CHAPTER XVIII.

UNDER-CURRENTS.

The visit took place. Pranken rode behind the carriage in which Clodwig
and Bella were seated; on the back seat of the carriage stood a
frame-work covered with paper, and a handsome box ornamented with
inlaid work, which held the crayons.

Eric and Roland received the guests, and Eric begged them to make
themselves at home; he had had everything arranged by the servants; he
would himself be at their service in an hour, when lessons were over.

The visitors looked at each other in astonishment.

Pranken looked strangely changed; a deeper seriousness was in his face;
now he shrugged his shoulders, and burst into a mocking laugh.

Bella thought Eric's conduct extremely formal and pedantic; Clodwig
declared it showed a beautiful trait of character; but Pranken saw only
idle display in this assumption of duty; the young man--he said this
quite in the tone of the Grand Master--the young man wished to make a
great impression with his faithfulness to duty.

Meantime they made themselves comfortable, and it was not to be denied
that Eric had shown great thought for the pleasure of his guests, in
his floral decorations, and other arrangements.

The hour was soon over, and Eric returned to his guests in that fresh
and cheerful mood, which only the conquest over one's self and the
consciousness of duty fulfilled can ever give.

He had selected a good room, looking towards the North, and after a
lunch the drawing began.

Clodwig remained with his wife; Roland, who was to be drawn later, went
with Pranken to the stables. Pranken conducted himself in the house as
Sonnenkamp's natural representative, or as a son of the family; he had
the horses brought out, he examined the gardenwork, and praised the
servants.

"I never saw you looking so serious and anxious," said Clodwig to Eric.
And, indeed, Eric's expression was full of uneasiness, for he suspected
that Pranken was now talking about him to Roland.

What can all education, all firm guidance effect, when one is not sure
for a moment that some foreign influence is not working against it? We
must comfort ourselves by thinking that no one man can form another,
but the whole world forms each man. Eric, meanwhile, could not but
dread what Pranken might be saying to his pupil.

First, Pranken asked whether Roland had read the daily portion in the
book that Manna sent him.

Roland said, no