gent himself; he let the puppets dance, for all men are puppets to him
who knows how to govern them. He looked smilingly over at Pranken; this
man, too, was his puppet now. He began to whistle merrily but
inaudibly.

It was late in the evening when they reached the capital. Roland went
to bed directly. Pranken took his leave, saying that he had to make a
necessary call.

"Don't forget that you are a bridegroom," Sonnenkamp cried out after
him with a laugh.

For the first time in his life was Pranken troubled by such a jest; it
hurt him because it came from Manna's father, and because he was really
going on an errand very serious and moral in its nature and object; he
was going to the house of the Dean of the cathedral.

The house was in the garden behind the cathedral, hidden from the whole
world, and amidst a quiet that was never broken by the bustle of the
capital.

Pranken rang, a servant opened the door, and Pranken was not a little
astonished at hearing himself instantly called by name. The servant was
the soldier whom he had employed for some little time as an attendant.
He received Pranken's commission to inform him personally the next
morning, at the Victoria Hotel, whether the Dean could receive him
alone at eleven o'clock.

Pranken turned away, and he smiled, when, still thinking of his
father-in-law's admonition, he stopped before a certain house. He knew
it well, the pretty, quiet house that he himself had once furnished,
the carpeted stairs, the banisters with their stuffed velvet, and
everything so cosy, the bell up-stairs with its single note, the cool
ante-chamber full of green plants, the parlor so cheerful, the carpets,
and the furniture of the same pattern of silk throughout, a green
ground and yellow garland. Pranken liked the national colors even here.
In the corner stands an alabaster angel holding in its hand a fresh
bunch of flowers every day. Many a time too, the angel has to bear a
woman's jaunty hat, and many a time too a man's hat. And then the
door-curtains. Who is laughing behind them? No, he passes on.

He stopped at a shop window with large panes of glass; when going to
that cosy little house, he had always brought with him from this shop
some trifle, some comical little thing--there are many new things of
that kind in it now; he enters and purchases the very latest.

The young salesman looks at him inquiringly, Pranken nods and says:--

"You can show me everything."

And th