"As you like it," said the baron. "Welcome the coming and speed the parting guest! I have a great mind to accompany you some distance. Are you fond of riding?"
"Rather so."
"Then we'll go on horseback, if you like it I will take one of my servants. Excuse me a moment--I must change my dress and give a few orders."
* * * * *
"You sit your horse very well, doctor," said the baron, as they were slowly riding along on the height of the bluff a quarter of an hour later. "It is really remarkable what talents you have in these things. I believe there is no branch of bodily skill in which you would not quickly become a master."
"It is all the more remarkable, because my plebeian descent and my modest education do not entitle me to any of these aristocratic gifts."
"What a pity my name is not Cloten," said the baron.
"Why?"
"Because then I would not suspect your irony in the most remote way, and, on the contrary, be moved by your touching modesty to overcome an antipathy amounting almost to hatred."
"Is that Baron Cloten's sentiment towards me?"