"Why, what a pity!" said the baroness. "I wish we could help the poor fellow. Could not his uncle the major lend him a few hundred dollars? But, to be sure, these gentlemen in the army have generally hard enough work themselves.--_Ah! mademoiselle, vous arrivez bien à propos! Veuillez avoir la bonté!_" The baroness had risen to give her instructions to Mademoiselle Marguerite. "Would you like to see my beehives, Mr. Jager?" said the baron. "With the greatest pleasure," replied the latter, taking his hat and cane. "Don't stay away too long," said the baroness, "we shall have a little supper.--_Que voulais-je dire? Ah oui! Du chocolat, mais pas si énormément sucré que la dernière fois et prenez garde_, ..." The evening had come, and with it Mrs. Jager, in the one-horse chaise. Primula wore the same dress of raw silk in which she had appeared to Oswald last Sunday, and, fatigued as she was by the great heat of the day, she looked more than ever like a sick canary-bird. Her husband had taken the first opportunity, after the long-winded greeting between her and the baroness was finished, to whisper to her, that it would be better not to appear too enthusiastic about her new friend. He told her that the young man seemed by no means to enjoy the favor of the baron and the baroness in a very high degree--a piece of news which so astounded the "dweller in higher regions," that she was hardly able to return Oswald's salutation when he appeared in the parlor, shortly before supper was announced.