Sonnenkamp sat alone. He seemed to hear in his solitude a crackling, a
low, almost inaudible gnawing, like a tongue of flame lapping the beams
and joists, devouring more and more, and increasing as it devoured its
prey. Such a low crackling, and such a lapping, he believed that he
heard in his solitude.

He was mistaken, and yet he was well aware that there was a spark
kindled, and it was burning noiselessly; it ran along the floor of the
room, it reached the walls; the chairs, the closets, the books, are all
on fire; the painted faces on the canvas are grotesquely distorted, and
blaze up; and the flames spread on and on, creeping through all the
apartments, enveloping at last the roof and the whole house, and
flaring up into the sky.

Suppose that one should burn it all up, and every thing in it? No,
there is another, a better means of deliverance, an energetic deed, a
splendid, grand--here came a knock. It must be Bella coming to explain
why she was not there when he returned from the trial to the seed-room.
He opened the door quickly, and Weidmann, not Bella, entered.

"Have you any thing to ask me in private?" asked Sonnenkamp angrily.

"I have only a favor to beg of you."

"A favor? you?"

"Yes. Give me your son"--

"My son?" cried Sonnenkamp in astonishment.

"Will you be so good as to let me finish my sentence. Let your son come
into my family for days, weeks, months, as long as you please; only let
it be long enough for him to get a new hold in a different sphere. He
needs an energetic and free activity. When your son passed a short time
with me before this thing happened, I perceived with satisfaction that
he had very little personal vanity with all his beauty. He takes
pleasure in looking at others rather than at himself. This would be of
help; and I would like to aid him still further. As your son will not
become a soldier, perhaps it will be well for him to be instructed in
husbandry."

"Is this a plan which you have agreed upon with Herr Dournay?"

"Yes, it is his wish; and it seems to me a very good plan."

"Indeed?" said Sonnenkamp. "Perhaps Roland has already been informed of
this wish, and of how well it suits?"

"I cannot blame you for this bitter feeling, I can very well understand
it; for it is no trifling matter to be placed in a situation where
others undertake to dispose of us and ours."

"I thank you, I thank you very kindly.'"

"If you decline, then no one knows any thing about