and behind. The
whole science of the preparation of extracts was here transported into
the art of cookery. Eric was delighted with it as with a work of art.

Sonnenkamp pointed out to his guest for special notice the fact that
every fire-place and every stove in the house had its own chimney; he
considered that as of great importance, as he had by that means made
himself independent of the direction in which the wind might blow. The
architect had resisted him on that point, and he had undergone great
trouble and expense to have the requisite flues constructed, but by
this means new beauties had been developed.

Sonnenkamp now showed him the greater part of the house, through which
electromagnetic bell-wires ran in every direction. The stairs were
richly carpeted, everywhere were costly candelabra, and in the chambers
broad double-beds.

Everything was arranged with elegance and taste, a truly chaste
elegance and refined taste, where gold, marble, and silk contributed to
the artistic decoration, with no overloading of ornament, and with a
preservation of the appearance of home-like comfort. The furniture was
not standing about like things looking for some fitting place, but
every piece was adapted to the building itself, and seemed fixed, and
at home; and yet the arrangement had this peculiar feature, that all
the furniture appeared waiting for the inmates to come and occupy it,
and not placed there to be gazed at by them in passing to and fro.

The heavy silk curtains, hanging in thick folds, were matched with the
carpets; the large clocks in all the saloons were ticking, and the
delicate works of art on the mantles and brackets were tastefully
arranged. But it was plainly to be seen that this arrangement gave no
physiognomical indication of the character of the owner, but was only
the tasteful skill which every good upholsterer supplies to order; and,
above all, one felt the absence of anything like an heir-loom. Eric
could not rid himself of the impression that the persons here lived in
their own house as if it were a hired one, and it seemed to him that
Roland was following him, and that he must enter into the soul of the
boy, who was already aware that some day he would call all this his
own.

Sonnenkamp declared that he thought it contemptible for people to
embellish their houses with mediaeval furniture, or the imitation of
that, while it answered the purpose neither of ornament nor of comfort.
When Eric rep