g act of neglect. Sonnenkamp
whistled to himself inaudibly, as if some plan were ripening in him.

Bella contrived again to be alone with Eric, and expressed to him her
satisfaction at the success of her little plot. She knew, she said,
that Sonnenkamp would not let him go, but she also knew that he would
humble him on account of the neglect he had been guilty of, and
therefore persuaded Clodwig to drive over at once. Eric was full of
gratitude.

"Did you notice," she asked in a low voice, "what a look Herr
Sonnenkamp gave me, and how he raised his finger at me? This man
imagines that our friendship is something more than friendship; to the
impure nothing is pure. I think you will not misunderstand me, if I
sometimes intentionally slight you in the presence of this spying
knave."

She gave Eric her hand, and held his long and tightly pressed. Neither
suspected that from behind a bush two eyes were fixed upon them, and a
sharp ear heard their every word. When they had passed on, Sonnenkamp
drew a deep breath as a relief from the long constraint he had put upon
himself.

CHAPTER II.

AN INALIENABLE POSSESSION.

The next morning came the tidings that the groom whom Sonnenkamp had
dismissed shortly before his journey, suspecting him of being a spy of
Pranken's, had been arrested in the capital in the very act of offering
for sale a large silver goblet. Roland brought the news to Eric, and
this was only one of the many interruptions liable at any moment to
break in upon the hours of study and thought, in consequence of this
robbery. Of what use were lessons when the mind was thus excited? What
lasting impression could be made? At one time Eric thought of going
hunting more frequently with Roland, in order to amuse him and let him
gain fresh elasticity and powers of observation by the pursuit of new
objects. But he finally decided on the opposite course, that of helping
his pupil not by amusement, but by closer application to his studies.
Great was his satisfaction, therefore, at having Roland say to him,--

"Let us forget all else and quietly go on with our work."

The boy's love of study had received an impulse which made every
interruption distasteful to him, and led him to look for his best
pleasures in his books.

Roland soon became conscious of a fresh energy in Eric, without being
able to conjecture its cause; it was the exaltation that follows a