e, and added, that if they were her parents, the Superior
begged them to come to her in the parlor. Sonnenkamp asked Bella,
Pranken, and Fraeulein Perini to wait in the garden; he wished Roland to
stay with them, but the boy said,--

"No, I'm going with you."

His mother took his hand and spoke for the first time.

"Very well, you can stay with me."

Griffin remained outside. Roland and his parents were shown into the
presence of the Superior, who received them with a very friendly and
dignified bearing. She asked a sister who was with her to leave them
alone, and then requested the visitors to be seated. It was cool and
pleasant in the large room, where hung pictures of saints painted on a
gold background.

"What is the matter with our daughter?" asked Sonnenkamp at last,
breathing deeply.

"Your child, whom we may call our child also,--for we love her no less
than you do,--is quite well; she is generally yielding and patient too,
but sometimes she shows an incomprehensible self-will, amounting almost
to stubbornness."

A rapid flash from Sonnenkamp's eyes fell upon his wife, who looked at
him and moved her upper lip very slightly. The Superior did not notice
this, for while she spoke she either closed her eyes or kept them cast
down; she quietly continued,--

"Our dear Manna refuses to see her parents, unless they will promise
beforehand that she may remain with us at the convent through the
winter; she says that she does not yet feel herself strong enough to
enter the world."

"And you have granted her this condition?" asked Sonnenkamp, as he ran
his hand through his white neck-handkerchief, and loosened it.

"We have nothing to grant to her; you are her parents, and have
unconditional power over your child."

"Of course," burst out Sonnenkamp, "of course, if her thoughts are
influenced--but I beg your pardon, I interrupted you."

"By no means, I have finished; you have to decide whether you will
agree to the condition beforehand; you have full parental power. I will
call one of the sisters to conduct you to Manna's cell; it is not
locked. I have only performed the child's commission, now act according
to your own judgment."

"Yes, that I will do, and she shall not stay here an hour longer!"

"If her mother has any voice in the matter," began Frau Ceres.

Sonnenkamp looked at her as if some speechless piece of furniture had
spoken, and Frau Ceres continued, not to him, but to the Superior,--

"I