It was not a very large but a very high room; on the right and on the left a window looking out upon the veranda; opposite the door, in a niche and upon a low pedestal, the image of the goddess. A few comfortable garden-chairs, a chaise longue, a table covered with books, papers, drawing material, a half-finished embroidery, riding-whip and gloves, in picturesque disorder--this was the whole, simple but suitable, furniture of the room.
"Did you get very wet?" asked Melitta, throwing her hat on the table, without waiting for an answer to her first question. And then:
"Go away from the window; you will take cold. Come here, or rather, sit dawn on the lounge and rest yourself."
And again:
"If I only could find something for you! But--to be sure I can make tea for you. Where are the tea-things, I wonder? Here--no, there, in the cupboard."
All this she said hurriedly, as if pressed by an inner painful restlessness, while she was walking up and down in the room with quick, unequal steps.
Oswald took her hand.
"First of all, I pray, take care of yourself; that little rain will not hurt me, I assure you. Your dress is damp, and your thin boots are not made for the wet grass on the meadow."
"Oh, as for me, I am easily helped. I have everything I need in the next room."
"The next room!"