Oswald was standing there lost in admiration, as we remain standing in adoration before a sublime painting. It was not the lovely oval of the charming face; it was not the large, dark, dreamy eyes which shone forth from under the long, black lashes with such magic light; it was not the full, rosy lips that laughed so bewitchingly, nor the dark carnation of her velvety complexion--it was all and everything. Who can catch the sunbeams? Who can reduce the song of the nightingale to notes? Who can analyze beauty? Oswald did not attempt it; he only felt that he never had seen, and never would see anything more beautiful in all his life, and he fancied a sweet dream he had so often dreamt was at last fulfilled, and he had found the Blue Flower for which he had been looking everywhere in vain. Oswald wished to speak to the company, but he felt as if he were chained to the ground. An inexplicable anxiety seized him, a timid fear, as if something fearful must happen next; as if at that moment the secret powers of Fate were deciding on his weal and woe for life.... He would have liked to fly away to the deepest solitude. He noticed just then that the old baron, who might have found it too cool out of doors, had left the circle, and was coming up to the house. He made an effort and stepped through the glass door to meet him. His appearance was of course noticed at once, and a universal: Ah, see there, Doctor Stein! See there, the doctor! greeted him, while Bruno, running and leaping up to him, had embraced him long before the others could come near to greet him. "Why, this is charming, doctor," said the baroness, with her most gracious smile. "We were inconsolable at the thought that we would miss you for weeks yet, and now you are here in our midst. What do you say to our coming back so soon? Poor Grenwitz! he was very sick. Go in, dear Grenwitz, it is really quite cool out here. We will all go in. And our circle has been added to in the mean time. Where is Helen?--_Hélène, viens ici, ma chère!_ Let me present my daughter Helen to you. I have made her hope that you will be kind enough to help her in supplying the many things she ought to have learnt and has not learnt. For you do not know how very imperfect the education of girls in boarding-schools is in point of science! I am sure you will admit the little one among your pupils? _Mademoiselle, n'avez-vous pas mon fichu? Ah, le voilà. Merci bien! et dites-donc qu'on allume la lampe!_ I think we will all go into the salon." "Certainly," said Mr. Timm, who had been unusually quiet so far. "Hard weeks, pleasant Sundays, work in the day-time, and a merry bowl at night, as the old Privy Councillor says. No allusion, madam, I assure you!" "But you would not be sorry, I am sure, if we understood the allusion, eh?" said the baroness, apparently determined to charm everybody to-night.