Oswald wished to speak to the company, but he felt as if he were chained to the ground. An inexplicable anxiety seized him, a timid fear, as if something fearful must happen next; as if at that moment the secret powers of Fate were deciding on his weal and woe for life.... He would have liked to fly away to the deepest solitude.
He noticed just then that the old baron, who might have found it too cool out of doors, had left the circle, and was coming up to the house. He made an effort and stepped through the glass door to meet him. His appearance was of course noticed at once, and a universal: Ah, see there, Doctor Stein! See there, the doctor! greeted him, while Bruno, running and leaping up to him, had embraced him long before the others could come near to greet him.
"Why, this is charming, doctor," said the baroness, with her most gracious smile. "We were inconsolable at the thought that we would miss you for weeks yet, and now you are here in our midst. What do you say to our coming back so soon? Poor Grenwitz! he was very sick. Go in, dear Grenwitz, it is really quite cool out here. We will all go in. And our circle has been added to in the mean time. Where is Helen?--Hélène, viens ici, ma chère! Let me present my daughter Helen to you. I have made her hope that you will be kind enough to help her in supplying the many things she ought to have learnt and has not learnt. For you do not know how very imperfect the education of girls in boarding-schools is in point of science! I am sure you will admit the little one among your pupils? Mademoiselle, n'avez-vous pas mon fichu? Ah, le voilà. Merci bien! et dites-donc qu'on allume la lampe! I think we will all go into the salon."
"Certainly," said Mr. Timm, who had been unusually quiet so far. "Hard weeks, pleasant Sundays, work in the day-time, and a merry bowl at night, as the old Privy Councillor says. No allusion, madam, I assure you!"
"But you would not be sorry, I am sure, if we understood the allusion, eh?" said the baroness, apparently determined to charm everybody to-night.
"I would not be true to myself if I were to deny it," said Mr. Timm, placing his hand on his heart, "and you know, madam, I hate all want of truthfulness."
"Eh bien," said the baroness, "and you shall yourself select the ingredients. Will you arrange it with mademoiselle?"
"Famous," said Mr. Timm; "madam, permit me to kiss your hand," and after having obtained and used the permission, he drew the little Frenchwoman aside to teach her the receipt for a famous bowl of punch.
They had been sitting perhaps for an hour in the salon, pleasantly chatting, Mr. Timm had sung several comic songs of his own composition with the accompaniment of the piano, and performed a few burlesque scenes, in which he represented two or three different persons with as many different voices,--in short, he had done all in his power to amuse the somewhat silent company, and yet been compelled to drink his self-brewed punch almost alone,--when the baroness proposed that they should retire. Mr. Timm requested, as his only reward for his efforts, the permission to kiss the ladies' hands, which was granted him very graciously by the baroness. Miss Helen, however, refused, and told him curtly, and slightly contracting her beautifully arched brows, that the artist's reward was in himself. Mr. Timm began to remonstrate, but Oswald cut the matter short by wishing everybody "Good-night!" and leaving the room with Bruno (Malte had gone to bed before), thus compelling Mr. Timm, who lived in the same part of the building, to follow his example. Altogether Oswald had not treated his old friend exactly well, and it required all the good-nature and the humility of the latter to bear it quietly, and to continue in his usual reckless way of talking till they had reached their rooms.
"God be thanked!" said Oswald, when he saw himself alone in his room with Bruno, "at last we are rid of the eternal talker. And I have not yet been able to ask your pardon, Bruno, for my coldness and indifference at our last parting, nor to thank you for forgetting it all like a good brother.--Was it you who prepared me such a friendly welcome? Who put those flowers there?"