"Fine, very fine,--noble. But Roland needs a strict hand."

"Love does not exclude but rather includes strictness; he who loves
requires perfection in himself, as well as in the object of his love,
and makes the highest demands."

Sonnenkamp nodded in a very friendly, even kindly manner; but there was
a sort of sneer upon his countenance, as looking down to the ground and
placing both hands upon his knees, he said:--

"We will speak now about personal matters; for things of that sort we
will find time by and by. You are a ----?"

"Philologist by profession; but I have devoted myself, by preference,
to practical education."

"I know that,--I know that," Sonnenkamp said, still looking down as he
spoke.

"I should like to know something about your personal history."

He did not look up, and Eric was deeply pained at the thought of being
obliged again to become his own biographer. He felt like a man who
speaks to a sober and cool listener after drinking with a set of boon
companions. He had unfolded himself freely and spontaneously to
Clodwig, the day before; and to-day he must do it in order to recommend
himself to a purchaser. And so it is! The seller must always say more,
and expatiate more upon his goods, than the buyer. Wealth was a
tyrannical power exhibiting itself under an entirely new form.

Eric, looking at the back of the man's head, and at his broad
neck,--for not a glance was vouchsafed him,--very soon lost all
sensitiveness as to his position of being a seeker after employment. He
was not the receiver, but the giver. A tone of self-respect breathed in
the words which he now uttered:--

"I offer you my free labor."

On hearing this, Sonnenkamp threw up his head quickly without changing
his position, cast a rapid glance upon the speaker, and let his head
immediately drop again.

"I mean," continued Eric, "that I offer to you and to your son all that
I am, and all the knowledge and science that I have made my own
hitherto. I look for no other reward than the free unfolding of my own
activity; and I have the feeling of freedom in doing this, since
whatever I may accomplish I accomplish also for myself, in bringing
that actually to pass which I have striven after, and which I have laid
down as a theoretical demand."

"I know what free labor is," Sonnenkamp said, looking towards the
ground. Then sitting upright, he added with a smiling countenance:--

"You are not dealing with a man of learning. I th