ink we shall come
sooner to terms, if you will regard me as a common-sense man who only
wants to know the plain matter-of-fact."

"I had hoped," Eric replied, "that the introduction of Count von
Wolfsgarten--"

"I esteem highly the Count von Wolfsgarten, more highly than I do any
one else; but--"

"You are right; I will give you a personal explanation," Eric
interrupted.

Was it the cigar, or was it the painful position in which he felt
himself placed, that caused the sweat to start out upon Eric's
forehead? At any rate, he laid the cigar down, and perceiving with a
sort of surprise that he was wearing his uniform, began to explain
again that he had put it on, for that day, because Count Wolfsgarten
had advised him to do so.

Sonnenkamp again sat up wholly erect, feeling himself completely
fortified against this man, who, an entire stranger, had taken
possession of his house, his wife, his son, and thought even to
domineer over him, and make him a stranger in his own home. He would
let the applicant talk till he was tired.

"Go on, captain," he exclaimed, laying his right hand with the fingers
crooked upon the table, and then drawing it back again, as if he had
deposited a stake at play.

Eric had now become master of all his powers, and in a tone of cheerful
good humor, began in a wholly different style:--

"Excuse a scholar for not throwing off his scholastic method. In the
old poems, before the hero enters upon his career, the parents are
described; and although I am no hero, and what I have to unfold is no
record of personal prowess, yet allow me to give a preliminary account
of my father and mother."

Eric once more gave a brief and concise sketch of his life. Mindful of
Clodwig's advice not to say anything about his fancied mission to
educate convicts, an incident occurred to him, which he had, in an
incomprehensible way, wholly passed over before. He gave an account of
his once having had charge of a powder-mill. "I was driven away by a
revolting expression of my employer. From some cause never yet
explained, the mill blew up, and four men were killed. But what said my
employer when he reached the spot? Not one word of pity for the lost
men, but 'that it was a shame for so much good powder to be lost.'"

"What was the man's name?" asked Sonnenkamp.

Eric gave one of the most distinguished names of the principality, and
was not a little surprised to hear Sonnenkamp say, "A wonderful
man,--influenti