her
great pleasure that a watering-place acquaintance should have ripened
into a new friendship.

Pranken insinuatingly remarked that they might become neighbors too.

The country-house was glowingly described, and the fact cautiously yet
emphatically stated, that Sonnenkamp had already bought the place for
the sake of inducing some noble friends to settle there by letting them
have it at a moderate sum.

The lady was delighted; she knew the house very well, it having once
belonged to friends of hers whom she had been in the habit of visiting
there. She quite envied the people who should live in such a home and
have such noble neighbors. She had told her husband, she said, that it
was a disgrace to the State that such a man as Herr Sonnenkamp should
have no title.

Having thus prepared the way, Pranken disclosed his plan to the
Cabinetsraethin, who assured him it could not but be a most desirable
thing for society, to have a man of Herr Sonnenkamp's importance
admitted to a higher rank. Sonnenkamp assumed an air of great shyness
and modesty. A maiden receiving her first offer, which she was quite
prepared for, could not have looked more bashfully on the ground; he
actually blushed.

They drew their chairs nearer together, as if now for the first time a
right friendly and confidential intercourse was established among them.
The lady begged that nothing might be said to her husband upon the
matter at present; she would manage that part herself; but it would be
a good plan to set some other influence at work; if Count Wolfsgarten,
for instance, would start the subject at court, it would be easy to
play into his hands.

Pranken laid great stress upon the cordial friendship that existed
between Clodwig and Sonnenkamp, but urged that a matter of this kind
needed to be handled with the greatest delicacy, such as only a lady of
the Cabinetsraethin's acknowledged tact was capable of.

Sonnenkamp declared that he did not ask for a title; it must be offered
him; his friends must see to that. He rejoiced in the delicacy with
which the Cabinetsraethin handled the matter, and he handled it in like
manner; his whole demeanor said, This is something quite out of the
common course.

He moved his hand quietly, as if he were stroking the back of a very
soft cat.

"Are there vineyards attached to this country-house?" suddenly asked
the lady.

"To the best of my knowledge," answered Pranken, "there are three acres
most favora