om opened into another apartment, where the heavy
damask curtain had just been drawn back. The Banker, whom Eric had
become acquainted with at Carlsbad, came out of it, holding in his hand
a bundle of papers, and gave him a friendly greeting, expressing his
pleasure in meeting again here the man who was as intimate a friend of
Clodwig's as he was himself.

A new subject was at once introduced. The Banker said that he had
looked over the papers thoroughly; the public domain did not seem to be
valued at too high a figure, and Weidmann must understand how it was
purposed to divide it; but he believed that it would be hardly possible
to extend to this new undertaking the plan of insurance which Weidmann
had adopted for his laborers; that it was very questionable whether the
income, for years, would be such that the life-insurance premium could
be saved.

Eric learned that Weidmann paid the life-insurance premium of all his
employees after they had been with him four years.

Weidmann gave a statement, in general outline, of the manner in which
the so-called social question struck him as being the same as among the
ancient Romans; the point of consideration was to make free and
independent cultivators of their own lands. And he laid particular
stress upon the remark that this social question, however, was not to
be solved as if it were merely a problem in arithmetic; that there must
be a moral and social enthusiasm, and he must confess, although many
would shrug their shoulders at it, that he himself was of opinion that
the humane principle of Freemasonry, which had too much lost its real
meaning, was to look for, and to find here, a new inspiration and
application.

It was soon evident that the Banker was a brother of the order.

Eric's heart swelled as he felt obliged to say to himself, while his
thoughts were carried away to the grand movements of the world:--

"Everywhere, in our day, there is an active endeavor, a care for the
neighbor, for those in adverse circumstances. This is our religion,
which has no temples and no established days of festive celebration,
but which, everywhere and at all times, struggles for the good."

He entirely forgot where he came from, and why he came, and lived
wholly in the present.

Weidmann postponed, however, the subject to another time, and asked
what Roland was going to do. But before Eric could reply, a man came in
with Dr. Fritz, to whom Eric gave a cordial reception. It was