Sonnenkamp whistled to himself,--whistled so low that nobody but himself could hear the tune; he even knew how to set his lips so that nobody perceived him to be whistling.
He placed himself in a chair on a little eminence, and showed Eric also a seat.
"You must have noticed," he said at last, "that Fräulein Perini is a very strict Catholic, and all our household belong to the Church; may I ask, then, why you rang the changes so loudly upon your Huguenot descent?"
"Because I wish to show my colors, and nail them to the mast; for no one must ever take me for what I am not."
Sonnenkamp was silent for some time, and then he said, leaning back in his seat,--
"I am master in this house, and I tell you that your confession shall be no hindrance. But now"--he bent himself down, putting both hands on his knees and looking straight at Eric--"but now--I came very near falling from my horse to-day, which has never happened to me before, because I was deeply engaged, while riding, in reflection upon what you said to me--in brief--the main point of our conversation. How do you think that a boy who is to engage in no business and who is to come into possession of a million--or rather say, of millions--how do you think that such a boy is to be educated?"
"I can give a precise answer to that question."
"The answer is simple. He cannot be educated at all."
"That is what I affirm. The great mysterious Destiny alone can educate him. All that we can do is, to work with him, and to help him rule over and apply whatever strength he has."
"To rule over and to apply," Sonnenkamp murmured to himself; "that sounds well, and I must say that you confirm an impression which has often before this been made upon me. Only a soldier, only a man who has developed and trained his own inborn courageous energies, only such an one can accomplish anything great in our time; nothing can be done by sermons and books, for they cannot overcome the old, nor create the new age."
In a changed, almost cringingly humble tone, Sonnenkamp continued,--
"It may appear in the highest degree strange, that I, a man of little knowledge, who have not had time in the active business of life to learn anything rightly,--that I should seem to subject you to examination; but you must be convinced that I do it for my own instruction. I see, already, that I have even more to learn from you than Roland has.