kamp, the strong man, trembled within himself. He had an avowal
upon his lips, but he dared not utter it; he had a demoniacal smile
upon his face, as Bella said to him:--

"There is one thing only you must not do; speak not to me of love:
anything but the 'fable convenue;' that is nothing--for you nothing and
to me nothing. Still another thing. You will learn it now too, if you
do not know it already,--the greatest tyranny in the world is the
family. Grieve not for your family; a hero has no family, and besides,
it is only a sentimental tradition that the heroes used to play with
their children on the floor. You must be alone, think of yourself
alone; then you are strong, you are like a man born of Byron's fancy,
and such a man actually stands before me. You have made only one
mistake; a man like you, such a hero, should have no family, should not
want to have any. Be firm, do not suffer yourself to be cleft in twain
and crushed to atoms through this mistake."

Sonnenkamp was still too much shaken not to feel a shudder creep over
him at the sight of this apparition, that seemed to have sprung out
from the world of fable; he said that he had had an idea, of the mere
existence of which he had only been conscious in a shadowy way, but now
it was clear; he was resolved to continue the struggle, to wage open
war, that is, covert but decisive war; he would bring the virtuous
people hereabouts to a different way of thinking, this next would be
his task. He had a plan that was not yet clear to him, but it would
become clear.

Bella said that she did not wish to speak to any one in the house
beside himself; she was going back at once, but she trusted that he
would be firm and stand his ground, for otherwise she would have to
despise all men, and among them the only one who had ever won her
respect by real power.

Sonnenkamp opened the seed-room, accompanied Bella through it, and
opened the door that led to the private stair overrun with climbing
plants. Here he kissed her hand at parting. But while still on the
steps, Bella called after him:--

"And one thing more! The first thing for you to do is to free yourself
from slavery; you must send away this teacher's family."

She made a repellant gesture, and added:--

"This teacher's family should establish their transcendental distillery
in the little University town once more."

When Sonnenkamp returned to his room after Bella's departure, it seemed
to him as if everythi