"Then that was Brownlock, of whom Bruno has told me so much! Well, now I can explain it all."
"Can you? Then you will also explain it, I hope, why Baumann sat down and wrote that letter at my dictation. The old man refused, and said: A duel is no child's play, and that is carrying the joke too far. But I laughed and wept till he gave way; so he took Brownlock once more this morning and rode to town to mail the letter."
"And if I had not accepted the challenge?"
"Baumann asked me the same question, and I answered: Fie, are you not ashamed to say such a thing, Baumann?"
Oswald laughed. "Of course! we must always be ashamed when we say or do something that does not suit the world, as it exists in your little heads."
Melitta made no reply, and Oswald saw that a shadow flitted across her face. He knelt down before her and said, seizing her hand as it hung by her side:
"Have I offended you, Melitta?"
"No," she said, "but you would not have said so a week ago."
"How do you mean?"
"Come, get up! Let us go into the garden. It is hot in the house; I long to breathe the cool night air!"