ey discussed the question of waiving all
ordinary considerations, and celebrating Manna's and Eric's marriage at
once.

He declared that one ought never to have recourse to marriage as a
remedy, but should enter into a new phase of existence with a tranquil
heart, and a new joy in existence itself.

This coincided with Eric's own secret feeling, and he said to Manna,--

"Your desire to travel, to find something outside yourself, is a
perfectly natural one. You miss that great other home of yours, the
church, which you could visit at any time, and come back in an altered
frame of mind. You want some other human being to proffer you out of
his own thought and soul, and upon constituted authority, something
distinct from yourself,--something which you yourself have lost.
Instead of this, you have now to find your all at home and in yourself.
It is hard, I know; but so it must be. So long as you seek any thing
without, you are not at home with yourself. Here in this place, in
these rooms where such horror overwhelmed us, we must learn to compose
and control ourselves. 'Stand to your post!' is the military command;
and it has also a moral significance."

With such words, and more to the same effect, did Eric lighten Manna's
perplexities: she embraced and thanked him for thus entering into her
very soul, and freeing her from every yoke.

Quietly and serenely the days glided by, until an invitation arrived
from the Justice's wife. The Professorin accepted at once; but Manna
said she could not accompany her: she was not yet chastened and calm
enough to mingle with the world and submit to being received with
compassion.

Eric made a sign to his mother not to urge Manna; and she was left to
do as she liked.

CHAPTER VII.

BITTER ALMONDS BECOME SWEET.

The Justice's wife was an object of envy in that the first coffee-party
of the winter was to be at her house. It seemed hardly necessary to
provide any entertainment; for who would care to eat and drink when
there was so much to talk about?--of Sonnenkamp, of Bella, of the
betrothal of Eric and Manna, of poor Frau Ceres, of the negro, of the
Prince, of Clodwig's death. There was so much, that only a part of it
could be brought into play.

At length the company assembled.

The corner of the sofa where Bella used to sit--it seemed decades
ago--was shunned with a kind of superstitious dread. Frau "Lay-Figure"
wa