sure I need not use any reserve on that subject with a friend of the nobility (the minister bowed twice), and a friend of our house (the reverend gentleman placed his hand on his heart). You know, Mr. Jager, that the baron avoids our society in order to frequent that of all kinds of people whom we generally try to escape; that he is constantly talking of friends of the truth and lovers of the people, and that to be distinguished by him is almost equivalent to being a lost man, if his favor falls upon one whose social position is so very far below his own. Now, last night, the baron distinguished Mr. Stein in a most striking, not to say offensive manner; he not only did his best to introduce him to everybody, but he also treated him as his own and as our equal, and to crown his conduct, which I do not care to designate more accurately, he took him in his own carriage, because the Grenwitz carriage had not had time to come back for him. He actually brought him as far as the gates, thus making a détour of at least two miles!"
"But, dearest Anna Maria, anybody would----"
"Pardon me, dear Grenwitz; anybody else would not have done so, and least of all the baron, whose rough, unpleasant manner, even to men of his own rank, has become proverbial, if he had not found in Mr. Stein a man of his own way of thinking, an atheist, and an enthusiast for so-called Liberty, enfin, an immoral man, to repeat the word which excited your indignation, and which I hope you will now concede is not ill-applied in Mr. Stein's case."
The baroness paused, proudly conscious of having victoriously defended her view; the minister remained silent, in order not to interrupt his noble patroness in her enjoyment, and the baron said nothing, because he had nothing at all to say. This compound silence was suddenly interrupted by a noise from the hall, upon which the door opened, the mewing of a cat, and immediately afterwards the angry bark of a dog. Such a noise was unheard of at Castle Grenwitz, where neither cats nor dogs were admitted, and hence all three looked amazed.
"What can that be?" asked the baron, rising and opening the door.
"Ah! I see you, baron!" a clear loud voice sang out.