ing to their
own pleasure; and yet you inwardly feel that this will not last, it
cannot last; that the time must come when you will once more have the
mastery.

"If it were not night! if it were only not night!" groaned Roland to
himself, as he awakened in a wandering mood from a short hour's sleep.
For the first time in his life, he awoke in the night distressed and
sad at heart, with the whole world dark and impenetrable before him.

"Oh, if it were not night! if it only were not night!" he said to
himself again. He thought of what Eric's mother had once said: "In the
night-time everything is more terrible; day comes, and with the
daylight all sufferings, both of the body as well as those of the mind,
are less formidable; the eye then looks upon the things of the world,
and the sunlight illumines and enlivens everything."

"It will be day again!" he comforted himself at last, and sank away
into sleep out of all his brooding fancies.

Early in the morning they started with Pranken for the Villa.

CHAPTER VII.

SICK AT HEART.

The morning air was fresh and cool. Bertram was not on the box of the
carriage, but a hired coachman sat next to Lootz. Roland knew the
horses, and wanted to take the stranger's place, but Sonnenkamp said in
a hoarse voice:--

"No, my child, don't leave me. Sit with me. Stay with me."

Roland obeyed, and took a seat in the close carriage, with his father
and Pranken. They drove in silence through the city, each thinking:
When, and under what circumstances, will you ever come here again?
Roland looked out as they were passing the pleasure-grounds, where in
the summer they had excited so much attention at the officers'
entertainment. Withered leaves were lying on the tables, and everything
was bare and desolate. Sighing and shutting his eyes, Roland leaned
back in the corner of the carriage. The bloom of youth had faded out of
his countenance over night, and everything was wilted like a flower
touched by the frost.

They drove along, for a time, without speaking. Roland, however, soon
heard his father making himself merry over the unadulterated rascality
of mankind, and one and another person who were generally spoken of
with respect and held in high estimation were spoken of as hardly fit
to associate with galley-slaves. A beginning was made with the
Cabinetsrath, who had allowed himself to be bribed in such a way, and