-

"He that with tears did never eat his bread."

The rowers stopped rowing, and Eric's voice thrilled the inmost soul.
He paused, and then sang the words,--

"Ye lead us onward into life. Ye leave
The wretch to fall; then yield him up, in woe,
Remorse, and pain, unceasingly to grieve;
For every sin is punished here below."

Schubert's air closes without any musical cadence, just as Goethe's
words give no final solution. The strain, "For every sin is punished
here below," filled the air as the boat glided past the villa. Manna
heard the words, sank down, and covered her face with both hands.

Hour after hour passed away, and then some one knocked at the door.
Manna waked from the sleep into which she had fallen in the midst of
her anguish. It was quite dark. Roland and Lina were calling her name.
Overcome by weariness of body and soul, Manna had not been able to keep
from falling asleep, and now she joined the rest of the family, as if
in a dream. It seemed to her as if it were morning, and yet it was
night. She had a feeling of oppression in the society of those around
her, all of whom looked upon her with loving eyes.

In order, as it were, to recover self-possession, she proposed another
sail upon the Rhine by moonlight, and she asked Lina to sing.

Lina rejoined that she could not sing so beautifully as Eric, and that
he ought to sing.

"Do sing," Manna said to him. "I cannot sing now," Eric replied.

The first request she had ever made of him he positively refused to
grant. Manna was vexed at first, and then she was glad of this lack of
friendliness. It is better thus; there is no reason why he should
interest you in any way; you must again take the proper position in
regard to him. And in order to show that she did not feel hurt by the
refusal, she was more animated than she had ever been before.

When they returned from the excursion, Sonnenkamp met them as they were
getting out of the boat, and told them that Sevenpiper had informed
him, lest they should be taken by surprise, or be away--but no one was
to know anything about it--that he was to be waited upon by the boatmen
to-morrow evening, to thank him for the benevolent institution he had
established.

CHAPTER VIII.

THOU SHALT LAUGH, DANCE, AND DRINK.

"A house without a daughter is like a meadow without flowers," said the
Major, who was watching, with So