"My child, it is well, and I am glad that you are so diligent in getting fitted, but you will not enter—take notice, I show my respect for you by this communication; I look upon you as a grown-up and mature man."
He stopped, and Roland asked,—
"When is it that I am to enter?"
"Come nearer, and I will whisper it to you; you are to enter when you are a noble."
"I a noble? and you too?"
"Yes, all of us; and for your sake I must become ennobled, as you will see by and by. Do you feel glad at being made a noble?"
"Do you know, father, when I first began to respect nobility?"
Sonnenkamp looked at him inquiringly, and Roland continued:—
"At the railroad station, where I saw a crazy, drunken man. Everybody showed respect for him, because he was a nobleman, a baron. It is a great thing to be a nobleman."
Roland now gave an account of the meeting on the morning after his flight, and Sonnenkamp was surprised at the astonishing effect produced upon him, and at the lasting impression everything made. He now said:—