ns
are, and how often one is forced to give them. I assure you that you
are free from all responsibility, and as to the examination myself--I
am a merchant, Herr Baron--" again the wary pause,--"the young man is
the seller, and a seller always has to lay himself open, and to show
what he is, more fully than the buyer, especially here, where the
seller is offering himself for sale."

Pranken smiled, and said that was the deepest diplomacy. He went to his
horse, vaulted nimbly into the saddle, and set off at a gallop.
Sonnenkamp called after him that he must see whether the magnolia in
the convent yard was thriving; he waved his hat to show that he
understood, and rode away at full speed.

"A charming, agreeable young man! always bright and merry," Sonnenkamp
said, as he looked after Pranken; and he went on to remark, at some
length, on his constant light-heartedness.

Eric was silent. There seemed to prevail in this circle into which he
was introduced, a perpetual commenting and remarking upon others. He
knew Pranken, he knew tins everlasting galloping style of utterance,
which is always so extremely animated, and even becomes enthusiastic
when the conversation can be turned into an emulous contest of
raillery. But this galloping genius had a deep foundation of
insincerity, for it was not possible to be strained up every moment to
this pitch: it could only be the result of violent tension, which must
perpetually make a show of energy, and in this constant effort the soul
must, consciously or unconsciously, put on a false appearance.

Eric quietly listened to his remaining statements, and only when
Sonnenkamp asked him whether he did not think that the man, who had
from his youth been conscious of a superior rank, could alone attain to
this regal and sportive mastery over life, only then did he answer,
that no fair province of life was shut out from the middle class.

Sonnenkamp nodded very acquiescingly. His saddle-horse was now brought
to him, and he immediately mounted and rode off.

Eric went in search of Roland, and found him with his dogs. The boy
desired that Eric should at once select one of them for himself. "And
only think," he added, "a day-laborer just informs me that the dwarf
has received a bite from Devil. Served the stupid fellow exactly right,
for trying to do what he wasn't fit to do."

Eric was shocked. Was it possible that a young heart could already be
so stony? He laid down to Roland at lengt