ad immigrated into Germany
two hundred years before; that he felt himself to be purely a German,
and rejoiced to be descended from the Huguenots.

"Huguenots?--ah, yes! they sing that," Frau Ceres said, taking a
childish delight in this knowledge.

Every one at the table was obliged to restrain himself from laughing
aloud.

"Why was the name Huguenots given to them?" asked Roland, and Eric
replied,

"Some people think that the name originated in the circumstance of
their holding their secret religious assemblies at Tours, only by
night, when the ghost of King Hugo appeared; but I am of the opinion of
those who consider it a German word, originally Eidgenosse, meaning
associates, and changed by the French into Huguenot."

Pranken nodded to Eric in a very friendly manner, as if he would give
him a testimonial of his excellent qualifications as a tutor.

"You take pride, then, in your descent from the Huguenots?" asked
Sonnenkamp.

"Pride is not precisely the word I should prefer," Eric answered.

"But you know that the Puritans, who were exiled to the New World on
account of their religious belief, were the parent-stock of that
substantial, conscientious, and courageous middle class; and that they
carried with them and transplanted into their new homes, as the Greeks
of old times into Sicily and Italy, a complete civilization."

The manner in which Eric uttered this, touching upon a great historical
series of events, suddenly gave to the conversation at table a wholly
new direction. They were at once taken out of the light, brief
witticisms, and piquant personalities, into an entirely different
atmosphere. Roland felt this to some extent, looked proudly at Eric,
and was glad that his voice and his thoughts so overmastered all.

Sonnenkamp himself recognised here the serene presence of a higher
nature, which always breathed in an elevated region; he could not help
feeling a certain respect for the man, and at last put the question,
"How do you associate the Pilgrim Fathers in America with the
Huguenots?"

"Let me briefly explain," answered Eric. "The new age has broken
through the stringent lines of demarcation between different
nationalities, as, for example, the Jews have become actual and
constituent parts of the various peoples among whom they have been
scattered. A haughty and tyrannical king drove the Huguenots out of
France, and they became Germans. The emigrating Englishmen imprinted
their culture up