e brother and sister went to the convent, where Manna
told the Superior of her intention to go home with Roland. In a state
of feverish excitement, she then hurried to bid good-bye to all her
fellow pupils, and all the nuns, went into the church and prayed, and
finally made Roland go with her to Heimchen's grave.

Roland observed a long, straight row of gravestones without
inscriptions, and, on asking Manna about them, was told they marked the
graves of the nuns.

"That is hard," said Roland, "to have to be nameless after death."

"It is but natural," returned Manna; "whoever takes the veil lays aside
her family name and assumes a sacred one, which is hers until her
death, and then another bears it."

"I understand." said Roland. "That is giving up a great deal. The name
of the nun cannot be written on the gravestone, nor the family name
either; yet there must be a great many of noble family buried here."

"Yes, indeed; almost all were noble."

"What should you say if we should be noble too?"

"Roland, what do you mean?" cried Manna, seizing him violently by the
arm. "Can you speak of such a thing here and now? Come away; such
thoughts are a desecration to the graves."

She led him out of the little burial-place and as far as the gravel
path, when, suddenly leaving him, she turned once more to the cemetery
and knelt down by the grave; then she rejoined her brother.

Lootz was standing with the luggage ready; Manna stepped into the boat
with Roland, and the brother and sister were borne up the stream toward
their home. All in the boat gazed with a pleased curiosity at the pair,
who, however, sat quietly hand in hand, looking out upon the broad
landscape.

"Tell me," urged Roland, "why you said, when you were going to that
convent, that you, too, were an Iphigenia?"

"I cannot tell you."

"Oh yes, you can; I know all about her. I have read the Iphigenia of
Euripides, and of Goethe, too, by myself and with Eric, and you are
like neither of them."

"It was only---- ah, let us forget all about it."

"Do you know," cried Roland, "that Iphigenia became the wife of the
great hero Achilles and lived with him, on the island of Leuce, in
eternal blessedness?"

Manna confessed her ignorance, and Roland described the copy of the
Pompeian fresco that Eric's mother had showed him, where Calchas, the
priest, is holding the knife, Diomedes and Odysseus are bearing
Iphigenia to the altar, and, her father, Agamennon, hi