head, and Sonnenkamp continued,--

"A trust in God! Look! a poor vine-dresser was buried there day before
yesterday. I would give half my property to purchase of him for the
remainder of my life his trust in God. I could not believe what the
physician said, but it was only the truth, that this vine-dresser, a
real Lazarus covered with sores, in all his sufferings constantly said,
'My Saviour underwent yet severer pains, and God knows beforehand
why he inflicts this upon me.' Now tell me if such a faith is not
worth more than any millions of money? And I ask you now, do you
feel yourself able to give this to my son, without making him a
priest-ridden slave, or a canting devotee?"

"I do not think that I can. But there is a blessedness to be obtained
from the depths of thought."

"Is there? and in what does it consist?"

"According to my opinion, in the blissful consciousness of acting
according to the measure of our strength, and in harmony with the
well-being of our fellow-men."

"I think that if I, when a boy, had had an instructor after your stamp,
it would have been happy for me," Sonnenkamp exclaimed, in a tone
entirely different from before.

Eric replied, "Nothing that you could say to me would give me more
confidence and hopefulness than this utterance."

A quick movement of the hand, as if he were throwing away some object,
indicated that something went wrong with Sonnenkamp. This continued
conversation wearied him, for he was not used to it, and this sort of
immediate balancing of the ledger wounded his pride. Eric never
remained in his debt, and he himself had always the feeling that there
was something for him to pay.

For some time nothing was heard but the splashing of the fountain, and
the gentle flowing of the Rhine, and at intervals the note of the
nightingale singing unweariedly in the thicket.

"Did you ever have a passion for play?" Sonnenkamp asked unexpectedly.

"No."

"Were you ever passionately in love? You look at me in astonishment,
but I asked only because I should like to know what has made you so
mature."

"Perhaps a careful and thorough training has given me that serious
thoughtfulness which you are so kind as to call maturity."

"Well, you are more than an educator."

"I shall be glad if it is so, for I think that he who is to bring
anything to pass must always be something more than what his immediate
activity calls for."

Sonnenkamp again made a wry face, and once mor