his position as tutor. Roland
thought of the masons at work on the castle, and wondered what they
must be thinking of while perched in mid air on their scaffoldings, or
while hammering the stone. Clodwig, too, must have found the words bear
in some way upon his life, for he shook his head and pressed his lips
hard together, as he was wont to do when thinking. But upon Bella they
produced the most striking impression; she suddenly let fall from one
hand her pencils, and from the other the bread which she used for the
occasional erasing of a line. Eric instantly restored them to her, and
she took them from him with a vacant look and no word of thanks. He
had brought before her the picture of her married life. Thus this one
key-note had struck four different chords.

For a long time no word was spoken.

The presence of Clodwig and his family at Villa Eden caused great
excitement in the neighborhood, and appeared to place the tutor in a
very peculiar position, Pranken, however, viewed the matter quite
differently, and, as acknowledged son of the house, invited to Villa
Eden the Justice, with his wife and daughter, who had just returned
from the Baths.

His manner towards Lina was particularly friendly and intimate; he took
long walks in the garden with her, and made her tell him about her life
in a convent, which she did most amusingly, giving comical descriptions
of the sisters, the Superior, and her different companions. Her only
object in staying at the convent had been the learning of foreign
languages. Lina's perpetually gay spirits began to have a cheering
effect upon the melancholy Pranken. Something of the Pranken of old
times was roused within him. Why need the present be empty and barren?
it said. Bella has her flirtation with the Captain, why should he not
have his with Lina? Why not indulge in a little harmless jesting,
perhaps even admit the excitement of some feeling? He could control
himself at any moment.

The old Pranken, the Pranken of the days before, seized his rescued
moustache with both hands and twirled it in the air.

It was a good idea, during this pause in his life, to amuse himself
with the Justice's Lina. He could imagine himself transported back to
the days before that visit to the convent, and add this to the many
other experiences of his past life which Manna would have to forget.

Lina meanwhile received his attentions very unconcernedly, showing
equal friendliness of manner towards b