With constrained calmness he continued,—
"In regard to this matter, I have only one desire, and only one request to make."
"And that is?"
Sonnenkamp again placed his hand upon the table as if he were laying down a stake at play.
"I should like that you would not find it disagreeable to consider me at first, for some days, a guest in your house."
Eric said nothing more, hoping that Sonnenkamp would answer at once in the affirmative; but he cracked in two, abruptly, a cigar which he had just lighted, and which did not seem to draw freely, and threw it away into the shrubbery. His face became red again, and a mocking smile played upon his lips, as he thought: "Very confident indeed! This young man imagines that if he can only get a lodgment for a few days, he can so bewitch every one that he will be deemed indispensable. We shall see!"
As he maintained a persistent silence, Eric said:—
"It would be desirable as well for you as for me, before making a permanent agreement, to know more of each other; and I especially desire this on Roland's account."
Sonnenkamp smiled, and watched two butterflies chasing each other, hardly giving any attention to Eric as he went on to state, that the boy seemed to him in one respect too mature, and in another not mature enough to be made acquainted with the selection of a tutor, and perhaps to have a voice in it; therefore he must first know him as a guest in the house, and afterwards as his tutor; also it was his own desire that Roland should not know that his tutor received pay in money, or at least, should not know the amount.
At the word money, Sonnenkamp seemed to come out of his butterfly-gazing.