"That misty outline?" laughed Melitta. "I wished to draw you as you really looked, but I did not succeed. Now you shall appear as Erlkönig, who tries to catch Bruno--bodily, I mean, for his soul is yours already. How in the world did you manage to tame the wild leopard in so few days?" "Only by a little sincere affection. Shakespeare calls flattery an infallible means to catch men; but I think love is a much safer one, and at the same time much nobler." "And is not love the greatest flattery?" Oswald and Melitta had exchanged these words while they were going into the adjoining room, a lofty, beautiful room, filled with old-fashioned furniture of great value. In the centre stood a small round table, on which refreshments were set out most invitingly. Old Baumann stood straight, like a taper, his napkin on his arm, behind one of the two high-backed, richly carved arm-chairs, and waited for some acknowledgment of his signal merits and for further orders. "Well, what does our magic table have to offer?" said Melitta, sitting down, and inviting Oswald, by a gesture of the hand, to follow her example. "Cold roast meat--preserves--charming, Baumann! Mam'seile will be angry that we could do so well without her." "The housekeeper has come back from Fashwitz," said Baumann, opening a bottle at a side-table. "I dare say she has never been away," whispered Melitta, smiling. "What have we to drink for our guest, Baumann?" "Steinberger Cabinet, forty-two," said Baumann, filling Oswald's glass with the golden wine. "And for myself?" "Fresh spring water, perhaps a little raspberry-juice," replied Baumann, coolly, placing the bottle, with the cork in it, before Oswald. "That will not satisfy me to-day, Baumann! How is it about our champagne?" "No more, ma'am." "But they sent us a box only the other day?" "Has never been opened. Is down in the cellar." "Ah, what a pity!" cried Melitta. "And I am almost perishing with thirst, and must needs have such a desire for champagne just to-day!" "Well, well," said Baumann, comforting her, "maybe we can manage it." Whereupon he marched out. "You see, I have to beg for everything in my own house," said Melitta. "But why do you not eat? And what a little piece you have taken! The worst, too, in the dish! Oh, what unpractical creatures you men are! I see I shall have to take pity on you." And although Oswald assured her that he had no appetite at all, she insisted upon helping him to the best that the table offered. "You do not like it," she said at last, quite sadly, when she saw that the young man hardly touched the dishes. "Are you unwell?" "I was never better in my life. But have you never felt as if eating and drinking were the most superfluous things in the world, and as if the gods of Olympus themselves, who only needed nectar and ambrosia, were the most wretched creatures, because they ate and drank?"