Before Oswald could recover from his amazement to find himself thus face to face with his beloved one, the baron entered.
"Please excuse my indiscretion," said Oswald, who had not been able to draw the curtain back again; "but why do you keep veiled images here which belong in a sanctuary, and not in a common reception-room?"
"You are right," replied the baron, without a trace of confusion; "this green veil is, like most veils, only a provocation; and, by the way, it is very foolish to conceal the copy when the original can be seen at any time by those who will take the trouble of going to Palermo and asking for leave to see the villa Serra di Falco."
"Indeed?" said Oswald, annoyed by the imperturbable calmness with which the baron tried to make him swallow his story. "Ah! in Palermo? I had been tempted to look for the original nearer home."
"You mean in Berlin, at the Museum!" said the baron. "There is a Muse there which looks very much like this bust, but if you examine it more closely you will soon see the difference."
"Yes," replied Oswald; "the nose there is more decided, and the carriage of the head is slightly different, and altogether the resemblance with Frau von Berkow much less striking than in this bust."
"Do you think so?" said the baron, rising and going up to the bust. "Really, you are right. There is really a slight resemblance between this bust and Frau von Berkow. Well, that does not make me like the work any less, as there are few ladies in the world whom I love more to be reminded of than that amiable and clever lady."
The baron drew the curtain over the bust, as if he wished to end the conversation.
"Come, doctor," he said, "sit down and try to forget that Cloten, this cleverest of all young men, has ever been here."
"I believe it is high time for me to be gone," said Oswald; "the sun is near setting--I should not like to get home too late, to-night especially."