nd now he yielded. Roland helped him
mount, stroking the arm of his former teacher, and stroking the horse;
Knopf and the Prince rode off together. But Eric did not mount again;
leading his horse by the bridle, he went hand in hand with Roland to
the Villa.

And now, in the still night, Eric was incessantly occupied in thinking
of what the Doctor had said; how great was the discord in the whole
modern world, so that the life of states, and even many of the
occupations of private life, were not regulated by ethical principles.
Not in the way prescribed by the Doctor,--besides, it had left no
impression whatever on Roland,--would the youth gain rest and strength,
nor in any way but in the acknowledgment that each one must strive
earnestly to conform to the moral law, and make it an integral part of
his actual life.

Roland listened to him quietly, occasionally clasping the speaker's
hand with a firmer hold.

When they were approaching the Villa, Roland said, sighing deeply:--

"Ah, Eric, now the house is robbed in a very different way from what it
was when we came back from Wolfsgarten."

No change had been wrought in the dejected feelings of Roland by what
the Doctor had said, nor by Eric's utterances; the only effect was to
enable him to express himself freely.

CHAPTER XIV.

A NEW PILLORY AT THE CHURCH DOOR.

The swallows were flocking together and twittering over Villa Eden,
over the jail not far from the house of the Justice, over the military
club-house in the capital, and wherever they flocked, everybody was
talking of Sonnenkamp, of what had happened and of what would happen to
him.

In the basement, in the large room near the kitchen, Sonnenkamp's
domestics were sitting at table. Bertram's chair was vacant. Somebody
was saying that the porter would have to scrape the writing off the
wall, and that he had already given the master notice that he should
leave. The "chief," who spoke German quite fluently when he was in
anger, was cursing the rascality of domestics in leaving their master,
who had no farther to concern themselves than to get their regular pay.
The Cooper contested this, Of course, the honor of the master was the
honor of the servant, but they ought still to remain with Sonnenkamp;
if there was a good deal in him that was bad, there was also much that
was good. Joseph, whose personal opinion did not have its just weight,
on account o