After dinner, Pranken allowed the Justice, who was in a hurry, to be driven to town in Sonnenkamp's carriage; he himself remained in very confidential conversation with Sonnenkamp, who admired the art with which a young man, who was a suitor for a wealthy maiden, worked himself into a state of enthusiasm thereat.
After Pranken had departed, Sonnenkamp went to the conservatory, where Roland soon came to him and said:—
"Father, I have a request."
"I shall be glad, if it is a request that I can grant."
"Father, I promise to learn everyday the names of twenty plants, if you will give me Herr Eric again."
"Very nice of Herr Dournay to teach you to promise me that."
The boy looked at his father, as if confounded, his lips swelled, and gazing timidly around upon the plants, as if he called upon them to bear testimony that he was speaking the truth, he cried:—
"Eric has not said to me anything of the kind, any more than those plants have; he has not taught me to say that; but if he had, I would learn it from him, and from nobody but him."
"Not even from me?" exclaimed Sonnenkamp.
The boy was silent, and his father repeated the question:—