The vein on the little doctor's high forehead swelled with wrath as he listened to this boastful chatter, which did not cease until the first dish was served.

To brave him, Eberbach turned the conversation to humanism, its redeeming power over minds, and its despicable foes.

His scornful jests buzzed around his enemy like a swarm of gnats; but Arnold von Tungern pretended not to hear them.

Only now and then a tremor of the mouth, as he slowly chewed his food, or a slight raising of the eye-brows, betrayed that one shaft or another had not wholly missed its mark.
The older gentlemen had sometimes interrupted the Thuringian, to try to change the conversation, but always in vain, and the guest from Cologne vouchsafed them only curt, dry answers.
Not until a pause occurred between two courses did von Tungern alter his manner.

Then, like an inquisitor who has succeeded in convicting the person accused, he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied, long-drawn "So-o," wiped his moist chin, and began: "You have showed me your state of mind plainly enough, my young Herr Doctor.