ture, a work of natural poetry according to the laws
of pure art, so that all that was man's handiwork seemed as fresh as if
it had just come out of the builder's hand, and in such perfect
preservation, that one perceived that each tree, each leaf, each
lattice, was owned and carefully cherished by a wealthy man.

Eric, however, was not to be long alone; the valet, Joseph, joined him,
and with a pleasing deference offered to inform Eric concerning
everything in the household.

As Eric was silent, Joseph related once more that he had been a
billiard-boy at the University, Henry the thirty-second, for all the
boys must be called Henry. Then he had been a waiter in the Berne Hotel
at Berne, where Sonnenkamp had boarded for almost two summers long,
occupying the whole first floor--the best rooms in the world, as Joseph
called them--and had learned to know him, and taken him into his
service. Joseph gave rather a humorous account of the corps of servants
in the household, that it was a sort of menagerie gathered from all
countries. As in a poultry yard there are all sorts of fowls, and even
the peacock is not wanting, which shrieks so horribly and looks so
beautifully, so it was with the people here, for Herr Sonnenkamp had
travelled all over the world. The coachman was an Englishman, the first
groom a Pole, the cook a Frenchman, the first chamber-maid a
thoroughgoing Bohemian, and Fraeulein Perini an Italian Frenchwoman of
Nice. The master was, however, very strict; the gardeners must not
smoke in the park, nor the grooms whistle in the stable, for all the
horses were accustomed to the whistle of the master, and must not be
disturbed. And moreover, Herr Sonnenkamp would rather not have his
servants look like servants, or have any peculiar dress of servants,
and it was only a short time ago that he had given in to his wife, and
dressed a few of them in livery. The servants were allowed to speak
only a few words, and there were particular words which Herr Sonnenkamp
used to each of them, and which each used in answering, and so all were
kept in good order.

Joseph related in conclusion, not without self-satisfaction, that he
had spread abroad in the servants' room the fame of Eric's parents; it
was a good thing for people to know where a man came from, for then
they had a much greater respect. But that Madame Perini was the special
mistress in the household, and would continue to be; she was really a
Fraeulein, but the gra