articularly, not to make easy terms with Sonnenkamp
when he came to a definite understanding, for if he did he would lose
all hold upon him.

"You see," he said, "the priests, and we physicians, always give our
masses and receipts in Latin; for who would gulp down for us sulphuric
acid, if that were written on the paper in good German? So you will see
that you can make an impression upon Herr Sonnenkamp only by a certain
mysterious loftiness; otherwise he fancies that he can make quick work
with you."

The doctor then gave a very humorous description of the sleepy
existence of Frau Ceres, to whom the sharp-tongued, but still more
envious Countess Wolfsgarten had given the epithet "crocodile," because
she really had some of the traits of that monster as he basks in the
sun. For Herr Sonnenkamp, there was no mode of activity in which he
could let out his energies; and for Frau Ceres, there was no exertion
that was not an effort. She was not really to be blamed for having her
dress changed three times a day, without sticking in a single pin
herself; that she walked about her chamber for hours together, looked
at herself from every point of view, fed her parrot, played "patience,"
and cherished her nails. The poor creature ought always to live simply
and naturally, but even those more highly endowed cannot do that. She
was indeed weak and dependent, but she was also artful and capricious.

Eric was on the point of confiding to the doctor his interview with
Frau Ceres, but before he could open his lips, the doctor began to
narrate:--

"It may be now almost a year since an occurrence took place which I
could not have believed possible. I was sent for to the villa. The
daughter of the house was in a condition of muscular rigidity, and at
the same time delirium, which I could not comprehend. Fraeulein Perini
told me that the girl had clasped her hands together so tightly, that
they had been drawn apart only by the aid of two servants, although the
girl herself opposed no resistance, and when I came the fingers were
still clenched. I could never find out what extreme mental excitement
could have produced such a condition of the body; I could only learn
this much, that Herr Sonnenkamp had refused his wife something or other
which she strongly desired. She revenged herself by confiding to her
daughter, who had hitherto reverenced her father as a higher being,
something which put the poor girl into this state of excitement. But