Every day, whenever Frau Ceres saw Roland, she would say:—
"Why, Roland, how pale you look! Does he not look very pale?" Here she invariably appealed to Eric, and upon his answering in the negative seemed reassured.
But one day when the Mother exclaimed in terror:—
"Why, Roland, you do look so pale!" Eric could not deny it.
"I don't know what is the matter with me," he complained as Eric took him to his chamber.
"Everything seems to be turning round me," he said as he looked about the room.
"What does it mean? Oh! Oh!"
He sank down on a chair and burst into a sudden fit of weeping.
Eric stood amazed.
The boy seemed to lose consciousness, and, with his eyes wide open, stared at Eric as if he did not see him.