inly to refrain from all
compulsion.

Pranken agreed very emphatically, but Sonnenkamp was much put out; it
seemed to him dreadful that his daughter should be living here in the
midst of a crowd of other girls, when a free and happy life was waiting
for her.

The noon-day bell rang from the Convent, and Frau Dournay said she must
go back. Sonnenkamp accompanied her to the shore, and there said in a
low voice:--

"Do not trouble yourself about Pranken. We will leave my daughter free
in every respect."

The Professorin returned to the island; the children were already at
table when she entered the dining-room; she stood with folded hands
behind her chair for a few moments before seating herself. When dinner
was over, and thanks had been returned, the Superior said to Manna,--

"Now go with the friend of your family."

Frau Dournay and Manna walked towards the shady grove on the upper end
of the island; and Heimchen, who was quite confiding towards the
Professorin, went with them; but she was quite willing to sit down with
a book, under a tree, and wait till they came back for her.

"But you must not take Manna away with you," cried the child from her
low seat; they both started, for the child had given utterance, from an
instinctive feeling, to the fear of one and the hope of the other.

CHAPTER IV.

THE IRON MUST ENTER THINE OWN SOUL.

For a long time neither uttered a word; at last the Professorin said,--

"You seem to be called to a higher life, from having been obliged in
early youth to suffer so hard an experience, and to feel deeply the
discord among men."

"I? How?" asked Manna. "What do you know?" She trembled.

"I know," answered the Professorin, "that you have suffered under that
cruel burden which weighs upon your great and noble father-land."

"My father-land? I? Speak more plainly."

"It pains me that I tear open a wound which is scarred over, but this
scar is a mark of honor for you, and it is not your fault, my child,
that you are set in the midst of this life-struggle."

"I?"

"Yes."

"How? Tell me all; what do you know?"

"I mean that it should elevate you to have been obliged to bear
humiliation and bitterness in your own person; it gives you a loftier
consecration."

"Tell me plainly what you mean."

With an altered tone, like the hiss of a serpent. Manna spoke sharply
and angrily; her gentle eyes sparkled restlessly.