"Don't fear, madam. I will be friendly, and smile as mildly as one of Guido Reni's angels."
The door opened once more. The old servant entered, marched into the room, remained standing precisely on the same spot as before, and said, looking again at Oswald:
"No possibility whatever, ma'am!"
"But, Baumann, that is a great pity. Here is Doctor Stein, who has specially come over from Grenwitz, and on foot, too, to talk with Mr. Bemperlein about Julius. And now both have driven out, and we cannot offer him a mouthful to eat or a glass of wine. And I myself have eaten nothing, as you know, since the morning, and am almost perishing for hunger."
Oswald found it difficult to keep the smile, which he had been ordered to show, from degenerating into broad laughter as he saw how the old man's face grew brighter and brighter with every word which Melitta uttered. At last he turned his look from one to the other, as if he were going to say: Well, you see, young people, after all, you can do nothing without old Baumann! Then he said:
"Well, as to the cellar-key, I have that in my pocket, ma'am."
"To be sure, and how about the key to the pantry?"
"Barely possible that mam'seile has put it again under the doorsill, although I have warned her against that many a time."
"Won't you look, Baumann, if it is there?"
"Yes, ma'am."