Another carriage drove up, and Oswald recognized Melitta as she stepped out. It was fortunate for him that Langen was eying the party on the sofa at that moment, for he would not have been able to conceal his excitement. The few minutes which Melitta spent in the dressing-room appeared to him an eternity. At last she entered through the open door, and Oswald thought the whole room was filled with light and with roses. Melitta wore a white dress, which covered up bosom and shoulders, while the delicate neck was enclosed in a lace frill. A light shawl hung around her sloping shoulders. A deep red camellia in her hair, this was her only ornament. But what ornament is needed where beauty and grace are combined, and Melitta's appearance was so beautiful and graceful that her entrance created even a greater sensation than Oldenburg's. The older men broke off their conversation to pay their respects to her; a few younger men hastened up to get, if possible, the first waltz, the second polka--anything that could be had, and she smiled at old and young, answered here a question, begged there for patience, and all this while she was crossing the large room to join the other ladies. Baron Oldenburg had quietly remained sitting on his chair while the lady of the house had risen to advance toward her cousin. His arm resting on the back of the chair, he did not even turn round to look at the cause of the general commotion. But then Melitta's name must have struck his ear, for he started up, looked around, and stood face to face before Melitta, whom her cousin held by the hand. Oswald had been drawn, as by a magnetic power, toward the place, so that not a word, not a look escaped him. He saw Melitta turn pale, and her eyes flash as if in anger, when Oldenburg made her a low bow. "Ah, madam," he said with a peculiar smile, "when we met last the sun of Sicily was shining over us, and now----" "The moon shines--you mean to say," replied Melitta, and around her lips there appeared a line of bitter irony which Oswald had not yet seen. "On the contrary, dear baron, when we met last the moon was shining. Do you not remember, it was in the garden of the Villa Serra di Falco, near Palermo--and now that we meet again, the sun is shining, at least for myself." The meaning of these last words was probably a secret for all except for him for whom they were spoken. Melitta had noticed Oswald, as she turned half round to speak to Oldenburg, and had so kindly smiled upon him that Baron Barnewitz interrupted his enjoyment of the skilfully prepared scene to ask him, "You knew my cousin before?" "Yes!" said Oswald, leaving him and bowing deeply to Melitta.