broke
the silence, by asking Eric what he thought Franklin would have thought
and said of such a robbery.

Pranken replied with some warmth, "I should think a son's first
question would be, 'What will my father say to it?'"

Roland and Eric were silent. Again they drove on for a long while
without a word being spoken. Eric was tormented by accusing thoughts.
He seemed to himself doubly a thief. These men had broken into the
rooms of the villa by night; what had he done? He had forgotten the
soul entrusted to him, and, worse still, after being received by the
kindest friendship, he had, under cover of lofty thoughts and noble
sentiments, in word, thought, and look been faithless to the most
precious trust in the person of his friend's wife. He pressed his hand
to his heart, which beat as if it would burst his bosom. Those men, for
having stolen gold, would be overtaken by the justice of the law; but
for himself,--what would overtake him? Conscious that Roland's eyes
were fixed upon him, he cast his own on the ground in painful
confusion.

Finally he controlled himself, and said in a trembling voice, that he
should assume the entire responsibility; he acknowledged Pranken's
friendliness, but felt that in such a case as this, no one could
interpose between himself and the consequences of neglect of duty. So
severely did he reproach himself, that Roland and Pranken looked at him
in amazement.

CHAPTER XXI.

LEARN THE EVIL THAT IS IN MAN.

Villa Eden had hitherto been surrounded by a mysterious magic. Fear and
envy had given rise to the report that there was something wrong about
the inmates; about Herr Sonnenkamp, whom everybody saw, and Frau Ceres,
whom scarcely anybody saw. The threats of spring-guns and man-traps
posted upon the walls imbued the ignorant people in the neighborhood
with an almost superstitious fear. It was even said that Herr
Sonnenkamp had smeared the trap with a poison for which there was no
antidote. The servants of the house affected somewhat the reserve of
their superiors; they had little intercourse with others, and were
hardly saluted by them. But the mysterious dragon, which, no one knew
how or where, kept secret watch over the villa, seemed nothing but a
scarecrow after this robbery; the beautiful white house was stripped of
its charm; it was as if all the bolts were thrown back. Quickly the
report gained ground that the house-se