The company had all assembled, and were gradually finding their way from the close rooms into the garden, where the superb afternoon attracted them all. The elderly ladies and gentlemen walked up and down in the shady avenues, or inspected the superb greenhouses; the younger people tried to arrange games on a beautiful lawn, which was partly overshadowed by old, broad-branching trees; and from a corner in the park, where a shooting-gallery had been improvised, firing was heard at intervals. Melitta remembered the adage, that the reputation of young women is made by old women, and thought that as she intended to enjoy a certain degree of liberty at the ball, she had better pay for it now by a few small sacrifices; she joined therefore a party of old ladies, the Countess Grieben, the Baroness Trantow, and others. Oswald had at first joined the young people, to whom Langen had introduced him, and had helped to arrange some games which he had known in the capital, and which he adapted skilfully to the exigencies of the day. The company had met his suggestions with universal applause, and he was on the high way of becoming eminently popular. But when he saw that Melitta would not join the circle in which he was, he availed himself of a suitable opportunity to escape. Langen had followed him, and overtook him in a narrow path between two rows of bushes, where Oswald enjoyed the innocent pleasure of picking gooseberries. "God be thanked!" said Langen, following Oswald's example and plundering a currant-bush, which hung full of blood-red clusters. "We have escaped that horror! Curses be upon the man who invented social games! Are the gooseberries ripe?" "Delicious!" "You must pay me a visit soon. My estate is only an hour or so from Grenwitz. My wife, who has presented me a few weeks ago with a beauty of a little girl, and who is not yet strong enough to go to large parties, will be glad to make your acquaintance. If you will fix a day, I will send my carriage for you." "I accept your invitation with pleasure," said Oswald, who was almost put to shame by this extraordinary kindness on the part of a man from that class which he denounced so severely. "Suppose we say next Sunday?" "You are always welcome. If you would like to bring the boys, do so; I have a couple of ponies, which the boys will like better than Nepos and Ovid together.--Ah me! _Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim!_ There comes the Countess Grieben at the head of her staff. _Sauve qui peut!_" The young men slipped into another garden walk which crossed the first at right angles, and were soon beyond the reach of the ladies' eyes. Oswald, for his part, would have liked to stay, for he had noticed Melitta in the "staff," and had hoped to catch a look in passing; but he considered it his duty not to abandon his new friend, who had shown himself so very amiable during the whole afternoon.