bedside, and felt his heart trembling with anxiety for the
beloved youth. He wandered out across the country; he felt as if he
must go to some friend, to some human being, on whose breast he could
lay his weary head.

He would have gone to Clodwig, to the Doctor, to Weidmann, once more;
but they could not change the unchangeable, and who knows but that in
another hour he would be needed here? he must not leave his mother, he
must not leave the house, he must not think of himself.

Thus he roamed about like a wandering spirit through the night. He saw
the carriage with the three ladies in it coming along the road; he hid
himself quickly behind a hedge; he could not understand what it meant;
he had recognized his mother, Frau Ceres, and Fraeulein Perini. Where
are they hurrying to? Or had he only fancied that he saw them? He
watched a long while, then the carriage returned, and he himself went
homeward. He sat for some time on a bench in the field-path, opposite
the green cottage; he saw the light go out; at last he went to the
villa.

At Manna's window, in which there was no light burning, he thought he
saw her looking out; he would like to have called out to her; but he
did not venture to; he had no right to disturb her in her sad
meditation.

It seemed to him as if a white hand was stretched out of the window; he
passed hurriedly by.

With mute lips he walked up and down his room; it seemed to him so
strange not to be talking with Roland as he had done every evening, for
so long.

Eric thought that he would seek relief from his own thoughts in some
book, but he pushed away the book with the hand he had reached out to
take it up. Professor Einsiedel was right, he had cut off his soul from
the empire of clear ideas; he cannot easily resume the connection. He
had devoted himself to a single human being, and now that he had left
him, he was undermined, and without support. And still he said again to
himself. If thou hadst not sacrificed thyself for Roland, he would not
be so well equipped as he is, and as he will yet prove himself to be,
in dangers and temptations. I wonder whether he is thinking of and
yearning for me at this moment as I am for him? Not now; now the
whirlpool of life is laying hold of him; but moments will come when he
will turn towards me, and I will be prepared.

Eric was revolving in his mind what would become of himself now; he
could not imagine, but consoled himself with the reflection that