"Well, baron, now let us do this: you go into the ballroom and tell every gentleman what lady he is to take in, and I will do the same in the card-room."

"_Ainsi soit-il!_" laughed Oldenburg, following his host

As he entered the ball-room, they were just arranging a cotillon.

Immediately after that they were to go to table.

"This is a good opportunity," he said, and, like a black-feathered, long-legged bird who picks out frogs on a wet meadow, he walked up and down with great gravity behind the line of the dancers and whispered to each gentleman, as the opportunity offered, the name of his lady.

Oswald was dancing with the Baroness Barnewitz, who had taken the place of Miss Klaus until the latter should have carried an important order to the kitchen; their _vis-a-vis_ were Cloten and Melitta. Oldenburg had informed all the gentlemen of their fate, which seemed to be favorable to all, for they nodded with a well-contented air. At the very last he slipped up to Cloten and whispered to him:

"Cloten, I have given you the Barnewitz."

Then to Oswald: "Doctor, you will take Frau von Berkow."

Then he went away hurriedly.

"Hortense," whispered Cloten, overjoyed, to his lady, "do you know who is to take you in?"

"Not you, Arthur?" she asked, frightened.

"Yes, my angel."

"Impossible, Arthur. Go straight back to Oldenburg and tell him he must give you another lady."

"But----"

"Hush, not so loud! You are mad. I tell you Barnewitz is very suspicious. That would make him more so than ever."

"_Changez les dames!_"

"Melitta; I am to take you to table."

"Impossible, Oswald. You must try to have it changed."

"Why," whispered Oswald, and his brows met.

"Do not look so angry, darling. I will explain it to you."

Miss Klaus appeared in the adjoining room. As soon as Oldenburg saw her he walked up to her, and reverently bowing to her, he said, in a tone of unusual gentleness:

"Miss Klaus, I am to have the pleasure of taking you to supper."

The poor little thing was thunderstruck. Baron Oldenburg, the strange, mysterious baron, to take her in!

She looked up to him with an air of serious doubt.

"I have arranged the seats myself, Miss Klaus; if you have any special preference tell me so, and I shall be very happy to do what you like best."

"Oh no, baron----"

"_Eh bien, nous voila d'accord!_ Will you give me your arm? I see they are making ready."

At that moment Cloten came up, out of breath.

"One word, Oldenburg--pardon me, Miss Klaus--Oldenburg, you must get me another lady. I cannot go with Hortense."

"_Pourquoi pas, mon cher?_"

"Because--oh, pshaw!--because----"

"_Je suis au desespoir, mon brave_; but Barnewitz has proposed you himself!"

"Are you sure?"

"You may rely on it."

He hastened back to his lady, his face beaming with joy.

"Oswald," said Melitta, "I have reconsidered it. It is better so--there is no prospect for the cotillon. Now come, give me your arm, and be good again."

The older people had gone into the dining-room first, and were standing behind their chairs; the company from the ball-room came now. Baron Barnewitz came for a moment across to see that all was right. He looked very black when he saw his wife on Cloten's arm, and Melitta standing by Oswald, and still more so when Oldenburg himself entered, leading his lady like a princess by the hand.

"Oldenburg, what a mess you have made!" whispered Barnewitz, furiously.

"I do not want Cloten to sit by my they are quite enough talked about already."

"Well, my dear fellow, you told me to take the most insignificant; that left me no doubt!"

"And Melitta with the doctor; you with Miss Klaus--that is too absurd."

"Well, Barnewitz, it's done now, and please do me the favor not to interfere any more with my arrangements. Go quietly to your seat, the Countess Grieben is looking for you with her big owl eyes!"

"I wash my hands of it," growled Barnewitz, hurrying away.

"And I drink a bottle of champagne in honor of my successful _coup d'etat_," grinned Oldenburg, sitting down by the little governess, just opposite Melitta and Oswald, and not far from Cloten and Hortense.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I hope you will join me in drinking, silently but enthusiastically, the health of the man who has a.s.signed us all our places, and who, while he looked to the common welfare of all, yet has known how to fulfil the wishes of every guest. I pray you will bear in mind that a want of enthusiasm at this solemn moment would deeply wound the feelings of that man, and at the same time inexpressibly pain one of your neighbors, whom you are bound to love at least as your neighbor. Ladies and gentlemen, drink with me the health of your and my best friend, Adalbert Oldenburg!"

As a matter of course, no one within reach of the Baron's moderately strong voice dared to refuse to join in this ironical toast. The gla.s.ses clinked, and soon a lively conversation began all around the table, like fire in a bundle of straw which has been set on fire on all sides at once; that humming, chirping, chuckling, t.i.ttering, laughing conversation, in which very soon the most brilliant witticism and the most foolish remark have the same value.

"Mind your eyes, Oswald," said Melitta, in that rapid manner in which speech can hardly be distinguished from mere breathing, and when yet every syllable is distinctly heard--"Your sweet love-letters are caught on the way by profane eyes, broken open, and read."

Cloten had in vain tried to convince Hortense that it had been her husband's own wish that he should lead her to table.

"Don't be such a fool, Arthur," she said, "it is a trick of Oldenburg's, you may rely on it. Have you ever talked with Oldenburg about me?"

"Never, Hortense--_parole d'honneur_!"

"I am sure you have done it. You will ruin me with your foolish way of talking."