Bella began again,—
"Were not the female slaves who served the Roman ladies obliged to puff out their cheeks, when a noble matron wished to strike them in the face? A propos, how is Fräulein Sonnenkamp?"
"She has gone to the convent," replied Eric with downcast eyes.
It oppressed him to be obliged to answer Bella's questions with regard to Manna.
"That seems to me very sensible," was the rejoinder.
"Such a cloister is a shelter where the sensitive child will best find repose until the storm is past. What will Roland now do? What are your intentions, and those of your mother?"
These questions were put in a manner so superficial, so distant, and so conventional, that Eric was able to reply with a certain degree of cheerfulness,—
"In the interim, we have recourse to the great deed which is so universal."
"The great deed?"
"Yes: in the mean time, we are doing nothing."