Here some remarks were made, in too low a tone for Eric to
catch, which raised a general laugh.

"I call you to witness," said a stout man whom Eric recognized as a
flour-dealer and baker, "that I say now this Herr Sonnenkamp is sent on
a secret mission. The young nobles in the South want an emperor, and
this Herr Sonnenkamp's designs to aim higher, perhaps, than any of us
imagine."

"Then you can go with him and be court-baker," said one, whose
rejoinder was received with a burst of laughter.

"What's that to us?" said another; "the man brings plenty of money into
the country. If a hundred of them came, I don't care what they are
after, as long as they bring us their money."

The speaker was a short, round-bodied little man with a great
meerschaum pipe. He emptied his covered glass as he spoke, and called
out to the bar-maid,--

"Bring me a fresh one; I have deserved it, for I am the cleverest of
the lot."

Eric slipped out of the room, glad not to have been recognized.

At the door he received a friendly greeting from a young man whom he
had no recollection of having seen before, but who recognized him as
one of the singers at the musical festival. He was a teacher in the
scientific school in the capital, and announced to Eric that he had
been proposed to the school-teachers' union as an honorary member.

Eric thanked him and passed on; meeting in the street a great stream of
people and carriages coming from the theatre; he hurried to the hotel,
that Roland might find him there on his return, and happily arrived
before his pupil. He waited in his room, but no Roland came; he went to
the drawing-room, but he was not there; on the contrary, he was himself
asked if Roland had not yet returned.

The Cabinetsraethin observed, with a smile, that they need feel no
uneasiness, for Roland was with Cuno, and of course enjoying himself.
She expressed her regrets that she too must now take leave of the
company, and, drawing Sonnenkamp into the embrasure of a window,
presented him with an Almanach de Gotha for the new year, a book which,
as she gracefully remarked, should henceforth never appear without the
name of Sonnenkamp being in it; and she bound herself from this day
forth to pay him taxes in the shape of this canonical book, to be
delivered to him yearly as long as she lived.

Sonnenkamp was duly grateful, and escorted the lady to her carriage.

On returning to the drawing-room, he said to Eric:--

"I had su