"Not directly; I have been living in Grunwald lately."
"In Grunwald! I am glad to hear that. You will be able to give me the information I want. The thing is this--but I fear I am troubling you with indiscreet questions."
"Not at all! I should be very happy, indeed, if I could be of the slightest service to you."
"You are very kind. The thing is this: I want to send my son, who is about Bruno's age----"
"Oh, aunt, he is three years younger than I am," cried Bruno, balancing himself on a swing at some little distance.
"What keen ears the child has!" said Melitta, lowering her voice. "Well, I want to send my son Julius to Grunwald to college. Or rather, I have to do it, because his tutor, a Mr. Bemperlein, who has been six years at my house, has obtained a place as minister, and is going to leave us in a few days. Now I do not know--but here comes the baroness, and I must postpone for some other time my thousand and one questions about all kinds of things, of which I know as little as my good Bemperlein. I never knew how things look in a great city, and he has long since forgotten what he may have known. Here we shall never find an opportunity. What do you say, doctor--could you do me the honor to pay me a visit some one of these days? Perhaps to-morrow afternoon?"
Oswald--bowed assent.
"I have asked the doctor to pay me a visit to-morrow," said Melitta, turning to the baroness, who had just come back into the room with Mademoiselle Marguerite. "It is about that affair in Grunwald. You have no special engagement, I hope, for to-morrow afternoon, for I should not like to make Doctor Stein lose too much."
"We, an engagement!" said the baroness. "Don't you know our quiet life, my dear Melitta? On the contrary, I think a little diversion of that kind will be very welcome to the doctor, who must have begun to be tired of the uniformity of our life here. I had thought myself of proposing a visit to you, Doctor Stein,--to our minister, who is, I fear, a little hurt that you have not yet been presented to him."
"Well, we can do both things very easily," said Melitta; "to-morrow is Sunday; the Reverend Mr. Jager will be delighted if you increase the small number of his hearers by your presence. If you go through the forest you will find Berkow only half an hour's walk from Faschwitz. I would ask you at once to dine with me, but I know the minister's wife will not let you off so cheap. Well, what do you say, doctor?"