,
when they wake up."

A messenger was sent to the village, and they were gratified to hear
that the two families were getting along comfortably again; but the
eldest daughter of Sevenpiper had left her parents' house, and had gone
to the field-guard's.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST RIDE.

Manna was extremely gracious towards everybody, and no one would have
suspected that this graciousness had pride for its basis. Every one
appeared to her so poor, so forlorn, so trammelled! Whenever she was
spoken to, her thought of the speaker was, "You, who say this, are but
a child of the world;" and whenever she took part in any pleasure
excursion, there was the perpetually recurring suggestion, "You
yourself are not here, you only seem to be here, you are in a wholly
different world, yonder, far above."

Every one was charmed with her friendliness, her gentleness, her
attentive listening, and yet only a part of herself was really taken up
with all this; she was elsewhere, and occupied with other interests.

No one ventured to exert any influence over her; but the Doctor agreed
with Pranken and her father, that she must again ride on horseback.

A new world seemed to be disclosed; inside the house, there was
singing, dancing, playing, and outside, too, all went merry as a
marriage-bell. Manna took pleasant rides on horseback with Pranken,
Eric, and Roland in the country round. Sonnenkamp also, mounted on his
great black horse, frequently joined the party. Their ride was full of
enjoyment, and they received on all sides marks of respect, not only
from those who had been the recipients of benefits through the
Professorin and Fraeulein Milch, but also from those who were well off
and independent in their circumstances. Wherever they alighted, and
wherever they reined up, there was always some fresh proof of the pride
which the whole region felt in such a man as Sonnenkamp.

One day Manna, Pranken, and Roland, Eric and Sonnenkamp, were riding
along the road bordered with nut-trees.

"Herr Dournay is right," exclaimed Manna, who was riding in advance
with Pranken and her father.

Manna said that Eric had made the remark, that nut-trees were much more
beautiful, and that it was a stupid and prosaic innovation to set out
lindens and other common trees along the roads; that the nut-tree
belonged to the Rhine, was beautiful and productive, and at least gave
to the ir