s Sonnenkamp stumbled up the carpeted staircase; he
had to draw on his gloves on the way up, saying silently to himself
meanwhile:--

"Keep yourself easy now."

At the top of the staircase a second valet appeared, white-haired, in
short black knee-breeches and high black gaiters, and said:--

"Do not hurry, Herr Sonnenkamp, His Highness has not returned yet from
the drill ground."

Sonnenkamp felt like knocking the first valet down for having put him
into such a state of anxiety. He regretted that he had commissioned
Joseph to give every one of the servants a piece of gold; he hoped that
Joseph, after all, was a rogue, and would keep the gold for himself,
and give the cursed attendants none of it.

The white-haired valet conversed freely with Sonnenkamp, and informed
him, that he had been with Prince Leonhard in America; it was a hateful
country, without order and without manners; he thanked God, when he got
home again.

Sonnenkamp did not know how he ought to take this freedom; but the best
way was to put up with it silently. He listened with assenting nods,
and thought to himself, What a way they have of doing things here in
the palace! It is just as if the people in it didn't walk on their
feet; everything is so mysterious; as if something was going on every
moment that had nothing at all in common with the life of other men.

The white-haired valet requested Sonnenkamp to sit down while he
waited.

Sonnenkamp did sit down, and drew off his right-hand glove; he wanted
to be able to do it without difficulty when the time came to unglove
that hand for the oath; and then he presented some gold pieces to the
white-haired valet.

The experienced valet withdrew, bowing, to the end of the room; he knew
the dread that was felt by those who are not accustomed to the court,
and would leave the man to compose himself.

Sonnenkamp sat still; again those wild pulsations began to hammer away
in his thumb; he called for a glass of water.

The white-haired valet called to another, this one to a third, and the
call for a glass of water went far into the distance.

A very old clock that was standing on the mantle-piece struck the
quarter hour. Sonnenkamp compared his watch with it, and found that it
was very slow; he determined in future to set his watch, by the clock
in the palace.

Sonnenkamp was alone: and yet he little thought that through the clear
edges of the ground glass in a door behind him, two eyes were fas