ealous importunity. Eric acknowledged
this and was conscious of it immediately afterward, when he had
divested himself of himself; yet he was continually making the same
mistake, which caused him to appear in an ambiguous light, and as if he
were out of his appropriate place. Eric had a sort of clairvoyant
perception how all this was affecting Sonnenkamp, but he could not
discern the peculiar triumph that it afforded him over the visionary,
as he smiled to himself at the green youth who served up such
freshly-cooked dishes of sophomoric learning. He knows what it is, he
has passed through it all. People settle themselves down there in the
little university-town, and coming in contact with no one else, they
live in a fantastic world of humanity, and appear to themselves to be
personages of the greatest consequence, whom an ungrateful lack of
appreciation hinders from manifesting their efficiency in actual life.
And this captain-doctor now before him had only a small company of
ideas under his command.

Sonnenkamp whistled to himself,--whistled so low that nobody but
himself could hear the tune; he even knew how to set his lips so that
nobody perceived him to be whistling.

He placed himself in a chair on a little eminence, and showed Eric also
a seat.

"You must have noticed," he said at last, "that Fraeulein Perini is a
very strict Catholic, and all our household belong to the Church; may I
ask, then, why you rang the changes so loudly upon your Huguenot
descent?"

"Because I wish to show my colors, and nail them to the mast; for no
one must ever take me for what I am not."

Sonnenkamp was silent for some time, and then he said, leaning back in
his seat,--

"I am master in this house, and I tell you that your confession shall
be no hindrance. But now"--he bent himself down, putting both hands on
his knees and looking straight at Eric--"but now--I came very near
falling from my horse to-day, which has never happened to me before,
because I was deeply engaged, while riding, in reflection upon what you
said to me--in brief--the main point of our conversation. How do you
think that a boy who is to engage in no business and who is to come
into possession of a million--or rather say, of millions--how do you
think that such a boy is to be educated?"

"I can give a precise answer to that question."

"Can you? I am listening."

"The answer is simple. He cannot be educated at all."

"What! not at all?"

"That is w