you, and it will also freeze
me forever, if you abandon me. Eric, don't do it; don't do it to
yourself, or to me. Stay with me, I will stay with thee. I beseech you,
Eric, do not leave me; I am not plaster; I am not marble; do not leave
me. I beseech thee, Eric, do not forsake me--do not forsake me."

All were thrilled by this scene, and while the boy was speaking thus,
the Major said in a low tone,--

"This is no child. What can it be? The lad speaks just as if a holy
spirit possessed him!"

Eric went to Roland, raised him in his strong arms, held him high up,
and said,--

"Roland, as I hold you now, and you hold me, so hold fast to me with
all the strength of your life! We will together grow into something
great; here is my hand."

The letter was forgotten. The mother begged to be permitted to open
it, and she had hardly run it over, when she cried with a lightened
heart,--

"Thank God, Eric, you need not be ungrateful."

The letter contained an expression of regret that the place had been
already given to a young man of the nobility, who had shown himself
unfitted for a diplomatic post.

Sonnenkamp requested them to let him have the letter; he might perhaps
make use of it as a document against Eric's enemies, who charged him
with being in ill-favor at court. And now he desired that mother and
aunt would remove at once to Villa Eden; but Eric answered positively
in the negative. He himself agreed to go, but his mother and aunt could
not before the autumn; he must first become initiated, with Roland
alone, into the family life.

No one was happier, that everything had turned out so well, than the
Major. It was decided to start to-day. The Major promised that he and
Fraeulein Milch would help the mother and aunt in all the arrangements,
when they removed later in the season; nothing else would do, as
Fraeulein Milch must be consulted in everything. He now requested leave
of absence for an hour, to visit friends in the university-town, whom
he did not know personally.

After the Major had gone, Sonnenkamp said, in a kindly tone of
patronage, that the Major probably had some brother Freemasons to
visit. Eric also asked to be excused, as he had yet to take leave of
one man.

He went to see Professor Einsiedel. The Professor was always uniformly
ready for every friendly call, but as uniformly angry, if, forgetting
the hour of his lecture, any one came during the half hour previous; he
could be very angry. H