Eric and his mother trembled. Did Sonnenkamp already know? He, meanwhile, seated himself calmly and began:
"Noble lady, you have done a great thing for me, and now I commit into your hands, and your keeping, my fate and that of those who belong to me."
He made a pause and then proceeded:
"From out of the midst of the riot one thought has remained with me. It was of sudden birth; and now the question is, how to carry it out. Already on Sunday, when I was going to church, where the beggar insulted me, it was my intention"—
"Pray, do not forget what you were going to say," interposed the Professorin. "Permit me to interrupt you with a question."
"Go on. I am ready."
"Does the source of all your wealth lie in that?"
"No, not a sixth of it. Even my enemies know that."
"Then please proceed. You had begun, 'as you were going to church'"—
"Yes, then it was my intention, in spite of my unbelief, to confess to a priest. I acknowledge, Herr von Pranken was not without influence in this matter; but it originated, nevertheless, with me. This institution of the confession in our church is a grand thing. Offences for which no earthly judge can punish, for which no clause is to be found in the law, are blotted out; we are absolved from them by a man filled with the divine grace by consecration, sympathetic, considerate, who neither knows nor sees the penitent, yet who hears the breath of his quivering confession; who is so far from him, and yet so near!"