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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Edelweiss, by Berthold Auerbach
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Edelweiss
+       A Story
+
+Author: Berthold Auerbach
+
+Translator: Ellen Frothingham
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2010 [EBook #33007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDELWEISS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from books scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes:
+1. Page scan source:
+ http://books.google.com/books?id=S84sAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false
+
+2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+3. Completion of "Volumes Published" in the Leisure-Hour Series was
+   accomplished by reference to books in Google.books.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE LEISURE-HOUR SERIES.
+
+A collection of works whose character is light and entertaining, though
+not trivial. While they are handy for the pocket or the satchel, they
+are not, either in contents or appearance, unworthy of a place on the
+library shelves. 16mo, cloth. PRICE REDUCED TO $1.00 PER VOLUME.
+
+--> SPECIAL NOTICE--LIBRARY BINDING. A _set_ of the works any author
+whose name is preceded by an asterisk (*), may be obtained in library
+style, extra cloth, gilt back, without extra charge. _Single_ vols. in
+library style, $1.10.
+
+
+                          _VOLUMES PUBLISHED._
+
+ABOUT, E.
+      The Man with the Broken Ear.
+      The Notary's Nose.
+
+ALCESTIS. _A Musical novel._
+
+ALEXANDER, Mrs.
+      The Wooing O't.
+      Which Shall It Be?
+      Ralph Wilton's Weird.
+      Her Dearest Foe.
+      Heritage of Langdale.
+
+AUERBACH, B.
+      The Villa on the Rhine. 2 vols. _w. Portr._
+      Black Forest Village Stories.
+      The Little Barefoot.
+      Joseph in the Snow.
+      Edelweiss.
+      German Tales.
+      On the Heights. 2 vols.
+      The Convicts.
+      Lorley and Reinhard.
+      Aloys.
+      Poet and Merchant.
+      Landolin.
+
+BJORNSON, B.
+      The Fisher-Maiden.
+
+BUTT, B. M.
+      Miss Molly.
+      Eugenie.
+
+CADELL, Mrs. H. M.
+      Ida Craven.
+
+CALVERLEY, C. S.
+      Fly-Leaves. _A volume of verses._
+
+CHERBULIEZ, V.
+      Joseph Noirel's Revenge.
+      Count Kostia.
+      Prosper.
+
+CORKRAN, ALICE.
+      Bessie Lang.
+
+CRAVEN, Mme. A.
+      Fleurange.
+
+DROZ, GUSTAVE.
+      Babolain.
+      Around a Spring.
+
+ERSKINE, Mrs. T.
+      Wyncote.
+
+FREYTAG, G.
+      Ingo.
+      Ingraban.
+
+GIFT, THEO.
+      Pretty Miss Bellew.
+      Maid Ellice.
+
+GOETHE, J. W. Von.
+      Elective Affinities.
+
+GRIFFITHS, Arthur
+      Lola: A Tale of Gibralter.
+
+*HARDY, THOMAS.
+      Under the Greenwood Tree.
+      A Pair of Blue Eyes.
+      Desperate Remedies.
+      Far From the Madding Crowd. _Illustr._
+      Hand of Ethelberta.
+
+HEINE, HEINRICH.
+      Scintillations.
+
+JENKIN, Mrs. C.
+      Who Breaks--Pays.
+      Skirmishing.
+      A Psyche of To-Day.
+      Madame de Beaupre.
+      Jupiter's Daughters.
+      Within an Ace.
+
+JOHNSON, Rossiter.
+      Play-Day Poems.
+
+LAFFAN, MAY.
+      The Hon. Miss Ferrard.
+
+MAJENDIE, Lady M.
+      Giannetto.
+      Dita.
+
+MAXWELL, CECIL.
+      A Story of Three Sisters.
+
+MOLESWORTH, Mrs.
+      Hathercourt.
+
+OLIPHANT, Mrs.
+      Whiteladies.
+
+PALGRAVE, W. G.
+      Hermann Agha.
+
+PARR, LOUISA.
+      Hero Carthew.
+
+POYNTER, E. F.
+      My Little Lady.
+      Ersilia.
+
+RICHARDSON, S.
+      Clarissa Harlowe. (_Condensed._)
+
+*RICHTER, J. P. F.
+      Flower, Fruit, & Thorn Pieces. 2 vols.
+      Campaner Thal, etc.
+      Titan. 2 vols.
+      Hesperus. 2 vols.
+
+ROBERTS, Miss.
+      Noblesse Oblige.
+      On the Edge of Storm.
+
+SCHMID, H.
+      The Habermeister.
+
+SLIP in the FENS, A. _Illustrated._
+
+SMITH, H. and J.
+      Rejected Addresses.
+
+SPIELHAGEN, F.
+      What the Swallow Sang.
+
+THACKERAY, W. M.
+      Early and Late Papers.
+
+*TURGENIEFF, I.
+      Fathers and Sons.
+      Smoke.
+      Liza.
+      On the Eve.
+      Dimitri Roudine.
+      Spring Floods: Lear
+      Virgin Soil.
+
+TYTLER, C. C. F.
+      Mistress Judith.
+      Jonathan.
+
+VERS DE SOCIETE.
+
+VILLARI, LINDA.
+      In Change Unchanged.
+
+WALFORD, L. B.
+      Mr. Smith.
+      Pauline.
+
+*WINTHROP, THEO.
+      Cecil Dreeme. _w. Portr._
+      Canoe and Saddle.
+      John Brent.
+      Edwin Brothertoft.
+      Life in the Open Air.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+_Where readers have no retail stores within reach, Messrs._ HENRY HOLT
+& CO. _will send their publications, post-paid, on receipt of the
+advertised price._
+
+25 _Bond St., N. Y., July_ 13, 187-.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE LEISURE-HOUR SERIES,
+                        FOR THE SUMMER OF 1878.
+
+"The admirable Leisure Hour Series."--_Nation_.
+
+"To any one who wants a book that will prove both entertaining
+and profitable, as good literature always is, and does not know
+precisely what to ask for, we say select one of 'The Leisure Hour
+Series.'"--_Boston Advertiser_.
+
+"The series has throughout been a most creditable one, commended as
+much to literary readers for the literary excellence maintained in the
+selection of its books as to ordinary novel buyers by their cleverness
+and interest."--_N. Y. Tribune_.
+
+"Has a way of absorbing all the charming stories and new authors that
+one never heard of until introduced in this manner.--_N. Y. Herald_.
+
+"We do not recall one of this series that has not been deserving the
+high and noble company into which it has been admitted. Outwardly,
+with its cool linen covers, the series is attractive. No less so are
+its various volumes, from the strong stalwart pictures of Russian life
+and character by Turgenieff, to the delightful stories by Mrs.
+Alexander."--_Cincinnati Times_.
+
+
+No. 93. THE HONORABLE MISS FERRARD. By May Laffan.
+
+"It is not an abuse of terms to call it brilliant. The book cannot fail
+to excite the warmest interest."--_Boston Post_.
+
+"A brilliant novel ... Unmistakably the work of a finished and a
+reflecting writer."--_Boston Gazette_.
+
+No. 94. LANDOLIN. By Berthold Auerbach.
+
+"We do not err, we think, in calling this one of his masterpieces, in
+which we have his art at its best."--_N. Y. Evening Post_.
+
+"In every sense one of his best works.... It is evident throughout,
+that he has neither 'written out,' nor lost the vein of originality and
+freshness which give such a charm to his books."--_Boston Post_.
+
+"Likely to rank next to 'On the Heights.'"--_Louisville Courier
+Journal_.
+
+
+No. 95. MAID ELLICE. By Theo. Gift, author of "Pretty Miss Bellew."
+(_New Revised Edition now Ready_.)
+
+
+No. 96. HATHERCOURT. By Mrs. Molesworth, (Ennis Graham), author of "The
+Cuckoo Clock."
+
+
+No. 97. PLAY-DAY POEMS. Collected and edited by Rossiter Johnson. The
+best of the humorous poems published since Parton's collection in 1856,
+and also many of the old favorites. (_Just Ready_.)
+
+
+No. 98. GADDINGS WITH A PRIMITIVE PEOPLE. By W. A. Baillie Grohman. A
+remarkably entertaining volume of out-of-the-way life and adventure,
+which the _London Saturday Review_ characterized as "singularly
+readable;" the _Spectator_, as "a book such as the public seldom has
+the opportunity of reading;" and the _Westminster Review_, as "always
+bright and picturesque, and eminently readable." (_Shortly_.)
+
+
+No. 99. PLAYS FOR PRIVATE ACTING. Translated from the French and
+Italian by members of the Bellevue Dramatic Club of Newport, R. I. Over
+twenty plays for amateur acting, requiring little or no scenery and
+from one to seven characters, selected principally from the enormously
+successful THEATRE DE CAMPAGNE, recently published by the LEADING
+FRENCH DRAMATISTS. (_Shortly_.)
+
+
+No. 100. A CENTURY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. Edited by Henry A. Beers,
+Professor in Yale College. Selections from writers no longer living,
+designed to present a sketch of that portion of our good literature
+which is not daily claiming attention. (_Shortly_.)
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+           _HENRY HOLT & CO., Publishers. 25 Bond St., N. Y._
+
+
+
+                               EDELWEISS
+
+
+[Illustration: Leontopodium Alpinum]
+
+
+"There is a flower known to botanists, one of the same genus with our
+summer plant called 'Life-Everlasting,' a _Gnaphalium_ like that, which
+grows on the most inaccessible cliffs of the Tyrolese mountains, where
+the chamois dare hardly venture, and which the hunter, tempted by its
+beauty and by his love (for it is immensely valued by the Swiss
+maidens), climbs the cliffs to gather, and is sometimes found dead at
+the foot, with the flower in his hand. It is called by botanists the
+_Gnaphalium leontopodium_, but by the Swiss _EDELWEISSE_, which
+signifies _NOBLE PURITY_."
+
+                                              RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+                           BY THE SAME AUTHOR
+
+                        (_Leisure-Hour Series_)
+
+                  ON THE HEIGHTS. 2 vols.
+                  THE VILLA ON THE RHINE. 2 vols.
+                  BLACK FOREST VILLAGE STORIES
+                  LITTLE BAREFOOT
+                  JOSEPH IN THE SNOW
+                  EDELWEISS
+                  GERMAN TALES
+                  WALDFRIED
+                  THE CONVICTS AND THEIR CHILDREN
+                  LORLEY AND REINHARD
+                  ALOYS
+                  POET AND MERCHANT
+                  LANDOLIN
+
+
+
+
+
+                      LEISURE HOUR SERIES. No. 44.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+                               EDELWEISS
+
+                                A STORY
+
+
+                                   BY
+                           BERTHOLD AUERBACH
+   Author of "On the Heights," "Waldfried," "Villa on the Rhine," &c
+
+
+                             TRANSLATED BY
+                           ELLEN FROTHINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+                         HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
+                                  1874
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
+                           ROBERTS BROTHERS,
+     in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
+                             Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               EDELWEISS.
+
+
+On the sunny slope of a mountain stands a house that is a joy to every
+eye; for it tells of happy inmates who have won their happiness by long
+and painful struggle,--who have stood in the valley of the shadow of
+death, and risen to new life.
+
+The housewife comes to the door. Her face is young and fair, and of a
+bright complexion, but her hair is white as snow. She smiles to an old
+woman who is working in the garden, and calls to the children not to be
+so noisy.
+
+"Come in, Franzl; and you too, children. William is starting on his
+journey," says the young white-haired mother. The bent old woman, as
+she approaches, raises a corner of her apron to her eyes, to stop the
+gathering tears.
+
+Presently the father comes from the house, accompanied by a young
+fellow with a knapsack on his back. "Bid your mother good by, William,"
+he says. "Be careful so to conduct yourself that you need never fear
+the eyes of father or mother on your actions. Then, God willing, you
+shall one day cross this threshold again with a happy heart."
+
+The young woman with the snow-white hair embraces the sturdy boy, and
+says through her sobs: "I have nothing to add. Your father has said
+all. Remember and bring home an Edelweiss, if you find any on the Swiss
+mountains." The traveller sets off amid the shouts of his brothers and
+sisters.
+
+"Good by, William; good by, good by." They play with the word "good
+by," and will not let it go.
+
+"Mother," the father calls back, "I am only going with William and
+Lorenz as far as the cross-roads. Pilgrim will keep on with them to
+their first sleeping-place. I shall soon be back."
+
+"All right; only do not hurry yourself, and do not take the parting too
+much to heart. Tell Faller's wife she must come to us at noon, and
+bring Lizzie with her. It is a great comfort," she continues, turning
+to the old woman as father and son depart, "that Faller's Lorenz goes
+abroad with our William."
+
+
+Our story will tell why the young, white-haired mother asks the little
+plant Edelweiss of her boy when he is starting for foreign lands. It is
+a sad, a cruel history, but the sun of love breaks through at last.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                              A GOOD NAME.
+
+
+"She was an excellent woman."
+
+"Yes, there are few such left."
+
+"She was one of the old school."
+
+"Go to her when you would, her help and counsel were always ready."
+
+"And how much she went through! She buried her husband and four
+children, yet was always brave and cheerful."
+
+"Ah, Lenz will miss her sorely. He will find out now what a mother he
+had."
+
+"Nay, he knew that in her lifetime. His devotion to her was unbounded."
+
+"He must be thinking of marrying soon."
+
+"He can choose whom he will. Any house would be glad to receive such a
+capable, excellent fellow."
+
+"A pretty property he must have too."
+
+"Besides being the only heir of his rich uncle Petrovitsch."
+
+"How beautiful the singing of the Liederkranz was! It thrilled me
+through and through."
+
+"And how it must have affected Lenz! He has always before sung with
+them, and his voice was one of the best."
+
+"Did you notice he did not shed a tear while the minister was
+preaching; but when his friends began to sing, he cried and sobbed as
+if his heart would break."
+
+"This is the first funeral that has not driven old Petrovitsch out of
+the town. It would have been shameful in him not to have paid the last
+honors to his own brother's wife."
+
+So the people talked as they went their several ways through the valley
+and up the mountains. All were dressed in sober clothes, for they were
+coming from a funeral. Near the church in the valley, where stand a few
+thinly scattered houses, the Lion Inn conspicuous among them, the widow
+of the clock-maker Lenz of the Morgenhalde had been buried. All had a
+good word for her; and their sad faces showed that each had met with a
+personal loss in the good woman's death. As every fresh grief reopens
+the old wounds, the villagers had turned from the newly covered grave
+to visit those of their own loved ones, and there had prayed and
+mourned for the departed.
+
+We are in the clock-making district, among those wooded hills that send
+their streams to the Rhine on one side and the Danube on the other. The
+inhabitants are by nature quiet and thoughtful. The women far outnumber
+the men, many of whom are scattered through all parts of the world,
+engaged in the clock trade. Those who remain at home are pale from
+their close confinement at work. The women, on the contrary, who labor
+in the field are bright and rosy, while a pretty air of demureness is
+imparted to their faces by the broad black ribbons they wear tied under
+the chin.
+
+Agriculture is practised on a small scale. With the exception of a few
+large farms, it is limited to a scanty tillage of the meadows. In some
+places a narrow belt of trees runs down to the brook at the very bottom
+of the valley; in others, again, a tall, bare pine, on the edge of a
+meadow, shows that field and garden-patch have been wrested from the
+forest. The ash-trees, whose branches are stripped every year to
+furnish food for the goats, look like elongated willows. The village,
+or rather the parish, stretches out miles in length. The houses are
+built of whole trunks of trees, dovetailed together, and are sprinkled
+over mountain and valley. Their fronts present an uninterrupted row of
+windows, arranged without intermediate spaces, as the object is to
+admit all the light possible. The barn, when there is one, is
+approached from the hill behind the house by a passage entering
+directly under the roof. A heavy covering of thatch projects over the
+front, and serves as a protection from the weather. The color of the
+buildings harmonizes with the background of mountain and forest, while
+narrow footpaths of a lighter shade lead through the green meadows to
+the dwellings of the villagers.
+
+The greater number of the mourners to-day pursued the same road up the
+valley. Here and there, as a woman reached the path leading to her own
+house, she turned aside from the main group, and waved her hymn-book to
+the children, watching at the row of windows, or running down the
+meadow lane to meet her. Each, as she laid aside her Sunday clothes,
+heaved a sigh of mingled grief for the departed and thankfulness that
+she and hers were still alive, and living together in love. But it was
+hard to settle down at once to the every-day work. The world had been
+left behind for a while, and its labors could not be easily resumed.
+
+One of the group, whose way led him with the others as far as the next
+cross-road, was the weight-manufacturer from Knuslingen, the man who
+made the most exact lead and copper weights in the country. "A sorry
+thing, this dying," said he; "here is all the wisdom and experience
+that Mother Lenz had gathered together laid away in the ground, and the
+world none the better for it."
+
+"Her son has, at least, inherited her goodness," replied a young woman.
+
+"And experience and judgment every one must get for himself," said a
+little old man, with keen, inquiring eyes, who always went by the name
+of Proebler, the experimenter, from having ruined himself in inventions
+and experiments, instead of keeping to the regular routine of
+clock-making.
+
+"The old times were much wiser and better," said old David, the
+case-maker, who lived in the adjacent valley. "In those days a funeral
+feast was spread, at which we could refresh ourselves after our long
+journey and hard crying,--for crying is hungry and thirsty work,--and
+after that the minister preached his sermon. If we did rather overdo
+the matter sometimes, no one was the worse for it. But all that sort of
+thing is forbidden now, and I am so hungry and faint I feel ready to
+sink."
+
+"So am I, and I," cried out several voices. "What are we to do when we
+get home?" continued old David; "the day is lost. We are very glad to
+give it to a good friend, to be sure; but the old way was better. Then
+we didn't get home till night, and had nothing more to think of."
+
+"And could not have thought of it, if you had," interrupted the deep
+voice of young Faller, the clockmaker. He was second bass in the
+Liederkranz, and carried his music-book under his arm. His walk and
+bearing showed him to have been a soldier. "A funeral feast," he
+continued, "is a thing Mother Lenz would by no means have allowed.
+Everything in its time, she used to say; mourning and merry-making,
+each in its turn. I worked under old Lenz five years and three
+quarters; young Lenz and I were fellow-apprentices, and set up as
+journeymen together."
+
+"You had better turn schoolmaster and preach the sermon," said old
+David angrily, muttering something further about those conceited
+Liederkranz fellows, who think the world didn't begin till they learned
+to sing their notes.
+
+"That I can do too," said the young man, who either had not heard the
+last words, or pretended he had not. "I can make a eulogy; and a good
+thing it would be to talk of something besides our own appetites and
+pleasures after laying such a noble heart in the grave. What a man our
+old master was! Ah, if all the world were like him, we should need no
+more judges or soldiers or barracks or prisons! He was a right strict
+old fellow. No apprentice was allowed to give up the file for the lathe
+till he could cut by hand as perfect an octagon as any machinery could
+make, and no one of us was considered a finished workman till he could
+make the smallest clock; for, as the old master used to say, the man
+who can make small things will be most exact in great ones. No wheel
+nor weight that had the least flaw in it ever left his shop. 'My credit
+is at stake, and that of the whole district,' he would say. 'We must
+keep up our good name.' Let me tell you one little anecdote, to show
+what an influence he had over us young men. Young Lenz and I took up
+smoking when we became journeymen. 'Very well,' said the old man, 'if
+you will smoke, I cannot prevent it, and I don't want you to do it
+secretly. I am sorry to say I have the same bad habit myself,--I must
+smoke. But one thing let me tell you,--if you smoke, I shall give it
+up, hard as it will be for me. It will never do for us all to smoke.'
+Of course we did not contract the habit. Rather would we have lost the
+use of our mouths altogether than have required such a sacrifice of our
+master.
+
+"And the mistress,--she stands this moment before God, and God will say
+to her, 'You have been upright above most women on the earth. You have
+had your faults, to be sure. You have spoiled your son; you might have
+made a man of him by letting him seek his fortune in the world, and you
+would not. But your thousands and thousands of good deeds known to none
+but me, your allowing none to be evil spoken of, your making the best
+of everything and everybody, even to speaking a good word for
+Petrovitsch,--not one shall be forgotten. Come, and receive your
+reward.' And do you know what she will say when God offers her a
+reward? 'Give it to my son,' she will say; 'and, if there is any over,
+there is such a one and such a one in bitter need, help him; I am
+content to look on.' You would hardly believe how little she ate. The
+old master often laughed at her for it, but really she was best
+satisfied by seeing others eat; and her son is just as good, heart and
+soul, as the mother was. I would lay down my life for him gladly."
+
+Such was Faller's eulogy, and his deep voice often trembled with
+emotion as he delivered it. The others, however, did not let him
+monopolize young Lenz's praises.
+
+Proebler maintained that he was the only one in the whole country round
+who knew any more than the generation before him. "If people were not
+so obstinate and jealous, they would long ago have accepted that
+standard regulator we made together; I say we made, but must honestly
+confess he did the greater part of it."
+
+Nobody paid much attention to what Proebler said, especially as he spoke
+so unintelligibly--hardly above a mutter--that little could be made out
+except the words "standard regulator."
+
+With more interest did they turn to old David, who next took up the
+word. "Lenz never passes a man without doing him a good turn. Every
+year he takes some of his leisure Sundays for tuning the organ of the
+blind old organist of Fuchsberg, and charges nothing for it. That is a
+labor of love that must please our Father in heaven. I too have
+profited by his help. He found me once in trouble over my barrel, that
+would not turn easily. So off he started to the mill, fitted me up a
+workshop in the loft, put my barrel in communication with the wheel,
+and now I can accomplish three times the work with half the labor."
+
+Every one hastened to throw in a good word for young Lenz, as if it
+were a copper into the poor's box.
+
+The weight-manufacturer had said nothing as yet, but contented himself
+with approving nods. He was the wisest of the party. The truth, and
+nothing but the truth, had been spoken, he very well knew, but not the
+whole truth. He could tell them there was no better man to work for
+than Lenz. The work must be thoroughly done, to be sure; but then you
+got not only full pay, but good words besides, which were worth more
+than the money.
+
+Faller parted from the group here, and took the path towards his house
+among the hills. Soon afterwards the whole party dispersed in various
+directions,--each, as he went, accepting a farewell pinch from
+Proebler's birch-bark snuff-box. Old David, with his stout staff, went
+on alone up the valley; he was the only one from his parish who had
+come to the funeral.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                     THE MOURNER AND HIS COMPANION.
+
+
+Narrow footpath leads from the village to a solitary thatched
+cottage, only a small part of whose roof, just about the chimney, is
+covered with tiles. The house does not come in sight till you have
+climbed a good half-mile up the mountain. The path leads behind the
+church,--between hedges at first, then across open fields, where you
+hear the murmur of the pine-woods that cover the steep mountain-side.
+Behind this mountain, the Spannreute, rise still other peaks; but even
+this front slope is so steep that the harvest gathered on the upland
+meadows has to be brought down to the valley on sledges.
+
+Along the footpath between the hedges two men were now walking, one
+behind the other. The one in front was a little old man, whose dress
+showed him to be a person of property. He carried a cane in his hand,
+with the tasselled string twisted about his wrist by way of precaution.
+His step was still firm; his face, a perfect mass of wrinkles, moved up
+and down as he mumbled lumps of white sugar, which he produced from
+time to time from his pocket. His sandy eyebrows were brushed out till
+they stood almost at right angles with his face, and from under them
+peered a pair of shrewd, light blue eyes. The young man who walked
+behind was tall and slender, with crape on his hat and on the sleeve of
+his long blue coat. He kept his face turned to the ground, and shook
+his head sadly as he walked. At last he stopped, and straightened
+himself up, bringing to view a fresh face, with light beard and blue
+eyes, whose lids were red with weeping.
+
+"Uncle," he said, hoarsely. The sugar-eater turned round. "Uncle, you
+have gone far enough. Thank you heartily; but the way is long, and I
+would rather go home alone."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know why; but I feel it were better so."
+
+"No, no; turn back with me."
+
+"I am sorry not to oblige you, uncle; but I cannot,--I really cannot go
+to the inn just now. I am neither hungry nor thirsty; I don't know when
+I shall ever eat and drink again. It is a pity you should take this
+long walk for me."
+
+"No, no; I will go home with you. I am not so hard-hearted as your
+mother tried to make you believe."
+
+"My mother tried to make me believe no evil of you. She spoke nothing
+but good of any one, and especially against her relations she would
+hear no tales. 'To speak evil of a brother is to slander yourself,' she
+used to say."
+
+"Yes, yes; she had plenty of proverbs. 'Marie Lenz used to say so and
+so,' is in every one's mouth. Nothing but good should be spoken of the
+dead, and in fact there can no evil be said of her."
+
+The young man cast a sad glance at his uncle. He always managed to put
+a sting even into his kindliest words.
+
+"How often she has said to me lately," continued the young man, "and
+how it pained me to hear her, 'Lenz, I have lived six years too long
+for you. You ought to have married at five-and-twenty; it will come
+harder now. You have grown too much used to my ways, and they cannot
+last.' I could not persuade her out of the idea. It imbittered her
+death-bed."
+
+"She was right," said the sugar-eater. "She was too good-natured;
+self-willed she was also, but that was no matter. Her good-nature
+spoiled you. I did not mean to tell you so now, though; another time
+would be better. Come, do as I bid you, and don't be such a baby. You
+act as if you did not know which way to turn. It is all in the course
+of nature that your mother should die before you, and you have nothing
+to reproach yourself with in your treatment of her."
+
+"No, thank God!"
+
+"Show yourself a man, then, and stop crying and bawling. I never saw
+anybody cry in all my life as you did in the churchyard."
+
+"I cannot tell you how I felt, uncle. I wept for my mother, but also
+for myself. When the Liederkranz sang the songs that I had always sung
+with them, and I had to stand there dumb and dead, I felt as if I were
+really dead, and they were singing at my grave and I could not join
+in."
+
+"You are--" said the old man. He was about to add something, but choked
+it down and walked on. The little dog that was running in front looked
+up wonderingly in his master's face, as if he hardly recognized the
+look he saw there.
+
+Presently the old man stopped. "I am going back," he said. "Only one
+word more with you. Take into your house none of your mother's
+relations whom afterwards you will have to send away. They will forget
+all your kindness, and only be vexed that it cannot continue. Neither
+give anything away, no matter who asks. If you are tempted to, go off
+somewhere for a week or so, and, when you come home, keep the keys to
+yourself. Now good by, and be a man!"
+
+"Good by, uncle," said the young man, and went on towards his home. He
+kept his eyes fixed on the ground, but knew at every step where he was.
+Every stone on the path was familiar to him. When at last he reached
+the house, he could hardly bring himself to cross the threshold.
+
+How much had happened there! and what was to come next? He must learn
+to bear.
+
+The old serving-woman sat in the kitchen with her apron over her head.
+"Is that you, Lenz?" she sobbed, as the young man passed her.
+
+The room looked empty, yet everything was there. The work-bench with
+its five divisions for the five workmen stood before the unbroken row
+of windows; the tools hung on straps and nails round the wall; the
+clocks ticked; the doves cooed; yet all was so empty, so desolate and
+dead! The arm-chair stood with outspread arms, waiting. Lenz leaned on
+the back of it and wept bitterly. Then he got up and tried to go to her
+chamber. "It is impossible you are not there," he said, half aloud. The
+sound of his own voice startled him. He sank exhausted into the chair
+where his mother had so often rested.
+
+At last he took courage and entered the deserted chamber.
+
+"Have you not forgotten something that I ought to have sent after you?"
+he said again. With an inward shudder he opened his mother's chest,
+into which he had never looked. It seemed almost a sacrilege to look
+now, but he did. Perhaps she had left a word or a token for him. He
+found the christening presents of his dead brothers and sisters tied up
+in separate parcels and marked with their names; his own lay among
+them. There were some old coins, his mother's confirmation dress, her
+bridal wreath,--dried, but carefully preserved,--her garnet ornaments,
+and in a little box by itself, wrapped in five thicknesses of fine
+paper, a little white, velvety plant, labelled in his mother's
+handwriting. The son read at first under his breath, then half aloud,
+as if wishing to hear his mother's words, "This is a little plant
+Edelweiss--"
+
+"Here is something to eat," suddenly cried a voice through the open
+door.
+
+It was only old Franzl calling, but it startled Lenz like the voice of
+a spirit.
+
+"Coming," he answered, shut the door hastily, bolted it, and restored
+everything carefully to its former place before going into the
+sitting-room, where old Franzl was indulging in many a solemn shake of
+the head at this mystery which she was not permitted to share.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                         WORK AND BENEFACTION.
+
+
+The bailiff, Lenz's nearest neighbor, though not a very near one, had
+sent in food, as was the custom in that part of the country when a
+death occurred, in the supposition that the mourners might not have
+thought of preparing any. Moreover, during a funeral, and for three
+hours after, no fire was allowed to be kindled on the hearth.
+
+The bailiff's daughter brought the food into the room herself.
+
+"Thanks to you and your parents, Katharine. Take away the food; when I
+am hungry, I will eat; I cannot now," said Lenz.
+
+"But you must try," said Franzl; "that is the custom; you must put
+something to your lips. Sit down, Katharine; you should always sit down
+when you visit a mourner, not keep standing. Young people nowadays
+don't know what the custom is. And you must say something, Katharine;
+you should talk to a mourner, not be dumb. Say something."
+
+The sturdy, round-cheeked girl flushed crimson. "I can't," she
+stammered out, bursting into a passion of tears, and covering her face
+with her apron, as she became conscious that Lenz's eyes were fixed
+upon her.
+
+"Don't cry," he said, soothingly. "Thank God every day that you still
+have your parents. There, I have tasted the soup."
+
+"You must take something else," urged Franzl. He obeyed with an effort,
+and then rose from the table. The girl rose too. "Forgive me, Lenz,"
+she said. "I ought to have comforted you, but I--I--"
+
+"I know; thank you, Katharine. I can't talk much yet myself."
+
+"Good by. Father says you must come and see us; he has a lame foot, and
+cannot come to you."
+
+"I will see: I will come if I can."
+
+When she was gone, Lenz walked up and down the room with outstretched
+hands, as seeking to grasp some form, but he found no one. His eye fell
+upon the tools, and was chiefly attracted by a file that hung on the
+wall by itself. A sudden idea seized him as he raised his hand to take
+it.
+
+This file was his choicest heirloom. His father had used it constantly
+for forty-seven years, till his thumb had worn a groove in its
+maple-wood handle. "Who would believe," the old man was fond of saying,
+"that many years' work of a man's hand would wear a wooden handle like
+that?" The mother always exhibited this wonderful file to strangers as
+a curiosity.
+
+The doctor down in the valley had a collection of old clocks and tools,
+and had often asked for this file to hang up in his cabinet; but the
+father never would give it. Since his death, the mother and son
+naturally set a great value on the heirloom. After the father's
+funeral, when mother and son were sitting quietly together at home, she
+said, "Now, Lenz, we have wept enough; we must bear our burden in
+silence. Take your father's file, and work. 'Work and pray while yet it
+is day,' runs the proverb. Be glad you have an honest trade, and do not
+need to brood over what is past. A thousand times has your father said,
+'What a help it is to get up in the morning and find your work waiting.
+When I file, I file all the useless chips out of my brain; and when I
+hammer, I knock all heavy thoughts on the head, and away they go.'
+
+"Those were my mother's words then, and they ring in my ears to-day.
+Would I could always be as sure of her counsel!"
+
+Lenz set himself industriously to work. Without stood Franzl and
+Katharine. "I am glad you were the first to bring the food," said the
+old woman; "it is a good sign. Whoever brings the first morsel at such
+a time-- But I have said nothing: no one shall say I had a hand in it.
+Only come back this evening, and be the one to bid him good night. If
+you bid him good night three times, something is sure to come of it.
+Hark! what is that? Saints in heaven, he is working now, on such a day
+as this! What a man! I have known him ever since he was a baby, but
+there is no telling what queer thing he will do. Yet he is so good!
+Don't tell he was working, will you? it might make people talk. Come
+yourself for the dishes this evening, and be composed, so that you can
+talk properly. You can generally use your tongue well enough."
+
+Franzl was interrupted by Lenz's voice, calling from the door, "If any
+visitors come, Franzl, I can see none but Pilgrim. Are you still there,
+Katharine?"
+
+"I am going this minute," said she, and ran down the hill.
+
+Lenz returned to his seat, and worked without intermission, while
+Franzl as busily racked her brain to make out this extraordinary man,
+who, a moment before, was crying himself sick, and now sat quietly at
+work. It could not be from want of feeling, nor from avarice, but what
+could it mean?
+
+"My old head is not wise enough," said Franzl. Her first impulse was to
+go to her mistress and ask what she could make of it; but she checked
+herself, and covered her face with her hands as she remembered the
+mother was dead. To Franzl's consternation, visitors began now to
+arrive,--various members of the Liederkranz, besides some of the older
+townspeople. In great embarrassment she turned them away, talking all
+the time as loud as if they were deaf. She would gladly have stopped
+their ears, if she could, to keep them from hearing Lenz at work. "If
+Pilgrim would only come," she thought. "Pilgrim can do anything with
+him; he would not mind taking the tools out of his hand." But no
+Pilgrim came. At last a happy thought struck her. There was no need of
+her staying at home. She would go a little way down the hill, beyond
+the sound of hammer and saw, and prevent visitors from coming up.
+
+Lenz meanwhile was recovering composure and firmness over his work.
+When he left off, towards evening, he descended the hill, and, taking
+the path behind the houses, proceeded in the direction of his friend
+Pilgrim's. Halfway down he turned about as suddenly as if some one had
+called him; but all was still. Only the blackbird's ceaseless
+twittering was heard in the bushes, and the yellowhammer's monotonous
+whistle from the fresh pine-tops. There are no larks down in the valley
+and meadows, but on the upland fields you hear them chattering in the
+wide stretches of corn. The mists were rising from the meadows, too
+light to be seen just about him, but plainly visible in the distance
+behind and before.
+
+Lenz walked rapidly up the valley, till the sun set behind the
+Spannreute and turned the lowland mist into flaming clouds. "It is the
+first time it has set upon her grave," he murmured. He stood still a
+moment, took off his hat at the sound of the evening bells, and went on
+more slowly. At a turn in the valley, just below a solitary little
+house, from which a thick bush screened him, he paused again. Upon a
+bench before the house sat a man whom we have seen before, the
+clockmaker Fallen. He was dancing a child on his knee, while beside him
+his sister, whose husband was abroad, sat nursing her baby, and kissing
+its little hands.
+
+"Good evening, Faller!" cried Lenz in his old, clear tenor voice.
+
+"It is you,--is it?" called back Faller's bass. "We were just talking
+of you. Lisbeth thought you would forget us in your sorrow; but I said,
+on the contrary, you would not fail to remember our need."
+
+"It is about that I am come. Henzel's house is to be sold to-morrow, as
+you know; and if you want to buy it, I will be your security. It will
+be pleasant to have you for neighbor."
+
+"That would be fine, glorious! So you stay where you are?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I was told you were going abroad for a year or two."
+
+"Who told you?"
+
+"Your uncle, I think, said so. I am not quite sure."
+
+"Did he? maybe so. If I do go, you must move into my house."
+
+"Better stay at home. It is too late to go abroad."
+
+"And marry soon," added the young mother.
+
+"Yes, that will tie you down, and put an end to your roving. But, Lenz,
+whatever you do must prosper. Your mother in heaven will bless you for
+remembering me in your time of grief. Not a moment goes by that I do
+not think of her. You come honestly by your goodness, for she was
+always thoughtful of others. God bless you!"
+
+"He has already. The walk here and our plan together have lightened my
+heart. Have you anything to eat, Lisbeth? I feel hungry for the first
+time to-day."
+
+"I will beat you up a couple of eggs."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+Lenz ate with an appetite that delighted his hosts.
+
+Faller's mother, much against her son's will, asked Lenz for some of
+his mother's clothes, which he readily promised. Faller insisted on
+walking part way home with him; but hardly had they gone twenty steps
+before he gave a shrill whistle, and called back to his sister, who
+inquired what was wanted, that he should not be at home till morning.
+
+"Where do you spend the night?" asked Lenz.
+
+"With you."
+
+The two friends walked on in silence. The moon shone bright, and the
+owls hooted in the forest, while from the village came the sound of
+music and merry voices.
+
+"It were not well that all should mourn for one," said Lenz. "Thank God
+that each of us can bear his own sorrow and his own joy."
+
+"There spoke your mother," returned Faller.
+
+"Stop!" cried Lenz; "don't you want to let your betrothed know you can
+buy the cottage?"
+
+"That I do. Come with me, and let me show you the happiest household in
+all the world."
+
+"No, no; you run up alone. I am not fit for joy, and am wofully tired
+besides. I'll wait for you here. Run quick, and be quick back again."
+
+Faller ran up the hill, while Lenz sat down on a pile of stones by the
+roadside. As the refreshing dew was shed upon tree and shrub and every
+blade of grass, so a pure influence as of dew from heaven sank into the
+heart of the lonely mourner; a light flashed from the little house on
+the mountain-side, which had been dark before, and light and joy shone
+in hearts that had long desponded.
+
+Faller came back breathless to tell of the great rejoicing there had
+been. The old father had opened the window, and shouted down the
+valley: "A thousand blessings on you, kindest of friends," and the dear
+girl had laughed and wept by turns.
+
+The friends walked on again, each silently busied with his own
+thoughts. Faller's step was firm, and his whole bearing so steady and
+erect that Lenz involuntarily straightened himself up as he kept pace
+with him. When the path began to ascend again, he cast another glance
+back at the churchyard, and sighed.
+
+"My father lies there too," said Faller, "and was not spared as long as
+yours." They went on up the mountain, Lenz taking the lead. What does
+he see white moving above him? Who is it? Can it be-- His mother is not
+dead! She cannot keep away from him, she has come back!
+
+The mourner gazed with an inward fear.
+
+"Good evening, Lenz," cried Katharine's voice.
+
+"What are you doing there?"
+
+"I have been with Franzl. She sent for our maid to keep her company,
+for she is old and timid. I should not be afraid if your mother herself
+came back. Good night, Lenz! good night! good night!"
+
+She said good night three times, as Franzl had bidden her. There must
+be some charm in the words. Who knows what may come of them?
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                       EACH BEFORE HIS OWN DOOR.
+
+
+The cool evening following the excessive heat of the day had tempted
+the villagers out of doors. Some families sat on the bench before their
+houses, but more were gathered about the stone railing of the bridge,
+always a favorite place of evening resort for rest or social chat after
+the day's work. Thence can be seen the passing on both sides, while the
+babbling of the brook provokes conversation. Various woods were lying
+seasoning in the water below. The clocks were less likely to warp or
+shrink when the wood of which they were made had been thoroughly
+drained of its juices. But the people on the bridge understood the
+process of seasoning in all its branches. The subject of their talk
+now, even as late in the day as this, was the morning's funeral, which
+naturally led to a discussion of young Lenz and the necessity of his
+making a speedy marriage. The women were lavish of their praises of
+him, not a few of their encomiums being meant as hints to the men that
+they might profitably follow his example, since virtue, when seen, was
+so readily appreciated. The men, however, pronounced him a good sort of
+fellow enough, only too soft-hearted. The young girls, with the
+exception of those who had declared lovers, said nothing; especially as
+the suggestion had been started that Lenz was to marry one of the
+doctor's daughters. Some even asserted that it was a settled thing, and
+would be publicly announced as soon as the proper time of mourning was
+over. Suddenly, no one knew how or where it originated, the report
+circulated from house to house, and among the persons on the bridge,
+that Lenz had spent that day, the very day of his mother's funeral, in
+uninterrupted work. The women lamented that avarice should mar a
+character in other respects so good. The men, on the other hand, tried
+to excuse him. But the conversation soon turned upon the weather and
+the course of events,--both fruitful subjects, as nothing can be
+foretold of either. They were none the less comfortably discussed,
+however, till it was time to bid good night, and leave the stars in
+heaven and the affairs of the world to go on their appointed courses.
+
+But the pleasantest resting-place of all was the doctor's pretty
+garden, further down the valley, whence a wonderful fragrance arose on
+the evening air. And yet not wonderful either, for the garden was
+stocked with all manner of medicinal plants in full blossom, the doctor
+being a mixer of drugs as well as physician. He was a native of the
+village, the son of a clockmaker. His wife came from the capital, but
+had made herself so completely at home in her husband's native valley,
+that her mother-in-law, the old mayoress, as she was called, who lived
+with them, used to say she must have led a previous existence as a
+child of the Black Forest, so naturally did she adopt its customs. The
+doctor, like his father before him, was mayor of the village. He had
+four children. The only son, contrary to general expectation, did not
+learn a profession, but preferred to study the science of clock-making,
+and, at the time of our story, was absent in French Switzerland. The
+three daughters were the most aristocratic ladies in the place, at the
+same time that they were unsurpassed in industry by any of their
+humbler neighbors. Amanda, the eldest, acted as her father's assistant,
+besides having the charge of the garden. Bertha and Minna took an
+active part in the housekeeping, and occupied their leisure in plaiting
+those fine straw braids that are sent to Italy and come to us in the
+shape of Leghorn hats.
+
+This evening, the family in the garden had a visitor,--a young
+machinist, called in the village, for convenience, the engineer. His
+two brothers married daughters of the landlord of the Lion. One of them
+was a rich wood-merchant in the next county town, the other the owner
+of one of the most frequented bathing establishments in the lower Black
+Forest, as well as of a considerable private estate. It was said that
+the engineer was to marry the landlord's only remaining daughter,
+Annele.
+
+"You speak well, Mr. Storr," the doctor was saying, in a voice whose
+tones showed him to be hale and hearty. "We must not rejoice in the
+beauties of mountain and valley, and take no thought for the people who
+inhabit them. There is too much of the superficial, restless spirit of
+change in the world of to-day. For my part, I have no desire to rove;
+my own narrow sphere contents me, body and mind. I have even had to
+give up my old hobby of botanizing, or, rather, I have voluntarily
+given it up, in order to devote more time to the study of humanity. In
+the general division of labor, every one should take what best suits
+his capacities. That is a lesson my country-people will not learn, and
+our native industry suffers in consequence."
+
+"May I ask you to explain yourself more particularly?"
+
+"The thing is very simple. Our clock-making, like all our home
+pursuits, is the natural result of the unproductiveness of our soil,
+and the indivisibility of our large, entailed estates. Younger sons,
+and all whose whole capital consists in their industry, must make the
+most of that, if they would earn a living. Hence that natural aptitude
+for work, that strict, unresting carefulness, that are common among us.
+Our forests supply the best wood for machinery and cases, and as long
+as our wooden clocks found a good market, a manufacturer, with the help
+of his wife and children to paint the dial-plate, could make an entire
+clock in his own house. But now that metal clocks have been introduced,
+and have, in a measure, supplanted the wooden ones, a division of labor
+has become necessary. There is a strong competition in France, in
+America, and especially in Saxony. We must give up pendulums, and take
+to springs. These changes cannot be effected without the help of some
+general and binding association among the workmen. The stone-cutters,
+in old times, used to form themselves into a guild, presided over by a
+chosen head, and that is what is wanted here. The workmen, scattered
+about on the mountains, must enter into a league with one another, and
+work into each other's hands. The difficulty is to bring about such a
+league among our people. In Switzerland a watch passes through a
+hundred and twenty hands before it is finished. But the very
+perseverance of the good people here, which is undoubtedly a virtue,
+makes them unwilling to adopt new ways. Only by unexampled frugality
+and application could our home manufactures have been carried on as
+long as they have. You would hardly believe what a morbid sensitiveness
+our people have contracted by their constant and close confinement at
+their work. They have to be handled as tenderly as their own clocks,
+which an awkward touch will break."
+
+"It seems to me," answered the young man, "that the first thing wanted
+now is a better case for your clocks, that they may become more of a
+parlor ornament."
+
+"I quite agree with you," said Bertha, the second daughter. "I spent a
+year with my aunt in the capital, and, wherever I visited, I found one
+of my compatriots, a Black Forest clock, like Cinderella, in the
+kitchen. In the best room, resplendent with gold and alabaster, was
+sure to be a French mantel-clock, never wound up, or never right if it
+was, while my compatriot in the kitchen was always going, and always
+exact."
+
+"Cinderella needs to be metamorphosed," said the young man; "but she
+must keep her virtues, and tell the truth, when she gets into the best
+parlor."
+
+The doctor did not let the conversation follow the turn the young
+people had given it; but entered into further explanations of the
+peculiarities of his country-people. A tolerably long residence abroad
+enabled him to judge them impartially, while yet he had lived years
+enough at home to know and appreciate their good qualities. He spoke
+High German, but with a decided provincial accent.
+
+"Good evening to you all," cried a passer-by.
+
+"Ah, is it you, Pilgrim? Wait a minute," cried the doctor. "How is
+Lenz?" he asked, as the passer-by stopped at the garden gate.
+
+"I have not seen him since the funeral. I am just from the Lion, where
+I was fool enough to get into a quarrel about him."
+
+"How was that?"
+
+"They were talking about his having been at work all day to-day, and
+finding fault with him for it, and calling him a miser. Lenz a miser!
+Nonsense!"
+
+"You should not let it disturb you. You and I know, and so do many
+others, that Lenz is a good fellow, above all such reproaches. Was not
+Petrovitsch with him to-day?"
+
+"No. I thought he would be, and therefore did not go myself. Doctor, I
+wanted to ask if you would have time to come to my house to-morrow for
+a moment. I should like to show you what I have been doing."
+
+"Certainly I will come."
+
+"Good night to you all."
+
+"Good night, Pilgrim; pleasant dreams."
+
+"Send me back my songs to-morrow," cried Bertha, as he was going.
+
+"I will bring them," returned Pilgrim; and soon after they heard his
+clear musical whistle in the distance.
+
+"That is a remarkable man," said the doctor. "He is a case-painter, and
+an intimate friend of Lenz, whose mother was buried this morning. He is
+quite a hidden genius, and has rather a remarkable history."
+
+"Pray, let me hear it."
+
+"Some other time, when we are by ourselves."
+
+"No, we should like to hear it again," exclaimed his wife and
+daughters, and the doctor began as follows.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                         PILGRIM'S ADVENTURES.
+
+
+Pilgrim was the son of a case-painter. Left an orphan at an early age,
+he was brought up at the public expense by the old schoolmaster. But he
+spent by far the greater part of his time with Lenz the clockmaker on
+the Morgenhalde. In old Lenz's wife he found almost a second mother,
+while their only surviving child, the Lenz who has been working to-day,
+was like a brother to him. Pilgrim was always the more ready and
+skilful workman of the two; for Lenz, with all his undoubted ability,
+has a certain fanciful dreaminess of character. Perhaps there is a
+genius for music in Lenz and for painting in Pilgrim that has never
+been developed; who knows? You must hear Lenz sing some time. He is
+first tenor in the Liederkranz; and it is chiefly owing to him that our
+society won the prize at two musical festivals,--one at Constance and
+the other at Freiburg. As the boys grew up, Lenz was apprenticed to his
+father and Pilgrim to a case-painter, but they continued close friends.
+Through the long summer evenings they would wander singing and
+whistling over hill and valley, as sure to be together as the twin
+stars in heaven. Winter nights Pilgrim had to walk up to the
+Morgenhalde through snow and storm; for Lenz, being, as I have said,
+the last of five children, was somewhat spoiled by his mother, and kept
+at home in bad weather. There they would sit together half through the
+night, reading books of travel or whatever else they could lay hands
+on. Many a volume out of my library has their thirst for knowledge
+devoured. Together they devised a plan for travelling abroad; for, with
+all the domestic habits of our people, there is a general desire among
+them to see the world. As soon as it was sure that both were exempt
+from military service,--Pilgrim by lot, and Lenz as being an only
+son,--they were anxious to carry their plan into execution. Lenz showed
+on this subject for the first time a persistent obstinacy which had
+never been suspected in him. He would not be dissuaded from the
+journey. His father was for letting him go, but the very thought threw
+his mother into despair. When the minister's persuasions failed, I was
+called in, and enjoined to talk the boy into a whole catalogue of
+diseases, if other arguments failed. Of course I pursued a different
+treatment. The two friends had always admitted me into their
+confidence, and now freely imparted to me their entire plan. Pilgrim,
+as usual, was the instigator. Lenz, notwithstanding his sensitiveness,
+has a sound practical nature, though limited to a small circle of
+ideas. If not confused by arguments, his instincts generally lead him
+in the right direction; and whatever he undertakes he clings to with a
+perseverance amounting almost to devotion. I will show you to-morrow a
+standard regulator he has set up, whose adoption would be a benefit to
+the whole country. Lenz's mind was in fact not so firmly made up in
+favor of Pilgrim's plan as he had given his parents to understand. He
+thought his friend would do better to learn clock-making thoroughly
+before going into the trade, as a merchant should be able to repair any
+clock that may come in his way, as well as those he carries with him.
+Pilgrim finally decided to enter on an apprenticeship. As soon,
+however, as he had learned what was absolutely necessary, the plan of
+his journey was resumed more resolutely than ever. The objects he
+proposed to himself were numerous. At one time he wanted to make money
+enough to visit an academy; at another he meant to become a great
+artist on his travels; then again he only desired to discomfit the
+moneyed aristocracy by coming home with a bag full of gold. In reality
+he despised money, and for that very reason would gladly have had it to
+throw away. There was, besides, some youthful fancy in his head at that
+time, I imagine. Greece, Athens, was the goal of his desires. The very
+name of Athens would make his eyes sparkle and his color rise.
+"Athens!" he would say, "does not the word transport you to marble
+staircases and lofty halls?" He seemed to imagine that the mere
+breathing of classic air would make another man of him, change him into
+a great artist. I tried to disabuse his mind of these mistaken notions,
+and succeeded in making him promise he would confine himself to earning
+a living, and leave all else for some future time. Old Lenz and I gave
+security for the merchandise he was to take with him. He finally set
+out alone, Lenz yielding to our persuasions, and remaining at home. "I
+am like the wave," Pilgrim used to say, "that is drawn from the Black
+Forest to the Black Sea." He hoped to introduce our domestic clocks
+into Greece and the East, where they had never been so favorably
+received as in northern countries and the New World. It is pleasant to
+hear Pilgrim tell how he went through various foreign countries,
+through cities and villages, with his Black Forest clocks hung about
+him, making them strike as he went along, himself taking notice all the
+while of everything on the way. That was the trouble with him. His eyes
+were too busy with other things, with the landscape and beautiful
+buildings and the manners and customs of the country,--a great mistake
+for a merchant. As our clock-work never changes, go where it will, over
+sea and land, so our people remain the same in every latitude. To make
+and to save, to live frugally, and never be content till they can come
+home with a full money-bag, that is the one thing they care for, let
+the world wag as it may. A very good and necessary thing it is, too, in
+its place. One head must not have too many projects at one time. But
+the day of peddling and saving is past. We must be men of business now,
+and establish permanent markets in other lands for our merchandise.
+
+"Did Pilgrim ever reach Athens?"
+
+"Indeed he did, and he has often told me that the joy and devotion with
+which the Crusaders greeted Jerusalem could not have exceeded his on
+first seeing Athens. He rubbed his eyes to convince himself it was
+really Athens. He expected the marble statues to nod a greeting to him
+as he went jingling through the streets. But not a single clock did he
+sell. He was reduced to such extremity at last as to consider himself
+lucky to get a piece of work to do; and what work! For fourteen days,
+under the blue Grecian sky, in sight of the Acropolis, he had to paint
+the green lattice-work fence of a beer-garden."
+
+"What is the Acropolis?" asked Bertha.
+
+"You can tell her, Storr," suggested the doctor.
+
+The engineer gave a hasty sketch of the former beauty of the citadel of
+Athens and its present scanty remains, promising to bring a picture of
+it the next time he came, and then begged the doctor to go on with his
+story.
+
+"There is little more to tell," he resumed. "With the closest
+management, Pilgrim contrived to dispose of his clocks, so that we were
+no losers. It required no small courage to return poorer than he went,
+to be a general laughing-stock among his old neighbors. But as his
+enthusiasm led him to despise the moneyed aristocracy, as he was fond
+of calling it, he put on a bold front, and let who would laugh. Of
+course, he went first to the Morgenhalde. The parents were standing
+with folded hands about the dinner-table. Lenz gave such a cry, his
+mother used to say it would kill her to hear the like again. The two
+friends fell into each other's arms. Pilgrim soon recovered his good
+spirits, and laughed about his luck being better at home than anywhere
+else; for there he found at least a well-spread table. Certainly he
+could nowhere have found a warmer welcome than from the parents and son
+at the Morgenhalde. Old Lenz wanted to take him into his house; but
+Pilgrim resolutely declined. He was always jealous of his independence.
+He fitted up a nice workshop at Don Bastian's, very near us. At first
+he took pains to introduce new patterns of clock-cases; but he could
+not succeed in changing essentially the shape of our Black Forest
+clocks,--the square with a pointed arch. Not disheartened by finding
+his novelties unacceptable, he cheerfully fell back on making the
+old-fashioned cases, for which he gets plenty of orders. He has some
+skill in coloring; but his drawing is faulty. You must know that
+different countries have different tastes in clock-cases. France likes
+the case well covered with bright colors; North Germany, Scandinavia,
+and England prefer simpler outlines, architectural ornamentation, like
+gables or columns,--at most, nothing more florid than a garland.
+Shepherds and shepherdesses are for the Vorarlberg. No clocks can be
+sent to the East with human figures on the dial-plate; lately Roman
+numerals have been allowed, but formerly none but Turkish. America
+likes no painting, but requires carving more or less elaborate.
+American clocks, as they are called, have the weights raised by pulleys
+on one side. Hungary and Russia fancy fruit-pieces and landscapes.
+Ornaments of the best taste are not always preferred; on the contrary,
+a finical style is often most popular. If you can improve the
+appearance of our clocks, you will be doing Pilgrim a service. Perhaps
+you can give him a fresh start in life; though he hardly needs it, for
+he possesses the rare art of being happy without being prosperous."
+
+"I should like to make his acquaintance."
+
+"You shall call upon him with me to-morrow. Only come bright and early,
+so that we can take a walk over the hills. I will show you some fine
+views, and nice people beside."
+
+After bidding the engineer a hearty good night the doctor and his
+family re-entered the house.
+
+The moon shone clear in the heavens; the flowers sent out their
+fragrance into the night, with none to enjoy it, and the stars looked
+down upon them. No sound was heard, save from a house here and there
+the striking of a clock.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                       THE WORLD PRESENTS ITSELF.
+
+
+"Good morning, Lenz! You have had a good night's rest, just as children
+do who have cried themselves to sleep." Thus was Lenz greeted the next
+morning by Faller's deep bass voice. "O my friend," he answered; "it
+brings back all my misery to wake up and remember what happened
+yesterday. But I must be calm. I will proceed at once to write the
+security for you. Take it to the mayor before he starts on his round,
+and greet him from me. I remember I dreamed of him last night. Go to
+Pilgrim's too, if you can, and tell him I shall wait at home for him
+to-day. Good luck with your house! I am glad to think you will have a
+roof of your own."
+
+Faller started off for the valley with the paper, leaving Lenz to his
+work. But before sitting down to it he wound up one of his musical
+clocks and made it play a choral. The piece goes well, he said to
+himself, nodding his head approvingly over the wheel on which he was
+filing. It was her--my mother's--favorite tune. The great musical clock
+with the handsomely carved nut-wood case, as tall as a good-sized
+wardrobe, was called "The Magic Flute," from the overture of that
+opera, which was the longest of five pieces that it played. It was
+already sold to a large tea-dealer in Odessa. A smaller clock stood
+beside it, and near that a third, on which Lenz was working. At noon,
+after laboring uninterruptedly all the morning, he began to feel
+hungry; but no sooner had he sat down to his solitary meal than all
+hunger forsook him. He asked the old serving-maid to eat with him, as
+she used to do in his mother's lifetime. She consented, after a great
+show of maidenly delicacy at the idea of dining alone with so young a
+man; but by the time the soup was finished, she had so far recovered
+her self-possession as to bring up the question of his marriage and
+gave her advice against it.
+
+"Who says I mean to marry?"
+
+"I think, if you do, you ought to marry the bailiff's daughter
+Katharine. She comes of a respectable family, and has the greatest
+respect for you; she actually swears by you. That would be just the
+right sort of wife,--not one who would treat you like the very ground
+she walks on. Girls nowadays are so--so exacting, they care for nothing
+but dress and show."
+
+"I am not thinking of marrying; certainly not now."
+
+"You are quite right. It is not at all necessary you should. Take my
+word for it, you will never be better off than you are now. I am used
+to your ways, and I will keep everything so exactly as your mother did
+that you will think she is alive again. Don't your beans taste good
+now? Your mother taught me to cook them so. She understood everything
+from the greatest to the smallest. You will be as comfortable as can be
+when we are by ourselves. You see if you are not."
+
+"I don't think we shall keep on as we are, Franzl," said Lenz.
+
+"So you have some one already in your mind,--have you? People fancy
+Lenz thinks of nothing but his clocks and his mother. Much they know
+about it! If it is only some girl that comes of a good family.
+Katharine, now, would be a wife for every day in the week,--for working
+days and for holidays. She can look after the house and the field, and
+can spin--you'd think she would spin the very straw down from the roof.
+Then, too, she swears by you; all you say and all you do is perfect.
+She always says whatever comes from Lenz is right, however it may
+look,--like your working yesterday, for instance. Besides, she is well
+off; what she inherits from her mother alone would be a portion for one
+of your children."
+
+"I have no thought of marrying, Franzl. Perhaps--I don't know, but
+perhaps--I shall sell or lease my house and go abroad."
+
+Franzl stared at him in speechless amazement, forgetting even to carry
+her spoon to her mouth.
+
+"I will provide for you, Franzl; you shall want for nothing. But I have
+never been out into the world, and should like once to see and learn
+something. Perhaps I may further my art in some way; who knows?"
+
+"It is none of my business," said Franzl; "I am only an ignorant
+servant-woman, though we Knuslingers have the reputation of keeping
+pretty good eyes in our heads. I don't know much about the world; but
+one thing I do know, and that is, that I have not lived in service
+twenty-seven years for nothing. I came into this house when you were
+four years old. You were the youngest and dearest of all the children,
+and your brothers and sisters in their graves,--but no matter for that
+now. I have lived with your mother twenty-seven years. I cannot say I
+am as wise as she was; where is the woman, far or near, who can say
+that for herself? You'll never find her equal as long as the world
+lasts. But I learned a good deal from her. How often I have heard her
+say, 'Franzl, people rush out into the world as if somewhere, across
+the Rhine or over the sea, fortune were running about the streets, and
+crying to Tom, Dick, and Harry, "Good morning, Tom, Dick, and Harry; I
+am glad to see you." Franzl,' your mother used to say, 'if a man can't
+succeed at home, he won't succeed abroad. There are people enough
+everywhere to pick up gold, if it does rain down, without waiting for
+strangers to come and help them. What sort of a fortune can a man make
+in the world? He can't do more than eat, drink, and sleep. Franzl,'
+she'd say, 'my Lenz,'--excuse me, it was she that said it, not I,--'my
+Lenz, like the rest of them, once got into his head that silly notion
+of travelling; but where can he be better off than here? He is not
+fitted for the wild world. One must be a robber, like Petrovitsch, a
+good-for-nothing, stingy, greedy, cruel wretch.' I don't mean she said
+that; she never said such a thing of anybody; but I say it and think
+it. 'If my Lenz were to go abroad,' she said, 'he would give the shirt
+off his body to the first beggar he met; any one could deceive him, he
+is so kindhearted. Franzl,' says she, 'if the wandering spirit comes
+over him when I am gone, Franzl,' says she, 'hang on to his coat, and
+don't let him stir.' But, good gracious! I can't do that; how can I? I
+can only speak; and I must speak, for she made me solemnly promise.
+Just think how well off you are. You have a comfortable house, a good
+living; you are loved and respected. If you go out into the world, who
+will care for you? who will know you are Lenz of the Morgenhalde? When
+you have no place to lay your head, and are obliged to spend the night
+in the woods, you will think of your house at home and the seven
+well-stuffed beds that are in it, and the plenty of furniture and
+dishes, and the wine on tap in the cellar. Sha'n't I fetch you a glass?
+I'll get you one in a minute. Always drink when you're out of spirits.
+A thousand times your mother has said, 'Wine cheers a man up, and makes
+him think of other things.'"
+
+So saying, she hurried out of the room and into the cellar, soon
+returning with a flagon in her hand. Lenz insisted on her bringing a
+second glass, and filled it for her himself; but she was too modest to
+do more than touch her lips to it till she had cleared off the table
+and retreated with her wine into the kitchen.
+
+Lenz worked on again industriously till evening. The wine or something
+else made him restless, so that he was several times on the point of
+throwing down his tools and going out for a walk. But upon second
+thoughts he concluded to stay at home, and receive the friends who
+would be sure to seek him out and relieve his loneliness. No one came,
+however, except Proebler. He liked Lenz for being one of the few who did
+not make fun of him, nor laugh at his constantly refusing to sell any
+of his works of art. He would mortgage them till he lost all power to
+redeem them. It was said that the landlord of the Lion, who carried on
+a large business as commissioner and wholesale dealer, owed Proebler
+quite a handsome sum on the works he had pawned to him.
+
+Lenz used to listen with all attention and seriousness while Proebler
+would talk of his great discovery of the _perpetuum mobile_, and how
+he wanted nothing further to bring his work to perfection than the
+twenty-four diamonds on which it needed to move. In return, the old man
+willingly gave his help in setting up the standard regulator which was
+to benefit the whole district; and he really contributed some valuable
+suggestions, which Lenz was very glad publicly to give him credit for.
+
+To-day, however, Proebler came neither about a new discovery nor the
+_perpetuum mobile_, but to offer himself as mediator in case Lenz was
+desirous of marrying. He proposed to him a whole list of marriageable
+girls, among them the doctor's daughters. "You are too modest," he
+added in conclusion; "all houses are open to you. Tell me honestly in
+what direction your preference leads you, and I will see that you are
+met half-way." Lenz hardly vouchsafed an answer to his proposition, and
+the old man finally departed. The idea that he could have one of the
+doctor's daughters lingered in Lenz's mind. They were three noble girls.
+There was a thoughtfulness--an almost motherly carefulness--about the
+eldest, while the second played and sang beautifully. How often Lenz
+had stood before the house and listened to her! Music was his one
+passion. He longed for it as a thirsty man for a spring of water. How
+would it seem to have a wife who could play the piano? She should play
+him all the pieces he wanted to put into his clocks; he could make them
+sound a great deal better after he had heard them. But no; such a wife
+would be too aristocratic for him. One who could play the piano would
+not look after the house and the garden and the stable, as a watchmaker's
+wife must. He would wait quietly.
+
+When twilight came on, Lenz changed his clothes and went down into the
+valley.
+
+All houses are open to him, Proebler had said. All houses? that is as
+bad as none at all. Unless you can enter a house without interrupting
+the inmates in their occupation; unless no glance, no expression asks,
+What have you come for? what plan is on foot? unless you are made to
+feel at home,--you have no house open to you. Lenz went in imagination
+up and down the whole village, stopping at every door. Everywhere he
+would find hands stretched out to greet him, but nowhere a home. Yet he
+had one friend with whom he would be as much at ease as in his own
+room. Pilgrim, the case-painter, had wanted to go home with him
+yesterday after his mother's funeral, but fell back because he was
+joined by his uncle Petrovitsch. The two despised each other for
+different reasons; Petrovitsch Pilgrim, for being a poor devil; and
+Pilgrim, Petrovitsch for being a rich one. To Pilgrim's, therefore, he
+would go. His friend lived down in the valley with Don Bastian, as he
+called him, a man who had been a dealer in clocks and made a
+considerable fortune during a twelve years' residence in Spain. On his
+return home he had bought a farm, resumed his peasant's clothes, and
+retained no traces of his Spanish journey except the gold and a couple
+of Spanish words which he liked to air occasionally, especially in
+midsummer when the travellers from all quarters of the world returned
+to their native valley.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                 THE LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER PLAYS HOSTESS.
+
+
+In the public room of the Lion, at a table comfortably laid before the
+balcony window, sat a young man alone, eating with that relish which is
+the privilege of a stout young fellow in his twenties, after a day's
+walk over the mountains. Sometimes, however, his eye wandered
+thoughtfully from the viands themselves to the heavy silver plate on
+which they were served. It was a remnant of the good old time, when
+interest-bearing investments were not the only ones allowed. At last
+the young man, who was no other than the engineer who had spent the
+evening before at the doctor's, lighted a cigar and, drawing a brush
+from his pocket, began smoothing his full, light beard. He had a marked
+countenance. A high, full forehead projected from under his brown hair,
+his cheeks were fresh, and there was an expression in his deep-set blue
+eyes that inspired instant confidence.
+
+A cool evening breeze was blowing in at the open window, quickly
+dispersing the blue smoke from the cigar.
+
+"Smoking already? then you will have nothing more to eat," said a girl,
+entering from an adjoining room. She wore a fresh white apron made with
+a stomacher, and was peculiarly neat and nice in her whole dress. Her
+figure was slender and supple; her face oval yet full, with bright,
+intelligent brown eyes; and three tiers of heavy brown braids were
+wound like a crown about her head.
+
+With a ready flow of words she continued: "You must excuse us; we had
+done expecting you to dinner, it was so late."
+
+"Everything was excellent. Come and sit down by me a little while,
+sister-in-law."
+
+"In a minute; as soon as I have cleared up. I cannot sit down with the
+things all standing about so."
+
+"You must have everything as neat and orderly as yourself."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment. I am glad you have not spent them all at
+the doctor's."
+
+"Come back as soon as you can; I've ever so much to tell you."
+
+After leaving the guest alone again for a while, the landlord's
+daughter returned with a piece of knitting-work in her hand, and took a
+seat opposite him at the table. "Well, let me hear," she said.
+
+The engineer told her how he had been accompanying the doctor on his
+daily round over the mountains, and could not sufficiently praise his
+wondrous insight into the life of the people. He found them as the
+doctor had described, industrious and pious, yet without bigotry.
+
+"We have been into three or four inns to-day," he said. "Generally,
+when you enter a country tavern of a summer's noon, you find some
+miserable creature besotting himself on a bench behind the table,
+half asleep over his stale beer or schnapps, who will stare at every
+new-comer, and brag and rail in some unintelligible fashion. It is a
+very common sight in other places, but I saw nothing of the sort here."
+
+"Our mayor, the doctor," said Annele, "shows no mercy to drunkards, and
+we are principled against giving to one."
+
+The engineer entered with enthusiasm into a description of the doctor's
+character. Wherever he went, the day seemed to grow brighter. His
+honest sympathy brought something like contentment even into the huts
+of the poor, while the confidence which his character as well as his
+words inspired everywhere imparted fresh courage.
+
+The girl listened in some embarrassment to this glowing description,
+and only answered as she pressed a knitting-needle to her lips, "O yes,
+the doctor is a true friend of the poor."
+
+"He is your friend too; he said a great deal of good of you."
+
+"Did he? That was because he was out in the open air; he does not dare
+speak well of me at home. His five womenkind would not let him. I must
+except the old mayoress, though; she is always kind."
+
+"And are not the others? I should have thought--"
+
+"I don't want to speak ill of them or any one else. I desire to be
+thankful I have no need to exalt myself at the expense of others, to
+help myself out of another's purse, as old Marie Lenz used to say.
+Thousands of persons are passing in and out here who can let the whole
+world know what we are. A hotel is not like a private house, where the
+family can appear most loving to one another, and keep everything in
+beautiful order for two or three days, while a visitor is present, and
+then, behind his back, be ready to scratch each other's eyes out, and
+let the housekeeping go at sixes and sevens; or, where a young lady can
+begin to sing when she sees a gentleman going by, or can take her work
+into the garden and make herself ornamental. But I don't want to speak
+ill of anybody, only--" here Annele slipped as by accident into the
+familiar German "thou." "Oh! I beg your pardon; I forgot I was not
+talking to my brother-in-law, or I should not have said 'thou.'"
+
+"I have no objection to it. Let us say 'thou' to one another."
+
+"Not for the world! I cannot stay, if we are to talk in that way. I
+wonder what keeps father so long?" said the landlord's daughter,
+blushing.
+
+"Where is your father gone?"
+
+"He had to see to his business, but he may be back any minute. I wish
+he would give up business. What is the use of his working so hard? He
+thinks he could not live without it. A man might as well die as give up
+business, he says; watching and working, thinking and planning, keep
+one's faculties awake. And I believe he is right. For my part, I cannot
+imagine how any one in youth and health can sit and play the piano all
+the morning, or dilly-dally about the house, singing. To turn your hand
+to this thing and that keeps you wide awake. To be sure, if you count
+what we women earn in money it is not much; but to keep a house in good
+order is worth something."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said the engineer; "the devotion of people to their work
+here is wonderful. Many of the clockmakers work fourteen hours a day.
+They deserve great praise for it."
+
+The girl cast a look of surprise at him. What have those stupid
+clockmakers to do with the matter? Couldn't he, or wouldn't he,
+understand what she meant?
+
+There came a pause which the engineer broke by asking about the
+landlady.
+
+"Mother is in the garden, picking beans. Let us go and find her, for
+she cannot leave her work."
+
+"No, I'd rather stay as we are. Tell me, sister-in-law,--I may call you
+so without offence, I hope,--is not the doctor's oldest daughter,
+Amanda, a ladylike, amiable girl?"
+
+"Amanda? why should she not be? she is old enough. She is
+high-shouldered, too, as you would see if her city dressmaker did not
+pad her so skilfully." The girl bit her lip. How silly to have said
+that! He was thinking of Bertha all the time he asked about Amanda.
+"Bertha, now," she added, recovering herself, "is a merry--"
+
+"Yes, a noble girl," interrupted the young man, then suddenly stooped
+to pick up a needle the landlord's daughter had dropped under the
+table. He seemed vexed at having betrayed himself, and hastened to
+change the subject.
+
+"The doctor told me a great deal about Pilgrim yesterday."
+
+"What is there to tell? The doctor can make a story out of everything."
+
+"Who is Petrovitsch? They say you know all about him."
+
+"No more than every one knows. He dines here every day, and pays when
+he is done. He is an obstinate old curmudgeon, as rich as a jewel and
+as hard. He lived ever so many years abroad, and cares for nobody. Only
+one thing he takes delight in, and that is the avenue of cherry-trees
+leading to the town. A row of crab-apple trees used to stand there, and
+Petrovitsch--"
+
+"Why is he called Petrovitsch?"
+
+"His name is Peter, but he lived among the Servians so long that people
+got into the way of calling him Petrovitsch."
+
+"Tell me more about the avenue."
+
+"He was in the habit of walking about with a knife in his hand, and
+lopping off the superfluous branches by the roadside. One day, the
+superintendent of the roads arrested him for mutilating the trees, so
+he had a new row of cherry-trees planted at his own expense, and for
+six years has had the fruit picked before it ripened, that thieves
+might not injure the trees. They have grown beautifully, certainly. But
+he cares nothing for his fellow-men. See, there goes his only brother's
+child, Lenz of the Morgenhalde, who can boast of having received no
+more from his uncle than he could put on the point of a pin."
+
+"That is Lenz,--is it? A fine-looking fellow he is, with a delicate
+face, just as I had imagined him. Does he always stoop like that when
+he walks?"
+
+"No, only now, because he is feeling so badly at his mother's death. He
+is a good fellow, though a little too soft-hearted. I know two eyes
+that are looking out at him from a vine-covered house, wishing they
+might tempt him in; and the eyes belong to Bertha."
+
+"Indeed? Is there any engagement between them?" asked the engineer, the
+color mounting to his forehead.
+
+"I don't suppose they are engaged, but she would be glad enough to
+catch him; for he has a pretty property, while she has nothing but a
+pretty straw hat and a pair of ragged stockings."
+
+The landlord's daughter--or Annele of the Lion, as she was commonly
+called--congratulated herself on having administered this bitter pill,
+and quite forgot her own vexation in delight at the pain she had
+caused.
+
+"Where are you going?" she continued, as the young man took his hat,
+and prepared to depart.
+
+"I want a farther walk, and think of going up the Spannreute."
+
+"It is beautiful, but as steep as the side of a house."
+
+Annele hurried into the back garden as soon as he left, and watched
+him. He did, in fact, go a little way up the mountain, but soon
+retraced his steps, and went down the valley towards the doctor's.
+
+"Plague on you!" she said to herself; "not another kind word shall you
+get from me."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                 THE DEPARTED SAINT AND THE NEW MOTHER.
+
+
+"He is not at home," cried Don Bastian's wife, as Lenz came up the slope
+to the house. "He must have gone to see you. Did you not meet him?"
+
+"No; is his room open?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I will go up awhile," he said, and approached the familiar room. But,
+on opening the door, all power to enter forsook him. There stood
+his mother smiling upon him. His first thought, on recovering his
+self-possession, was one of gratitude to the faithful friend who had
+fixed upon the canvas those dear features, so honest and kindly, before
+their memory had faded. "He is always my good angel," he said to
+himself. "He was doing me service when he could not be with me, and
+such a service!--the greatest in all the world."
+
+Long and fixedly, through gathering tears, Lenz gazed at the beloved
+face. "While I have eyes left, they shall look upon her. O if I could
+only hear her speak! if the voice of the departed could only be brought
+back!" He could hardly tear himself away. It was so strange to have his
+mother there alone, looking and looking with no one to look back at
+her. Not till it grew too dark to see did he leave the room. "My tears
+must cease here," he said to himself, as he turned away. "Whatever I
+feel shall be shut in my own breast; no one shall call me unmanly." As
+he passed the doctor's house, a sound of music reached him through the
+open windows. He distinguished the words of a foreign song sung by a
+powerful baritone voice that belonged, he knew, to no one in the
+valley. Whose could it be? A beautiful voice, to whomever it belonged.
+
+"Now, Miss Bertha," he heard the stranger say, "you must sing to me."
+
+"Not now, Mr. Storr; we shall be going to tea soon. Later in the
+evening we will sing together. Meanwhile I want you to look over this
+piece of music."
+
+Aroused to a consciousness of his long fasting by the mention of
+supper, Lenz suddenly formed a bold resolution, and with a firmer step
+and more erect carriage went straight towards the town, and into the
+Lion Inn.
+
+"Good evening, Lenz. I am glad you remember your old friends in your
+grief. Not a minute has passed that I have not spoken your name, and
+everybody that has come in through the day has talked of you. Has not
+your right ear burned? You will surely be rewarded in this life, dear
+Lenz, for your devotion to your blessed mother. She and I were the best
+of friends, as you know, though we did not see each other as often as
+we should have liked; for she did not leave home much, nor I either.
+Will you have a glass of the new wine, or the old? Better take the new;
+it is right good, and will not fly into your head. You look so red and
+heated!--of course, after losing such a mother"--Here the landlady of
+the Lion--for she it was who thus condoled with Lenz--expressed by a
+wave of her hand that her feelings would not let her say more.
+
+"But what can we expect?" she began again, while setting the bottle and
+glass on the table. "We are mortals, after all. Your mother lived to be
+seventy-one,--a whole year beyond, the allotted age. To-morrow I may
+have to follow her. With God's help I too will leave behind a good name
+for my children. Not that I pretend to compare myself with your
+mother,--who could? But now might I venture to give you a little bit of
+advice? I mean it for your good."
+
+"Certainly; I am always glad of good advice."
+
+"I only want to warn you against your too tender heart, against
+letting your grief take too entire possession of you. You won't be
+offended,--will you?"
+
+"No, no; why should I be? On the contrary, you show me, as I never knew
+before, how many good friends my mother had, and how fortunate I am to
+inherit them."
+
+"You deserve them all. You are--"
+
+"Welcome, welcome, Lenz!" interrupted a clear, youthful voice, and a
+full, plump hand was held out to him, behind which appeared as full and
+fresh a face. It was Annele of the Lion, who came in with lights. "Why
+did you not let me know, mother, that Lenz was here?" she added,
+turning to the landlady.
+
+"You are not the only one that is privileged to talk with a young man
+at twilight," replied the mother, with a meaning smile.
+
+Annele saw that Lenz did not fancy the joke, and continued, without
+heeding her mother's words: "You must see by my looks, dear Lenz, how I
+have wept for your mother these last two days. I have hardly got over
+it yet. Such people ought not to die. To think of all the good she did
+being so suddenly swept away! I can imagine how your room seems to you;
+how you look into all the corners, fancying the door must open; that
+she cannot have gone away and left you; she must come back. All day I
+have found myself thinking, Poor Lenz, if I could only help him! I
+should be so glad to bear a little of his burden for him! We looked for
+you here to dinner to-day. Your uncle fully expected you. He always
+insists on having dinner served the instant the clock strikes; but
+to-day he said, 'Wait a little, Annele; keep back the dinner awhile.
+Lenz will surely come; he never will sit down all by himself up there.'
+And Pilgrim said you would not fail to come and dine with him at his
+table. Pilgrim takes his meals here, you know. He is like a brother to
+me, and so fond of you! Your uncle always has his dinner served at a
+little table by himself, and likes me to sit down and chat with him. He
+is an odd man, but as clever as the Evil One. Don't disappoint us at
+dinner to-morrow, will you? And now what will you have for supper?"
+
+"I have no appetite for anything. I only wish I could sleep on and on
+for weeks, and forget myself and all that concerns me."
+
+"You will feel differently by and by.--Yes, I am coming!" cried Annele
+to some teamsters who had just sat down at another table. She quickly
+supplied their wants, and then resumed her place behind Lenz's chair,
+keeping her hand on the back of it while answering the questions of the
+other guests. The touch thrilled like an electric shock through his
+whole frame. The sight of others at their supper presently reminded him
+of his own hunger. In an instant Annele was in the kitchen, and back
+again with fresh table linen. Her hands laid the cloth and set on the
+dishes so invitingly, and her voice pressed him so cordially to eat,
+that his supper relished as he had thought food never would relish
+again.
+
+Who so neat and nimble as Annele, so ready and quick at repartee? Pity
+she lets her fondness for making fools of people spoil the charm of her
+wit.
+
+Lenz had no sooner finished his first bottle than she was ready with a
+fresh one, and filling his glass herself.
+
+"You don't smoke,--do you?"
+
+"I ought not, but should like to."
+
+"I will fetch you a cigar such as my father smokes. We don't let many
+of the guests have them." She brought the cigar, lighted a paper by the
+lamp, and handed it to him.
+
+The landlord had entered meanwhile,--a tall, stout, imposing figure, of
+venerable aspect, with thin, snow-white hair, and a little black velvet
+cap like a priest's on his head. His silver-bowed spectacles, with
+their big round glasses, were only meant to be used for reading, and
+were therefore generally worn pushed up on his forehead, from which a
+serene and quiet intelligence appeared to be gazing. Very quiet mine
+host was, quiet even to solemnity, and accounted very wise. He spoke
+little, but must not great wisdom have been needed to attain the
+position of the landlord of the Lion? His face was rosy, and, as we
+have said, venerable, except in respect to his mouth, which he had a
+trick of drawing in as a person does who is smacking his lips over
+something savory. He was silent and serious, as if wishing to make
+amends by his lack of words for the fluency of his wife and daughter.
+When the landlady was particularly talkative and complaisant, he would
+shake his head, as much as to say, "That is not to the taste of a man
+of honor." A man of honor the landlord was known to be through all the
+country round, and a thorough business man. He had made a fortune as
+packer,--that is, by buying clocks of the manufacturers, and forwarding
+them to purchasers in different parts of the world.
+
+"Good evening, Lenz," said the landlord, with a breadth of voice that
+spoke volumes. Lenz respectfully rose. "Keep your seat," he said,
+offering his hand; "don't stand upon ceremony; this is a public house."
+His concluding nod seemed to say, "I make my respects to you; the
+requisite sympathy is as safe with me as a triple mortgage." With that
+he walked to his own table and took up the papers.
+
+"By your leave," said Annele, politely, as she came up with a stocking
+in her hand, on which she was knitting, and took a seat by Lenz. She
+talked much and well, so that Lenz knew not which most to admire, her
+kindness of heart or the readiness of her wit.
+
+"I am sorry to have to take money from you," she said, when he was
+paying for his supper; "I would much rather you had been our guest.
+Good night. Don't grieve too much. I wish I could help you. By the way,
+I had nearly forgotten to ask when your great musical clock, I hear so
+much of, is going to Russia. It must be the finest ever made here."
+
+"It may be sent for any day."
+
+"May I come up with my mother, some time, to see it and hear it play?"
+
+"I shall feel honored. Come whenever you will."
+
+"Good night, and pleasant dreams. Remember me to Franzl. She must come
+to us if she wants anything."
+
+"Thank you; I will deliver the message."
+
+It was a long mile to Lenz's house, and a steep one too; but he was not
+conscious of the way. Not till he found himself again in his lonely
+room did the former feeling of sadness come over him. He gazed out into
+the summer night, thinking of he knew not what. No sight nor sound of
+human life reached him, except a solitary light that shone for a moment
+from the blacksmith's house on the opposite mountain, and then
+vanished. The happy can sleep.
+
+A wind-mill stood near the smith's cottage, and in the perfect
+stillness of the night he could hear it working, as a gust of wind set
+it in sudden motion. The stars shone bright above the dark outline of
+the mountain ridge. The moon had sunk below the trees, but still tinged
+the fleecy clouds, and left a trail of pale blue light behind her.
+
+Lenz pressed his hands to his burning brow. His temples throbbed.
+Everything swam before his eyes. It must be the new wine: he would
+drink no more at night. "How kind and affectionate Annele was! Don't be
+a fool; what is Annele to you? Good night; pleasant dreams!" he
+repeated, and found in fact that night deep and quiet sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+                            FRIENDLY ADVICE.
+
+
+When Lenz awoke the next morning, the journeyman and apprentice whom he
+had sent home at the time of his mother's death were already at work in
+their old places. Never before had they been on hand before their
+master. He was surprised to find the sun high in the heavens when he
+threw open his window, and to hear the various clocks in his room
+striking seven. Had his wish that he might sleep for weeks been really
+granted? Weeks seemed to lie between yesterday and to-day. Yesterday,
+how long ago it was! how much had happened!
+
+Franzl brought his breakfast and sat down with him unbidden. "What
+shall I cook for your dinner to day?"
+
+"For mine? Nothing; I shall not be at home to dinner. Cook for yourself
+as usual. Only think, Franzl, that good Pilgrim--"
+
+"Yes," interrupted Franzl; "he was here last evening, and waited a long
+while for you."
+
+"Was he? and I had gone to see him. Only think, he has been secretly
+painting a picture of my mother. You would be amazed to see how
+lifelike it is. She seems on the point of speaking."
+
+"I knew what he was about. He came to me privately for your mother's
+Sunday jacket, her red bodice, and fine-plaited ruff, her neckerchief
+and hood. Her garnet ornaments you had locked up with those other
+things that I know nothing about. It is none of my business; I don't
+need to know everything. But I can keep a secret as well as another; I
+would not tell if you tapped every vein in my body. Did a breath of
+what Pilgrim was about escape me? Did I drop a hint of why he did not
+come? You may trust me with anything."
+
+As Lenz did not seem inclined to take her into his confidence, she
+began questioning him.
+
+"Where are you going to-day? Where did you spend last evening?"
+
+Lenz looked at her in surprise, and made no answer.
+
+"Were you at your uncle Petrovitsch's?"
+
+He still made no answer beyond a shake of the head, and Franzl helped
+both him and herself out of the difficulty by saying: "I have no more
+time now. I must go into the garden to pick the beans for dinner. I
+have engaged a woman to-day to help me dig potatoes; are you willing?"
+
+"Certainly; only see that everything is done as it should be."
+
+Lenz, too, went to his work, but could not fix his mind upon it. None
+of his tools suited him. Even his father's file, which he was generally
+so careful of, he threw roughly aside.
+
+The Magic Flute began to play. "Who wound up the clock?" asked Lenz,
+surprised.
+
+"I did," said the apprentice.
+
+Lenz was silent. He must expect everything to go on in its old way. The
+world does not stand still because one heart has ceased to beat and
+another longs to be at rest forever. He worked on more quietly. The
+journeyman told of a young man in Triberg who had lately come home from
+foreign parts and wanted to set up a manufactory of musical clocks in
+the neighborhood.
+
+I might sell out to him, thought Lenz, and be free to travel and see
+the world. But the thought awoke no enthusiasm in him now; it was only
+like the echo of what he had once desired. The very fact of his uncle's
+having spread a report of his going, wishing thereby to compel him to
+it, made him averse to the plan. He took his father's file once more in
+his hand. The man who used this file, he thought, spent his life on
+this spot, except for one short season of absence, and was happy. To be
+sure he married young; that makes a difference.
+
+Lenz's habit was, when he had business at the foundry on the other side
+of the mountain, to send his apprentice. To-day he went himself, and
+sat but a little while at his work after his return. Before the morning
+hours were half over, he went down into the village and thence up the
+meadow to Pilgrim's. His old friend was sitting at his easel, painting.
+He got up, passed both hands through his long, lank, sandy hair, and
+offered the right to Lenz, who began at once to thank him for the
+joyful surprise his mother's picture had given him, as well as for his
+friend's kindness in thinking of it.
+
+"Pooh, pooh!" said Pilgrim, thrusting both his hands into his wide
+leather breeches, "I did it for my own pleasure. It is desperately
+stupid work painting that blessed village from one year's end to the
+other; the same old church with the bishop's mitre for a steeple and a
+hole to put the dial-plate in; the mower with his scythe, who never
+budges a step; the mother and child always running towards each other
+and never meeting; the baby, stretching out its little hands, and never
+reaching its father; and that plaguy fellow with his back turned, who
+never lets us see what sort of a face he has. Yet hundreds and hundreds
+of times I am made to paint that staring grass-green thing because the
+world must have what it has been used to. I could paint it with my eyes
+shut, I do believe, and still am kept at it. For once in my life I have
+done myself a pleasure, and painted your mother. It is my first and
+last portrait; for I don't like the faces about here, and don't mean to
+bore future generations with the sight of them. Your uncle was right
+never to consent to have his picture taken. When a travelling artist
+some time ago asked him to sit: 'No,' said he, 'I have no idea of
+seeing myself one of these days hanging in a rag-shop side by side with
+Napoleon and old Fritz.' He has queer fancies, that old fellow. There
+is no telling where he will strike out next."
+
+"Never mind my uncle now. You painted my mother's picture for me,--did
+you not?"
+
+"Yes, if you want it. Come here a moment; stand just there. The eyes
+are the least satisfactory part of the picture to me, and the doctor
+said the same thing when he was here this morning. He meant to bring a
+friend with him who is something of an artist, but he did not get out
+of bed early enough. You have exactly your mother's eyes. Stand there a
+minute, just as you are. Now keep quiet, and think of something
+pleasant,--of some one you are going to do a kindness to. Remember
+Faller and his house, then you will have just your mother's hearty
+expression; not a smile, but such a kind, cordial look. So,--that is it
+exactly. Don't blink. Nay, I cannot paint you if you cry."
+
+"The tears will come," apologized Lenz. "I could not help thinking how
+my mother's eyes--"
+
+"Well, well; we will let it be. I know now what is needed. Let us take
+a recess; and high time we did too, for it is almost noon. You will eat
+your dinner with me, won't you?"
+
+"Don't be offended; but I must dine with my Uncle Petrovitsch to-day."
+
+"Nothing you could do would offend me. Tell me now about yourself."
+
+Lenz laid before his friend the plan he had half formed of going abroad
+for a year or two, and urged him to carry out their boyish project of
+going together. Perhaps the luck they had hoped for in those days might
+be realized now.
+
+"Don't do it; don't go," urged Pilgrim. "You and I, Lenz, were never
+meant to be rich men, and it is best so. My Don Bastian is the sort of
+man to make money. He has travelled over the whole world, and knows as
+little about it as the cow does of the creed. Wherever he went,
+whatever place he entered, his one thought was how to make money, how
+to save and to cheat. So he got on everywhere. The Spanish peasant is
+as cunning as the German, and likes nothing so well as to get the
+better of his neighbors. When my Don Bastian came home, he brought
+nothing with him but his money, and had nothing to do but to dispose of
+that to the best advantage. Such a man as that will get on in the
+world."
+
+"And we?"
+
+"He whose pleasure lies in things that cannot be had for gold needs no
+money. All the superfluous chink that I have is my guitar, and it is
+all I want. I heard Don Bastian's youngest boy saying the Ten
+Commandments one day, and a bright thought came into my head. What is
+the first commandment? 'I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt have no other
+gods beside me.' Every man, then, can have but one God. You and I take
+pleasure in our art. You are happy when you have accomplished a work
+that harmonizes in all its parts, and so am I, though I do complain
+sometimes of the everlasting village with the same old mower and the
+eternal mother and child. But I am glad when it is done; and even while
+I am doing it I am as gay as a bird,--as gay as the finch there on the
+church-roof. Now a man that delights in his work, and puts his whole
+heart and soul into it, cannot be always thinking how he can make
+money, how he can speculate and cheat. And if he has a joy that money
+cannot buy, what does he want of money? I am satisfied with the sight
+of a beautiful group of trees,--with watching the sunbeams flicker in
+and out among the branches, and play bo-peep with one another so happy
+and loving. What should I gain by having the forest my own? 'Thou shalt
+have no other gods beside me.' That is a good saying. A second god is
+pretty sure to be the devil, as you may see by your Uncle Petrovitsch.
+The apostle says the same thing: 'Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord
+and the cup of devils.'"
+
+"Come and live with me," was Lenz's only answer. "I will have our upper
+room fitted up for you, and give you a chamber besides."
+
+"Thank you, but that would be a mistake for both of us. Lenz, you are
+one of a thousand. You were cut out for a husband and father; you must
+marry. I imagine already the pleasure I shall take in telling your
+children stories about my travels. When I am too old to work, you shall
+give me a home with you, and kill me with kindness, if you will. But
+now keep your eyes open. Don't seem too fond of me. I not only will not
+be offended, but I advise you to put me in the background, that you may
+have a chance of a place in your uncle's will. We should make capital
+heirs. I have a real talent for inheriting; but unhappily my relatives
+are all poor devils, rich in nothing but children. I am the only one in
+the family that will have anything to leave, and I shall play the rich
+uncle one of these days, like Petrovitsch."
+
+As a passing shower, which began to fall while the friends were
+talking, put a fresh brightness on the face of nature, so did Lenz's
+heart grow lighter under Pilgrim's influence. They waited till the rain
+was over, and then set out together for the hotel; but did not enter at
+the same time, as Pilgrim was unwilling to be seen by Petrovitsch in
+Lenz's company. A wagon stood before the door, and a young man was
+taking leave of the landlord, who accompanied him a few steps, and
+offered him his two fingers, pushing his little cap on the back of his
+head as he did so. After a parting salutation to the landlady and her
+daughter, the stranger ordered the coachman to drive on, and wait for
+him at the doctor's.
+
+He raised his cap in greeting to the two friends as he passed them.
+
+"Do you know him?" asked Pilgrim.
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor I either," said Pilgrim. "That is odd! Who is the stranger?" he
+asked of the landlord.
+
+"The brother of my son-in-law."
+
+"Oho!" whispered Pilgrim in Lenz's ear; "now I remember; some one told
+me he was a suitor of Annele's."
+
+He did not see the change these words wrought in his friend's
+countenance; for Lenz turned hastily away and ran up the steps before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+            LENZ DINES WITH PETROVITSCH, AND IS KEPT WAITING
+                            FOR THE SWEETS.
+
+
+Petrovitsch had not yet come. As Lenz sat at his table waiting for him,
+Pilgrim and he fell into conversation with the hosts. Annele was
+strangely reserved to-day. She would not even shake hands with Lenz
+when he entered, but pretended to be busy with some household work. Her
+hand is promised, he thought; she can give it to no one now, even in
+greeting. At last his uncle arrived, or rather his forerunner in the
+shape of a mongrel cur, half terrier and half rat-catcher.
+
+"Good day, Lenz!" said the surly voice of Petrovitsch, who followed
+behind the dog. "I expected you yesterday. Did you forget I had invited
+you?"
+
+"I confess I did entirely."
+
+"I will excuse you under the circumstances; but generally a business
+man ought not to forget. I never forgot even a pocket-handkerchief in
+my whole life, and never lost so much as a pin. A man should always
+keep his seven senses about him. Now let us have dinner."
+
+Annele brought the soup. The uncle helped himself, put some into
+another plate, and told Lenz he might have what was left. Then he drew
+from his pocket the paper, which he took daily from the post, cut it
+open while his soup was cooling, laid his tobacco-pouch and meerschaum
+upon it, and finally began his dinner.
+
+"This is the way I like to live," said he, when the soup was removed
+and he was crumbing bread into the plate for the unknown guest,--"take
+my meals in a public house where I can have fresh table linen every
+day, throw down my score when I am done, and remain my own master."
+
+When the meat was brought on, Petrovitsch, with his own hand, put a
+slice on Lenz's plate, took another himself, and cut again for the
+third plate. It must be meant for some very intimate friend, for the
+old man put his finger into it, after sprinkling some water over, and
+stirred up the food. At last the mystery was explained by his calling
+to his dog: "Come, Bubby, come; gently, gently, not so rough, Bubby;
+quiet, quiet!" He set the plate on the floor, and the dog attacked the
+dinner with a relish, licking his chops when it was over, and looking
+up gratefully and contentedly in his master's face. For the rest of the
+meal Bubby, as the dog was called, to the disgust of the villagers, got
+nothing thrown him but an occasional crumb. Petrovitsch said little
+during dinner. When he had finished, he lighted his pipe and took the
+paper, which Bubby understood as a sign that he might jump up into his
+master's lap. There he remained, half sitting and half standing, while
+Petrovitsch read the paper over the dog's head. Lenz found his position
+rather embarrassing. The old man's habits were too settled to be easily
+interrupted.
+
+"Uncle," he said at last, "what made you spread the report that I was
+going abroad?"
+
+Petrovitsch took three comfortable pulls at his cigar, blew out the
+smoke, stroked his dog, pushed him gently off his lap, folded the
+paper, restored it to his pocket, and finally answered: "Why, Lenz,
+what a queer fellow you are! You told me yourself you wanted to renew
+your youth by going out to see the world."
+
+"I don't remember saying so."
+
+"Very likely not; you hardly knew what you were talking about. But it
+would be a good plan if you did go away awhile; you would get out of
+many a rut. I have no desire and no right to force you."
+
+Lenz was actually persuaded by his uncle's positive assertion that he
+had expressed such an intention, and apologized for having forgotten
+the circumstance.
+
+"Draw your chair up closer, Lenz," whispered Petrovitsch,
+confidentially. "There's no need for the world to hear our
+conversation. Look here, if you take my advice, you won't marry."
+
+"But, uncle, what makes you suppose I am thinking of marrying?"
+
+"There is no telling what you young people won't do. Profit by my
+example, Lenz. I am one of the happiest men in the world. I have been
+enjoying myself for six weeks in Baden-Baden, and now everything seems
+pleasant to me here again. Wherever I go, I am my own master and
+command the best service. Besides, there are no girls nowadays who
+are good for anything. You would die of ennui with the simple and
+good-natured, while the bright and clever expect you three times a day,
+at every meal, to send off fireworks for their entertainment, besides
+boring you with continual complaints of 'this tiresome housekeeping
+that you men know nothing about.' Then there are the crying children,
+and the poor relations, and the school-bills, and the dowries."
+
+"If every one thought as you do, the world would die out in a hundred
+years."
+
+"Pooh! there is no danger of its dying out," laughed Petrovitsch, as he
+pressed his tobacco down into his pipe with a little porcelain
+instrument he always kept by him for the purpose. "Look at Annele now."
+A chill he could not account for struck to Lenz's heart. "She is a
+natty little woman, always in harness. I call her my court jester.
+Those old kings were wise in keeping a fool to make them laugh over
+their dinner: it helped digestion. Annele is my court fool; she
+entertains me here every day."
+
+When Lenz looked round, Pilgrim had vanished. He seemed determined his
+friend should disown him before the rich uncle. But Lenz considered it
+his duty to tell Petrovitsch that he was a faithful friend to Pilgrim,
+and always should be.
+
+The old man commended his nephew for his constancy, and further
+surprised him by praising Pilgrim, who, he said, was just like himself,
+and cared nothing for marrying and womenfolks.
+
+The dog became uneasy, and began to whine.
+
+"Quiet!" said Petrovitsch, threateningly. "Be patient; we are going
+home now to sleep. Come, Bubby! Are you coming too, Lenz?"
+
+Lenz accompanied his uncle as far as his house,--a large, imposing
+building, where he lived entirely alone. The door opened at their
+approach as if by magic; for the servant was obliged to be on the
+lookout, and open for her master without his knocking. No stranger was
+admitted who could not explain his business satisfactorily. The
+villagers used to say that even a fly must have a pass to enter that
+house.
+
+There the nephew bade his uncle good by, and was thanked with a yawn
+for his politeness.
+
+Lenz was happy to be at his work again that afternoon. The house, which
+had seemed too desolate to live in, began to feel once more like home.
+There is no true comfort to be found in outside excitements, but only
+between one's own four walls. He chose a place for his mother's
+portrait directly above his father's file. She would look down on him
+from there as he sat at work, and he could often look up at her.
+
+"Keep the room nice and neat," he said to Franzl. "It is always neat,"
+she answered, with pardonable indignation. Lenz could not explain that
+he wanted it particularly nice because he was every moment expecting
+Annele and her mother to see and hear the musical clock before it was
+sent to Russia. When she came, he would ask her plainly what foundation
+there was for the stories about herself and the engineer. He must ask,
+though he felt he had no right. Then he should know on what terms he
+might stand with her.
+
+Day after day went by, and still no Annele came. Lenz often passed the
+Lion without going up, finally without even looking up.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+             THE GREAT MUSICAL CLOCK PLAYS ITS OLD PIECES,
+                        AND HAS NEW ONES ADDED.
+
+
+The report that the famous Magic Flute, the great musical clock of Lenz
+of the Morgenhalde, would start in a few days for its place of
+destination in Russia, set the whole valley in a ferment. A perfect
+pilgrimage began to Lenz's house. Every one was anxious to admire this
+noble work once more, before it disappeared forever. Franzl had as much
+as she could do to welcome the guests, shake hands with them,--wiping
+her hands first on her apron every time,--and usher them into the
+sitting-room. There were not chairs enough in the house to seat them
+all. Even Uncle Petrovitsch came, and with him not only Bubby, which
+was a matter of course, but Ibrahim, the old man's companion at cards,
+who was said to have turned Turk during his fifty years' absence from
+home. The two old men said little. Ibrahim sat smoking a long Turkish
+pipe, motionless except for an occasional contraction of his eyebrows;
+while Petrovitsch was as constant in his attendance upon him as Bubby
+in attendance upon his master. Ibrahim was the only human being who
+possessed any influence over Petrovitsch, and he preserved it only by
+never exercising it. He shook off all applicants who hoped through him
+to gain access to the rich man. They played cards together every
+evening, cash down. Petrovitsch was stirred to special activity and
+officiousness by Ibrahim's imperturbable tranquillity, and now seemed
+desirous of doing the honors of his old homestead. He stood by the
+work-bench during the playing of a long piece, and amused himself with
+observing the tools which lay upon it, as well as those hanging upon
+the wall. At last he took down the familiar file with the well-worn
+handle. "Was not this his file?" he said to Lenz, when the piece was
+ended.
+
+"Yes, my poor father's."
+
+"I will buy it of you."
+
+"You are not in earnest, uncle. You know I could not sell it."
+
+"Not to me?"
+
+"Not even to you,--begging your pardon."
+
+"Give it to me, then, and let me give you something in return."
+
+"I hardly know how to answer you, uncle. Really, I cannot let it go out
+of the house."
+
+"Stay there then," he said to the unconscious tool, as he returned it
+to its place; and shortly after he and Ibrahim went down the hill.
+
+People came from a great distance, some from the next valley, to hear
+and admire the clock. Franzl was especially delighted with the praise
+bestowed upon it by the weight-maker, one of the chief men of her
+village. "Such a piece of workmanship has not left our part of the
+country for a hundred years," he declared. "What a pity it has got to
+be silent through the journey, and cannot play from here to Odessa, to
+tell every one it comes from the Black Forest, where science has been
+brought to such perfection!" Franzl's face glowed with pleasure. It
+takes the Knuslingers to talk like that. She told of the patience and
+zeal with which Lenz had labored on this work; how he had often got up
+in the night to carry out some idea that had come into his mind. There
+were secrets in that clock that no one could fathom. She, of course,
+was initiated into its mysteries. No maiden's heart ever beat more
+tumultuously at a first declaration of love than Franzl's when the
+first man of her village said, "And the house, Franzl, whence proceeds
+a work so delicate and exact, the house must have been well ordered
+too; you have contributed your share, Franzl."
+
+"With all deference to others, I must say there is no one quite equal
+to us Knuslingers. This is the only man who has said just the right
+thing. The others stood there like cows before a new barn door. Moo!
+moo! Thank Heaven, I come from Knuslingen!"--so spoke Franzl's whole
+manner. You could read it in her hand, which she laid upon her beating
+heart, and in the frequent raising of her eyes to heaven.
+
+Lenz could not help laughing at her seasoning every meal with
+congratulations that he was now so famous in Knuslingen.
+
+Knuslingen was not such a small place either. It had two chapels of
+ease, at Fuchsberg and at Knebringen.
+
+"To-morrow evening I shall close the case and send off The Magic
+Flute," said Lenz.
+
+"So soon?" lamented Franzl, and cast imploring glances at the great
+case, as if entreating it to stay yet a little longer in the house to
+which it brought so much honor.
+
+"I wonder," continued Lenz, "why the doctor's family has not been;
+and--and--the ladies from the Lion promised to come too."
+
+Franzl rubbed her forehead and shrugged her shoulders, lamenting her
+ignorance. It was not for the like of her to know the secrets of great
+houses.
+
+Annele of the Lion had long been urging her mother to make the visit,
+but the landlady would not without her husband. Majesty is wanting
+where he is not present. Majesty, however, does not seek; it requires
+to be sought.
+
+But now Annele learned through certain trusty informers that on this
+last day the doctor's family was going to Lenz's house. Majesty,
+therefore, must consent. This was the day of all others,--the day when
+the aristocracy would be present. The mother and daughter determined
+not to start till they had seen the doctor's family go by. Nothing of
+this diplomacy was revealed to his Majesty, whose punctiliousness and
+dignity would have taken umbrage thereat.
+
+"Here comes the thou-teacher," cried Franzl, early the next morning, as
+she was looking out of her kitchen window.
+
+The elders of the village called the young schoolmaster the
+thou-teacher, because, to the great scandal of some good people, he
+addressed all who were unmarried with the familiar "thou." His
+companions called him the singing-master,--a title more to his taste.
+He was the founder and moving spirit of the Liederkranz, and with Lenz,
+Pilgrim, and Faller made the best quartette. Lenz gave him a hearty
+welcome, and Franzl begged him to stay a couple of hours to help her
+receive the numerous visitors who would be sure to come in the course
+of the morning.
+
+"Yes, do stay," urged Lenz. "You cannot think how badly I feel at
+losing my clock; it is like bidding good by to a brother or a child."
+
+"You carry your sentiment too far," objected the schoolmaster, "in thus
+putting a piece of your heart into everything you make. You will soon
+start some fresh work. For my part, I do not fancy these wound-up
+organs, as you know." Franzl made a wry face, but the teacher went on.
+"They are for children and for a people in its childhood. Even a piano
+I don't think much of, because the tones are ready-made. A piece of
+music played on the piano is not much better than the whistling of a
+song that should be sung. The works of your clocks have tongues and
+lungs, but no heart."
+
+Franzl left the room in indignation. Thank Heaven, there are still
+Knuslingers in the world, to rate things at their proper value. She
+heard the two friends within singing the touching song, "Morgen muss
+ich fort von hier." Lenz's voice was a pure, though not very strong
+tenor, which the schoolmaster's powerful bass would have drowned had he
+let out the full force of his voice. They were interrupted by Franzl
+calling through the open door, "The doctor's family is coming."
+
+The school-teacher, as master of ceremonies, advanced in front of the
+house to receive them.
+
+The doctor entered with his wife and three daughters, and said at once,
+in his kindly way, which, without being in the least dictatorial, yet
+admitted of no refusal, that Lenz must not waste his valuable time in
+talking, but must set the clock going without delay.
+
+It was done, and all were evidently delighted. When the first piece was
+finished, Lenz was fairly overwhelmed by the praises bestowed upon
+him,--such hearty praises, too, evidently not spoken merely from
+politeness.
+
+"Grandmother sends you her congratulations," said the eldest daughter;
+while Bertha cried, "How many voices in one case!"
+
+"Don't you wish you had as many?" replied her father, jokingly.
+
+"You have a true talent for music," continued the eldest, her brown
+eyes shining with honest pleasure.
+
+"If my father had only let me have a violin to play on when I was a
+boy, I really think I might have done something in the way of music,"
+said Lenz.
+
+"You have done something now," said the stout doctor, as he laid his
+hand kindly on the young man's shoulder.
+
+The schoolmaster, whose chief delight was in the construction of the
+works, relieved Lenz of the trouble of explaining them to the ladies by
+describing, better than the manufacturer himself could have done, how
+the delicacies of crescendo and diminuendo were introduced, and what a
+nice ear was required to make the tones powerful without harshness, and
+to preserve the distinction between the long and the short notes. He
+dwelt repeatedly upon the accuracy of ear and mechanical skill
+necessary to produce such a work, called attention to the admirable
+expression of the pathetic passages, and reminded his listeners of the
+difficulty of bringing out the expression, and, at the same time,
+following the strokes of the metronome. This mechanism had not the
+advantage enjoyed by the performer of dispensing with the metronome
+and varying the time to suit the music. He was going on to explain how
+the various qualities of tone were rendered; the solidity of the
+barrel-work; the necessity of fitting the cylinders so firmly together
+that they could not give way; the reasons for having the soft alder
+outside and various woods of different fibres inside; when his
+explanations were interrupted by the voice of Franzl without, giving a
+peculiarly hearty welcome to some new-comers. Lenz went to the door,
+and found the landlord of the Lion, with his wife and daughter. The
+landlord shook hands with him, and gave a nod at the same time, as much
+as to say that no higher compliment could be paid than for a gentleman
+of well-known pride and honor to spend a quarter of an hour in
+examining a work to which a young man had devoted years of industry.
+
+"So you have come at last!" was Lenz's greeting to Annele.
+
+"Why at last?" she asked.
+
+"Have you forgotten that you promised to come six weeks ago?"
+
+"When? I cannot remember."
+
+"On the day after my mother's death you said you would come soon."
+
+"Yes, yes; so I did. I have had a feeling there was something on my
+mind, I could not tell what. Yes, yes; that is it. But, dear me, you
+have no idea how fast one thing crowds out another in our house." Lenz
+felt a pang through his heart at Annele's light words.
+
+But he had no time to analyze his feelings of pleasure and pain, for
+the ladies now began to exchange greetings. Annele seemed inclined to
+follow the city fashion and kiss the doctor's daughters,--those friends
+whom, however, she hated most cordially for the reserve that always
+appeared in their manner towards her. Amanda, the botanist, had taken
+off her broad hat, quite as if she were at home, and Annele followed
+her example. Annele's hair was more abundant than that of all the other
+ladies put together, and long enough to sit on. She held up her head,
+with its triple crowns of braids, and looked about her with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+Lenz put in a new barrel, and made The Magic Flute, which was generally
+rather grave, play the merry song of the Moors, "Das klinget so
+herrlich, das klinget so schoen."
+
+"H'm, h'm!" growled the landlord, and a long speech he made out of his
+growl, nodding his head the while, and drawing in his under lip, as if
+tasting a delicate wine.
+
+"Very well," he added, after a pause, and spreading out both hands as
+he said it, as if he would literally be openhanded in bestowing his
+commendations,--"very well indeed." Those were weighty words, coming
+from mine host.
+
+The landlady folded her hands, and looked admiringly at Lenz. "To think
+that such a work should be made by human hands, and by so young a man
+too! and yet he acts as if he were nothing more than the rest of the
+world. Keep so always; nothing becomes a great artist so well as
+modesty. Go on as you have begun; make more such works. You have a
+great gift, my word for it."
+
+That poverty-stricken individual, that may-pole, cannot use such
+language, said her triumphant glance at the doctor's wife, after this
+speech. And, if she did, what would her words signify? It is very
+different coming from me.
+
+"Your mother's blessing rests on your noble work, Lenz," said Annele,
+"for she lived to see it finished. How hard for you to part with it!
+Bring me the music, won't you? and I will learn to play it on the
+piano."
+
+"I can lend you the notes," said the doctor's eldest daughter, who had
+heard Annele's concluding words.
+
+"But ours is arranged for four hands," said Bertha.
+
+"And I have but two," said Annele, snappishly.
+
+The girls would have gone on chatting longer, had not the doctor
+commanded silence. A new barrel had been put in, and the second piece
+was beginning.
+
+When this was ended, and the guests had gone into the other room to
+partake of the bread and butter, cheese and wine that Franzl had
+prepared, the landlord began upon business.
+
+"How much do you receive for your musical clock, Lenz? You need not
+hesitate to tell me; I won't take any unfair advantage of it."
+
+"Twenty-two hundred florins. I don't gain much at that price, for the
+work has cost me a great outlay of time and money. If I make another, I
+shall drive a better bargain."
+
+"Have you begun another?"
+
+"No, I have had no order."
+
+"I cannot give you an order, for musical clocks are out of my line of
+business. I cannot order one, therefore, as I say; but, if you make
+another, perhaps I will buy it. I think I could dispose of it."
+
+"If that is so, I will begin a second work at once that shall be better
+than the first. The idea almost reconciles me to having this one go and
+carry away all the years I have spent on it."
+
+"Not a word more or less have I to say about the matter. I am always
+accurate and precise. I give you no order, but--there is a
+possibility."
+
+"That is quite enough; I am perfectly satisfied. Annele has said just
+what I was saying to Pilgrim yesterday, that I could not tell how badly
+I felt at having to part with the work my mother took such delight in."
+
+Annele cast her eyes modestly to the ground.
+
+"I shall take the same delight in it your mother did," said the
+landlady.
+
+The doctor's wife and daughters looked at her in surprise as she spoke,
+the landlord frowned threateningly at his wife, and the pause that
+ensued gave additional weight to her words. Franzl relieved the general
+embarrassment by hospitably pressing refreshments upon every one, and
+was radiant with happiness when Annele commended her for keeping the
+house in such good order that no one would imagine it was without a
+mistress. The old woman put her newly washed apron to her eyes.
+
+The landlady hit upon an excellent topic in asking Lenz if his uncle
+had been to see his work, and if he were not pleased with it.
+
+"He came," answered Lenz, "but said nothing, except that I had sold it
+too cheap, and did not know how to look after my own interests."
+
+There could not have been a happier inspiration than to turn the
+conversation upon an absent friend, especially one so open to criticism
+as Petrovitsch. The only question was what tone should be assumed in
+speaking of him. Annele and her mother had already opened their mouths
+when a warning look from the landlord silenced them. The doctor began
+to praise the absent uncle. He only put on a rough exterior, said his
+apologist, to hide his kind heart. "Petrovitsch," he continued, turning
+to Lenz and the schoolmaster, "is like the coals which once were trees;
+they have rich warmth within, and so has Petrovitsch." The schoolmaster
+smiled assent, Lenz looked embarrassed, and the landlord growled.
+"Petrovitsch likes music," said the doctor's eldest daughter, "and no
+one who likes music can be hard-hearted." Lenz nodded approvingly, and
+Annele gave a gracious smile. The landlady was not to be outdone. It
+was she who had turned the conversation upon this fertile subject, and
+she was not going to let it be appropriated by others. She praised
+Petrovitsch's cleverness, and hinted that she possessed his entire
+confidence, which naturally suggested her cleverness also in
+appreciating this sage as the rest of the world could not. Annele, too,
+must bring her offering of praise. Petrovitsch was so neat, she said;
+he wore such fine linen and made such good jokes. A crumb even fell to
+Bubby's share from this rich feast of compliments. Annele described
+Petrovitsch as the perfect model of a kind, true family friend,--almost
+a saint, in fact. He wanted nothing finally but a pair of wings to
+become an angel outright.
+
+The visit came to an end at last. The schoolmaster escorted the
+doctor's daughters, and Lenz joined the doctor, who was walking behind.
+
+"I have a question to ask you, doctor," said he, "but you must not seek
+to know my reason for asking."
+
+"What may it be?"
+
+"I want to know what kind of a plant Edelweiss is."
+
+"Don't you know, Amanda?" asked the doctor.
+
+"It is an alpine plant," answered Amanda, blushing, "that is said to
+grow on the line of perpetual snow,--in fact, under the snow. I never
+saw a living specimen of it."
+
+"I believe you, child," replied the doctor, smiling; "only the boldest
+alpine goatherds and hunters venture to pick the hardy little plant
+from its native soil. The possession of one is a proof of unusual
+daring. It is a peculiar plant of delicate construction, and containing
+very little sap, so that it can be preserved a long while, like our
+everlasting. The blossom is surrounded by white velvety leaves, and
+even the stem has a down upon it. I can show you the plant if you will
+come to my house. The Latin name is _Leontopodium alpinum_, which means
+Alpine lion's-foot. I don't know where the German name comes from, but
+it is certainly prettier than the Latin."
+
+Lenz expressed his thanks, and took leave of the doctor and his family,
+who continued down the mountain.
+
+The landlady lingered in the kitchen with Franzl after the rest had
+gone. She could not find words to express her admiration of the old
+woman's neatness and orderliness. "You are like a mother in the house,"
+she said with her magpie laugh, as Pilgrim called it; "Lenz ought to
+hold you in great honor, and confide everything to you. He should have
+no secret from you."
+
+"He does not; that is--only one."
+
+"So there is one! May I know what it is?"
+
+"I don't know myself. When he came home from his mother's funeral, he
+rummaged in the chest that the mistress would never let any one have
+the key of; and when I called him, he pushed to the door and rummaged
+awhile longer, locking everything up again tight. Whenever he goes out
+now he always tries the lid, to see that it is fast locked. Yet he is
+not naturally suspicious."
+
+The landlady cleared her throat and gave utterance to another little
+magpie laugh. The old mistress must have laid by a stocking full of
+gold, she thought; who knows how much? "Come and see me," she said,
+condescendingly; "come whenever you like. If you should want anything,
+do not fail to come to me for it. I should never forgive you if you
+were to apply to any one else. Your brother often comes to us with his
+wares; have you any message for him?"
+
+"Yes; I should think he might come up and see me sometimes."
+
+"Be sure I will tell him so, and if he has not time to come so far, I
+will send for you to come down. We have a great many Knuslingers at our
+house, and very sensible people they are; at least I like to talk with
+them better than with any one else. If the Knuslingers were only rich,
+they would be famous the country round. We often speak of you, and your
+townspeople like to hear of the esteem in which you are held."
+
+When the landlady paused for breath, Franzl gazed at her with rapture,
+and would gladly have supplied her with her own, had she had any to
+spare; but hers too was exhausted. She could only lay her hand on her
+heart; to speak was quite out of her power. What a change had come over
+the kitchen! Merry Knuslingen faces seemed to be laughing from all
+the pots and pans; the shining copper kettles turned into drums and
+began to play; the tin funnels blew a blast, and the beautiful white
+coffee-pot stuck its arms akimbo and danced just like her godmother,
+the old burgomaster's wife: oh, it has danced itself off its feet!
+Franzl seized the excitable coffee-pot just in time to save it from
+falling.
+
+"Good by, Franzl," concluded the landlady, rising. "It does one good to
+chat with an old friend. I enjoy myself far better with you than in the
+doctor's parlor, with his affected daughters, who can do nothing but
+play the piano and make up faces. Good by, Franzl."
+
+The musical clock played no sweeter melodies than were sounding in
+Franzl's heart at this moment. She could have sung and danced for joy.
+She looked at the fire and smiled, and then turned again to the kitchen
+window to watch the landlady's retreating figure. What a fine woman she
+is, the first in the whole town, and yet she called herself your good
+old friend! While Franzl was laying the cloth, she stole a glance at
+herself in the glass, as a maiden might who is returning from her first
+ball. So looks Franzl, the best friend of the landlady of the Lion. She
+could not taste a morsel of the good things she had provided; she was
+satisfied,--more than satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+             GOOD WISHES, AND A FAIR START ON THE JOURNEY.
+
+
+Now it is ready, said Lenz to himself, casting a last look upon his
+work before taking it to pieces; God bless you! The various parts were
+carried down separately into the valley; the great carved case in a
+barrow, there being no carriage-road to Lenz's house.
+
+The two enemies, Petrovitsch and Pilgrim, met at the wagon on which
+Lenz was standing, packing together the detached pieces, each of which,
+in its turn, was carefully wrapped in a stout covering.
+
+On one side stood Petrovitsch. "I know the man and the house," he said,
+"that your work is going to. One of my best friends lives in Odessa.
+Your clock will be in capital hands. Why don't you go with it and set
+it up yourself in Odessa? You would get half a dozen more orders."
+
+"I have a new order already," answered Lenz.
+
+"Lenz," said Pilgrim on the other side of the wagon; "let us go a
+little way with The Magic Flute; we can be back in good season this
+evening."
+
+"I am willing. I could not work to-day, at any rate."
+
+As the wagon, followed by the two friends, was passing the Lion inn,
+Annele looked out of the window and cried, "Good luck to you!"
+
+The young men thanked her.
+
+A still pleasanter greeting awaited them at the doctor's. The
+servant-maid ran out and laid a wreath of flowers on the wagon.
+
+"Who sends it?" asked Pilgrim, for Lenz was mute with astonishment.
+
+"My young mistress," answered the girl, and disappeared into the house.
+
+The two friends looked up at the window and saluted, but saw no one. A
+few minutes afterwards they heard The Magic Flute played from the
+doctor's parlor.
+
+"It is a grand family, that of the doctor's," said Pilgrim. "I never
+know my own mind so little as when I ask myself which one of them all
+is the best. My favorite is the old mayoress. The neighborhood ought to
+sign a petition to God that she might live forever. Now that your
+mother is gone, she is the last one left of that generation of
+dignified, motherly old ladies. But the granddaughters are fine women
+too. Amanda will make just such a grandmother as the old mayoress, one
+of these days."
+
+Lenz was silent, and remained so during the whole walk to the city. But
+there, when the wagon had gone on, and the friends were sitting over
+their wine, he recovered his spirits, and felt, as he said, that he was
+beginning life anew.
+
+"Now you must marry," was again Pilgrim's verdict. "There are
+two choices open to you; one is to marry a woman of thorough
+education,--one of the doctor's daughters, for instance. You can have
+one, if you will, and I advise you to take Amanda. It is a pity she
+cannot sing, like Bertha, but she is good and true. She will honor you,
+if you honor her, and will appreciate your art." Lenz looked down into
+his glass, and Pilgrim continued: "Or you will make your home
+comfortable by marrying an honest peasant, the bailiff's daughter
+Katharine. As Franzl says, the girl would jump to get you, and she
+would make a good, economical housewife. You would have half a dozen
+stout children tearing down the landlord's pine-trees behind your
+house, and you would grow a rich man. But, in that case, you must
+expect no sympathy from your wife in your art or in any of your great
+plans. You can have which you like, but you must decide. If your mind
+is made up, send me to which you will. I rejoice already in my dignity
+as suitor. I will even put on a white neckcloth, if necessary. Can the
+power of friendship go further?"
+
+Lenz still looked down into his glass. Pilgrim's alternative excluded
+Annele. After a long pause, he said: "I should like to be for once in a
+great city, that I might hear such a piece of music as The Magic Flute
+played by a full orchestra over and over again. I am sure my pieces
+could be made to sound much better than they do. I am haunted by the
+idea of a tone I cannot produce. People may praise me as much as they
+like, but I know my pieces have not the right sound. I am sure of it,
+and yet I cannot make them better. There is something squeaking, dry,
+harsh about them, like the sounds made by a deaf and dumb person, which
+are like words, but yet are not words. If I could only bring out the
+right tone! I know it, I hear it, but I cannot produce it."
+
+"I understand; I feel just so myself. I am conscious of a color, a
+picture which I ought to be able to paint. I seem on the point of
+seizing and fixing it, but I shall die without succeeding. That is our
+fate, yours and mine. You will never produce your ideal. It cannot be
+otherwise. Bellows and wheels cannot take the place of human breath and
+human hands; they bring tones from a flute and a violin which your
+machinery never can. It must be so. Come, let us empty our glasses and
+be off."
+
+They finished their wine, and went merrily homeward through the autumn
+night, singing all sorts of songs, and, when they were tired of
+singing, varying their music by whistling. At Pilgrim's house they
+parted. Lenz's way led him past the Lion inn; and, as he saw it was
+still lighted, and heard a sound of voices within, he entered.
+
+"I am glad you are come," said Annele, giving him her hand; "I was
+thinking you must be as lonely at home, now that your clock is gone, as
+you were when your mother died."
+
+"Not quite that, but something like it. Ah! Annele, people may praise
+my work as much as they like, I know it is not what it should be. But
+one thing I may say of myself without conceit,--I do know how to hear
+music, and to hear music aright is something."
+
+Annele stared at him. Know how to hear music! Indeed, what art is there
+in that? Any one can hear music who has ears, and does not plug them
+up! Still, she fancied that Lenz must have some hidden meaning.
+Experience had taught her, that, when a man wants to bring out an idea
+of which his mind is full, his first utterances are apt to be rather
+disconnected; so she threw another wondering glance at Lenz, and said,
+"To be sure, that is something."
+
+"You know what I mean," cried Lenz, delighted.
+
+"Yes, but I cannot express it."
+
+"That is just it; neither can I. When I come to that I am a wretched
+bungler. I never regularly learned music; I cannot play the violin or
+piano; but when I see the notes, I hear exactly what the composer meant
+to say. I cannot interpret music, but I can hear it."
+
+"That is well said," chimed in Annele. "I shall remember that as long
+as I live. To interpret music and to hear it are two different things.
+You show me so clearly what I have always felt, and yet never could
+express."
+
+Lenz drank in the good wine, the kind words, and the kind looks of
+Annele, and went on: "Especially with Mozart; I hear him, and I think I
+hear him right. If I could but once in my life have shaken hands with
+him! If he had lived in my day, it seems to me I should have died of
+grief at his death; but, now that he is in heaven, I should like to do
+him some service. At other times, I think it is fortunate I cannot play
+any instrument, for I never could have learned to render music as I
+hear it. The hearing is a natural gift, for which I have to thank God.
+My grandfather is said to have had a wonderful understanding of music.
+If my playing were necessarily below my hearing and my conception, I
+should want to tear my ears out."
+
+"That is the way with me," said Annele. "I like to hear music, but am
+too unskilful a performer. When one has to be busy about the house, and
+cannot devote much time to practising, there is no use in trying to
+play. I have given up the piano altogether, much to my father's
+vexation, for he spared no pains to have all his children taught; but I
+think what cannot be done thoroughly had better not be done at all.
+Your musical clocks are meant for people like me, who like to hear
+music, but cannot make it. If I were master here, I should never allow
+your greatest work to go to Russia, but should buy it myself. It ought
+to stand in the public room to entertain the guests. It would bring you
+in ever so many orders there. Since I was up at your house, I have had
+constantly running in my head that beautiful melody, 'Das klinget so
+herrlich, das klinget so schoen!'"
+
+Beautiful and brave were the melodies playing in Lenz's heart. He tried
+to explain to Annele how the notes might be followed exactly, all the
+pins be put in the right places, and even the time in certain passages
+changed, and yet, unless the man himself felt the music, he would make
+nothing but a hurdy-gurdy, after all. The piano passages must be taken
+slower, the forte faster. A performer would naturally render them so;
+he could hardly help being more subdued at the piano passages and more
+animated at the forte. The same effect must be wrought by the pins; but
+the hurrying and slackening needs to be very slight. In the forte
+passages especial care is needed; for in them the works necessarily
+labor and are retarded, so that they have to be, in some way, favored.
+"I cannot tell you, Annele," he concluded, "how happy my art, my work,
+makes me. As Pilgrim says, I sit there in my room, and set up pieces
+lively or solemn, which play themselves, and make happy hundreds and
+hundreds of people that I never saw."
+
+Annele listened intelligently to the end. "You deserve to be happy,"
+she said, when he had finished. "Your beautiful words show me how
+beautiful your work is. Thank you very much for explaining it to me so
+thoroughly. Some people would be jealous if they knew you talked so to
+me."
+
+Lenz passed his hand across his brow as she spoke, and said, "Annele,
+may I ask you a question?"
+
+"Yes, I will tell you anything."
+
+"Don't be angry with me, but is it true that you are as good as engaged
+to the engineer?"
+
+"Thank you for asking me so plainly. There is my hand upon it, there is
+no word of truth in the story; nothing has ever passed between us."
+
+Lenz held her hand firmly, and said, "Permit me one question more."
+
+"Ask what you will, you shall have an honest answer."
+
+"Why is your manner towards me so different when Pilgrim is here? Has
+anything ever passed between you and him?"
+
+"May this wine be poison to me, if I do not speak the truth," replied
+Annele, seizing Lenz's glass, and putting her lips to it, in spite of
+his assuring her there was no need to swear; that he could not bear
+oaths. "If all men were like you," she continued, "there would be no
+need of oaths. Pilgrim and I are always teasing and bantering each
+other, but he does not really understand me; and, when you are by, I
+cannot endure his jesting and nonsense. But now I must ask you a favor.
+If you want to know anything about me, no matter what, ask no one but
+myself. Promise me; give me your hand on it!"
+
+They grasped each other's hand.
+
+"I am a landlord's daughter," continued Annele, sadly. "I am not so
+fortunate as other girls, who do not have to receive every one that
+comes, and laugh and talk with him. I carry the thing through as well
+as I can, but am not always what I seem. I know I may say this to you.
+I might often be depressed; but the only way is to put on a bold face,
+and laugh sadness away."
+
+"I should never have imagined you could have a sad thought pass through
+your mind. I fancied you as merry as a bird the whole day long."
+
+"I like better to be merry," answered Annele, with a sudden change of
+tone and expression. "I like nothing sad, not even sad music. 'Das
+klinget so herrlich, das klinget so schoen!' that is a merry tune to
+jump and dance to."
+
+The conversation returned to the subject of music, and the clock
+that had been sent off that day. Lenz liked to tell of his having
+accompanied The Magic Flute through part of its long journey, and how
+he wanted to call out to every porter and driver and sailor on the way:
+"Take care! pity you cannot hear what you have got packed up there."
+
+Lenz had never before been the last guest in the inn. He could not make
+up his mind to get up and go home. The great clock in the public room
+struck the hour noisily and admonishingly, the weights rattled angrily,
+but Lenz did not hear. The landlord was the only other person in the
+room, his wife having long since gone to bed. He left his seat at the
+adjoining table, where he had been reading the paper, and signed to
+Annele to put up her work. She could not have understood him, for she
+went on talking eagerly. He put out his light with a clatter, but even
+that failed to rouse the pair. He walked up and down the room in his
+creaking boots; Lenz paid no attention. Never before had the landlord's
+presence been thus ignored. He struck his repeater; Lenz gave no heed.
+At last--for mine host was not accustomed to put restraint upon himself
+for any man--he spoke: "Lenz, if you mean to spend the night here, I
+will show you a room."
+
+Lenz roused himself, shook hands with Annele, and would have liked to
+do the same with the landlord; but that was too great a liberty to take
+unless invited. Revolving many thoughts in his mind, he left the house,
+and silently took his way homeward.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                         LION, FOX, AND MAGPIE.
+
+
+In the early winter, as in the early spring, the Morgenhalde was the
+pleasantest place in the whole country. Old Lenz was right in saying
+that the morning sun lay on his house and meadow all day long. But
+little fire was needed half the day. Flowers blossomed in the garden
+behind the house long after they had disappeared everywhere else, and
+put out their leaves again in the spring, when everything else was
+bare. This garden was as sheltered as a room, and in it grew, what was
+rare in those parts, a chestnut-tree, which attracted many an unwelcome
+squirrel and nutpecker from the neighboring forest. The house protected
+the garden on one side without keeping from it the sun after ten
+o'clock; and the mighty forest which covered the upper part of the
+steep mountain seemed to take special pleasure in both house and
+garden, and had stationed two of its tallest pines as sentinels at the
+gate.
+
+Had there been many promenaders in the town, they certainly, in these
+first chilly winter months, would have often taken the path up the
+meadow, past Lenz's house into the wood, and returned along the
+mountain ridge. But there was only one promenader, or rather there were
+only two, in the town,--Petrovitsch and his dog Bubby. Every day before
+dinner Petrovitsch got up an appetite by walking through the meadow,
+past the house, and over the ridge of the mountain. Bubby doubled and
+trebled the distance by leaping back and forth across the gullies which
+to the right of Lenz's house the water had channelled down into the
+valley. The gullies were dry at this season, but served in spring and
+summer to carry off the rushing water. Petrovitsch was very loving
+towards his dog, and in moments of special affection would call him
+Sonny. The old man had come home rich from his foreign journeyings. His
+neighbors naturally estimated his property at three times its actual
+value, but it was really considerable. The longing for home which the
+inhabitants of the mountains and of Upper Germany never outgrow had
+brought him, in his old age, back to his native valley, where he
+lived, after his fashion, a contented life. His happiest time was
+in midsummer, when the merchants from all quarters of the world
+assembled at the Lion, and all the tongues of the earth were spoken
+there,--Spanish, Italian, English, Russian, and Dutch,--while in the
+midst of them, from the very same men, would be heard good Black Forest
+German. Then was Petrovitsch a person of consequence, and great was his
+pride at being able to show off his knowledge of Spanish and Russian.
+Whereas in ordinary times he always left the Lion punctually at an
+appointed hour, then he would spend whole days there, staying sometimes
+even into the night. And when the market was over he stayed behind, and
+amused himself with calculating how far on their way such and such
+merchants were who had gone to the Lower Danube.
+
+Petrovitsch kept the whole country in suspense. It was generally
+understood, though he had not said so, that he meant to found a great
+charitable institution for the neighborhood. Every room of the great
+house he had built for himself had a stove in it, signifying, according
+to the common report, which he neither denied nor confirmed, that he
+designed the building as a home for invalid workmen. Lenz, his only
+heir, was left in uncertainty also; for it was naturally taken for
+granted that a considerable part of the fortune would be left to him.
+Lenz himself, however, counted not much upon it. He paid his uncle all
+proper respect, but was man enough to take care of himself. He bade his
+apprentice keep always in good order the path where his uncle liked to
+walk, without any reference having been made to the attention on either
+side. The cackling of Lenz's hens and geese, and the barking of a dog,
+were the signal every noon of his uncle's approach. He nodded to him
+through the window where he sat at work. His uncle returned the
+greeting and passed on. Neither ever entered the house of the other.
+
+One day the old man remained standing before the window. Bubby seemed
+to guess his thoughts; for whereas he was usually contented with
+driving Lenz's geese, cackling, behind the garden fence, and then
+returning in triumph to his master, to-day he pursued them through the
+garden and even into the house, where, however, they found a sufficient
+protector in Franzl. Petrovitsch administered a stern rebuke to his
+dog, and went on, thinking to himself, It is Lenz's place to come to
+me, there is no use in my troubling myself about him. As soon as a man
+begins to trouble himself about his neighbors there is an end of his
+comfort. He has to keep wondering whether they will do this or whether
+they will do that. I desire to be thankful I have nobody's business to
+mind but my own. But still he could not help questioning, What is this
+matter about the forest? Yesterday at dinner the landlady had taken a
+seat by him, and, after talking of a variety of subjects, had quite
+unexpectedly launched forth into praises of Petrovitsch's habit of
+taking a daily walk. It kept him in good health, she said; he might
+live to be a hundred, in fact had every appearance of it. She heartily
+wished he might; he had had a hard time in life and deserved some
+amends for it. Petrovitsch was wise enough to know that there was
+something behind this unwonted friendliness. He attributed it, perhaps
+not unjustly, to her having designs upon his nephew. She said nothing
+about that, however, but once more turned the conversation upon his
+daily walk, and said what a good thing it would be for him to buy of
+her husband the beautiful Spannreuter forest by the Morgenhalde. To be
+sure he would be sorry to sell it; indeed, she did not know whether he
+would consent to sell at all, but she should like to give Petrovitsch
+the gratification of walking every day in his own wood. Petrovitsch
+thanked her for her exceedingly delicate attention, but ended the
+matter by saying he liked quite as well to walk in another man's
+forest; in fact, rather better, because then it did not vex him to see
+persons stealing the wood, and to lose one's temper before dinner was
+bad for the digestion. The landlady smiled intelligently, and replied
+that no one could have a bright idea without Petrovitsch's having a
+brighter. Petrovitsch again made his acknowledgments, and the two were
+as sweet to each other as possible, much sweeter than the lump of sugar
+that Petrovitsch pocketed from dessert.
+
+The thought passed through the old man's mind that the forest would be
+a good purchase for Lenz to make, he furnishing the means; for the
+landlord would ask him too high a price for it. That was what he wanted
+to tell his nephew, when he remembered his noble principle of not
+troubling himself about other men's concerns, and he desisted. He had
+done too much already in busying his head in the matter. He noticed
+that the ascent was more difficult to-day than usual; so much for
+thinking when you are going up a mountain; you should do nothing but
+breathe. "Here, you stupid fellow!" he called to Bubby, who was
+grubbing after a mole when a good cooked dinner was preparing for him;
+"what is a mole to you? let him dig!" The dog obeyed, and walked close
+at his master's side. "Back!" ordered Petrovitsch again, and with the
+dog put all unnecessary thoughts behind him. He would know nothing; his
+tranquillity must be undisturbed.
+
+The old man found the family at the Lion out of temper. The landlord
+was in great wrath at hearing from his wife that she had offered the
+forest to Petrovitsch, who had refused it. "Now the report will get
+abroad that I am in want of money," he complained.
+
+"Well, you said you wanted money," retorted his wife, pouting.
+
+"I don't need you to do my business for me. I shall sell no paper at
+the exchange to-day!" he exclaimed in an unusually loud tone just as
+Petrovitsch was entering. The old man gave a knowing smile and thought
+to himself, You would not boast so loud if you were not in want of
+money. Just as dinner was ready, the post-boy brought in a number of
+letters, some marked "Important." The landlord signed a receipt, but
+sat down to table without opening them, loudly repeating what he had
+often said before, "I read no letters before dinner. Whether they are
+good or bad they spoil one's appetite. I am not going to have my
+comfort disturbed by the railroads."
+
+A wicked scoffer, sitting at another table, refused the due tribute of
+admiration to this piece of wisdom, and profanely thought, There is a
+locomotive running about in your body, put as good a face on the matter
+as you will. This scoffer, it is needless to say, was Petrovitsch.
+
+After dinner Pilgrim walked several times past Petrovitsch's table with
+the evident desire of stopping at it. Four eyes looked at him
+wonderingly. Bubby, sitting in his master's lap, stared and growled as
+if he scented a beggar, while Petrovitsch's occasional glance up from
+his paper said plainly: What is he after? He has not a forest to sell
+too,--has he? None, certainly, but the one on his head, if he does not
+owe for that.
+
+Pilgrim frequently passed his hand through his long lank hair, but
+found thereby no approach to Petrovitsch, who, so far from encouraging
+him, got up now, paid his score, and departed. Pilgrim hurried after
+him. "A couple of words with you, if you please, Mr. Lenz," he said,
+when he overtook him in the street.
+
+"Good day; that is just a couple of words."
+
+"I want nothing for myself, Mr. Lenz; but I consider it my duty--"
+
+"Your duties are nothing to me."
+
+"Imagine that some one else is speaking my words. So that you hear
+them, the rest is nothing."
+
+"I am not curious."
+
+"It concerns your nephew Lenz."
+
+"I knew that."
+
+"Yet more; you may make his happiness for life."
+
+"Every man must make that for himself."
+
+"It would only cost you a walk to the doctor's."
+
+"Is Lenz ill?"
+
+"No. The state of the case is this: he ought to marry and wants to
+marry. Now the best wife for him is the doctor's daughter Amanda, as I
+am convinced, after thinking the matter over on all sides. But he lacks
+the necessary courage. He thinks, too,-he has not told me so, but I am
+sure of it,--that he is not rich enough. Now, if the uncle makes the
+proposal, and thereby promises--"
+
+"So? I knew it would come to that. If my brother's son wants a wife,
+let him get her himself. I am an old bachelor, and don't understand
+such things."
+
+"If his friends do not exert themselves, Amanda will marry some one
+else. I know that an apothecary is paying his addresses to her."
+
+"Good! she would be just the wife for him. I am not the disposer of the
+world."
+
+"But if your nephew should foolishly get into trouble in some other
+quarter?"
+
+"He must get out the best way he can."
+
+"Mr. Lenz, you are not as hard-hearted as you set up for being."
+
+"I am not setting at all, I am going. Good day, Mr. Pilgrim." And go he
+did. Pilgrim drew his breath hard as he looked after him, but presently
+turned homeward. In this gloomy weather, with no ray of sunshine, he
+could at least be grinding his colors for brighter days.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                      PRESSES AND EYES ARE OPENED.
+
+
+"Good day, Franzl! So you let us have a look at you at last! That is
+right; I am glad to see you." Thus was Franzl greeted by the landlady,
+as she entered the public room.
+
+"I beg your pardon," stammered Franzl; "did you not send for me? My
+brother was said to be here."
+
+The landlady knew nothing of any message having been sent. The brother
+had been there, indeed, but had left a long while ago. She had given
+the servant orders to notify Franzl when occasion offered, but knew
+nothing about today.
+
+Franzl begged pardon for intruding, and was anxious to go back at once,
+feeling herself quite out of place. This mood suited the landlady
+exactly. The stupid servant-woman must suspect nothing, but esteem
+herself highly favored by having a few moments devoted to her. It was
+better to put her a thousand thanks in debt than owe her one. Franzl
+must stay, since she had come, and must wait a few minutes in the
+family sitting-room until the busy mistress was at leisure. The poor
+woman did not venture to sit down, but remained standing at the door,
+staring at the great clothes-presses that reached up to the ceiling.
+
+"At last I have despatched everything," said the landlady, entering,
+and smoothing her gown; "and now I will have a good hour with an old
+friend,--the best possession in the world, after all."
+
+Franzl felt highly flattered. She was made to sit down by the landlady,
+close to her on the sofa, while a servant-maid handed coffee and cakes.
+She put on all the airs of modesty that the occasion required, perhaps
+a few more; such as insisting upon turning into the landlady's cup the
+cream the latter had already poured into hers, until the hostess was
+obliged to tell her she should be angry if she stood so much upon
+ceremony.
+
+At the second cup, Franzl began to tell how things looked on the
+Morgenhalde. Lenz worked as hard, she said, as if there was not a crumb
+of bread in the house, and yet there were abundant stores of all kinds.
+He scarcely ever went from home, except to see Faller, whose house he
+was helping to fit up. He had signed a security for the purchase of the
+house in the first place, and now he had contributed a bed, besides
+giving the old woman his mother's Sunday clothes. If some one did not
+come soon, and take his keys, he would give away everything he owned.
+But for himself he was as economical as could be. He neither smoked nor
+took snuff, nor drank, nor played; he spent nothing at all on himself,
+concluded Franzl, approvingly.
+
+After the landlady had again bestowed fitting commendations on the
+Knuslingers, who knew everything, she added incidentally: "Only think,
+Franzl, of this report that your young master is to marry the doctor's
+botanical daughter! Is there any truth in it?"
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"So?"
+
+"That is, I mean, there is no truth at all in it. Pilgrim tried to
+persuade him to, but he would not; and I believe there has been a
+quarrel in consequence."
+
+"So? That is a different matter. I always said that Lenz knew his own
+mind. He would do far better to follow your advice and marry the
+bailiff's Katharine."
+
+"Do you hear that?" said Franzl, triumphantly, smiling and nodding her
+head as if Lenz were standing before her. "Do you hear that? The wise
+landlady of the Lion agrees with me. And here you thought she would be
+too rough for you; that nothing could be made of her. I will tell him
+you advise him to marry Katharine. That will be a help to me. I have
+been wishing to find some one on my side."
+
+"No, Franzl; God forbid! You must not speak a word of me at home.
+Besides, he is quite right; Katharine would not be suitable for a man
+so refined as he. He should have a superior woman, one above the common
+run."
+
+"Yes; but where is such a one to be found?"
+
+"Good day, Franzl," said Annele, suddenly entering. "I am glad to see
+you once more in our house. Don't get up. You look, as you sit there,
+like the well-to-do mistress of some great farm, and you know as much
+as if you were. But finish your coffee; it is growing cold. Is it sweet
+enough?"
+
+"Oh, too sweet!"
+
+Annele's words acted like whole sugar-loaves upon it.
+
+"I wish I could stay and hear you talk, but I must go back to the
+public room. One of us is needed there. Come again soon, won't you? and
+let me have something of you."
+
+"Oh, what a dear, dear girl!" exclaimed Franzl in praise of the
+departing Annele. "She must make you a perfect heaven upon earth."
+
+"We have our cares too. She is our last child; if she were only well
+provided for!"
+
+Franzl opened her eyes wide, and gave a vacant smile, but did not
+venture to say a word. The landlady tapped her finger on her nose with
+her magpie laugh, at which Franzl considered it her duty to laugh too.
+She knew what were proper manners at a coffee lunch. Put a Knuslinger
+where you will, he will always do the right thing. The landlady now,
+with all her cleverness, did not seem to know what the right thing was.
+
+"Do you like to see nice linen, Franzl?"
+
+"O my heart! it is the one thing I delight in. If I were rich, I would
+have seven chests of the finest linen. The weight-maker's wife in
+Knuslingen has--"
+
+"See there," said the landlady, opening the folding-doors of a great
+clothes-press and showing packages of linen in dozens, piled up to the
+ceiling, each tied with a bright-colored ribbon.
+
+"Is that for the hotel?" asked Franzl, when her first exclamations of
+admiration were over.
+
+"Heaven forbid! that is my Annele's dowry. As soon as my daughters were
+seven years old I began to put by their wedding outfit, for you never
+can tell how suddenly it may be needed. Then it is finished, and there
+is no further need of weaver or seamstress. I only wish the dowry of
+one of my daughters might remain in the town. It would be pleasant,
+too, to keep one child near us. Thank Heaven, all my children are well
+married,--more than well; but seeing their prosperity is better than
+hearing of it."
+
+A sudden revelation broke upon Franzl's mind. The press with its wealth
+of linen danced before her eyes, and the blue, red, green, and yellow
+ribbons melted together into a rainbow. "O dear landlady, may I speak?
+I beg a thousand pardons if I am presuming, but--O dear Heaven, where
+such linen is how much else there must be! How would it do--might I say
+it?--if my Lenz--?"
+
+"I have nothing to say. I am the mother, and my child is well known;
+you can easily inquire about her. You understand? I think--I don't
+know--"
+
+"Oh, that is enough, quite enough! I fly home; I have borne him in my
+arms, I will bear him again hither. But there will be no need, he will
+leap over the house-tops. I am but a poor silly thing, dear landlady;
+don't be angry with me."
+
+"You silly? You can draw one's inmost thoughts out of one. You are
+wiser than the seven wise men. But look you, Franzl, this is all
+between ourselves; between two trusty friends. I have said nothing; you
+have made your own discoveries. My husband naturally looks higher; but
+I should like to keep one child near me, God willing. I tell you
+honestly--for I know not how to speak falsely or to take back my
+word--that I do not reject your proposal."
+
+"That is enough. I will show that we Knuslingers do not bear the name
+for nothing."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Ho, ho!" cried Franzl in a decided tone, and putting on a knowing
+look. "You will soon see. I shall take his tools away from him and
+drive him out of the house. He must be here this very day. You will
+help him out,--won't you? for he is shy with strangers."
+
+The landlady soothed the excited Franzl, who in her enthusiasm
+alternately got up and sat down, raised her hands to heaven and folded
+them upon her breast. She advised her to show her wisdom by betraying
+to Lenz in no possible way that Annele's mother favored his cause; and
+further enjoined upon her, as the best means of success, to throw out
+warnings against every one else, while Annele's name should be scarcely
+mentioned. "Such matters should be delicately handled," concluded she.
+"'You must not point your finger at the lightning,' as the old proverb
+runs."
+
+Franzl was always going, and never went. When at last she had the
+handle of the door in her hand, her lingering glance at the great
+linen-press said as plainly as words: We shall soon have you at our
+house. To every piece of household goods she nodded: You are ours now,
+and it is I who make you so. Then home she went in the keen autumn
+wind, as if every sheet and tablecloth had become a sail to waft her up
+the mountain.
+
+"Mother," said Annele from behind the sideboard, "why do you tow
+that stupid old cow into the house? If anything comes of it, we shall
+have to pay court to her or else she will be crying out against our
+ingratitude. What is your great hurry?"
+
+"Don't make believe you are ignorant of how matters stand. It is
+necessary and right that you should be soon provided for."
+
+"I am not making believe, for I really know nothing. A little while ago
+you would not hear of Lenz; why have you changed your mind?"
+
+The mother looked at her in amazement. Could the girl be really
+ignorant of their household affairs?
+
+"Circumstances have changed," she answered, simply; "Lenz is alone
+now, and has a well-furnished house. I would never give you to a
+mother-in-law." Be false with me, she thought, as she left the room,
+and I will be false to you.
+
+At the Morgenhalde Franzl went about with a smile on her face.
+Smilingly she abused all the girls of the village; the doctor's
+daughters, the bailiff's Katharine, every one but Annele. Her she did
+not mention, but threw out misterious hints about mountains of linen
+and persons who were of the right sort. Lenz thought the old woman's
+loneliness was beginning to affect her mind. She went quietly about her
+duties, however, and was merrier than ever. Lenz, too, grew daily more
+contented over his work, and a long time passed without his going into
+the town.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV.
+
+                     YOUNG HEARTS AFTER A WEDDING.
+
+
+Lenz sat at home and worked untiringly. By great good fortune the
+weight-maker of Knuslingen had found a purchaser for the smaller work,
+which was nearly finished. He worked at its completion with real
+pleasure, and at the same time set things in train for beginning the
+new clock that the landlord had as good as ordered. He often thought,
+as he sat working so happily: What need have I of marrying? In fact, I
+ought not to marry. My head and heart are so full of my art, there is
+no room left in them for wife and children.
+
+Pilgrim had resumed his former pet project of devising some new
+patterns of clock-cases, and devoted all his evenings to it, as he
+could not spare the time from his working-hours. Thus the friends met
+but seldom, especially as Lenz no longer went to the rehearsals of the
+Liederkranz.
+
+Faller's marriage at length induced him to come down into the village.
+The good fellow gave the author of his happiness no peace until he
+consented, in spite of his mourning, to go to the church. The services
+at the house were very quiet, with neither guests nor music; for, as
+the bridegroom said, he would wait and invite his guests when he had
+some money, and music he could make for himself.
+
+At the house Lenz had to submit to the warmest praises and thanks for
+all he had done. "If you are married soon," said the old dame,--"as God
+grant you may be,--I will wear your mother's clothes to church. I am
+not ashamed to wear them; on the contrary, it is an honor, as every one
+tells me."
+
+"And I have a good bed," said Faller, his deep voice sounding almost
+ludicrous with emotion. "O Lenz, I hardly pray for myself to-day; I
+pray the Lord God for you. May he keep you from danger; but, if you
+ever do fall into great peril, may I be the one to rescue you! I long
+to turn round to the congregation in church and say, 'Behold, by God's
+help I stand here; but he helped me through my friend, on whom and on
+whose parents in heaven I pray the Lord's blessing.' You must be happy
+yourself, Lenz, for you have made a whole household happy."
+
+The strong, resolute Faller fell to twirling his formidable mustache;
+he could say no more. Lenz was almost more an object of respect at the
+house than the young couple themselves, and was relieved when the party
+adjourned to the church.
+
+The Liederkranz was there, and sang beautifully, though perceptibly
+weakened by the absence of the two best voices, Faller's and Lenz's.
+The whole village--certainly all the women, married and single--were
+present at the wedding. The married were glad to hear the solemn
+service read again, and the unmarried tried to imagine how it would
+seem when their turn came, as they hoped it soon would. The matrons
+wept, while the maidens cast curious glances about the church. If Lenz
+had looked up, he would have found himself the centre of many eyes. He
+separated from the bridal party after the ceremony and took his lonely
+way homeward. At the churchyard gate stood Katharine, the bailiff's
+daughter, with a nice-looking young man, dressed like one of the
+peasants from the neighboring valley. She greeted Lenz as he passed,
+and blushed under his earnest gaze. The next moment he raised his hat
+politely to the doctor's eldest daughters, who were picking their way
+through the wet streets, showing their pretty laced boots.
+
+"We thought you had gone on a journey," said Bertha, the bolder of the
+two sisters.
+
+"No, I have been all the time at home," answered Lenz.
+
+"So have we," retorted Bertha. Lenz was silent.
+
+"Are you engaged upon any new work?" asked Amanda.
+
+"On a new and an old one too. Our work never ceases."
+
+"Is not such constant labor a severe strain upon you?" Amanda asked
+again.
+
+"Oh no; I don't know what I should do without it."
+
+"You clockmakers," said Bertha, archly, "are like your clocks, always
+wound up."
+
+"And you are a key to wind us up," replied Lenz, inconsiderately. It
+was not what he had meant to say; but the right words would not come.
+
+"I am glad you pay her back in her own coin, Mr. Lenz," said Amanda.
+"Our ways part here; we must say good by."
+
+"Perhaps Mr. Lenz is going in our direction," ventured Bertha. "Were
+you not going to Pilgrim's?"
+
+Lenz felt his heart beat. He wanted to say yes; he wanted to say he was
+going to Pilgrim's; but involuntarily, almost in fear and trembling, he
+said, "No, I am going home. Good by!"
+
+"Good by!"
+
+Lenz breathed hard as he went up the hill. He would turn back; who
+knows what might come of it? He could still overtake them; they were at
+the Lion by this time; now they must be at the churchyard wall. But all
+the while he kept steadily on, and, reaching home with a beating heart,
+fled as for safety into the house. Fled? from what? He knew not what.
+He was not himself to-day; he was uneasy and dissatisfied as he had
+never been before.
+
+In the evening he changed his dress and went into the village, meaning
+to call on Pilgrim or the doctor, who had long ago invited him. Pilgrim
+was not at home, and he stood long at the doctor's door without daring
+to pull the bell. He walked up and down before the house, hoping that
+perhaps the doctor would come out, recognize him, and invite him in;
+but neither he nor any of his family appeared. Don Bastian came down
+the road. Like a thief who hears the pursuer on his track, Lenz fled to
+the village. There he felt easier, and rejoiced to see a house door
+standing open. In the Lion he would find refuge. At least one quiet
+place was left in the world,--a place where there were chairs to sit
+down on, and tables to eat at, and persons who did not make his heart
+beat as if it would burst his bosom, but were calm and quiet; and here
+comes the calmest and quietest of them all and gives him a kindly
+welcome.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                             A HEART OPENS.
+
+
+The landlord's manner was truly fatherly, as he sat down by Lenz and
+entered into conversation with him. "Have you received the money for
+your musical clock?" he asked, incidentally.
+
+"Yes," replied Lenz.
+
+"You would do well to invest in the new railway; it will pay
+handsomely. Have you the money still idle?"
+
+"No; I had eight hundred florins by me, and have lent three thousand to
+my neighbor, the bailiff, to pay his discharge."
+
+"Have you good security? How much interest does he pay?"
+
+"I have only his receipt. He pays five per cent."
+
+"The bailiff is good, and five per cent is good; but, as I say, if you
+should want to make any investments, I shall be glad to help you with
+my counsel."
+
+"I like to keep to what I understand; though, of course, I should be
+perfectly safe in following your advice blindfold. The new work you are
+to buy of me is progressing finely, and I think will be better than the
+first."
+
+"Remember, Lenz, I made no promises. A man of honor goes no farther--"
+
+"You have said quite enough. Your word I shall never--"
+
+"As I say, plainness and accuracy should be observed among friends. I
+would have inscribed upon my gravestone, 'Here lies an accurate man.'"
+
+Lenz was delighted with such solidity of character; here, at least, was
+pure gold.
+
+"By your leave," said Annele, approaching, and taking a seat at the
+table with Lenz and her father. The landlord soon rose and left the
+young people to themselves. "You have reason to be proud of such a
+father, Annele," said Lenz; "what a man he is! it does one good to
+talk with him. He says but little, and for that very reason every word
+is--how shall I call it?--pure kernel, pure marrow."
+
+"Nothing is pleasanter for a child than to hear such praise of a
+father," answered Annele. "Mine certainly deserves it. He is a
+grumbler, to be sure, and hard to please, as all men are."
+
+"All men?" inquired Lenz.
+
+"Yes, all. I may say so honestly to you; for you are one of the best of
+them, though you have your crotchets, too, no doubt. We need to be
+patient with all of you."
+
+"That is right, Annele. Thank you for speaking so; I do not mean for
+your praises of me, which are quite undeserved. I cannot tell you how
+often I am angry with myself. I am always doing the wrong thing. I only
+half hear and half act because of the tunes that are running in my
+head. I seem clumsier than other men, and yet am not really so. I am
+hasty, too, and troubled by things that others make light of. I cannot
+help it, the devil knows. My mother often said to me, 'Lenz, in spite
+of all your goodness, you will not make a woman happy unless she
+thoroughly understands and loves you.' That is true patience and true
+love,--is it not?--to think, 'oh well, he is hot and hasty just this
+minute, but I know his heart is right.' Do not draw your hand away,
+Annele."
+
+In the warmth of his speaking he had taken Annele's hand in his own,
+as he first perceived by the motion she made to release it. "We
+are not alone in the room," she said, blushing, and pressing her
+knitting-needle to her lips; "there are others present."
+
+Lenz turned hot and cold in a moment. "Forgive me, Annele. I did not
+know what I was doing. I did not mean to be importunate. You are not
+angry with me,--are you?
+
+"Angry? how can you ask me?"
+
+"But friendly in your heart to me?"
+
+"For Heaven's sake!" said, Annele, laying her hand on the back of
+Lenz's chair; "don't speak so. How did it all happen? what does it
+mean? I thought I might speak to you as to a brother; for, alas! I have
+no other."
+
+"And I have no sister, no one."
+
+"But every one is fond of you."
+
+"Yet, if I need a friend, I have, none."
+
+There was a long pause.
+
+"Do you know," said Annele at length, "that the bailiff's daughter
+Katharine is engaged to a young fellow from the next valley? They have
+just, sent for the betrothal wine."
+
+"So?" said Lenz. "I saw her standing with some one to-day, as I came
+from church. She is a good, honest girl. I wish her all happiness. Were
+you at the wedding in the church to-day, Annele?"
+
+"Yes, and I saw you there. You deserve to go to heaven for your
+kindness to Faller?"
+
+"Heaven is easily won then. How well the minister preached, did he not?
+There was some good lesson for every one, married or single. The word
+of God is like music. Every hearer, though there should be hundreds and
+hundreds of them, takes the whole without robbing his neighbor."
+
+"I assure you, I would almost rather hear you than the minister. Every
+word you speak is so clear, so--I hardly know how to tell what I mean.
+I sometimes think it is a pity you are only a clockmaker."
+
+"Only a clockmaker? I am glad I am a clockmaker; it is a noble calling.
+I could preach you a sermon upon it. The world is a clock, wound up by
+God from everlasting to everlasting. The stars circle in the heavens,
+one about another. There are no clocks in Paradise, Pilgrim says. That
+may be; but from the hour when men had to labor they had to divide the
+time. Just think, we should be like children and fools if we could not
+tell the hours!"
+
+"You make all so clear to me! I never thought of that before."
+
+Lenz grew more eloquent under this praise.
+
+"I shall hold fast to my trade of clockmaker. If I can do no better, I
+will make the old-fashioned wooden clocks; they will at least secure me
+bread. Musical clocks bring in more money, to be sure, but they can
+only be made when ordered; and, as lovers of music do not turn up every
+day, I might find myself with nothing in my pocket. My pet project is
+to form a clockmaker's union, so that all could work together for the
+benefit of each. If I could but accomplish that, I would engage to make
+nothing but standard regulators for the next seven years,--for all the
+rest of my life, if need be."
+
+"You are very good, I am sure," said Annele; "but your specialty is
+music."
+
+"Ah, music! when I leave clocks and get back to that I am so happy,
+so--"
+
+"Your heart dances for joy and keeps high holiday."
+
+"Dear Annele, you are so--ah! if I only knew--"
+
+"Well? what would you know?" There was a warmth, a tenderness, in the
+simple words that brought the hot blood to his face.
+
+"I cannot tell," he stammered. "If you do not know, I cannot tell you.
+I am--Annele--"
+
+"Children, what are you about? The whole room is looking at you," broke
+in the landlady. "I can perfectly trust you, Lenz; if you have anything
+so very special to say to Annele, I will have a lamp lighted in the
+private sitting-room, and you can have your talk out there."
+
+"Oh no, mother," cried Annele, trembling; but the landlady was already
+gone. Annele flew after her. Lenz sat motionless, while the whole room
+swam before his eyes. He got up at length, stole out, saw the door of
+the sitting-room open, and was alone with Annele. She hid her face.
+
+"Look at me," he entreated; "look at me while I speak to you. Annele, I
+am but a foolish, simple fellow; but--" he pressed his hand to his
+heart, hardly able to go on--"but if you think me worth it, you can
+make me happy."
+
+"You are worth more than the whole world; you are too good; you do not
+know how bad the world is."
+
+"The world is not bad, for you are in it. Answer me; answer me truly:
+Will you stand by me? will you help me to be industrious and good? will
+you be mother, wife, all to me? Say yes, and my whole life shall be
+yours."
+
+"Yes, a thousand and a thousand times yes!" She fell upon his breast,
+and he held her fast.
+
+"Mother, O my mother!" cried Lenz, as the landlady appeared. "Dear
+landlady, forgive me!" he added, apologetically.
+
+"You have nothing to fear from me," returned the landlady. "But,
+children, I must beg one thing. Annele can tell you I have always been
+a good friend to you. 'Lenz must prosper,' I have always said, 'for his
+mother's blessing rests upon him.' But I pray you, children, to act with
+caution. You do not know my husband. He so worships his children that
+he is angry with every man that tries to take them from him. Thank God,
+we shall keep one near us, if it be his will. They will not all grow to
+be such strangers." Here the landlady wept bitterly, but after a
+vigorous wiping of her eyes and nose was able to continue. "For the
+present my husband must observe nothing. I will break the matter to him
+first, and let you know, Lenz, when you may regularly lay your suit
+before him. Till that time you must not enter the house. Bring your
+uncle with you to the betrothal. It will be showing him no more than
+proper respect to allow him to take your father's place. All my other
+daughters were received into large families with all the ceremony
+that is observed in the highest circles. God gave me no son, Lenz,
+and I rejoice that I am to find one in you. I am fond of my other
+sons-in-law, but they are too fine, too aristocratic for me. It is time
+now for you to go, Lenz. My husband may come any minute, and I would
+not answer for the consequences. Yet no; stop a moment. Take this. Give
+him this, Annele." She opened both doors of the great linen-press, and
+took out a gold coin. "Your godfather, our blessed minister, laid this
+in your cradle. It is an old medal, just the thing for you to give
+Lenz. But you must give her a present first."
+
+"I have nothing to give. Oh yes, here is my watch, Annele. My dear
+father made it himself in Switzerland, and gave it to my mother. When
+we are married, please God, I will give you something else of my
+mother's that will please you. Here, take the watch. It has lain next
+my heart. Would I could take out my heart, and lay it in your faithful
+hand!"
+
+They exchanged pledges. "Very good," explained the mother, who thought
+it her duty to say something. "A heart and a watch; they resemble one
+another, and love is the key that winds them up." She smiled at her own
+cleverness, since no one else did. "See," she continued, after
+rummaging in the chest, "this was the first little frock my Annele
+wore, and these were her shoes." Lenz looked with rapture at these
+mementos of her childhood, and begged permission to keep them, which
+was granted. "Now you must really go, Lenz," said the landlady,
+returning to her old theme. "I cannot let you stay. Go this way through
+the kitchen. There is my hand. Good night, Lenz!"
+
+"May not Annele go a little way with me?"
+
+"By no means. Don't be offended if I am somewhat strict. I have brought
+up three daughters, and take pride in the thought that no word of blame
+has ever rested on either of them. God willing, you can have enough of
+each other by and by, in all honor and with the parents' knowledge."
+
+"Good night, Lenz!"
+
+"Good night, Annele!"
+
+"Once more, good night!"
+
+"Good night, my heart's treasure!"
+
+"Good night, dear Lenz! pleasant dreams!"
+
+"The same to you a thousand-fold!"
+
+"That will do, that will do!" admonished the landlady, laughing.
+
+Lenz stood in the street. The whole world turned round with him. The
+stars in heaven danced. Annele--Annele of the Lion--was his! He hurried
+homewards; he must tell Franzl, who always praised Annele so warmly.
+How she will rejoice! If I could only shout it out from house to house!
+He checked himself, however, when he had almost reached his door. He
+must not tell Franzl; nothing was certain yet, and she could not keep a
+secret. But he must tell some one. He retraced his steps, and remained
+long standing before the Lion. To-night he must stand a stranger there;
+to-morrow he would be one of the family. He tore himself away at last,
+and went in search of Pilgrim.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                          A FRIEND'S WARNING.
+
+
+Thank God, he is at home! there is a light in his room. He is playing
+the guitar. O dear good Pilgrim!
+
+May heaven keep me in my senses, and let me not die of joy! Oh, if my
+good mother had but lived to see this day!
+
+Pilgrim was playing and singing so loud as not to hear him as he
+ascended the stairs. Lenz threw open the door, and, spreading out his
+arms, exclaimed, "Rejoice with me, brother; I am so happy!"
+
+"What is the matter?"
+
+"I am betrothed."
+
+"You are? To whom?"
+
+"How can you ask? to her, to the truest heart in all the world, and as
+wise and bright as the day. O Annele!"
+
+"What! Annele? Annele of the Lion?"
+
+"You wonder at her taking me, do you not? I know I am not worthy of
+her, but I will deserve her. God is my witness, I will deserve her. I
+will devote my life to her; she shall--"
+
+His eyes fell upon his mother's picture. "Mother, dearest mother!" he
+cried, "in thy place in the seventh heaven rejoice, for thy son is
+happy!"
+
+He fell upon his knees, and tears choked his voice. Pilgrim laid his
+hand on his shoulder. "Forgive me, dear Pilgrim,--forgive me," prayed
+Lenz, rising; "would I could beg the whole world's forgiveness! I have
+often resolved to be a stronger, firmer man. Now I shall have a wife
+who deserves a manly husband. But this once I must give way. I have
+been wishing, as I came here, that some hard task might be imposed upon
+me,--no matter what, only something, something so difficult it would
+take my whole heart and strength;--I would do it; I would prove myself
+worthy of the happiness God has granted me."
+
+"Hush, hush! other men have got other women before now. There is no
+need to tear the world to pieces about it."
+
+"If my mother had but lived to know this!"
+
+"If your mother had lived, Annele would not have had you. It is only
+because you are without encumbrances, without a mother, that she cares
+for you."
+
+"Say not that, Pilgrim! she so reveres my mother!"
+
+"It is easy to revere her when she is no longer here. I tell you, you
+were nothing to Annele till your mother died."
+
+"You have not even wished me happiness."
+
+"I wish you happiness! I wish you all happiness!"
+
+"Why do you say it twice? Tell me why twice?"
+
+"Only because the words came out so."
+
+"No, you had a meaning in them."
+
+"True, I had. I will tell you to-morrow, not to-night."
+
+"Why to-morrow? tell me now; you shall not hide anything from me."
+
+"You are drunken now; how can I speak soberly with you?"
+
+"I am not drunken; I am perfectly sober."
+
+"Good; tell me, then, how this all happened so suddenly."
+
+"I cannot tell. It came upon me like a flash from heaven, and now I see
+it had long been the one wish of my heart."
+
+"I thought so; and yet I thought, too, you would do nothing without
+letting me know."
+
+"Neither will I. You shall go with me to her father to-morrow. I have
+not yet laid my suit before him."
+
+"Not yet? Thank Heaven! Then I hope it may come to nothing."
+
+"What! would you drive me mad?"
+
+"No need of that. Lenz, she is not yet your betrothed; she is not yet
+your wife; there is still time for me to speak openly. It would be
+wrong to draw back now, but it would be only one wrong. If you marry
+Annele, you will be doing a thousand wrongs your life long. Lenz, she
+is no wife for you,--she least of any."
+
+"You do not know her, only joking with her as you do. But I have
+learned her through and through,--her goodness, her cleverness."
+
+"You think I do not know her? Why, I have eaten a bushel of salt with
+those people. I can describe them every one to you. Annele and her
+mother are so much alike they cannot bear one another, though they do
+pretend to be so fond in public. They exchange sweet speeches, because
+the guests eat and drink better when pleasant sounds are going on. But
+none of their soft words come from the heart. They have no heart. I
+never believed, till I knew them, that there could be such persons.
+They talk of kindness, of love, of pity, of patriotism too, perhaps,
+and religion; but these things are empty words to them, meaning
+nothing, prompting them to nothing. The world, they firmly believe, has
+agreed to use the names for effect, without any one attaching the least
+significance to them. Annele has not a ray of heart; and without heart
+I maintain there can be no right understanding. She can never enter
+into another's feelings and opinions; can neither share them nor yield
+to them. She can, like her mother, catch another person's words, and
+make a fine show with them. They both have a peculiar faculty of
+blaming, even scolding, in such a way that you cannot make out to the
+end whether it is a declaration of love or of war. Father, mother, and
+daughter make nice music together for the public edification. Annele
+plays first fiddle, the old woman second, and mine host a growling
+bass. He, I must say, is the only honest one in the house. Here, as
+everywhere, the female bees are the ones that sting, and how they
+sting! The landlord speaks charitably of his neighbors, and cannot bear
+to hear his wife and daughter abuse them. Their special delight is to
+tear to pieces the good name of wife or maid. The mother does it with a
+certain hypocritical compassion, but Annele plays with the world like a
+cat with a mouse; and the burden of the song always must be, you are
+the fairest, the healthiest, the cleverest, and, if it is any
+compliment, the best. I have often studied to make out what constitutes
+the essence of ill-breeding, which may be highly polished to the eye.
+True coarseness is pleasure in the misfortunes of others. O Lenz, you
+have not the key-note of that household; all your knowledge of music
+will not help you find it. It is nothing but mocking and lies. These
+people will never understand you, your wants and your tastes. I tell
+you, only he that is of the truth can understand and love the truth.
+You will be always a stranger to them."
+
+"I am ashamed of you, Pilgrim. You are saying these things of persons
+whose house you have entered daily for eight years, at whose table you
+eat, and with whom you are apparently on friendly terms. What must I
+think of you?"
+
+"That I go to an inn, eat, drink, and pay my money. I pay daily, and am
+done with them daily."
+
+"I cannot understand you."
+
+"I believe you. I have had to pay dear for my knowledge, and would
+rather have remained ignorant, like you. It is not pleasant to know
+people as they are. Yet the world has some--"
+
+"And you think yourself one of the good ones?"
+
+"Not exactly that. I thought you would turn against me. I must bear it.
+Abuse me, do with me what you will, cut my hand off,--I will gladly
+beg, if I may know that thus I have saved a man like you. Give up
+Annele, I entreat you. You have not asked her yet of her father. You
+are not bound."
+
+"Those are the tricks your knowledge of the world teaches you,--are
+they? I am not so clever as you; I never travelled abroad, as you have;
+but I know what is right. I have betrothed myself to Annele in the
+presence of her mother, and I will keep my word. God grant I may
+receive her from her father! I tell you, for the last time, I did not
+ask your advice. I am quite able to act for myself."
+
+"I shall rejoice with all my heart if I have been mistaken. But no;
+Lenz, for Heaven's sake, be persuaded! There is still time. You cannot
+say I have ever dissuaded you from marrying."
+
+"No."
+
+"You were born to be a husband. I was a fool not to urge you more
+strongly to marry one of the doctor's daughters."
+
+"Do you think I would have gone to them, and said, 'My guardian,
+Pilgrim, sends his compliments, and says I am to marry one of
+you,--Amanda, if I can'? No: they are too fine ladies for me."
+
+"They are, indeed, fine ladies, while Annele only acts the fine lady.
+Because the doctor's daughters are not on familiar terms with all the
+world, you thought it would be difficult to become intimate with them.
+It was easier with Annele. Oh, I see it all. Annele talked with you of
+your grief, as she knows how to talk of every thing, and that opened
+your heart. Annele has in every gown a pocketful of small coin. Her
+heart is such a pocket, from which she brings out change for every
+guest."
+
+"Pilgrim, you are doing a wrong, a great wrong!" cried Lenz, his lips
+trembling with sorrow and anger. To convince his friend how sincere and
+true-hearted Annele was, he told him her words after the death of his
+mother and after the departure of his great work. Every one had been to
+him a revelation.
+
+"My pennies! my coppers!" cried Pilgrim. "My poor coppers! She robbed a
+beggar-man to get her pennies! O fool, cursed fool that I was! All she
+said, every word, she stole from me. She is like a corkscrew for
+getting things out of one. I was fool enough to say those very words to
+her. It serves me right. Yet how could I think she would trap you with
+them? O my poor pennies!" The two friends sat long in silence. Pilgrim
+bit his lips till they bled. Lenz shook his head, doubtingly. "Do you
+know Annele's chief motive for taking you?" resumed Pilgrim at length.
+"It was not your tall figure, not your good heart, not even your money.
+Those were minor considerations. Her chief delight is that the doctor's
+daughter did not get you. He is not yours, but mine. You cannot
+understand a character like Annele's, to whom no pleasure, no happiness
+is complete that does not wound another; whose greatest triumph is to
+imagine another's vexation at seeing her so handsome, so rich, so
+happy. I did not believe there were such persons till I knew Annele.
+Brother, seek not to know her better; it would be your ruin. Why do you
+look so at me? why don't you speak? Break out at me, do what you will,
+do with me what you will, only give up Annele; she is poison! I pray
+you give up Annele! Think,--I have forgotten the crowning argument of
+all,--think, and God grant you may not think too late! I desire to be
+no prophet of evil--Annele cannot grow old."
+
+"Ha, ha! now you would try to make her out sickly. She is sound to the
+core. Her complexion is of milk and roses."
+
+"Not that; I do not mean that. Was there ever a woman whom it did one
+more good to be with than with your mother? And why? Because her heart
+shone in her face, her kindliness towards all men, her joy and care
+that they should be happy; that makes an old face beautiful, and all
+who look upon it blessed. But Annele! when she has no more hair to
+braid into a crown, and no more red cheeks, and no more white teeth to
+show when she laughs, what is left? She has nothing to grow old; no
+soul in her body, only pretty phrases; no true heart, no honest
+intelligence, only a spirit of mockery. When she grows old, she will be
+no better than the devil's grandmother."
+
+Lenz pressed his lips hard between his teeth. "It is enough, more than
+enough," he said at last; "not another word. One thing, however, I have
+a right to demand,--that as you have spoken to me you speak to no one
+else, no one, and never to me after this day. Only these four walls
+have heard you. I love my Annele,--and--and--I love you, too, in spite
+of your jealousy. I no longer desire you to go with me when I ask for
+her hand. Good night, Pilgrim!"
+
+"Good night, Lenz!"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                     UNSPOKEN LOVE AND A BETROTHAL.
+
+
+Lenz was gone, Pilgrim sat long alone, gazing at the light and
+twirling his sandy beard. He was angry with himself. He had said
+everything,--too much, in fact,--and defeated his own ends. There was
+nothing to take back, all was true; but of what use had it been? He
+walked restlessly up and down his room, then sat down again and stared
+at the light. How strange life is! How few men work out the fate they
+were meant for! The young will not believe it. They scold their elders
+for grumbling, and then make botchery of their own lives. The world is
+all right; only we must not expect to have everything our own way.
+
+There was a deep, hidden life in Pilgrim. Ten years ago he had gone
+abroad with a courage ready to conquer the world, and a silent
+happiness in his heart that needed the assurance of no pledge or spoken
+word. He loved Amanda, and the doctor's beautiful daughter had inclined
+to him like a princess; like a goddess she had stooped to him. During
+his holidays she let him help her in her garden work by copying the
+names of her foreign plants in his neatest hand from a book on the
+little wooden tallies which together they stuck into the ground to mark
+the different specimens. She was an angel of mercy to the poor forsaken
+boy, and even when he grew towards manhood he was frequently allowed to
+assist her. Always the same gentleness he found in her. Her every look
+was a blessing. When he passed the garden for the last time, on setting
+out upon his lonely journey, she shook hands with him over the garden
+fence, and said, "I have a whole album to remember you by in the little
+slips you wrote the foreign names on. If, where you are going, you find
+these foreign plants in their native soil, you must let them remind you
+of our garden and the household that is so fond of you. Good by, and
+come safe back!"
+
+"Good by, and come safe back!" those words followed him over mountain
+and valley, over seas and through distant lands. The name of Amanda was
+shouted exultantly through many a foreign clime, and many an echo
+repeated "Amanda."
+
+Pilgrim wanted to grow rich, to become a great artist, and win Amanda.
+He came home poor and in tatters. Many received him with cheap taunts,
+but she said,--she had grown taller and stronger, and her brown eyes
+beamed,--"Pilgrim, be thankful that you are at least strong and well,
+and never lose your cheerful courage." And he did keep his happy
+temper. He learned to love her as he loved the beautiful linden in his
+neighbor's garden or the stars in heaven. Not even to Amanda was his
+heart revealed by a word or a sign. Like those precious stones that are
+said to shine in the darkness like the sun did Pilgrim's secret love
+for Amanda illumine his life. Often he did not see her for weeks, and,
+when they met, his bearing was as calm as with a stranger. But he often
+wondered who would be her husband. For himself he would leave the world
+without her suspecting what she was to him, but she must be happy. Lenz
+was the only one whom he could have marry her. He would not grudge her
+to him, they were so worthy of each other. He would hold their children
+in his arms, and lavish all his store of songs and jests for their
+amusement. Now all that was changed, and Lenz stood, as he firmly
+believed, on the edge of an abyss.
+
+Thus he sat long, gazing at the light. At last he extinguished it,
+saying, with a sigh and a sad shake of the head, "I could not help
+myself, neither can I help others."
+
+Lenz, meanwhile, was on his way home. He walked slowly. He was so weary
+he had to sit awhile on a heap of stones by the roadside. All was dark
+when he came to the Lion inn. No star was to be seen. The heaven was
+overcast with clouds. He stood by the inn till the whole building
+seemed about to fall upon him.
+
+When he reached home, Franzl was asleep. He waked her, that he might
+have some one to rejoice with him. Pilgrim had strewn all his joy with
+ashes.
+
+Franzl was enchanted at the news he brought her, and made him smile by
+repeating for the hundredth time, in order to prove that she also knew
+but too well what love was, the story of her own "blighted love," as
+she called it. She always began with tears and ended with complaints,
+for both of which she had ample reason.
+
+"How pleasant it was then at home, up there in the valley! He was our
+neighbor's son, good, and industrious, and handsome,--oh, far handsomer
+than any one nowadays, begging your pardon. But he--I hardly need
+mention his name, for every one knows it was Anton Striegler--he was
+bent upon going abroad, and he went abroad on business. There at the
+brook we said good by. 'Franzl,' he said, 'as long as that brook runs,
+my heart will be true to you. Keep yours true to me.' He had beautiful
+ways of talking, and he could write beautifully too. It is always so
+with those false men. I could not have believed it. I received
+seventeen letters from him during the first four years,--from France,
+from England, and from Spain. The letter from England cost in all a
+crown-piece; for Napoleon would allow no tea or coffee to come into our
+country, and so the letter, as our curate said, had to go by way of
+Constantinople through Austria, and, by the time it reached me, cost a
+whole crown-piece. Since that no letter has come. I waited fourteen
+years, and then learned that he had married a black woman in Spain. I
+would have nothing more to do with the base man,--the basest man that
+ever lived,--and I burned the beautiful letters, the lying letters that
+he had written me. My love went up the chimney in the smoke."
+
+Franzl always concluded her story with the selfsame words. To-day she
+had had a good listener,--the best of listeners. He had but one fault,
+that of not hearing a word she said. His eyes were fixed on her and his
+thoughts on Annele. Out of gratitude Franzl came at last to speak of
+her. "I will tell Annele what you are. No one knows you as well as I
+do. In all your life you never harmed a child; and how good you have
+always been to me! Don't look so sorrowful. Be merry! I know,--ah, too
+well I know!--when so great happiness comes to us, we feel crushed
+under it. But, thank God! you are in earnest; you will stay quietly at
+home together and bid each other good morning and good night every day
+that God gives you. And now I must say good night, for it is late."
+
+It was past midnight before Lenz went to bed, and then with a "Good
+night, Annele! good night, dear heart!" he fell asleep.
+
+He awoke the next morning with a strange weight on his heart. He
+remembered he had dreamed, and in his dream he stood upon the high
+mountain ridge behind his house with one foot raised to step off into
+space.
+
+"I never let a dream trouble me before," he said, and tried to forget
+it in admiration of his yesterday's gold coin, and of the still greater
+treasure he possessed in Annele's little shoes and first frock. They
+were holy relics, to be carefully preserved with those he had received
+from his mother.
+
+A message came from the landlady that he was to be at the Lion at
+eleven o'clock. He put on his Sunday clothes and hastened to his uncle
+Petrovitsch's. After pulling the bell several times he was admitted and
+received by his uncle in no very amiable mood.
+
+"What do you want so early?"
+
+"Uncle, you are my father's brother--"
+
+"To be sure I am, and when I went abroad I left everything to your
+father. All I now have I earned for myself."
+
+"I have not come for money, but to ask you to fulfil the office of a
+father for me."
+
+"How? What?"
+
+"Uncle, Annele of the Lion and I love one another. Her mother knows it
+and sanctions it. Now I am to ask her of her father, according to the
+custom, and I want you to go with me as my father's brother."
+
+"So?" said Petrovitsch, putting a lump of white sugar in his mouth and
+walking up and down the carpeted room.
+
+"So?" he repeated as he faced about. "You will have an energetic wife,
+and I must say you have good courage. I should not have given you
+credit for having the courage to take such a wife."
+
+"Courage! What do you mean by that?"
+
+"No harm; but I would not have believed you had the presumption to take
+such a wife."
+
+"Presumption? What presumption is there in it?"
+
+Petrovitsch smiled, and made no answer.
+
+"You know her, uncle. She is frugal and orderly and comes of an honest
+house."
+
+"That is not my meaning. It is presumption in you to think that in your
+solitary house on the Morgenhalde you can make up to a girl who has
+spent the twenty-two years of her life in an inn for a room full of
+flattering guests. It is presumption to want to keep to yourself a
+woman who can manage a whole hotel full. A wise man does not choose a
+wife who would consume half his life were he to live as she would have
+him. It is no trifle to govern such a wife. You had better try to
+manage four wild horses from the coach-box."
+
+"I do not want to govern her."
+
+"I believe you. But you must either govern or be governed. I will do
+her the justice to say she is good-natured,--only, however, to those
+who flatter her or submit to her. She is the sole good one in the
+house. As for the two old people, they are hypocrites, each in his own
+way; the woman with much talking, the husband with little. When he
+speaks he gives it to be understood that every one of his words weighs
+a pound. You can weigh it if you like. You will find it exact, no atom
+short. When he puts his foot down to the ground, every step says, 'Here
+comes a man of honor.' When he takes a fork in his hand, 'So eats a man
+of honor,' it says. When he looks out of the window, he expects God in
+heaven to call down to him, 'Good morning, thou man of honor!' And for
+all that I would bet my head he is in debt for the fork in his hand and
+the creaking boots on his feet."
+
+"I did not come to hear that, uncle."
+
+"I suppose not."
+
+"I only came to ask you, in all respect, if you would act as my
+father's representative, and go with me to urge my suit."
+
+"I don't know why I should. You are of age. You did not seek my advice
+beforehand."
+
+"Excuse me for having asked you."
+
+"Certainly. Stop," he cried, as Lenz turned to go, "a word more." For
+the first time in his life he laid his hand on his nephew's shoulder.
+The touch sent a strange thrill through the young man, and still more
+did the words which Petrovitsch spoke in a voice of deep emotion: "I
+would not have lived in vain for my own flesh and blood. I will give
+you that which many a man would have laid down his life to have
+had before it was too late. Lenz, a man must not drink when he is
+heated;--he might drink his death. Whoever should strike the glass from
+his hand at such a moment would be doing him good service. But a man
+may be heated in other ways, and then he should drink nothing--should
+do nothing, I mean--which will affect his whole life. He might contract
+a disease which would be a lingering death to him. You ought not to
+decide on any marriage yet, even if it were not with Annele. You are
+heated, excited. Let your present fever pass off, and six months from
+now think of this matter again. I will make your excuses to the
+landlord. He and all of them may abuse me as much as they please; it
+won't hurt me. Will you follow my advice, and give the thing up? You
+are drinking in a malady that no doctor can cure."
+
+"I am betrothed. There is no use in further words," answered Lenz.
+
+The cold sweat stood upon his brow as he left his uncle's house.
+
+"That is the way with these old bachelors. Their hearts have turned to
+stone. Pilgrim and my uncle, they are just alike. Much they know about
+it! Here Pilgrim says no one of them is good for anything except the
+father, and my uncle says no one is good for anything but Annele. A
+third will come presently and say no one is good for anything but the
+landlady. They may say what they like. We need no witness. I am man
+enough to act for myself. It is time to put an end to this meddling of
+outsiders in my affairs. One hour more and I shall be firmly
+established in a good old family."
+
+The hour was not over before he was so established. Neither the
+warnings of Pilgrim nor his uncle had moved him. One effect they did
+have. As he so confidently, with so much pride and firmness, laid his
+suit before Annele's father, something within him said, "She will
+understand and thank me for giving way to no opposition." It was not a
+noble thought.
+
+During the betrothal Annele held her apron to her eyes with one hand,
+and with the other kept tight hold of Lenz. The landlord walked up and
+down the room in his creaking new boots. The landlady wept, actually
+shed tears, as she cried: "O dear Heaven! to have to give up our last
+child! When I lie down and when I rise up what shall I do without my
+Annele? I insist, at least, that she shall not be married for a year.
+Need we tell you that we love you, Lenz, after giving you our last
+child? If your mother had but lived to see this day! But she will
+rejoice in heaven above, and will intercede for you at the throne of
+God."
+
+Lenz could not keep back his tears. If the landlord's boots had creaked
+displeasure at his wife's words, they creaked still harder now. At
+length the sound of them ceased, and his voice began: "Enough of this.
+We are men. Lenz, control yourself and look up! so, that is well. What
+do you expect for a dowry with your wife?"
+
+"I have never thought about the dowry. Annele is your child; you will
+not stint her."
+
+"Quite right. We stand by the old proverb, 'So many mouths, so many
+pounds,'" replied the landlord, and said no more. He had no need to use
+many words.
+
+Lenz continued: "I am not rich. My art is my chief possession. But,
+thanks to my parents, all wants are provided for. Nothing is lacking.
+We have our honest bread, and a little butter with it."
+
+"That is well said, to the point. I like that. Now how about the
+marriage contract?"
+
+"Nothing about it; the laws of the land provide for that."
+
+"Yes, but a special contract can be made, if desired. You know a widow
+receives only half the property. She will need to have her portion
+helped out. If you should die before your wife, and leave no heirs--"
+
+"Father," cried Annele, "if you are going to talk so, you must let me
+leave the room. I cannot stay and hear you."
+
+Even Lenz changed color. But the landlord went on ruthlessly: "Don't be
+so silly. That is the way with you women; you can't hear anything said
+about money. O dear me!--no, not a word! You squirm as if a frog had
+hopped on your foot. But if there is no money forthcoming, you can
+clamor for it finely. You have never experienced the want of it, your
+life long, and I don't mean you ever shall; therefore, in case of life
+or death--"
+
+"I will hear no more. Is this the joy of a betrothal that I have heard
+so much of?" remonstrated Annele.
+
+"Your father is right," urged the mother; "be reasonable. It will soon
+be over, and then you will feel all the merrier."
+
+"Annele is right," said Lenz, with unwonted decision. "We will be
+married according to the laws of the land, and there is no more to be
+said about it. Life and death, indeed! It is all life for us now. Your
+pardon, father and mother; we understand each other perfectly. Every
+moment now is worth a million? Do you remember the song, Annele?--
+
+           "Honor lies not in a golden store,
+            Shame lies not in poverty;
+            And so would I had a thousand dollars more,
+            And had my own true love by me."
+
+Thus singing he was about to dance with Annele out of the room, when
+her father laid his hand on the young man's shoulder, and in a solemn
+voice said, "Stop; one word more."
+
+Lenz stood in as much amazement as if a dagger had been put to his
+lips, instead of the expected kiss. "We have pledged our troth. There
+is no need of anything further!" cried Annele, remonstratingly.
+
+"We men have still some matters to settle," replied the landlord,
+decisively. "Yes, let your father speak," said Lenz.
+
+Mine host took off his velvet cap, looked into it, put it on his head
+again, and began: "Your intentions have been true and honest. If you
+are laughed at behind your back, you need not mind; and if you are
+ruined, you are responsible to none but yourself." Here he made a long
+pause. Lenz looked at him like a man in a dream, and finally asked what
+he had done, or what he meant to do, that was so dreadful.
+
+"As I say, your intentions are honest and good; that I have always
+maintained," returned the oracle. "You and Proebler have made a standard
+regulator together,--is that what you call it? I don't pay much
+attention to such things; some work for the common good. You
+understand, of course, that you can have no further partnership with
+Proebler. The name of my son-in-law and that of Proebler must not be
+coupled together; so that is settled and done with. Now we come to the
+main point. You are thinking about establishing an association,--is
+that what you call it? Whatever you call it, that too must be settled
+and done with." Here the landlady wanted to interpose, but her husband
+stamped his foot angrily, and went on: "Let me finish, wife! Lenz, I
+tell you, this thing must never enter your mind again. You will not
+think I speak thus from regard to my own interest. I fear no union or
+association whatever. Even if I did, my interest is now yours. But you
+will get neither praise nor thanks for it. I know mankind better than
+you do. If this plan were ever put into execution, your whole property
+would be sacrificed, and you reduced to beggary. Give me your hand upon
+it, that from this hour you lay aside all thoughts of this
+association."
+
+Lenz stood hesitating, his eyes fixed on the ground. "Yes," cried the
+landlady, "give him your hand. He means well, he means right, by you;
+his intentions are those of a father towards you; he is your father";
+and she nodded approvingly at her husband.
+
+Lenz drew himself up. His face was crimson. "I will not give my hand,"
+said he, with sharp decision. "Rather be it maimed, and unfit to hold a
+tool for the rest of my life!"
+
+"Do not swear. You said we must not swear," interposed Annele. She
+seized his hand, and tried to put it into her father's, but he
+resisted. "Let be," he said, sharply, "let be! I will not abjure my
+faith; and it would be abjuring my faith to make such a promise. I will
+not do it, though you should drive me out of this house, where I had
+hoped to find a home. Landlord, I believe you mean well by me, but
+every man must follow his own reason. I have no partnership with
+Proebler; but, if I had, I am Lenz; I have a right to associate with
+whom I please. You force me to say what I would rather not have said. I
+do not dishonor myself; on the contrary, I confer honor on others, and
+rejoice that it is so. As for this association,--it is called an
+association, you are quite right in the name,--I have thought it over
+night and day for years, and should understand it better than you do.
+You are right in saying there are plenty of fools and knaves who will
+laugh at me. I know that. But who, since the world began, tried to do
+it a service and was not laughed at? That does not disturb me. I thank
+you for your kind concern lest I should sacrifice my property. But I
+have carried on our entire business, had the whole house in my hands,
+for more than ten years. I will show you my books. You shall see for
+yourself if I have made any unlucky ventures. A man does not
+necessarily ruin himself by investing in a work for the common good.
+Once for all, the very morning of the day when I can bring about this
+union I shall put into it whatever portion of my property I judge best.
+I speak thus plainly to you, because you have spoken plainly to me. I
+will not give my hand. I am willing to take good advice, but must know
+best my own concerns. I will not give my hand in pledge of that which
+you desire, though my highest happiness upon earth depended on it."
+
+Lenz felt a pressure and a shivering at his heart as he spoke, but he
+spoke sharply and firmly to the end.
+
+"Unclench your fist. Will you not give me your hand? You are a brave
+man, my own proud, noble Lenz!" cried Annele, and threw herself on his
+neck, and wept and laughed convulsively.
+
+"I felt it my duty to caution you. Now I wash my hands of the whole
+concern," said the landlord, somewhat dejectedly.
+
+"Husband," returned his wife, "you have done a good thing, a very good
+thing. We never knew before what firmness our Lenz possessed. I confess
+I should never have suspected it in him, but am all the more rejoiced."
+
+Lenz had as much as he could do to soothe Annele, who lay helpless in
+his arms. He was obliged to make her drink some wine before she would
+raise herself.
+
+"Now go together into the garden, and I will set out the wine in the
+arbor," ordered the landlady. She preceded with a bottle and glasses,
+followed by the lovers in a close embrace.
+
+"A strange being!" said the landlord to himself, as Lenz left the room.
+"These musicians have an engine constantly on hand. He bawls like a
+baby at the mention of his mother, the next minute he will sing like a
+lark, and wind up with a sermon, like an old Anabaptist. But he is a
+good fellow, after all; and when I win my Brazilian suit, or draw my
+prize in the lottery, I will pay him his marriage portion the first
+thing. He shall have it down in hard gold. No one shall get a copper
+till he has had his share."
+
+With this comforting resolution mine host returned to the public room,
+where he refreshed himself after his unwonted exertions, and received
+with dignity the congratulations of friends and strangers. He spoke
+little, but gave it to be understood that a man in his position could
+afford to dispense with great riches in a son-in-law. If the man be but
+sound and honest,--that was the burden of his remarks, to which all
+nodded assent. There lay wisdom in a nutshell.
+
+Lenz and Annele meanwhile were sitting in the garden, full of delight,
+and bestowing on one another the fondest caresses. "I feel as if I had
+not been at home all this time," said Lenz, "but had been away in
+foreign countries, and had just returned from a long journey."
+
+"You have been nowhere but at home," answered Annele, "only you have
+been strongly excited by talking with my father. I cannot tell you how
+I rejoiced to hear you speak as you did. I wish the whole world could
+have heard you and learned to honor you. But really you had no need to
+get into such a heat with my father."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"He was not so much in earnest with his warnings and advice as he
+seemed. He likes to pretend he can see farther into a millstone than
+the rest of the world. If he had been in earnest, he would have brought
+up the matter before the betrothal instead of afterwards. He only
+wanted to make a show of wisdom before you; but I was glad you proved
+yourself to be the wiser."
+
+Lenz looked about him at these words as if seeking something half
+forgotten. As a flock of pigeons in swift flight wheeled at that moment
+above the heads of the lovers, and threw their transient shadows on the
+ground; so did a swarm of thoughts that Pilgrim had conjured up pass in
+still swifter flight, throwing shadows that vanished more swiftly away.
+
+"Others may be wiser, cleverer, and more respected than I, for aught I
+care," answered Lenz, "but no man in the world shall love his wife more
+tenderly and truly."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                     A VISIT TO GARRET AND CELLAR.
+
+
+The first congratulations Annele received were from Faller. She quite
+looked down on the poor fellow, but was gratified by his deference. He
+could not make too many apologies for coming so early. His fondness for
+Lenz would not let him rest till he had paid his respects to her. Lenz
+had grown to be a part of his very self. He would pour out every drop
+of blood in his veins to serve him.
+
+"I am glad my bridegroom has such good friends. There is no one,
+however small, but may be of some service."
+
+Faller did not or would not understand this last thrust, but began to
+describe in glowing colors Lenz's noble qualities. "Annele," he said in
+conclusion, with tears in his eyes, "his heart is as pure as an
+angel's, as a new-born child's. For Heaven's sake never be harsh with
+him, it would be sinning against the Highest. Remember that every quick
+word will wound him like the thrust of a dagger. His temper is not
+hasty, but he lays every little thing too much to heart. Don't be
+offended with me for speaking so to you; it is for your good. I would
+so gladly serve him in some way, if I only might. You are favored of
+Heaven in having such a husband. He is a man whose presence and word
+all respect. No one can reproach him with a single wrong action in his
+whole life. Be gentle with him,--kind and gentle."
+
+"Have you done?" asked Annele, her eyes flashing, "or have you more to
+say?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I have something to say to you. You have been most insolent. You
+deserve to be turned out of the house this moment. What do you mean by
+taking such a liberty? Who asked you to be mediator between us? What
+business have you to suppose I shall be unkind? But I am glad to have
+found you out in season. I see now what a set of beggarly hangers-on my
+Lenz has. I shall make a clean sweep of them every one. You shall have
+no more chance to drain his substance with your pretty speeches. I make
+you a present of the wine you have drunk. Now you may go. But I shall
+let my Lenz know of your impertinence. It shall be recorded against
+you. Good by!"
+
+Faller's protestations, asseverations, prayers, entreaties, were all in
+vain. Annele showed him the door, and he had to go; nor did she
+vouchsafe to cast a glance after him.
+
+Soon after Faller came Franzl, radiant with happiness, and was taken at
+once by the mother into the private sitting-room. Franzl was full of
+self-congratulations at having brought about this happy result, and
+assured the landlady that now she could die content. But she injured
+her cause by claiming more credit than was her due, and so got none.
+She was soon made conscious of her mistake. "What are you talking of,
+Franzl? You had nothing at all to do with the matter, nor I either. The
+young people were too sharp for us. Only a few days ago we were
+discussing the possibility of the match, and they had settled it behind
+our backs long before. I might have suspected my Annele of such doings,
+but never Lenz. However, it is better so. It is the work of Heaven, and
+we will be thankful."
+
+Franzl stood open-mouthed and open-eyed; but no more did she get to put
+into her mouth than she could have held in her eye. Empty she had to go
+home, and with scarcely a word from Annele, for, just as she was
+leaving, Pilgrim entered.
+
+Annele did not venture to treat Pilgrim in the same way she had Faller.
+She knew he did not like her, and therefore, without giving him a
+chance to speak, at once began thanking him for his kindly interest. He
+treated the matter in his usual good-natured, joking way, at the same
+time protesting that no one was to be trusted, for Lenz had not
+confided a syllable to him beforehand. Thus he satisfied his
+conscience, and yet said nothing to disturb what he could not prevent.
+
+There was one more tough knot to saw in Petrovitsch, which had to be
+left to the father to deal with. Petrovitsch took his place at table as
+if nothing had happened. The landlord officially announced the
+engagement to him, adding that Lenz would appear in a minute, as he was
+coming to dinner. Annele was extremely childlike and respectful to the
+old man. She almost went so far as to kneel, and ask his blessing. He
+shook hands with her kindly. The landlady, too, insisted on shaking
+hands with him, but received only his two left hand fingers. Most happy
+was Lenz, when he came, to find everything so amicably settled. The one
+drawback to his pleasure was having Pilgrim at table, after the
+language he had used the night before. But even that feeling passed off
+at last, under the influence of Pilgrim's perfect self-possession.
+
+The skies frowned upon Lenz's betrothal. It rained incessantly for
+days. An ugly drizzle kept on all the time, like a monstrous talker,
+who never comes to a period. Lenz naturally spent much of his time at
+the Lion, which was so comfortably arranged that he could either be as
+retired as in a private house, or could sit in a "market-place with a
+fire in it," as he once called the large public room, with its sixteen
+tables. "That is capital," said Annele; "I must repeat that to my
+father. He enjoys a good joke."
+
+"It is not worth while. If I say it to you, that is quite enough. Don't
+let it go further."
+
+Lenz went up and down the long, and now almost impassable, footway
+between the Morgenhalde and the Lion as if he were only stepping from
+one room into another. All who met him, men and women, stopped and
+congratulated. "You look as if you had grown taller since your
+engagement," some would say. Lenz's bearing had, in fact, been more
+erect and proud of late than ever before. He smiled when persons said
+to him, "You stand high in the market, for the sort of wife a man gets
+is the test of his worth." "Without meaning to intrude upon others'
+concerns, I must say I never supposed Annele would remain in the
+village. It was always said she would marry a hotel-keeper in
+Baden-Baden, or the engineer. You may laugh, for you are a precious
+lucky fellow."
+
+Lenz took no offence at being thought the lesser of the two; but, on
+the contrary, was proud of Annele's modesty in choosing him. He could
+not help saying sometimes, when he was sitting with her and her mother
+in their private room, the old man looking in occasionally, and
+growling out some of his pithy sentences: "Thank Heaven for once more
+giving me parents, and such parents! I have started life afresh. It
+seems incredible that I should be actually at home in the Lion inn. How
+grand it looked to my childish eyes when the upper story was added and
+plate-glass put in all the windows! We children used to think the
+castle at Karlsruhe could not be more magnificent. I remember seeing
+the golden lion hung out too. What should I have thought then to be
+told I should one day have a home in that castle? It is hard my mother
+could not have lived to see this day."
+
+His sincerity really touched the two women, though Annele had all the
+while kept on counting the stitches of the embroidered slipper she was
+working for her lover. They said nothing for some time. At last the
+mother began: "What pleasant relatives you will find, too, in my other
+sons-in-law! I have told you how fond I am of them, though they are not
+the same to me that you are. I have known you since you were a baby.
+You are almost as near to me as if I had nursed you at my own bosom.
+But you know what refined, aristocratic gentlemen they are, and good
+business men into the bargain. Many men would be lucky if their whole
+property equalled what my sons-in-law make in a year."
+
+"If this stupid rain would only stop!" said Annele, after a pause. "Do
+you know, Lenz, we will have the horses harnessed the moment it does,
+and take a drive together."
+
+"I shall be glad to be with you once under God's broad heaven. The
+house is too narrow to contain my happiness."
+
+"We will drive to the city,--won't we?"
+
+"Wherever you like. I am glad my Magic Flute is so well protected. It
+would be a shame to have any harm come to it."
+
+"You carry your feeling too far," remonstrated the mother. "The thing
+is sold. The risk now is with the purchaser."
+
+"No, mother, you don't understand my Lenz. He is right. What he has
+made takes such deep hold of his heart that he would like always to
+keep a protecting hand upon it. We cannot bear to have a thing injured
+that we have cared for day and night for months."
+
+"My own dear Annele!" cried Lenz, enchanted at this beautiful
+expression of her quick, intelligent sympathy.
+
+"There is no use talking with you lovers," replied the mother, with
+pretended amiability; "unless one is in love himself, he can say
+nothing to please you." She went to and fro about the house, for Lenz
+had requested that Annele might be excused from attendance in the
+public room, at least for a few days. "Not that I am at all jealous,"
+he assured her, "but I begrudge every look you bestow on any one but
+me. All are mine now."
+
+One day towards noon the rain held up for about an hour, and Lenz
+teased Annele to go up to his house with him. "Everything is waiting
+for you there," he urged; "all the kettles and cupboards, and other
+things, too, that you will take pleasure in."
+
+Annele resisted long, but at last consented to go if her mother would.
+Contrary to her expectation the mother was soon ready. Every person
+they met on their way through the village saluted. Hardly, however, had
+they gone a hundred steps before Annele began to complain: "O Lenz!
+what a horrid path! I sink in at every step. You must have it put in
+better order. And do you know you ought to have a road made up the
+mountain, so that carriages can drive to the door. Sister Babette's
+husband had a private road broken through the fields to his house."
+
+"I could hardly do that," answered Lenz; "it would cost a great
+deal of money, besides my having to buy the field. See, my meadow
+does not begin till that hazel hedge, and our business requires no
+carriage-road. You know I would do anything in my power to please you,
+Annele,--don't you?--but that is impossible."
+
+Annele plodded on, without returning any answer. "Why need you have
+made such a talk about it?" whispered the mother in his ear. "If you
+had only said, 'Very well, dear Annele, we will think of it,' or
+something of that sort, you could have done as you pleased afterwards.
+She is a child, and children must be treated to pretty words. You can
+do what you will with her if you only set the right way to work. Don't
+weigh every word she says and make a great matter of it; let a subject
+rest over for a day or so, till you see the right moment is come for
+settling it. She will think it out for herself, or else forget it. She
+is only a child."
+
+"Annele is not a child," contradicted Lenz, looking in displeased
+surprise at her mother; "I can talk over everything with her. There is
+nothing she does not understand."
+
+The mother shrugged her shoulders. "As you please," she said, sulkily.
+
+About half-way up the meadow Annele broke out again: "Good Heavens,
+what a journey! I had no idea it was so far. It will be a perfect
+eternity before we get up there."
+
+"I cannot make the way any shorter," answered Lenz, sharply. Annele
+turned and looked at him searchingly. "I am sure," he added, in some
+confusion, "you will rejoice one day that the walk is so long, for it
+shows what a good large meadow we own. I could pasture three cows here,
+if it were worth while."
+
+Annele gave a forced laugh. The house was reached at last, and she drew
+a long breath, complaining of being so hot and tired.
+
+"In God's name, welcome home!" said Lenz, grasping her hand on the
+threshold. She stared at him as if he were speaking a foreign language,
+then suddenly exclaimed, "You are a dear good fellow. You manage to
+bring good out of everything."
+
+Lenz was content, and Franzl's joy knew no bounds. First the mother
+shook hands with her and then Annele, while both praised the neatness
+of passage-way, kitchen, and sitting-room.
+
+"I shall find it hard to get used to these low rooms," said Annele,
+stretching up her hand till it nearly touched the ceiling.
+
+"I cannot make the rooms higher. Besides, they are more easily warmed
+than high ones."
+
+"To be sure. You must remember, Lenz, what a big house I have always
+lived in. The ceiling seems to be pressing on my head at first; but I
+sha'n't mind it. Don't be afraid that will disturb me."
+
+Lenz turned round the tool-receiver that hung like a chandelier from
+the ceiling, and began to explain to Annele the various implements with
+which it was covered,--the names of the different drills, and the
+special purpose each was used for. "But you will soon get acquainted
+with all these things that make up so much of my life. They are my
+silent work-fellows. Now I will show you our house."
+
+The mother stayed with Franzl in the kitchen, while Lenz took Annele
+all over the house, showing her the seven beds already stuffed, besides
+two great bags of feathers from which others could be filled, and
+opening boxes and chests wherein were stored rich heaps of linen. "What
+do you say to that, Annele? Aren't you surprised? Did you ever see
+anything so splendid?"
+
+"It is all very good and in nice order. But, dear me! I won't tell you
+of all my sister Theresa has, for of course, where there are often
+sixteen guests in a house, heaps of linen are necessary; they are part
+of the business. But if you could only see the chests that Babette's
+mother-in-law has! These are nothing to them."
+
+Lenz turned as pale as death, and could hardly stammer out: "Annele,
+don't talk in that way, don't be making fun now."
+
+"I am not making fun. I am in sober earnest. Really I am not in the
+least surprised, for I have seen finer and better linen, and more of
+it. Do be reasonable, and not expect me to stand on my head at a thing
+which is all very well, but no way remarkable. I have seen more of the
+world than you have."
+
+"Very likely," said Lenz, with white lips.
+
+Annele passed her hand over his face, and said jestingly, "What does it
+matter, dear Lenz, whether your stores astonish me or not? Your mother
+has done bravely, very bravely, for one in her position; no one can
+deny that. I do not marry you for your property, dear Lenz, but for
+yourself. You yourself are what I love."
+
+The apology was both bitter and sweet. Lenz tasted only the bitter. It
+turned to gall in his mouth.
+
+They returned to the sitting-room, where Franzl had laid out an
+abundant repast for them.
+
+Annele protested she had no appetite, but upon Lenz remonstrating that
+it would never do not to eat something when she entered a house for the
+first time, she consented to take a piece of a crust of bread and ate
+it languidly.
+
+Lenz had frequently to check Franzl in her lavish praises of himself.
+
+"You must have done some good in the world to deserve such a husband,"
+she said to Annele.
+
+"He must have done some good too," said the mother. She cast a look at
+her daughter as she spoke, and was checked by an angry frown. He must
+have done some good, too, to deserve her, Annele thought her mother was
+going to say.
+
+"Come, Annele, sit here by me," begged Lenz; "you have often said you
+should like to see how I set up a piece of music, so I have been
+keeping this till you should be by me. When I have put it all in order,
+it will play of itself. It is a beautiful piece of Spohr's. I can sing
+it to you, but not so well as this will play it." He sang the air from
+Faust, "Love, it is the tender blossom." Annele took a seat beside him,
+and he began to hammer the pins into the barrel where he had already
+marked their places from the printed notes. Every pin stood fast at the
+first blow. Annele was full of admiration, and Lenz worked on in high
+spirits. He was obliged to ask her not to speak, because the metronome
+which he had set going required his closest attention.
+
+The mother very well knew that sitting still and idly looking on was
+hard work for Annele. She therefore rose presently, and said, with a
+gracious smile, "We all know your great skill; but we must go home now,
+for it is past noon, and we have visitors. It is quite enough that you
+have begun the piece while we were here."
+
+Annele rose also, and Lenz stopped his work.
+
+Franzl kept her eyes fixed on Annele and the landlady, and when either
+of them put her hand in her pocket, she started and hid hers behind her
+back, as much as to say she wanted nothing, they would have to urge her
+to accept any present. Now it is surely coming,--a gold chain, or a
+jewelled ring, or a hundred shining dollars; such people give
+handsomely.
+
+But no present, great or small, did they give this time, hardly their
+hand at parting. Franzl went back into the kitchen, seized one of her
+biggest and oldest pots, and lifted it to throw after the mean,
+ungrateful women. But she had compassion on the pot. Was such a thing
+ever heard of? Not even to bring one an apron! Poor, poor Lenz! You
+have fallen into evil hands. Thank Heaven I had nothing to do with it!
+It is true I had not, they said so themselves. I want no pay from them,
+thank Heaven! Every penny would burn into my soul.
+
+Lenz accompanied his bride and her mother to the end of his meadow, and
+then returned home. It was agreed, that, if the next day was fine, the
+young people should drive across the country to Sister Babette's. Lenz
+had many preparations to make, and directions to give his apprentice
+and journeyman.
+
+It was strange to him to be once more alone. At the end of a couple of
+hours he wanted to go down to Annele again. There was a weight upon him
+he could not explain. She could and would relieve him of it. He
+resisted the temptation, however, and remained at home. Before going to
+bed he closed the boxes and linen-presses that had been opened in the
+morning, half expecting, as he did so, to hear some voice, though whose
+he could not have told. There lay the yarn his mother had wet with her
+lips and spun with her own hand. A spirit seemed following behind him,
+and uttering lamentations from every box and press.
+
+Franzl in her chamber was sitting upright in bed, muttering
+imprecations against the landlady and Annele, and then praying God to
+give her back the words she should not have spoken, for every ill that
+befell Annele now fell on Lenz too.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX.
+
+                            THE FIRST DRIVE.
+
+
+The next morning was the longed-for day. The sun shone joyfully upon
+the earth, and Lenz's heart grew light again. He sent his apprentice
+early to Annele to tell her she must be ready for him in an hour. At
+the end of that time he was dressed in his Sunday clothes, and on his
+way to the Lion. Annele was not ready. She yielded to his prayers and
+entreaties so far as to give him her hand through the chamber door, but
+would not let him see her. She handed him out some red ribbons and
+cockades, which he was to give to the boy to tie in the whip and about
+in the harness. After keeping him waiting a long, long time, she
+appeared, beautifully dressed.
+
+"Is the wagon harnessed?" was her first question.
+
+"No."
+
+"Why did you not see to it? Tell Gregory to put on his postilion's
+uniform, and take his horn."
+
+"O no! what is the use of that?"
+
+"We have a perfect right to show ourselves before the whole world,
+without anybody's leave or license. I mean people shall look out when
+we drive by."
+
+At last they took their places. As they passed the doctor's house,
+Annele called out: "Blow your horn now, Gregory; blow loud! The
+doctor's daughters shall look out, and see how we drive together. Look!
+there is not a soul to be seen. They have shut the window in the
+corner room. There they are, I know, dying of spite; they will have to
+tell about us, for I can hear the old mayoress asking, What is that
+horn-blowing? I should like to be behind the door, and hear it all."
+
+"Annele, you put on strange airs to-day."
+
+"And why not? you please me specially to-day. People are right in
+praising your eyes. How true and clear they are! I did not know they
+were so beautiful. You are really a handsome fellow!"
+
+Lenz looked yet handsomer from the glow of pleasure which overspread
+his face. "I will have some new clothes made in the latest
+fashion,--shall I not?"
+
+"No, stay as you are. You look much more comfortable and respectable
+so."
+
+"Not only look so, but am so."
+
+"Are so, to be sure. Don't treat every word as if it were a tooth in a
+clock-wheel."
+
+"You are quite right."
+
+They drove through the neighboring village.
+
+"Blow, Gregory; blow loud!" commanded Annele. "See, there is where my
+cousin Ernestine lives. She was our maid a long while, and afterwards
+married a tailor, who now keeps shop here. She cannot bear me, nor I
+her. Her green face will turn blue with rage when she sees us drive by
+without stopping. There she comes to the window. Yes, stare your little
+pig's eyes out of your head, and open your mouth till you show your
+bunchy gums! It is I, Annele, and this is my Lenz. Do you see him? How
+is your appetite now? It is dinner-time. I wish you joy of your last
+year's herring."
+
+She snapped her tongue in triumph as they went by.
+
+"Do you take pleasure in that, Annele?" asked Lenz.
+
+"Why not? It is right that we should show evil to the evil and good to
+the good."
+
+"I don't think I could."
+
+"Then be thankful you have me. I will make them all crawl into a
+mouse-hole before us. They shall be grateful for every look we bestow
+on them."
+
+As they approached the town, Annele gave her bridegroom directions as
+to his behavior. "If the engineer is here, my brother-in-law's brother,
+you must be on your dignity with him. He will want to have some fling
+at you, because he is frightfully cross at my not accepting him. But I
+don't like him. And if my sister begins her complaints, listen to her
+tranquilly. It is not worth while trying to comfort her, and does no
+good either. She lives in gold, and has nothing to do but cry. The
+truth is, she is not very strong. The rest of us are perfectly healthy,
+as you can see by me."
+
+The lovers were not successful at their sister's. She was ill in bed,
+and neither her husband nor his brother was at home. They had both gone
+down the Rhine on a large raft. "Won't you stay with your sister? I
+have business to attend to in the town."
+
+"Can't I go with you?"
+
+"No; it is about something for you."
+
+"Then I had certainly better go too. You men don't know how to choose."
+
+"No, I cannot have you," insisted Lenz. He took from under the seat of
+the wagon a package of considerable size, and set off with it to the
+town. Babette's house was a little way out of the town, near a great
+lumber-yard by the brook. Unobserved by Annele, Lenz brought back the
+same package somewhat enlarged, and restored it to its place under the
+seat.
+
+"What have you bought me?" asked Annele.
+
+"I will give it to you when we get home."
+
+Annele thought it hard she could not show her beautiful ornaments to
+her sister, but had already learned there were some things in which
+Lenz would have his own way in spite of entreaties and remonstrances.
+
+They dined at the hotel. The landlord's son, Annele said, an excellent
+man, who now kept a great hotel at Baden-Baden, had also been one of
+her suitors; but she had refused him.
+
+"Why need you have told me?" said Lenz. "I am almost jealous of the
+past, never of the future, that I promise. I know your truth, Annele,
+but it pains me to think that others have so much as raised their eyes
+to you. Let bygones be bygones. We begin our life anew."
+
+Annele's face beamed with unwonted softness as he spoke. A portion of
+his own purity and candor fell upon her, and made her gentle and
+loving. She knew not how better to express this new sentiment in her
+than by saying: "Lenz, you need not have bought me any bridal present.
+You have no need to do as others do. I am sure of you. There is
+something better than all the gold chains in the world."
+
+The tears stood in her eyes as she spoke, and Lenz was happier than
+ever.
+
+The church clock was striking five when they took their places in the
+wagon and set out for home.
+
+"My dear father made that clock," said Lenz, "and Faller helped him. By
+the way, that luckily reminds me. Faller says you took offence at some
+awkward speech of his; he will not tell me what it was. You must
+forgive him. He is a plain-spoken soldier, and often says awkward
+things, but he is a good fellow at heart."
+
+"Maybe so. But see here, Lenz, you have too many burrs clinging to you.
+You must shake them off."
+
+"I shall not give up my friends."
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should ask you to! I only mean you must not let
+every one get hold of you, and persuade you into everything he likes."
+
+"There you are quite right. That is a weakness of mine, I know. You
+must warn me whenever you see me in danger, till I am thoroughly cured
+of it."
+
+At these words, so pleasantly and humbly spoken, Annele suddenly stood
+up straight in the carriage.
+
+"What is the matter? what is it?" asked Lenz.
+
+"Nothing, nothing. I don't know why I got up. I believe I don't sit
+quite right. That is better. Does not our carriage ride nicely?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. We sit in an easy-chair, and yet are abroad in the world.
+It is right pleasant driving. I never before drove in my own carriage,
+for your father's is the same as mine."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+They passed Proebler on the road. He stood still as the lovers passed,
+and saluted repeatedly.
+
+"I should like to take the old man in with us," said Lenz.
+
+"What an absurd idea!" laughed Annele. "Proebler on a bridal drive!"
+
+"You are right," answered Lenz. "We should not be so cosey all by
+ourselves here with a third person sitting opposite, seeing and hearing
+everything. It is not being unkind not to invite anybody to drive with
+us now. This is a time when we need to be happy all by ourselves. How
+beautiful it is! The whole world seems to laugh. Proebler laughed too,
+and I am sure was not offended. He would understand that I could not
+give away a second of this hour."
+
+Annele answered with a searching look, then cast her eyes down, and
+silently clasped her bridegroom's hand. Their first drive had not begun
+as merrily as they had expected, but both came home with a peculiar joy
+in their heart. Annele said little. A new experience was passing within
+her. It was still broad daylight when Lenz helped her out of the wagon
+at the door of the Lion, and left her to go up the steps alone, he
+following with the carefully covered parcel which he took from under
+the carriage-seat. He called her into the sitting-room, and there
+solved the mystery by saying: "Annele, I give you with this the best
+and dearest possession I have. My good Pilgrim painted it for me, and
+it shall be yours."
+
+Annele stared at the picture for which Lenz had so mysteriously
+provided the gilt frame in the city.
+
+"You cannot find words to describe the look my mother turns upon
+you,--can you?"
+
+"So that is your mother? I see her gown and her neckerchief and her
+hood; but your mother! it might just as well be the carpenter's
+Annelise or Faller's old mother. In fact, it looks rather more like old
+Mrs. Faller. Why do you look so pale, as if you had not a drop of blood
+left in your cheeks? Dear Lenz, can I say what is untrue? You surely do
+not wish that. What fault is it of yours? Pilgrim is no artist. He
+can't paint anything but his church-towers."
+
+"It is like losing my mother over again to hear you speak so," said
+Lenz.
+
+"Don't be so sad," prayed Annele, tenderly. "I will honor the picture.
+I will hang it up at once over my bed. You are not sad now,--are you?
+You have been so kind and good to-day! I assure you, the picture will
+help me recall your mother whenever I look at it."
+
+Lenz turned hot and cold by turns. Thus could Annele at her pleasure
+raise him to the highest happiness or wound him in his tenderest
+affections. Weeks and months passed in this way. Joy predominated,
+however, for a softness had come over Annele never known in her before.
+Even Pilgrim said one day to Lenz: "Most men are glad to be proved in
+the right, but I rejoice to see I was mistaken."
+
+"So? In what?"
+
+"There is no learning a woman. Annele has that in her which may make
+your life happy. Very likely it is all the better she should not be as
+dreamy and soft-hearted as you are."
+
+"Thank you. Heaven be praised for bringing this to pass!" cried Lenz.
+
+The two friends held each other long and closely by the hand.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+          A GREAT WEDDING WHICH LEAVES A BITTER TASTE BEHIND.
+
+
+Lenz of the Morgenhalde is to be married! This is the wedding day of
+Annele of the Lion! Through the whole valley and far beyond its limits
+this was the one subject of conversation. The same household talked at
+one time of Annele only, and then only of Lenz. Their names had not yet
+been joined together. Not till the wedding was fairly over would Annele
+of the Lion be called Annele Lenz.
+
+The day was clear after a heavy fall of snow, and the sleighing
+excellent. The jingling of bells and cracking of whips sounded from
+every hill and valley. At least a hundred sleighs stood before the Lion
+inn on the wedding morning. Strange horses were quartered in every
+stall. Many a solitary cow was startled by a visit from a span of noble
+horses. It is not for the like of a poor cow, shut up in her solitary
+winter quarters, to know what is going on in the world; that privilege
+is reserved for men. Such an event was indeed seldom witnessed in the
+village. Even the sick old grandmothers who lived on side streets,
+where they could see nothing and hear nothing but the whips and the
+sleigh-bells, insisted on being dressed and set up at the window.
+
+Ernestine, the shopkeeper's wife, had been at the Lion for days
+beforehand helping on the preparations. This was no time to be
+sensitive at not having been visited or specially invited. The great
+house entertains, and the vassals must come of themselves.
+
+Ernestine had left her children in charge of a neighbor and her husband
+to see to the house, tend the shop, and do his own cooking while she
+was away. When the Lion calls, no other duties must be regarded.
+
+She knew all the arrangements of the house, and could put her hand on
+whatever was wanted. She presided over kitchen and cellar, enjoying her
+importance. The dressing of Annele, too, on the wedding morning, fell
+to her share, as there was no more intimate friend to claim the right.
+
+The Lion showed that day what a wide circle of friends and patrons it
+had. The whole first-floor, running the entire width of the house, was
+turned into a single hall. The partition walls, which were nothing but
+boards, were taken down, so that the space was now really a great
+market-place with a fire in it.
+
+Lenz would naturally have preferred a quiet wedding, but Annele was
+quite right in arranging otherwise. "I know what you would like," she
+said; "but we have no right to deprive our acquaintances of their good
+time. Besides, we are only married once in a lifetime. These people
+give us trouble enough the year through, we ought to let them have a
+chance to show their gratitude. Where is there a wedding anywhere about
+that we don't carry presents? Two thousand florins is the least we have
+spent in that way. Now let them give us a share. I ask no favors, only
+to be paid back a portion of what is owed us."
+
+The wedding presents were, indeed, rich and abundant, both in money and
+in money's worth. Two days had to be given up to the marriage
+festivities,--one for neighbors and relations, the second for more
+distant acquaintances.
+
+Pilgrim appeared at Lenz's house, on the wedding morning, with
+well-sleeked hair, and a bunch of rosemary in his button-hole. "I bring
+you no wedding present," he said.
+
+"My mother's picture was present enough."
+
+"That counts for nothing. I cannot do what I very well know custom
+requires of me on such an occasion. The truth is, Lenz, I have made
+myself a present on your wedding day. Do you see this paper? It makes
+me like the Siegfried we used to read about. I am proof against all the
+thrusts of fortune, with this hard shell about me."
+
+"What is the paper?"
+
+"It is an annuity. From my sixtieth year I begin to receive a hundred
+florins annually, till which time I shall manage to scratch through.
+When I am no longer able to live alone, you must fit up a little room
+for me in your house,--a warm corner behind the stove, where I can play
+with your grandchildren, and draw them pictures that to their eyes at
+least will seem beautiful. I had to work hard to pay the first
+instalment. My painting, stupidly enough, just gets me a living, with
+not a copper over. So for the last year I have done without my
+breakfast. The landlord noticed that I took my breakfast and dinner
+together. In that way I saved up enough. By and by I shall get used to
+doing without my dinner, and so on, by degrees, till I learn to do
+without anything. It would be fine to put up the shutters one after
+another, and with the last one, bid the world good night."
+
+All the while he was talking, he had been helping Lenz on with his new
+clothes,--spic and span new from head to foot. He thanked his friend
+for making him, too, a family man; for, as he pleasantly explained, the
+annuitants were members of the same household, only they did not keep
+one another's birthdays. The omission proceeded from no ill will, but
+simply from their not being acquainted. Pilgrim had all the statistics
+of the matter at his tongue's end, and reeled them off for Lenz's
+entertainment, for the sake of warding off any unnecessary excitement
+or emotion on his friend's part.
+
+When Lenz's toilet was made, came Petrovitsch, of his own free-will, to
+escort him to the wedding. "You get no wedding present from me, Lenz,"
+he said, with an expression of mystery and cunning on his face; "you
+know the reason. You will have it in good time." By thus holding out
+the hope that Lenz should be his heir, though he made no actual
+promise, Petrovitsch secured for himself the place of chief importance
+at the wedding festivities. He liked to be the central figure, with all
+revolving about him, and enjoy the consciousness of having his keys in
+his pocket, and his fire-proof safe at home. That was a pleasure after
+his own heart. Two such merry days made a pleasant break, too, in the
+winter's monotony.
+
+Mine host wore his apostle's cap somewhat higher than usual to-day, and
+was radiant with dignity as he walked to and fro, stroking his freshly
+shaven chin.
+
+The clear cold winter air rang with music and firing and shouting as
+the bridal party walked to the church. The building could not hold
+the numbers that interest and curiosity had brought together. As many
+stood outside the church as in it. The minister preached a special
+sermon,--not one taken from a book, that would suit one case as well as
+another, but one adapted to this particular occasion. He laid great
+stress upon the sanctity of the home, the mutual dignity of man and
+wife. A child naturally inherits the virtues of its parents; but if he
+turns out badly, the parents are justified before God and man if they
+can say, We did our duty; the rest was not in our hands. A child of
+depraved parents may work his way up to honor and respect; his life is
+his own. The brother shares a brother's honorable name, but he may also
+cut himself adrift from it. Not so with the honor of man and wife. They
+are, in the truest sense, one flesh. Here should be perfect sympathy, a
+single end and aim. Where either seeks his own advancement at the
+expense of the other, there is discord, hell, eternal death. It is by a
+righteous ordinance that the wife retains her baptismal name, while
+receiving a new family name from her husband. She bears the husband's
+name, the husband's honor. The minister praised the good qualities of
+the two who now came before the altar. Lenz received the warmest
+commendation, but Annele came in for a goodly share. Yet he warned them
+not to think too highly of their peculiar merits. The quick and active
+must prize and honor the slow; the slow, in the same way, the more
+active. He reminded them that marriage was not merely a communion of
+worldly goods, according to the laws of the land, but a communion of
+spiritual gifts, according to the eternal laws of God; that all mine
+and thine should cease, and everything be ours,--and yet not ours, but
+the world's and God's.
+
+In general observations, which were yet easy of personal application,
+he gave a certain degree of expression to the anxiety felt by many of
+those present with regard to the peaceful and perfect union of two
+persons so unlike in nature and habits.
+
+Pilgrim, who sat in the gallery among the singers, exchanged winks of
+intelligence with the leader of the choir.
+
+Faller kept his face hid in his hands, and did not look up. In the same
+strain did I speak to Annele, he thought. Who knows what words she
+would give the minister if she dared to speak! May God, who has worked
+so many miracles in the world, work but this one more,--plant good
+thoughts in her heart and put good words on her lips for Lenz, who is
+so good and true!
+
+No voice sounded louder than Faller's in the hymn that followed the
+marriage service. The leader signed to him to moderate his bass, as the
+tenor was weak without Lenz's support. But Faller was not to be
+repressed. His deep, strong voice sounded above the organ and the
+voices of all the other singers.
+
+After the ceremony the women who had been so fortunate as to see and
+hear had much to tell those outside. They described how the bridegroom
+had wept,--harder than any man they ever heard. The minister had been
+very touching, to be sure; especially when he called down a blessing
+from Lenz's parents Lenz sobbed as if his heart would break, and the
+whole congregation wept with him. At the recital the outsiders also
+began to weep. They had come to the wedding too, and had as good a
+right as the rest to all that went on, both the weeping and the
+rejoicing.
+
+"Has any village a curate like ours?" said the men to the visitors from
+other parishes. "He speaks out so round and plain, and understands one
+as if every secret had been disclosed to him." Neither men nor women
+spoke of the personalities of the discourse.
+
+As Lenz, with Petrovitsch on his right hand and the landlord on his
+left, was leaving the church, he was addressed by Faller's old mother:
+"I have kept my word, and worn your mother's clothes to the church. She
+herself could not have prayed for you more fervently than I did."
+
+Lenz's answer was cut short by the landlord scolding the old woman for
+being the first to address the bridegroom. Though ridiculing the
+superstition that there was bad luck in having the first greeting come
+from an old woman, he called up a pretty boy, and made him be the first
+to shake hands with Lenz.
+
+From this moment all was merry-making. It was hard to believe that any
+eye could have been dimmed by tears.
+
+While Lenz in the little parlor shook hands with his new sisters, and
+kissed and embraced his brothers-in-law, and the doctor came with his
+daughters,--it was kind of them to come to the wedding,--and one person
+after another passed in and out and offered congratulations, Annele sat
+still in her chair, holding a fine white handkerchief pressed to her
+eyes. "I could not help crying as I did," said Lenz; "you know how
+happy I am. From this hour we will hold the one honor between us firm
+and true, and, please God, it shall grow with us. I never shall forget
+what a family you have brought me into. With God's blessing these shall
+be the last tears we are to shed together. But take your gloves off; I
+haven't any on."
+
+Annele refused with a shake of her head, but gave no other answer.
+
+Come to table! to table! to table! was called three times, and a
+threefold appetite seemed to respond to the summons. Only Franzl kept
+complaining that she could not eat, she could not swallow a morsel; it
+was a shame when there were so many good things, but she could not.
+
+Dancing began in the upper hall while the lunch was going on below, and
+the bridal pair went to and fro between the tables and the dancers.
+
+"It is abominable of the engineer to come to the wedding," said Annele,
+as they were going up stairs; "he was not invited. Don't speak a word
+to him."
+
+"Never mind him," said Lenz, soothingly. "Let all be happy to-day. I am
+only sorry Faller is not here. I sent for him, but he has not come."
+
+Pilgrim danced the first dance with Annele. "You are a capital dancer,"
+she said.
+
+"But not so good a painter, you think?"
+
+"I did not say so."
+
+"Then I won't paint your portrait, though I have been thinking of it
+to-day. After all, you have not a good face to paint. You are very
+pretty when you talk, but when you are still there is a look I cannot
+describe."
+
+"Pity you can't use your brush as well as your tongue."
+
+"Very good; you sha'n't have your picture painted by me. Paint--who is
+it?--on the wall, and he is sure--?"
+
+"I would not have you paint me for all the world," retorted Annele. She
+had soon recovered her good spirits.
+
+The bride and bridegroom were called down into the lower room, where
+the chief members of the family, both men and women, were assembled
+about Petrovitsch, trying to force him to some decided statement with
+regard to the amount of property he would leave Lenz. Don Bastian,
+Pilgrim's crafty landlord, was chief speaker. He was anxious to lard
+his meagre marriage gift with another man's fat, and had succeeded in
+driving Petrovitsch into a narrow corner from which escape seemed
+impossible. The smith, who felt himself of importance as being Lenz's
+only neighbor,--he lived really half an hour's walk off, but his house
+was the only one that could be seen from the Morgenhalde,--had been a
+playmate of Petrovitsch in his youth, and was warming his heart with
+reminiscences of old times. The landlady thought nothing was wanting
+but the presence of the bridal pair, and for that reason had sent for
+them. "Good! there is Lenz," cried the hard-pressed Petrovitsch as the
+young people entered the circle. "He knows what my intentions are. We
+are not accustomed in our family to proclaim such things from the town
+clock. You know how we stand towards each other, don't you, Lenz?"
+
+"Certainly, uncle."
+
+"Then I will waste no more words on the matter," he exclaimed, rising
+in great trepidation lest the smith or some one else should discover
+this was his sixty-fifth birthday, and overwhelm him with
+congratulations which he would have to pay for by a handsome note to
+Lenz. He pressed his way through the crowd of guests out into the
+street. A kick from some invisible foot brought a cry of pain from
+Bubby, who was following close behind his master.
+
+Lenz looked after his uncle's retreating figure with some misgivings.
+Perhaps he ought not to have thus helped him out of his dilemma. He
+might have been brought to the point then, and now the chance was lost.
+
+But Lenz dismissed all such thoughts speedily from his mind, and was
+merry and gay till late into the night. The relations who lived at a
+distance had already left. It was time for the bridal pair to be
+starting, for custom required them to be at home before midnight. "You
+were right, Annele," Lenz said when they were in the little parlor
+together. "I am sorry there is no carriage-way to our house. Wrap
+yourself up warm."
+
+"You will find I am right in a great many things," answered Annele.
+
+Pilgrim had arranged the procession with great skill. First went
+the musicians, then the bridal pair, preceded and followed by
+two torch-bearers, and, lastly, children carrying the beautiful
+presents,--bowls, plates, glasses, and salvers, interspersed with
+flaming pine-knots. On reaching the mountain the procession fell into
+disorder, as it had to move in single file. "You go in front," said
+Lenz to Annele; "I willingly yield precedence to you."
+
+They reached the house at last, the presents were deposited, the
+musicians played one more merry dance, three cheers were given, and
+then the sound of music died away in the valley.
+
+"We are in heaven, and know there is joy over us on earth," said Lenz.
+
+"I had no idea you could talk so finely," returned Annele. "How still
+it is all of a sudden!"
+
+"Wait; I have another musical clock here. Thank Heaven I can make my
+own music now, and for only our two selves." He set his instrument
+playing Beethoven's "Meerestille." Long it played on by itself, when
+all else in the house was still.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                           THE MORNING GIFT.
+
+
+"I am glad we celebrate our wedding again today,--aren't you, little
+wife?" asked Lenz, the next morning.
+
+"No; why are you?"
+
+"My crying spoiled my enjoyment yesterday; this morning, for the first
+time, I am perfectly happy. To-day will seem like going to a friend's
+wedding,--won't it?"
+
+"What a strange man you are!" said Annele, smiling.
+
+"Stop!" said Lenz, suddenly starting up. "I must give you something.
+Wait a minute."
+
+He went into the chamber, and made a long search. What would he bring
+out? He must have remembered the gold chain and ear-rings that were the
+bridegroom's usual present. But he should have given them yesterday;
+why to-day? Annele had plenty of time to wonder before Lenz returned.
+"Here I have it," he exclaimed, coming back at last. "I had misplaced
+it. This is my blessed mother's garnet necklace. It is made of good old
+garnets, and will look beautifully on your dear neck. Come, try it on!"
+
+"No, Lenz, it is too old-fashioned. I cannot wear it. It would scratch
+my neck too. I really cannot wear it. I will exchange it at the
+jeweler's.
+
+"That you shall not."
+
+"Just as you like. What else have you there?"
+
+"This is something I can give to no one but yourself. My blessed mother
+so directed. It has no value in itself, but yet is very wonderful."
+
+"Show me the wonder."
+
+"See!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"It is Edelweiss, a little plant that grows under the snow. See what my
+mother has written there!"
+
+"I cannot read it, it is so badly written; read it for me."
+
+Lenz read aloud: "This is a little plant--Edelweiss--that grew on the
+highest mountain in Switzerland, under the snow. It was found by my
+husband, who thought of me as he picked it, brought it home with him,
+and gave it to me, on our wedding day. I wish it placed in my hand,
+when I am laid in the ground. Should it, however, be forgotten or
+overlooked, my son must give it to his wife the morning after their
+marriage, and, as long as she shall hold it in honor it will bring a
+blessing. There is no magic in it, however. This plant is called
+Edelweiss.--MARIE LENZ."
+
+"Does it not go to your heart to hear one so speak to you from the
+dead? Let it not affect you too much. Be cheerful! She liked to have
+every one cheerful, and was always so herself, though she had seen much
+sorrow."
+
+Annele smiled, wrapped the little plant in its paper again, and laid it
+aside with the garnet necklace.
+
+The young people sat chatting together till a message came from the
+Lion that they must make haste down, for many visitors had already
+arrived.
+
+Franzl was such an awkward lady's maid, that Lenz had to go down first,
+and send up some one from the hotel. He said he should go to Faller's,
+too, and invite him to the party; he must be there to-day, and Annele
+must treat him kindly, and forget whatever clumsy thing he might have
+said.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Annele, "only go quick, and send me up Margaret, or,
+better still, Ernestine."
+
+She made her appearance at length in her old home, and was warmly
+welcomed and embraced by her mother, and taken into the little parlor,
+where she at once began to complain of Lenz's having given her, that
+morning, an old string of garnets and a dried flower for her wedding
+present. She could not show herself before all the hotelkeepers'
+daughters, to say nothing of their wives and sons, without a gold
+chain. "He is an old skinflint," she exclaimed, "a stupid, petty
+clockmaker."
+
+"Annele," her mother prudently answered, "he is no miser, for he did
+not ask a word about your dowry; and neither is he stupid,--rather too
+clever, if anything. Last night there came a silversmith from Pforzheim
+with a great box under his arm. Lenz ordered him, you may be sure; so
+now you can pick out the prettiest chain the jeweller has."
+
+The landlady knew very well that Annele would not believe the
+falsehood, and Annele knew equally well that her mother did not think
+her so silly as to be taken in by it, but both acted as if perfectly
+sincere, and the event decided in their favor. Lenz had been missing
+for some time, during which interval he was standing with Ernestine on
+the dark cellar stairs. Presently, sure enough, he came, bringing
+Annele a gold chain from the silversmith, who was in the house. After
+all her hints he had not understood that he should have left the choice
+to her, and so got little thanks for his tardy gift.
+
+Annele, however, soon recovered her good-humor, as became a landlord's
+daughter. What goes on in the family parlor does not belong in the
+public room.
+
+If there was no end to the carriages yesterday, there was still less
+to-day. For now came all the hotel-keepers from far and wide, with
+their gay bells and handsome, well-fed horses. This was the time to
+show who one was and what he had. The landlords and their wives and
+daughters went about as if every back felt the weight of a whole hotel.
+Every look said: We live just so at home; and if we have not as much
+money as mine host of the Lion, we are quite satisfied with what we
+have.
+
+Now began such greetings, such giving of presents, such admiration,
+such extravagant thanks for the rich gifts! Oh, that is too much! that
+is too superb! No one but the landlady of the Bear would have thought
+of that! I should know that was from the landlady of the Eagle! And the
+landlady of the Angel! I hope to show what we can do some day, but it
+will never equal this. It was wonderful how many pretty speeches Annele
+could make. Lenz stood by, and could not say a word. Those who did not
+know him thought he was dull or simple. But all this mutual giving and
+thanking did not please him.
+
+Next came the poor clockmakers, whose works the landlord sent off to
+foreign markets, and who were kept very close under the great man's
+thumb. Annele paid them no attention, so they addressed themselves
+chiefly to Lenz expressing a certain pleased satisfaction at a
+clockmaker's becoming son-in-law of the landlord of the Lion. Many
+hoped for easier terms now with the landlord; others asked Lenz the
+plain question whether he meant to give up his profession, and turn
+merchant and hotel-keeper, and smiled when he assured them he should
+remain as he was. They also asked him sarcastically, whether, now that
+he had a rich dealer for his father-in-law, he should want to introduce
+his standard regulator, and establish the association which was to
+secure to every workman his full earnings. They made faces of
+astonishment when Lenz declared that the sooner the association was
+formed the better he should be pleased, and that he should be one of
+the first to join it. When these poor fellows, whose poverty you could
+read in their faces, who with fourteen hours' daily labor could only
+make out to live by practising an almost incredible economy and
+self-denial, pressed their half-florin or a sixpenny piece, sometimes
+only a threepence, into Lenz's hand, it burned him like live coals. He
+would gladly have returned the gifts, had he not feared to hurt their
+feelings. When a pause enabled him to get Annele's attention, he told
+her how he felt. She stared hopelessly at him, and said, shaking her
+head: "My father is right, you are no business man. You can work and
+earn your bread, but as for making others work and earn for you, you
+have no conception of it. You are always asking how this one or that
+one gets on. That is not the way. You must drive through the world as
+comfortably as you can, and not ask who has to go barefoot. But you
+would like to take old Proebler and your whole swarm of beggars to drive
+with you. However, I will not read you a lesson now.--Ah, welcome, dear
+landlady of the Lamb! the later the hour the fairer the guest. I have
+long been thinking, and a minute ago was saying to my mother, Where can
+the good landlady of the Lamb at Edelshof be? Half my pleasure would be
+destroyed if she did not come to honor my wedding. And this is your
+daughter-in-law? Where is the husband?"
+
+"He is below with the horses. It is hard to find shelter for them
+to-day."
+
+"Yes; thank Heaven, we have many good friends. Such a day shows how
+full the world is of them. Lenz, show the landlady of the Lamb to the
+upper table. I have reserved a seat of honor there for her." And Annele
+turned away to welcome other guests.
+
+That she should reproach him--reproach him on such a day as this--with
+thinking too much of others was a cruel sting to Lenz, though he did
+not let it dwell on his mind. He was forced to own that she was right;
+that this very weakness of his made him less successful in the world
+than other men,--made him seem less capable than he really was. The
+recollection of a word or action would haunt him for days, destroying
+all his peace. Other men fare better. They live for themselves, and
+heap together what they get without asking about their fellows. He must
+learn to do so too, if he would have any position. Lenz stood for a
+while lost in these thoughts, as forgetful of all the noisy rejoicings
+about him as if they had no reference to him. But he soon roused
+himself again to take part in them,--and the chief part, as became the
+bridegroom.
+
+The house was crowded, and pleasant it was to see so many persons
+collected together to share in a neighbor's joy. The merriment was so
+well kept up, that in the evening, when the guests began to think of
+leaving, the landlord played a trick upon them. He ordered Gregory to
+take all the poles from the sleighs and hide them. The distinguished
+guests consequently could not get away, and were obliged to stay till
+long after midnight. So much the better, they consoled themselves with
+saying, because now we shall have the moon.
+
+No stratagem was used to detain the petty clockmakers, of whom many
+were anxious to be at home early, in order not to lose a second
+working-day. Others, however, wanted to get the full value of their
+wedding present, and sat and ate continuously, as if they had to lay in
+a supply for the next year. From morning till late at night fresh
+dishes were constantly served. The supply of meat and sausages and
+sour-krout seemed inexhaustible.
+
+Faller moved about among the wedding guests quite stiff and embarrassed
+till Ernestine set him at ease by tying a great white apron on him and
+bidding him help her tend table. I only do it for Lenz's sake, he said
+to himself, and would like to have said to every one he handed
+refreshments to. For his own part, he ate and drank almost nothing. On
+getting hold of Lenz for a moment, he said to him: "I have given you no
+wedding present. Little I will not give, and much I cannot. How gladly
+would I give the heart out of my body!" Lenz only admonished his
+faithful comrade to help himself first, and be as merry as he could.
+Before it was yet too late, he remembered he had meant to invite old
+Proebler, and sent Faller in search of him. The old man came, but could
+not be persuaded to enter the guest-room, having no Sunday clothes; so
+Lenz gave him a dish of eatables, enough to last three days, and a
+bottle of good wine into the bargain. Old Proebler was so surprised he
+almost forgot to offer his usual pinch of snuff, and could only say, "I
+will bring back the bottle." "You may keep it," replied Lenz. In high
+glee the old fellow took himself off.
+
+It was almost morning before Lenz and Annele set out for home. The moon
+had risen, but was obscured by clouds. They walked up the mountain this
+time, with neither escort nor torches. Annele complained that it was
+frightfully dark, and she was ready to drop with fatigue. "I ought to
+have stayed at home," she said.
+
+"At home? up there is your home."
+
+She made no answer, and the two went on side by side for a time in
+silence.
+
+"Have you counted the money you received?" she asked, presently.
+
+"No, I can do that at home. There is a good deal, for it is heavy in my
+hand. Luckily, your father lent me one of his empty money-bags."
+
+"Empty? he has plenty of full ones!" said Annele, with temper.
+
+"I did not ask for those, nor think of them."
+
+As soon as they reached home she insisted on Lenz counting the money at
+once. But he was so slow she took it into her own hands, and showed
+that a landlord's daughter was much quicker at figures.
+
+"I have been thinking the matter over," said Lenz, while she was
+counting. "It is well to accept presents even from the poor. It teaches
+them self-respect, and makes it easier for them to apply to us for help
+in their difficulties."
+
+Annele stopped in her counting and stared at him. He had such strange
+reasons for the commonest things! He would adopt no custom until he
+could reconcile it with his ideas of right; then he embraced it
+heartily. Annele said nothing, but her lips kept repeating the number
+she had in her mind, lest she should forget it.
+
+The money amounted to just one hundred and twenty florins, counting
+four counterfeit sixpences. Annele was terribly hard on the mean things
+who would cheat them with such money.
+
+"Don't speak so," remonstrated Lenz; "perhaps they were poor people,
+who had nothing else."
+
+Her eyes flashed. "You seem to understand everything better than I do.
+I should think I did not know anything."
+
+"I did not mean so. Be kind, Annele!"
+
+"I never was cross in all my life. You are the first person who ever
+called me cross. You may ask whom you like. You might have seen to-day
+what the world thinks of me."
+
+"O, very well; it is not worth disputing about."
+
+"I am not disputing. It makes no difference what it is, if it is only
+half a farthing. I will not be contradicted so whenever I speak."
+
+"Certainly not; only do be quiet, or Franzl will think we are having a
+quarrel."
+
+"Franzl may think what she chooses. I tell you now Franzl must go out
+of this house."
+
+"But not to-day?"
+
+"Not to-day, but to-morrow, or soon."
+
+"Then we will talk about it to-morrow. I am tired, and so are you, you
+said."
+
+"Yes, but when an injustice is done me it cures all my fatigue; there
+is no tiring me then."
+
+"I have done you no injustice, and desire to do you none. Remember what
+the minister said: we have a common honor."
+
+"You need not tell me what the minister said. He ought not to have said
+it. He preached as if he were trying to make peace."
+
+"Please God, that shall never be necessary. We will be of one mind, and
+bear joy and sorrow in loving fidelity, as my mother used to say."
+
+"We will show the world that we live honestly together."
+
+"Shall I set the musical clock going?"
+
+"No, we have had enough for to-day."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+            THE FIRST NAIL IS DRIVEN.--PEACE ON THE HEIGHTS,
+                      AND THE FIRST SUNDAY GUEST.
+
+
+The next morning Annele was again on friendly terms with Franzl, and
+complimenting her good management. "I have never given you anything,
+Franzl," she said; "would you rather have a gown or some money?"
+
+"Money would please me best."
+
+"Then here are two crowns for you."
+
+Lenz gladly added the same amount when Franzl showed him Annele's
+present. How thoughtful she is, he said to himself, and how careful
+always to do just the right thing! It never would have occurred to me
+to make Franzl a present; and yet only yesterday she was talking of
+sending her away. "She is a dear, foolish, hasty child," he added
+aloud. "Just like our young burgomaster's wife at home," interposed
+Franzl; "who, as the weight-manufacturer's wife once said, always
+planned for seven visitors when there were but six chairs, so that one
+had to go bobbing about while the others were seated." Lenz laughed.
+"We Knuslingers know a thing or two, I assure you. See now how quickly
+your wife has brought everything to order. Most women would have been
+three days about it, and have stumbled a dozen times and broken half
+the things to pieces. Your wife has no left hand. She is right hand all
+over,"--a compliment which much pleased Annele, when Lenz repeated it
+to her.
+
+She showed now a new accomplishment. Lenz asked her to drive a nail
+above his father's file. She struck it firmly and squarely on the head
+at the first blow, and on the nail thus first driven in her new home he
+made her hang his mother's picture.
+
+"That is good," he said. "If it is not just like her, it has her eyes,
+and, please God, they shall look down on a fair, good, happy life. We
+will make it such a life that she may always have pleasure in beholding
+it."
+
+Only do not make a saint of her, Annele wanted to say, but checked
+herself.
+
+This was Wednesday of their wedding week, the whole of which was to be
+kept as a time of holiday. Lenz worked a few hours daily, chiefly for
+the sake of reminding himself that he had an occupation; he was
+happier, too, after having worked a couple of hours. The wedding
+festivities were, of course, lived over again, and very funny it was to
+see Annele mimic the peculiarities of the different guests. She made
+you actually see and hear the landlady of the Bear and of the Lamb and
+of the Eagle, while her imitation of Faller's trick of rubbing his hand
+over his mustache was so perfect that you could almost fancy a growth
+of bushy hair above her roguish lip. There was no ill-nature, nothing
+but harmless fun, in it all. She was thoroughly happy. "O, how
+beautiful, how good and wholesome it is up here!" she cried, in the
+morning; "and how still! I never could have believed there was such
+quiet in the world. Sitting here, as I do, seeing and hearing nothing
+of what goes on below, and not having to give an answer to anybody, it
+seems to me I must be sleeping with my eyes open,--and such a pleasant
+sleep! Down in the village, life is like a mill-wheel; here I am in
+another world. I can almost hear my heart beat. For the next fourteen
+days I do not mean to go down into the town. I will wean myself from it
+altogether; I know I can. The people that live there have no idea how
+good it is to be out of the world,--out of the hurry and hubbub and
+stir. O Lenz, you do not know how well off you have been all your
+life!"
+
+Thus in a hundred different ways did Annele express her delight as she
+sat in the morning by Lenz's side. "I knew you would like living here,"
+he answered, his face beaming with joy; "and you may be sure I am
+thankful to God and my parents for having been allowed to pass my life
+in this place. But, dear little wife, we cannot stay up here a
+fortnight all by ourselves. Next Sunday, at the farthest, we must go to
+church, and I think we ought to pass even a little of to-day with our
+parents."
+
+"As you like. Happily, we cannot take this blessed rest away with us,
+but shall find it waiting when we come home."
+
+"And you, my mother," interrupted Lenz, looking up at his mother's
+picture, "you are our angel of rest; your pure eyes say, as they look
+down upon us, Thank God, children, that it is so with you, and so shall
+continue your life long."
+
+"It seems impossible I have been here so little while," continued
+Annele; "I feel as if I had lived here forever. These quiet hours are
+better than years anywhere else."
+
+"How prettily and cleverly you describe it! Only remember your words,
+if ever this place should seem too lonely for you. Those who did not
+believe you could be happy in such a solitude will be surprised."
+
+"Who didn't believe I could be happy? I know,--your Pilgrim, your great
+artist. He is a pretty fellow. Whoever is not an angel he sets down as
+a devil. But one thing I tell you, he shall never cross this
+threshold."
+
+"It was not Pilgrim. Why will you try to find any one now to hate? A
+hundred times I have heard my mother say, 'We can have no peace of mind
+if we do not feel kindly towards our fellow-men.' If she had but lived
+a year longer, that you might have learned of her! Was not that a good
+saying? You know how it is if you hate any one, or know you have an
+enemy. I experienced it once, and remember how hard it was. Wherever
+you go, or whatever you do, you feel an invisible pistol pointed at
+you. My greatest happiness is, that there is no one in the world whom I
+hate, and no one, so far as I know, who hates me."
+
+Annele had but half heard him. "Who could have said so if it were not
+Pilgrim?"
+
+"No one. I have only feared so sometimes myself."
+
+"I don't believe that. Some one put it into your head. But you ought
+not to have repeated it to me. I might tell what persons have said to
+me about you,--persons you would never suspect of speaking so. You have
+your enemies, like the rest of us, but I know better than to make you
+uncomfortable by repeating their stupid talk."
+
+"You only say that to pay me back. It is all fair; I have deserved it.
+But now we are quits, and let us be merry."
+
+The two were, indeed, full of happiness again. Franzl in the kitchen
+often moved her lips, as she was wont to do when thinking to herself.
+That is natural and right; thank God they feel so. Such would have been
+my life with Anton, if he had not proved faithless, and married a black
+woman!
+
+On Sunday morning Lenz said, "I had quite forgotten to tell you that I
+had invited a guest to dinner with us today. You have no objection?"
+
+"No; who is it?"
+
+"My good Pilgrim."
+
+"You should have invited your uncle too; it would be no more than
+proper."
+
+"I thought of it, but did not venture to, he is such a queer man."
+
+For the first time they heard the bells in the valley ringing. "Is that
+not beautiful?" said Lenz. "I have heard my mother say, a thousand
+times, that we did not hear the bells themselves, but only their echo
+from the wood behind the house, so that it is like hearing bells from
+heaven."
+
+"Yes; but we had better be starting now," returned Annele. On the way
+she began: "Lenz, I do not ask from curiosity; I am your wife, and have
+a right to know. I swear by those bells not to repeat it."
+
+"You need never swear; I have a horror of oaths. Tell me what it is you
+want to know."
+
+"You and your uncle seemed to understand each other perfectly on the
+day of the wedding; what has been settled about the inheritance?"
+
+"Nothing; we have never exchanged a word on the subject."
+
+"And yet you acted as if all were signed and sealed."
+
+"I did nothing. I only said my uncle and I understood each other, and
+so we do. We never speak of such things. He is free to do as he will."
+
+"He was pushed into a corner, that day, that he could not have got out
+of but for you. Such a chance will hardly occur again. He might have
+been made to leave us a handsome legacy."
+
+"I cannot bear to have strangers meddling in our family matters. I am
+driven into no corner. If he leaves me nothing, I am quite able to take
+care of myself."
+
+Annele was silent; in her heart was no ringing of bells such as were
+pealing clear over mountain and valley. They entered the church
+together, and after the service stopped to see their parents before
+going home. Not far from the open meadow Pilgrim called after them,
+"Admit a poor soul into your paradise." They turned round, laughing.
+Pilgrim was in excellent spirits on the way up, and still gayer at
+table, where he finished by drinking a full glass to the health of his
+future godson, and insisting on Annele's drinking with him. Her whole
+manner towards her guest was friendly in the extreme. At first she was
+disconcerted by occasionally meeting her husband's eye fixed upon her
+with an expression of wonder at her powers of dissimulation. Even when
+she refused to look his way, she fancied his glance of disapproval
+behind her back, and grew positively angry. On looking round at last,
+however, and seeing by his beaming face that he thought her perfectly
+sincere in her assumption of friendliness, she became so in earnest,
+and exclaimed heartily to Pilgrim: "How happy you and Lenz are in your
+friendship! from this day let me make one with you."
+
+Pilgrim was loud in his praises of Annele, as Lenz accompanied him part
+of the way down the hill.
+
+"Never has a dinner tasted so good as to-day's," exclaimed the husband,
+joyfully, as he re-entered the little room. "What greater happiness can
+there be in the world than to earn your meat and drink by honest toil,
+and have a darling wife and a faithful friend to enjoy it with you?"
+
+"Yes, Pilgrim is an entertaining fellow," returned Annele.
+
+"I am so glad you have converted him," added Lenz. "He was not quite
+inclined to like you; but you are a perfect witch; you can do what you
+like with everybody."
+
+Annele was silent, and Lenz began to feel almost sorry he had told her
+that: there was no occasion for it. But honesty never can come amiss.
+He repeated that she ought to feel particularly happy at having turned
+an enemy into a friend. She still made no answer; and afterwards, when
+Pilgrim's name was mentioned, kept a resolute silence.
+
+Annele despaired of doing anything with Lenz until she could make him
+give up his cheerful views of human nature. As time went on, she gained
+many a victory by showing him, on every possible occasion, how mean,
+how wicked and deceitful, men were.
+
+"I never knew that such were the ways of the world. I have lived like a
+child," said Lenz.
+
+"I have been abroad in the world for you, Lenz," Annele answered. "I
+have known thousands and thousands of persons in their business and
+other relations. I have heard how differently they talk behind a man's
+back from what they do to his face, and have seen them laughing at him
+for being taken in by fair professions. Hardly anybody says what he
+really believes. I can tell you more of the world than you would have
+learned in ten years of travel."
+
+"But of what use is it?" asked Lenz. "I don't see that it does any
+good. If we keep on our own straightforward way, the world about us may
+be as bad as it will, it can do us no harm. Besides, there are plenty
+of honest persons in it. A child brought up in an inn is, as you say,
+at home among strangers. You told me that evening when we first talked
+together how keenly you felt your position. You must be glad to have at
+last a little home of your own, where every passer-by has not the right
+to come in, and defame himself and his neighbors over his mug of beer."
+
+"Certainly," answered Annele, in no very cordial tone. Lenz had vexed
+her again by undervaluing her former life. He seemed to fancy she had
+not known what happiness was till he revealed it to her.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+             OLD HEIRLOOMS ARE BANISHED, AND A NEW TONE IS
+                       HEARD ON THE MORGENHALDE.
+
+
+The wedding week and many other weeks and months passed, during which
+little occurred worthy to be recorded in our story. Almost every
+morning Annele laughed at Lenz for his astonishment over the loaf of
+fresh white bread which the landlady sent up daily from the town. It
+was not the delicacy that surprised him so much as the fact that
+persons should become dependent upon such things. Many luxuries that
+Lenz had considered only suitable for holidays were to Annele every-day
+necessities. She ridiculed his ignorance, which knew not how to double
+the comforts of life without increasing the expense; and a great
+improvement she certainly introduced into their way of living, baking
+better bread out of the same meal, and in all household matters
+bringing to pass much greater results with the same outlay. But, on the
+other hand, she was often discontented, and especially in the spring
+was apt to complain: "Dear me, how the wind blows up here! it is enough
+to take the roof off the house."
+
+"I cannot help it, dear child. We get good fresh air to pay for it.
+Every breath we draw is like a draught of dew. Remember how you used to
+delight last autumn in our bright, cheerful sunshine, when the valley
+was shrouded in mist. And what good water we have too! People live to
+be old, ever so old, up here. As for the house, you need have no
+particle of concern for that. It is built of whole trunks of trees, and
+will stand for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
+
+When the snow began to melt, and the usually empty gullies on the
+mountain-side were, to Lenz's great delight, filled with the rushing
+streams, Annele complained that she could not sleep for the noise of
+the water.
+
+"You often complained in the winter of the deathly stillness up
+here,--that you could hear no wagon and see no passing; now you have
+noise enough." Annele gave her husband a sidelong glance, and, without
+answering, went into the kitchen, and had a good cry with Franzl. The
+old woman cautioned Lenz against contradicting his wife; it was not
+well for her or the child she bore.
+
+Lenz was quiet and industrious, and took great pleasure in his work.
+Whenever he appealed to Annele to admire some tone that gave him
+peculiar satisfaction, she would answer: "O, it is nothing to me. I am
+really afraid your work will be the ruin of you; it will never repay
+you for the time you spend on it. The way to make a fortune is to turn
+off things quick, and not quiddle so over them."
+
+"I know my own work best, Annele."
+
+"If you know best, you have no need to talk to me. I can only speak
+according as I understand. If you want a post for a listener you had
+better go down to the doctor's and borrow one. There are plenty of
+painted red lips there that will speak never a word."
+
+Days passed, and the spring that now broke in glory over the earth
+seemed to bring fresh life on the Morgenhalde. The landlady often came
+up and revelled in the good warm sun. The landlord, who had grown more
+of a growler than ever, seldom appeared. Annele openly withdrew herself
+more and more from her parents, and clung with increasing tenderness to
+Lenz. Of a Sunday morning or a holiday afternoon they often went
+together into the forest, where he had set up a bench among his
+father-in-law's trees. "Hark to that bird," said he, one day, as they
+were sitting there in a happy mood. "He is the true singer, caring
+nothing whether any hear him or not, but making music for himself and
+his mate, just as I do." And Lenz sent his voice blithely into the
+echoing wood.
+
+"Yes," answered Annele, "and for that reason you ought to resign your
+place in the Liederkranz; it is no longer a fit society for you. As a
+bachelor you might keep company with Faller and the rest, if you chose,
+but for the head of a family it is not the thing. Besides, you are too
+old to sing."
+
+"I old? Why, I am born new every spring. I was just fancying myself
+still a child, building a boat with my dead brother. How happy we
+were!"
+
+"One would think your whole life had been a miracle. What do you mean
+by talking so?"
+
+"You are right. I must learn to be old; I am almost as old as this
+forest. I remember, as a child, there were very few large trees here;
+most of the wood was of young saplings, and now it has grown high above
+our heads, and, thank Heaven, is our own."
+
+"How our own? Has my father made it over to you?"
+
+"No, it is still his,--that is, his with certain restrictions. He has
+no right to cut it wholly down, because it is all that keeps our house
+from being buried under the snow or the mountain itself."
+
+"Don't talk so. What is it to me?"
+
+"I don't understand you."
+
+"Nor I you. You should not suggest such dreadful things to me now."
+
+"Then I will sing to you, and let who will hear."
+
+He took Annele's hand and, merrily singing, led her back to the house,
+where they arrived just in time to receive a visit from the landlord.
+He was evidently come upon business, for, taking his son-in-law into
+the inner room, he began at once. "Lenz, I can do you a good turn."
+
+"That is well. A good turn never comes amiss."
+
+"Is your money still with the bailiff?"
+
+"He has paid me four hundred florins of it, but the greater part is
+still in his hands."
+
+"Ready money is trumps now. You can make a good trade with it."
+
+"I will give notice to the bailiff."
+
+"That would take too long. Give me your note to sell, and I will
+guarantee you twenty-five per cent."
+
+"Then we will go shares."
+
+"It was foolish of you to say that. I had meant to give you the whole;
+but you are methodical in all your business matters, I see."
+
+"Thank you, father-in-law, I like to be fair. I want no favors."
+
+"Your best way would be to leave the money in my business, and let me
+hand you whatever interest it draws."
+
+"I don't understand business. A regular percentage suits me better."
+
+On returning to the sitting-room they found a nice lunch set out by
+Annele herself, but her father seemed in a great hurry to be gone, and
+would take nothing. "It is your own wine, father," Annele insisted. "Do
+sit a few minutes with us, we see so little of you."
+
+There seemed no seat on the Morgenhalde broad enough to bear the whole
+weight of the landlord's dignity. He drank a glass standing, and then
+went down the hill, frequently pressing his hand on his breast-pocket
+as he went. "Father is particularly uncommunicative to-day," observed
+Annele.
+
+"He has some pressing business on his mind. I have just given him my
+two thousand six hundred florins that the bailiff borrowed."
+
+"And what did he give you in exchange?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean; nothing. I will ask him for a written
+receipt some time, since that is the custom."
+
+"If you had asked my advice, you would not have given him the money."
+
+"Annele, what do you mean? I am sure I ought not to take amiss anything
+you say to me when you thus mistrust your own father. But, as Franzl
+says, we must be indulgent with you now, and let you have your own
+way."
+
+"Indeed!" said Annele. "No one need be indulgent with me. What I said
+about my father meant nothing. I don't know how I came to say it.
+Franzl must go. It is she who sets you against me."
+
+In vain Lenz defended poor Franzl, and protested she did nothing of the
+kind. Annele carried her point. In less than a fortnight the old woman
+had to leave the house. Lenz comforted her as well as he could,
+assuring her she should soon come back, and promising her a yearly sum
+as long as she lived. But she shook her head, and said, weeping, "The
+Lord God will soon put me beyond want. Never did I think to leave this
+house, where I have lived for eight and twenty years, till I was
+carried out. There are my pots, and my copper kettles, and my pans, and
+my tubs; how many thousand times I have taken them in my hand, and
+polished them up! They are my witnesses. No one can say I have not been
+neat and orderly. The nozzle of every pot, if it could speak, would
+tell who and what I have been. But God knows all. He sees what goes on
+in the great room, and in the kitchen, and in each of our hearts. That
+is my comfort and my _viaticum_ and-- Enough; I am glad to get out of
+this place; rather would I spin thistles than stay here a day longer. I
+don't want to make you unhappy, Lenz. You might hunt me down like a rat
+before I would bring ill-will into the house. No, no, I will not do
+that. Have no anxiety about me; you have cares enough of your own.
+Gladly would I be crushed under the weight of them, if I could but take
+them from you, and bear them on my own shoulders. Have no fear for me.
+I shall go to my brother in Knuslingen. There was I born, and there
+will I wait till I die. If I join your mother in Paradise, I will tend
+upon her as she was used to being tended here. For her sake, our Lord
+God will admit me, and for her sake you shall still be blessed in this
+world. Good by; forgive me, if I have ever grieved you. Good by,--a
+thousand times good by!"
+
+For some time after Franzl's departure Lenz continued silent and
+gloomy. All the higher did Annele's spirits rise in consequence. She
+was indeed a witch, who could do with him what she would. There was a
+magic in her tone, when she wished to please, that none could resist.
+Pilgrim used all his influence to reconcile Lenz to this new state of
+things. He tried to convince him that the old serving-woman had usurped
+a certain authority which prevented his wife from being mistress in her
+own house. Annele, in fact, had been brought up to take an active part
+in household work, and was much happier for having plenty to do. The
+care of such a little house, she said, was nothing to her, and she
+never meant to keep another maid. The apprentice must be called in to
+help. By the aid of his mother-in-law, however, Lenz finally succeeded
+in securing a new girl.
+
+Matters how went on pleasantly and smoothly again till into the summer.
+Annele insisted upon her mother's obliging the landlord to pay Lenz
+back his money, and the father-in-law consequently appeared one day,
+and made Lenz an offer of the wood behind his house, in return for the
+money received, and for one thousand florins in addition. Lenz replied
+that he did not want the wood, but ready money, for which, however, he
+could very well afford to wait. No further steps were taken, except
+that the landlord, like the man of honor he was, gave a receipt, drawn
+up in due form, good in case of life or death.
+
+Late in the summer, the usual quiet of the village was interrupted by
+two great events,--the marriage of the engineer with Bertha, the
+doctor's second daughter, the eldest choosing to remain single; and the
+return of the doctor's son, now a skilful clockmaker, from his studies
+abroad. It was said he meant to build a great clock-factory, not far
+from his father's house. A great outcry was raised among the native
+clockmakers, that they should be ruined if clocks were to be
+manufactured by machinery, as they were in America. Lenz took the
+matter quietly, and, with the schoolmaster, spared no pains to carry
+into operation his long-cherished plan of uniting the workmen in one
+common association. Perhaps necessity would compel them to a step of
+which they had not been able or willing before to see the advantages.
+The two spent whole days in going from house to house, explaining the
+standard regulator. They recommended the adoption of five different
+sizes, which would be quiet sufficient to show all the variety of
+works. Nothing but a division of labor could save the workpeople. The
+axles, wheels, and springs, and more especially the stoppers and
+screws, could be made cheaper and better by machinery, while the
+adjustments of the parts and the finishing touches must always be left
+to the hand of a master. Human understanding and thought are
+indispensable to the proper arranging and harmonizing of the whole. He
+urged the clockmakers either to contribute a share to the new
+manufactory or to set up one of their own. But he found idle complaints
+instead of active co-operation. Every one insisted on keeping to his
+old ways, thinking he understood best his own interests, and unwilling
+to risk them for the sake of the common good.
+
+Lenz came home discouraged, only to be received by his wife with
+reproaches: "For Heaven's sake, stop setting up ninepins for other men
+to knock down. Let others alone; they don't trouble themselves about
+you. You would like to oil everybody's doors, that they should not
+creak, though no one's teeth are set on edge by them but your own."
+
+Lenz smiled at his wife's sharp comparisons. No sooner had he
+relinquished his plan for the good of his fellow-workmen than she began
+urging him to set up a manufactory in company with her father. He could
+go abroad a year, if necessary, she said, and she would spend the time
+with her parents. Lenz maintained that he was not suited for such an
+undertaking, and, moreover, would certainly not travel now that he was
+a married man, after staying at home through his bachelor life. Annele
+took small satisfaction in his assurances that she might set her mind
+quite at rest as to the future, as he should never fail to make a
+comfortable living, in which assurances he was fully borne out by
+Pilgrim. Pilgrim, therefore, she regarded as the chief obstacle in
+Lenz's path to fortune,--a man who had never accomplished anything
+himself, and never would; and she used all the means in her power,
+though without success, to breed discord between the two friends.
+
+Annele carried a perfect ledger in her head, so constantly was she
+revolving figures and plans. Knowing that Lenz had been Faller's
+security for the purchase of his house, she now teased him to withdraw
+his name. So strongly did she insist, that he was fairly obliged to
+consent, and had entered Faller's house for the purpose of announcing
+his determination, when he was met by his old comrade with a face half
+rueful and half laughing, and told of the arrival of a second pair of
+twins. "The little creatures know I am mad on the subject of children,
+and so come to me in couples." Of course Lenz could not increase the
+young father's anxieties by withdrawing his security at such a time,
+and was obliged to return an evasive answer to his wife's inquiries as
+to the result of his visit.
+
+On the night before the marriage of the engineer with the doctor's
+daughter Annele gave birth to a son. As Lenz was standing by her
+bedside, full of his new happiness, she said: "Lenz, promise me one
+thing; promise me to break off all connection with Pilgrim, at least
+for three months."
+
+"I can promise you nothing now," he answered, a bitter drop poisoning
+his cup of joy.
+
+Annele was beside herself at hearing the music from the valley. So
+great was her excitement that her mother and husband trembled for her
+life. Towards noon, however, she fell into a quiet sleep. Lenz stopped
+up all the doors and windows, that every sound should be kept out. From
+this sleep she awoke more tranquil, and showed such patience and
+sweetness that Lenz was filled with twofold thankfulness for the
+happiness vouchsafed him as husband and father. It was wonderful how
+Annele's moods changed. In her present interval of tenderness she
+reminded her husband of their promise to Pilgrim that he should stand
+godfather, and expressed pleasure at the idea. Lenz was desirous that
+Petrovitsch should be second godfather; but the old man resolutely
+declined.
+
+Pilgrim brought with him, and laid in the baby's cradle, a huge paper,
+containing a great number of signatures and illuminated by himself. It
+was a diploma of the Liederkranz, he said, making the new-comer, in
+virtue of his unquestionably good voice, an honorary member of that
+society.
+
+"Do you know the sweetest tone in all the world?" asked Lenz,--"the
+first cry of one's child. Here is something else for you, my son. Take
+hold; see how he grasps it!" He put into the baby's little hand his
+father's file, as if for a special consecration; but Annele snatched it
+away.
+
+"The child might kill itself with that sharp edge," she cried, and
+threw the instrument with such violence to the ground as to break off
+the point.
+
+"There is my precious heirloom broken," said Lenz, sadly.
+
+Pilgrim tried to console him, and declared, laughing, that there must
+ever be new men and new tools in the world. Annele said not a word.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+             THE PENDULUMS SWING EACH IN ITS OWN DIRECTION,
+              AND THE CORD IS STRAINED ALMOST TO BREAKING.
+
+
+"Come here a minute, Annele, I have something to show you."
+
+"I have no time."
+
+"Just look; it will amuse you. See, I have set two pendulums on these
+two clocks swinging different ways; one from right to left, the other
+from left to right. In a few days they will both swing together,
+either from right to left or the other way. The force of attraction
+that they exercise upon each other gradually brings them to an exact
+correspondence."
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+"You will see it with your own eyes, and the same will be the case with
+us. We began, like the pendulums, to swing in opposite directions; but
+we shall have, like them, to come into harmony. To be sure, two
+pendulums never tick precisely together, so as to give but one tone. A
+Spanish king once went mad, trying to make them."
+
+"What do I care for all your mad stories? You, apparently, have time
+for such nonsense; I have not."
+
+In a few days the two pendulums swung together, but the hearts of
+husband and wife held each its own accustomed motion. There were times
+when that miracle of the one stroke which no work of human hand could
+accomplish seemed about to come to pass. But it was only seeming, and
+made the reality all the harder.
+
+Lenz meant to be yielding, but in reality held fast to his old ways.
+Annele had no intention of making concessions. She knew better than her
+husband from the start; for had she not had experience in all the ways
+of the world? Had not men from all countries, old and young, rich and
+poor, told her from her childhood that her mind was as bright and clear
+as the day?
+
+Annele's character might be concisely, though not perhaps quite
+accurately, described as superficial. She took life easily, was capable
+and active, with great fluency of speech, which she abundantly
+exercised; but when her chat was over she never gave a second thought
+to what she had said or heard.
+
+Lenz's character was deep and solid; but cautious even to timidity. He
+handled the world like a piece of delicate machinery, treating even the
+most indifferent concerns with the conscientious exactitude of his
+trade,--or his art, as he preferred to call it.
+
+Annele, when nothing was going on about her, had nothing to say; while
+Lenz's communicativeness increased with the quiet of his life. Whenever
+Lenz talked, he stopped working; Annele, on the contrary, kept both
+tongue and hands busy at the same moment.
+
+Annele liked to tell her dreams; and wonderful dreams she had,--such as
+driving in a beautiful carriage, drawn by superb horses, through a
+magnificent country, with the merriest of companions; and every other
+minute she would exclaim, "Dear me, what a good time we had!" Or she
+had dreamed she was the landlady of a great hotel, and kings and
+princes had driven up to her door, to all of whom she had given a ready
+answer. Lenz cared nothing for dreams, and did not like to hear her
+relate them.
+
+Annele, from the time of her getting up in the morning to her going to
+bed at night, was always neatly and prettily dressed, and liked to have
+Lenz often praise her for it; but he had a trick, which seemed to her
+foolish and tiresome, of repeating the same thing in the same words
+hundreds and hundreds of times, with the impression every time that it
+was an idea he had never thought of before. His habits of mind were
+somewhat like those of external nature, which gives an ever new
+freshness to the same garment; or, like those of his handiwork, which
+require what has been done a hundred times before to be labored over
+again with equal pleasure and exactness. Annele wanted Lenz to keep
+himself always nicely dressed as she did; but he bestowed too much
+attention on his work to have any thought left for his person.
+
+Lenz, in the morning, could hardly speak a word. It took some time for
+his faculties to wake up. He would dream with his eyes open, even over
+his work, and never became fully aroused till quite into the day.
+Annele, on the contrary, the moment she opened her eyes, was like a
+soldier at his post, armed and equipped. She attacked the day's work
+with animation, and hated all half and half states of body and mind.
+Always neat and nimble, as became a landlord's daughter, she had
+everything, even to a dish of chat, in readiness for guests, come at
+what hour of the morning they would. At the bustle she made Lenz often
+raised his eyes to his mother's picture, as if to say, Don't let your
+calmness be ruffled; this snapping of whips is her delight.
+
+If Annele watched him at his work, he became infected with her
+disquiet, turned over and over some piece he had just finished, or was
+finishing, feeling her impatient look upon him all the while, hearing
+her dissatisfied expressions at his slowness, and growing himself
+impatient and dissatisfied. It was an unwholesome companionship.
+
+Little William throve excellently on the Morgenhalde, and when soon a
+little sister was running about with him, the house was as noisy as if
+the wild huntsman and his train were driving through it. If Lenz
+ventured to complain of the uproar, Annele answered sharply: "To have
+quiet a man needs to be rich, and live in a castle, where the princes
+can be quartered in a separate wing."
+
+"I am not rich," answered Lenz, smiling at the rebuke, yet smarting
+under it.
+
+Only in the same atmosphere or at an equal distance from the centre of
+the earth can two pendulums make the same number of vibrations in a
+given time.
+
+Lenz became every day more quiet and reserved. Whenever he and his wife
+talked together, he was filled with amazement at the many words she
+used about every little thing. If he said in the morning, "The mist is
+heavy to-day," she would reply, in her animated manner, "Yes,
+remarkably so for the season. Still it may come out pleasant. There is
+no prophesying about the weather up here in the mountains. Every one
+judges according to his own desires. One hopes it will rain, another
+that it will be clear, as each has different projects on foot. If the
+Lord tried to arrange the weather to suit all tastes, he would have his
+hands full. Like that magician--" Here would come a story, and, on the
+end of that, another, and still others. This was her way of running on
+upon every conceivable subject, as if she were entertaining a teamster
+while his horse was eating in the stall, or beguiling the anxiety of a
+hurried guest, who had ordered dinner, and would have some time yet to
+wait, in spite of the quickly laid cloth and plates.
+
+Lenz shrugged his shoulders, and relapsed into perfect silence, which
+lasted sometimes for days. "What a tiresome, unsocial companion you
+are!" his wife often said, at first good-naturedly, then sharply. He
+smiled at the rebuke, yet it wounded him.
+
+The fears entertained of the manufactory were not realized; on
+the contrary, a fresh impetus was given to domestic industry.
+The manufactory confined itself at first to the casting of zinc
+dial-plates, which found a ready market. Lenz quite prided himself on
+having foretold that such would be the case, and received many
+compliments on his sagacity. His wife alone refused to see anything
+praiseworthy in it. Of course a man should be the best judge of matters
+connected with his own business. "Nevertheless," she added, "the
+engineer and the doctor's son will grow rich while the clockmakers
+think themselves lucky to be allowed to keep on in their former ruts.
+Old Proebler is the best of you, after all; he does at least try to
+invent something new."
+
+Whatever else went wrong, Lenz was happy in his work. "When I get up in
+the morning," he said to Annele, "and think of the day's honest work
+that lies before me, and the satisfaction of seeing it prosper in my
+hands, I feel a perpetual sunshine within me."
+
+"You are a good hand at preaching; you ought to have been a parson,"
+said Annele, thinking, as she left the room, There is a good
+home-thrust for you. We are all to listen to you; but as for what any
+of us may say, that is of no consequence whatever.
+
+Not to be revenged on his wife, but from sheer forgetfulness, Lenz
+often at table, after she had been telling some long story, would
+suddenly say, as if just waking up: "I beg your pardon; I have not
+heard a word you have been saying, my head is so full of that beautiful
+melody! If I could only make it sound as I hear it! That change to the
+minor key is wonderful."
+
+Annele smiled, but never forgave the slight he thus put upon her.
+
+The pendulums swung more and more determinedly each in its own
+direction.
+
+Formerly, when Lenz returned home from the foundry, or the locksmith's,
+or from any excursion, his mother always sat by him while he ate, and
+listened with delight to all he had to tell. The glass of beer he had
+drunk abroad she relished again at home; the kindly greetings he had
+received awoke fresh gratitude in her loving heart. Every incident he
+related was of importance, for it had happened to him. But now, when he
+came home, Annele had no time to sit by him; or if she did, and he
+began to relate his experiences, she would say: "What is all that to
+me? I don't care a pin about it. People may live as they like, for
+aught I care. They give me none of their happiness, and their
+unhappiness I don't want. You and they get on finely together; they
+have only to wind you up, and you play to everybody, like one of your
+musical clocks."
+
+Lenz laughed, remembering that Pilgrim had once called him an eight-day
+clock, because he was always wound up fresh on Sundays. Through the
+week he gave himself no rest, and therefore welcomed all the more
+gladly the Sunday holiday. When the sun shone bright, he often
+exclaimed: "Thank God, thousands and thousands of human beings are
+rejoicing at this beautiful Sunday!"
+
+"You act as if you were the Lord God himself, and had the whole world
+to look after," was Annele's response, which taught him to keep such
+thoughts henceforth to himself. If he wanted Annele to go with him of a
+Sunday to a meeting of the various musical societies in a neighboring
+village, or simply to join Faller and his wife in a walk up the valley,
+the answer always was: "You are at liberty, of course, to go where you
+will. It makes no difference to a man what company he keeps; but I
+shall not go with you. I rank myself too high for that. Faller and his
+wife are not fit society for me. You can go, of course; I have not the
+slightest objection."
+
+Naturally, Lenz also gave up the excursion, and stayed at home, or went
+to the Lion,--in either place showing more ill-temper than the occasion
+at all warranted.
+
+Lenz had never had in his hand a card or a ninepin ball,--those
+consumers of time and low spirits. "I wish I did take pleasure, as
+others do, in cards and ninepins," he said, innocently, quite
+unprepared for Annele's sharp retort: "it does a man good to play, if
+he only comes back the fresher to his business. Games are certainly
+better than playing with one's work."
+
+The pendulums swung more and more determinedly each in its own
+direction.
+
+Lenz sold the greater part of his stock on hand at good prices, but the
+work he had undertaken for his father-in-law did not advance
+satisfactorily. He could not help sometimes complaining to Annele that
+this or that part of it disappointed him; whereupon she tried to
+convince him that he did not give sufficient heed to his profits.
+
+"Customers want the most work in the shortest time, but you make every
+little thing a part of your religion. You are a dreamer,--a dreamer in
+broad daylight. Do wake up! for pity's sake, wake up!"
+
+"Good Heavens! I live in a perpetual turmoil. My sleep is no longer
+sleep; I might as well lie on a bed of nettles. If I could only have
+one good night's sleep again! I am so troubled that I start up every
+other minute. It seems to me my clothes are never off, day or night."
+
+Instead of sympathizing with her husband, and inspiring him with fresh
+courage and self-reliance when he failed, Annele sought only to
+convince him of his utter unfitness to do anything for himself, and the
+necessity of his following her wiser counsels. When, on the other hand,
+he did a good thing, and could not help calling out to her, "Hark, what
+a beautiful tone!" she was very apt to answer: "I tell you honestly, I
+don't like such organ music. I heard that same piece in Baden-Baden a
+great deal better played."
+
+Lenz had often said the same thing himself, had frankly acknowledged it
+to Pilgrim; but hearing it from Annele pained him, and spoiled the
+pleasure of his whole life's work.
+
+Annele had a settled plan in her head, which, in her opinion, fully
+justified the course she was taking. She felt her best powers wasted in
+her present insignificant position. She longed to be earning something,
+and thought that keeping a hotel was the employment best suited for her
+capacities. In pursuance of this project, she changed her policy
+towards Pilgrim. Whereas she had formerly tried to breed dissension
+between him and her husband, she now determined to make him her
+confidant and ally. He had once told her it was a shame she was not a
+landlady; every one said she would give the Lion a fresh start. Pilgrim
+should now join her in urging Lenz to take charge of the Lion inn. He
+could, at the same time, pursue his art,--she called it art when she
+was good-natured, otherwise it was always trade,--either at the Lion or
+on the Morgenhalde,--perhaps better in the latter place, it being so
+much more quiet. A merchant often had his place of business even
+farther from his residence than the Morgenhalde was from the Lion.
+
+When Pilgrim came, therefore, Annele received him most graciously.
+"Pray, light your pipe," she said, "I like the smell of it so much. It
+carries me back to my home."
+
+You are indeed in a foreign atmosphere up here, thought Pilgrim;
+but he kept his thoughts to himself. When at length, after many
+circumlocutions, she disclosed her plan, Pilgrim declined all
+co-operation in it; and Lenz manifested an obstinacy and a disregard to
+both caresses and bursts of temper which she was quite unprepared for.
+"First you wanted to make me a dealer in clocks, and then a
+manufacturer," he said; "now it seems I am to be landlord of the Lion.
+What did you marry me for, if you want to make another man of me?"
+
+Annele gave no direct answer, only saying, "Towards every one else you
+are as soft as butter, but to me hard as a flint."
+
+Lenz looked upon himself as having a settled position in life; Annele
+was bent upon giving him one. She did not confess that she considered
+herself the more competent to support the family, but only wept and
+bemoaned her hard fate in never being allowed to make herself of use.
+She was not unreasonable; she wanted nothing but to be allowed to work,
+to earn something; and that little favor was denied her. Lenz told her
+that the garden used to be very profitable; she might work there. But
+she did not like gardening. The plants grew so slowly in the ground,
+making no sound, and never to be urged or hurried out of their
+appointed times; it was too tiresome waiting for them to come to
+anything. Three visits to the cellar, and three to the kitchen, would
+earn more than a garden could show in a whole summer. A woman could be
+hired by the day who would do quite well enough for that.
+
+There was no end to the fretting and grieving and complaining at the
+stingy way in which they had to live. Lenz was often driven to the
+verge of despair, and flew into such fits of passion as to be hardly
+recognizable for the same man. Then he would bitterly repent of his
+violence, and assume a different tone towards his wife, telling her he
+was mortified to have the journeyman and apprentice see how they lived
+together; and that, if she did not leave him in peace, he should have
+to dismiss them both.
+
+Annele laughed at the threats, which he was in no condition, as she
+thought, to put into execution. He proved his sincerity, however, by
+actually sending both apprentice and journeyman out of the house.
+
+As long as Lenz's firm and quiet character had asserted itself, he
+maintained a certain influence over Annele; but when he came to
+fighting her on her own ground, which was, in itself, a confession of
+defeat, she gained a complete mastery, daily upbraiding him with being
+a do-little, who had turned his assistants out of the house from sheer
+laziness, and whose good-nature was nothing but incapacity.
+
+Instead of laughing at such absurd charges, Lenz brooded over them for
+days together, as he sat at his work, and allowed them to assume
+colossal proportions, long after they had faded from Annele's
+recollection. Her isolated life began to seem to her like a rainy
+Sunday in summer, when she had put on her holiday clothes, in the
+reasonable expectation of enjoying herself, and having a merry time
+with her friends, and found, instead, the road impassable, and herself
+a prisoner at home. It shall not be so, I will not live in this way,
+was the constant cry in her heart. She grew suspicious and irritable,
+taking offence at every trifle, yet never confessed to her husband or
+herself the true cause of her discontent.
+
+Lenz was driven to seek comfort out of his own home. The fact of his
+going abroad did not vex Annele so much as the manner of his doing it.
+He hung about so long before leaving the house, and, after having gone,
+would come back two and three times, as if he had forgotten something.
+He could not bear to go away with feelings in his heart which made him
+almost a stranger to himself. He hoped Annele would try to detain him,
+or would at least speak a kind word to restore him to himself. In his
+mother's lifetime, he never started on a long journey without her
+giving him a piece of bread from the cupboard to save him from
+temptation, as she said, while a better safeguard than any loaf was the
+kind word spoken from her heart. Now he had to go as if neither the
+house nor himself were his own. Therefore it was that he trifled away
+so much time without being able to tell what he wanted. There is no
+virtue in a thing asked for; the true blessing lies only in a free
+gift, voluntarily--almost unconsciously--offered and received.
+
+Long before the working hours were over, Lenz would often be sitting at
+Pilgrim's, and Annele with her parents. The whole house seemed out of
+joint. Lenz said not a word to Pilgrim of the grief that was inwardly
+consuming him, while Annele poured her complaints into unsympathizing
+ears. Her parents appeared entirely absorbed in their own affairs.
+
+Lenz spent much time, too, at Faller's, where he was almost happier
+than at Pilgrim's. The grateful couple greeted him with joy and
+respect, and honored him like the Lenz of former days. At home he had
+long ceased to be anybody.
+
+Faller and his wife lived harmoniously together, each thoroughly
+convinced that the other was the most admirable being in the world. If
+they only could be once out of debt, and have a little money over,
+they would astonish the world. As it was, they toiled and scraped,
+and were always cheerful. Faller enlivened himself and his wife, as
+he sat at work over the machinery of his big clocks,--for he was
+not a sufficiently skilful workman to undertake the more delicate
+timepieces,--with tales of his barrack life, and the different plays he
+and his comrades enacted in varied and gorgeous costumes. Mrs. Faller
+proved a most gracious public. In her loving eyes her husband was
+actually clothed with the royal mantles, the crowns, and the diamonds
+he so vividly described. How dismal seemed Lenz's own life in
+comparison! Ever darker and darker grew the shadows in his soul. His
+every experience was changed into bitterness and sorrow.
+
+When he was present, as he sometimes could not help being, at the
+meetings and rehearsals of the Liederkranz, and sang the songs of love,
+of longing, of blissful rapture, his heart within him cried: Is this
+true? is it possible? were any human beings ever so happy, so blessed?
+Yet you yourself were so once. He called for soberer, sadder songs, and
+startled his comrades by the pathos of his voice, which sounded like
+the wail of a breaking heart. Whereas in former days he could never get
+singing enough, now he soon tired of it, and wanted to stop, or took
+offence at a word, and the next moment was as hasty in begging his
+comrade's forgiveness, when there was nothing to forgive.
+
+He recovered his self-possession at times, and, trying to believe that
+the sole cause of his discontent was want of industry, would labor
+diligently at his old tasks; but no blessing crowned his toil. The day
+often found him undoing what he had spent half the night in completing.
+His hand was unsteady. Even his father's file, which had been
+repointed, and whose touch had never failed to quiet him, lost its
+efficacy. The machinery which had required a whole day to make and put
+together he would pull to pieces in a fit of discontent, only to find
+that it had been good work, perfectly adjusted, but seeming discordant
+because of the discord within him.
+
+He often put his hand to his head, as if trying to recall something
+which had escaped him. The consciousness--if we may so express it--had
+vanished out of his work,--that power by virtue of which many things
+had seemed to do themselves with no effort of his will. Indignant at
+his own inertness, he compelled himself to something like repose and
+interest in his work. If you lose that, he reasoned with himself, all
+is lost. You were once happy with only your art, you must learn again
+to find in that your sole happiness. You can listen to a piece of music
+when other noises are going on, you can distinguish the one sound from
+the others; so here you must be absorbed in your own work, and not heed
+the tumult about you. If you insist on not hearing it, you will not
+hear it. Let your will but be resolute.
+
+Lenz really succeeded in settling down to his work again quietly and
+methodically. Only one thing he missed,--one little sentence that
+Annele might have spoken: "Thank Heaven you are once more content to be
+at home!" He had thought he could do without such encouragement, but he
+could not. It was often on Annele's lips, only her pride kept it back.
+Why should I praise him for doing his duty? it said. Now is the time
+for having our hotel. He works best when no one is about to watch him;
+with him at his work-bench and me in the public room all would be well.
+
+Lenz worked twice as hard as he used to to accomplish the same amount.
+Never before had he known that work was wearisome, but now the evenings
+found him tired and spent. Yet he allowed himself no respite. All might
+be lost, all hope of having a home again, if he ventured to leave his
+house or his bench.
+
+For weeks he did not enter the village, while Annele was much with her
+parents.
+
+A fatality at length forced him from home. Pilgrim fell dangerously
+ill, and night after night Lenz sat by his bedside. A painful duty it
+was, for not even this act of friendship escaped the poison of Annele's
+tongue. "Your attentions to Pilgrim," she said, "are only a cloak for
+your lazy, slipshod ways. You flatter yourself you have been doing
+something in the world, while you have been doing nothing and are
+nothing. You are a regular do-little."
+
+His breath came short as she spoke, and there fell a stone upon his
+heart, which nevermore departed, but lay there like a dead weight.
+
+"You will tell me next that I ill-treated my mother; that is the only
+unjust taunt you have not cast at me."
+
+"You did; I know you did. Your cousin Toni, who went to America, has
+told us a thousand times that you were the greatest hypocrite in the
+world, and that he often and often had to make peace between your
+mother and you."
+
+"You only say that to drive me mad again, but I care nothing for your
+words. Why do you choose a man in America for your witness? Why not
+some one here? You only want to goad me. Good night."
+
+He passed the night with Pilgrim, who was now recovering, and of course
+happy in the feeling of returning health. Not wishing to sadden him,
+Lenz listened patiently to his accounts of the experiences his illness
+had brought him. "I came to understand how a bird can keep forever
+twittering on two notes. There is a state between sleeping and waking
+in which one tone is all-sufficient. For four weeks only a couple of
+words have been running in my head. Man has no wings beside his two
+lungs, and with one lung I can eat potatoes for seventy-seven years. If
+I had been a bird, I should have kept piping: One lung, two lungs, two
+lungs, one lung, just like a hedge-sparrow."
+
+Few were the tones ringing in Lenz's heart, but they were too sad for
+any human ear.
+
+"The Bible," continued Pilgrim, cheerily, "has been my helper again,
+and has firmly decided me to live a single life. There it is plainly
+said that in the beginning man was alone upon the earth, woman was
+never alone; from which it follows that man is able to live by
+himself."
+
+Lenz smiled, but the words smote him.
+
+Sad, pale, and worn with watching, he went home the next morning to his
+work, and said, when the children met him at the door, "I hardly knew I
+had any children."
+
+"Of course not; you forget them, like everything else," replied Annele.
+He once more felt the stab at his heart, but it scarcely pained him
+now.
+
+"Mother, dear mother!" he cried, gazing at his mother's picture, "you
+too she has outraged. Can you not speak? Do not punish her,--pray God
+not to punish her! The penalty would fall on my head and on my poor
+children! Help me, dear mother; testify for me, that she may cease to
+wring my heart! Help me, dear mother! You know what I am."
+
+"A great strong man like you begging! I won't listen to your nonsense,"
+said Annele, going into the kitchen, and taking the two children with
+her.
+
+The cord was strained almost to breaking.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+              THE AXE IS LAID AT THE ROOT OF THE TREE, AND
+                       BREAD IS EATEN WITH TEARS.
+
+
+On the sultry evening of a sultry day, the landlord, in an open wagon,
+drawn by his two bay horses, was returning from a drive to the city. He
+looked about him to the right and left in a strange way as he entered
+the village, and saluted with great affability. The wagon drew up
+before the door of the Lion. Gregory, who, in his postilion's uniform,
+but without his horn, had been driving, dismounted, and began to
+unharness the horses. Still the landlord sat motionless in the wagon,
+looking thoughtfully from the inn to the horses, and again from the
+horses back to the inn. At last, with a deep sigh, he descended, and
+stood on the ground. It was the last time he should so drive. All was
+as it had been, and only one other beside himself knew what a change
+was coming.
+
+Wearily he dragged himself up the steps, at the top of which his wife
+was waiting for him. "How do matters stand?" she asked, softly.
+
+"All has been arranged," answered the landlord, pushing by her into the
+public room, without entering the parlor first, as was his custom on
+returning home. He handed his hat and cane to the maid, and, sitting
+down with the guests who were present, ordered supper to be brought him
+at the public table. When it came, however, he appeared to have no
+relish for it.
+
+The company did not break up till late into the night, and he remained
+sitting with the last. He spoke little, but his mere presence was
+compliment and entertainment enough.
+
+His wife had gone to bed, and was sound asleep long before he retired
+to rest. Rest, indeed, he did not find. An invisible power drew the
+pillows from under his head. This bed, this house, everything, would
+to-morrow be no longer his! His thoughts lingered most lovingly about
+the carriage and the two bay horses. Suddenly the bays seemed to have
+entered the chamber; he rubbed his eyes; there they were, stretching
+their heads over the bed, and glaring at him with their great eyes; he
+felt their hot breath on his face. Recovering his self-possession, he
+comforted himself with the thought that he had, at least, borne himself
+like a man. He had said nothing to his wife, but let her have a quiet
+night's sleep. To-morrow morning would be soon enough for her to learn
+the news, even to-morrow after breakfast. Trials are easier to bear in
+the broad sunlight, after a night's sleep and a-good breakfast.
+
+When the daylight came, the landlord was tired, and begged his wife not
+to wait for him, but to take her breakfast alone. At last he appeared,
+seemed to be in excellent appetite, and, on his wife urging him to
+explain what arrangement had been made, finally confessed: "Wife, I
+have allowed you to have a quiet night and comfortable morning; now
+show yourself brave, and take whatever comes quietly and calmly. At
+this very hour my lawyer in the city is proclaiming me bankrupt."
+
+The landlady sat for a time stiff and speechless. "Why did you not tell
+me last night?" she asked, at length.
+
+"From kindness to you, that you might have a quiet night's rest."
+
+"Kindness? You stupid blockhead! If you had told me last night, we
+might have sent off many an article that would stand us in stead for
+years to come. Now, in this broad daylight, it is too late. Here! here!
+help! help!" she cried, breaking from her quiet conversational tone
+into frightful screams, and sinking, half fainting, in her chair. The
+maids from the kitchen, and Gregory, the postilion, came rushing in.
+The landlady raised herself, and cried, in the most piteous tones: "You
+deceived me; you never told me you were near being bankrupt. On your
+head be all the sorrow and the shame. I am innocent! Unhappy woman that
+I am!"
+
+It would now have been the landlord's turn to fall into a fainting fit,
+had not his strength of body and mind supported him. His spectacles
+fell of themselves from his forehead to his eyes, that he might plainly
+behold the farce that was acting before him. This woman, who had given
+him no peace till he, the successful baker and brewer, joined her
+brother in the clock business, and who, when his brother-in-law died,
+had almost compelled him to continue the business alone, although he
+had no proper understanding of it; this woman, who had been constantly
+goading him on to new enterprises, and knew his affairs almost better
+than he did himself,--this woman had now called in the common servants
+to bear witness that he alone was guilty, and that on him alone must
+fall the blame.
+
+One moment revealed to the unhappy landlord the whole extent of his
+misery. Five and thirty years it stretched behind him, and forward--how
+far, none could tell. To save herself, to expose him, his wife had
+carried her hypocrisy to this extremity.
+
+His glasses grew dim with moisture; he could see no more. Quietly he
+passed his handkerchief first over them and then over his eyes. From
+that moment a rancor that never softened struck its roots into his
+heart; but his pride presented the same quiet, unruffled front.
+
+"You have your own reasons for acting thus," he said, when the
+postilion and maids had left the room. "They are beyond my finding out.
+I shall say no more upon the matter." And he kept his word. His wife
+might talk and lament as she would, she could not move him out of his
+silence. It almost entertained him to see what a fine face she could
+assume before the world. He grew to be almost the sage he had been
+taken for. It is wonderful what woman can do, he thought, as he watched
+his wife's man[oe]uvres. Practice certainly makes perfect.
+
+The unwise world, however, did not accept the landlord's fall so
+patiently. Like a thunder-clap the report spread over mountain and
+valley, The landlord is bankrupt! Incredible! impossible! What can
+stand if the landlord of the Lion falls?
+
+Even the golden lion on the sign seemed to protest against it, and
+creaked angrily on its supporting hinges. But auctioneers subdue even
+lions, and make no account of a coat of gilding. The sign was taken
+down. Most pitiable the lion looked with one eye hidden by the wall,
+and the other seeming to blink wearily, as if it, too, would fain close
+for grief and shame.
+
+There was a crash in the village below, and there was a crash above on
+the Morgenhalde.
+
+Lenz hurried down into the town, and back again to the inn. The
+landlord kept walking solemnly up and down the great public room,
+saying, with dignity: "This, too, must I bear like a man,"--like a man
+of honor, he had almost said.
+
+The landlady wrung her hands, and cried that she had known nothing of
+it all, that she was ready to kill herself.
+
+"Father-in-law," said Lenz, "is my money lost too?"
+
+"In the common pile, there is no distinguishing one man's money from
+another's," answered the landlord, oracularly. "But a compromise can be
+made. Give me three years, and I will pay fifty per cent. Take a seat.
+There is no use wringing your hands. Lisbeth!" he called out into the
+kitchen, "my dinner!" The cook brought in a regular dinner, such as was
+served on ordinary days. Mine host took off his cap, put it on his head
+again, settled himself comfortably in his arm-chair, poured out some
+water, and began to eat, with the composure of true wisdom. "Draw up a
+chair, wife," he said, looking up from his second plateful. "These are
+the best horses for pulling up a steep hill; a good piece of meat in
+your stomach is a great help on a hard journey. Has all the wine been
+sealed, or can you get me a draught?"
+
+"It is all sealed."
+
+"Then let me have a cup of strong coffee to wind up with; there is
+comfort in that."
+
+Lenz pressed his hands to his head. Was he out of his senses? Can this
+man, in whose fall the fate of hundreds is involved, be actually
+sitting down, with a good appetite, to his dinner? The landlord was
+condescendingly talkative, and bestowed high commendations upon Annele
+for not rushing down too, and swelling the chorus of senseless
+lamentations. "You have a clever, capable wife,--the cleverest of all
+my children. It is a pity she is not a man, to turn her enterprise to
+account. The world would look up if she were at the head of affairs. My
+Annele ought to be the mistress of a great establishment, a great
+public-house; she would make it the first in the country."
+
+Lenz was indignant at these ready compliments, and at the landlord's
+whole bearing in such an hour as this. But he fought down his anger,
+and the very struggle made his voice sound hesitating, almost
+submissive, as he said: "Father-in-law, take care, above all things,
+that the wood behind my house shall not be cut down. I have heard axes
+at work there the whole morning, which must not be."
+
+"Why not?" cried the landlord, with all the more vehemence for Lenz's
+meekness. "Why not? Whoever owns the wood has the right to do with it
+what he will."
+
+"Father-in-law, you promised me the wood."
+
+"But you did not take it. The wood is sold to the lumber-merchant from
+Trenzlingen."
+
+"You had no right to sell it; it is the roof of my house. A few trees
+can perhaps be cut down, but not the whole forest. That has been the
+agreement for a hundred years. My grandfather has often told me so."
+
+"It is none of my business. I have other things to attend to now."
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Lenz, with tears, "what have you done? You have
+robbed me of the dearest possession I had in the world."
+
+"Indeed! Is money everything? I did not know that your heart, too, was
+in your breeches pocket."
+
+"No, no! not that. You have robbed me of my second parents."
+
+"I should think you were big enough to stand alone. But you are that
+sort of fellow that when he is a grandfather will cry out for his
+mother, 'Mamma! mamma! your little boy is hurt!' You said once you were
+a man, but what a man! One that can establish a union in which all
+shall stand by each other like the trees in a forest,--a forest of
+miserable clockmakers! Ha, ha! Go on with your union, then, that shall
+take care of yourself and the rest of your set." This malice was a new
+feature of the landlord's character.
+
+Lenz was the only one of his creditors that placed himself in the
+breach, and upon his head broke the full force of the ruined man's
+fury.
+
+Lenz grew red and pale by turns; his lips trembled. "Father-in-law," he
+said, "you are the grandfather of my children. You know how much you
+have robbed them of. I would not have your conscience. But the wood
+must not be cut down. I shall go to law about it."
+
+"Very well; do as you like," returned the landlord as he poured out his
+coffee. Lenz could stay in the room no longer.
+
+On the stone bench before the inn sat Proebler, a wretched object,
+forcing every passer-by to hear his story. He was waiting, he said, for
+the arrival of the officers, because his best work, containing all his
+inventions, had been pledged to the landlord, and was now in the house.
+It must not be sold, and sent out into the world for every one to copy
+and cheat him out of his profits. The officers must get him a patent
+from government which should make him a rich and famous man. Lenz used
+all his influence to pacify the poor old fellow, assuring him that he
+was the only one whom the landlord had treated honestly; that he had
+already received the full value of his works, all of which were utterly
+unsalable and still on his patron's hands; that they had not been
+pawned at all, but sold outright. Proebler, however, was neither to be
+reasoned out of his belief nor induced to stir from his place.
+
+Lenz went on, having enough to do in looking after his own affairs. He
+hastened to his uncle Petrovitsch. "Did I not tell you so?" was the old
+man's triumphant greeting. "Did I not tell you here in this very room,
+when you asked me to further your suit for Annele, that the landlord
+was in debt for the velvet cap on his head and the boots on his feet?
+Here he has been all this while filling his big paunch with other men's
+goods."
+
+"Yes, yes, uncle, you were quite right, you foretold it all; but now
+help me."
+
+"There is no help possible."
+
+Lenz told of the forest, and the circumstances connected with it.
+
+"Perhaps something can be done in that direction," said Petrovitsch.
+
+"Thank Heaven! If I could but get the forest!"
+
+"That is out of the question; the wood is sold. But it can only be
+cleared, not destroyed. It is the safeguard of your house, and no one
+has a right to remove it. We will show the wood-flayer from Trenzlingen
+who is master."
+
+"O God, my house!" cried Lenz. It seemed already falling in; he must
+be at home to save it.
+
+"Your house? You don't seem to be much at home here certainly," said
+Petrovitsch, laughing at his own wit. "Go to the mayor and enter a
+protest. One thing more, Lenz; I never in my life again will believe in
+a human being. I told you then your wife was the only honest one in the
+house. You see I was not mistaken in the other two. But Annele knew of
+this all along. She has known for years, known to a certainty, the
+state of her father's affairs. You were the make-shift, because the
+doctor's son-in-law would not have her, luckily for him."
+
+"Why do you tell me this now, uncle?"
+
+"Why? because it is true. I can prove it by witnesses."
+
+"But why now?"
+
+"Is there any time when the truth should not be told? I thought you and
+your Pilgrim were such heroes of romance! But I tell you you were very
+nearly as poor as you could be before you lost your money; for a man so
+full of complaints and regrets has ever a hole in his pocket. You are
+always crying for what you did yesterday, and thinking, 'O poor me! and
+yet I meant so well!' A man who wants to be pitied is no man; only
+women beg for pity."
+
+"You are hard upon me, uncle."
+
+"Because you are so tender with yourself. Show yourself now a man. Do
+not visit this upon your wife. Deal gently with her; her sorrow is
+greater than yours."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"Yes. It will be hard for proud Annele of the Lion to find that a
+greeting from her is no longer the honor it used to be."
+
+"She is not Annele of the Lion now; she is my wife."
+
+"She is, before God and man. It was your own choice; I warned you."
+
+Lenz hurried to the doctor's, who, as we have said, also filled the
+office of mayor; he was not at home. Thorns beset him on every side.
+His friends were not to be found, and his enemies let out all their
+secret venom against him, choosing his moment of helplessness to mock
+and torture him. He hastened up the hill again, past his house and into
+the wood beyond, where he ordered the wood-cutters to stop their work.
+
+"Will you pay us our day's wages?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"All right." They shouldered their axes and went home.
+
+In the house Lenz found Annele embracing the children, and crying: "O
+my poor children! You will have to beg your bread, poor little ones!"
+
+"Not while I have life and health. I am the head; only be calm and
+pleasant!"
+
+"I have never been otherwise. You are mistaken, if you think that,
+because my father has failed, I am going to crawl at your feet, and let
+you do what you will with me. Not a bit of it! I don't give way an
+inch. Now show your boasted good-nature! Now show how you can support
+your wife."
+
+"I am most ready to; but how give to one with closed hands?"
+
+"If you had taken my advice, and bought the Lion, we should have been
+provided for, and the house would not have passed into strange hands.
+Don't tell me a word about the money. Exactly where you are sitting now
+you were sitting that day, and I here, and there stood the glass close
+to the edge of the table,--so close that I pushed it further in. Do you
+remember? I said to you then plainly and honestly, a business man never
+gives his money in that careless way, even to his own father."
+
+"Did you know as long ago as that how matters stood?"
+
+"I knew nothing, nothing at all; I only know what is business-like. Now
+let me alone."
+
+"Will you not go to your mother? She is grieving sorely."
+
+"Why should I go to her? to have her set out crying again at sight of
+me? Do you suppose I am going down there to be stared at and
+commiserated by everybody? to hear the doctor's charming daughters sing
+and laugh as I go by? I am sufficient for myself here in my solitude: I
+need no one."
+
+"Perhaps it is all for the best," said Lenz, consolingly; "perhaps from
+this day you will be happier and better alone here with me. Such days
+may, must come again as those when you said, 'Up here we are in heaven,
+and may leave the world to drive and bustle as it will.' Let us hold to
+that. We were happy once, and shall be again. If you will be but kind
+and loving, I will do the work of three. Have no fear; I did not marry
+you for your money."
+
+"Neither did I marry you for your money; it would not have been worth
+the trouble. If riches had been my object, I might have chosen a very
+different husband."
+
+"We have lived together too long to be talking of marrying," interposed
+Lenz. "Let us have dinner."
+
+At table he related the affair of the wood. "Do you know what the
+result will be?" asked Annele.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Nothing but your having to pay the wood-cutters' wages."
+
+"That remains to be proved," said Lenz, and immediately after dinner
+went again in search of the mayor, whom he had failed to find earlier
+in the day.
+
+On the way he was joined by poor Faller, pale as death, and crying:
+"Oh, this is horrible, horrible! A thunder-bolt from a clear sky!"
+
+Lenz tried to reassure him. Two and a half thousand florins was
+something of a loss, to be sure, but he hoped to stand under it. He
+thanked his faithful comrade for his sympathy.
+
+"What!" cried Faller, stopping short on the road, "are you involved
+too? He owes me thirty-one florins. He had that amount of mine in good
+clocks, that I left with him as I should have left them in the bank,
+meaning to pay off an instalment upon my house. Now I am put back at
+least two years."
+
+Lenz hurried on. He could not stop with his friend, but must be off to
+the mayor's.
+
+Faller looked sadly after him, almost forgetting his own misfortune in
+that of his friend.
+
+The doctor was shocked at the blow which had fallen on the landlord.
+His own loss was insignificant, but he felt the disastrous effect the
+failure would have on the whole district. The news of Lenz's loss
+filled him with consternation. "Has he involved you also in his ruin?
+Nothing now will surprise me. Is it possible? is it possible? How does
+your wife bear it?" he asked, after a pause.
+
+"She lays it all at my door."
+
+Lenz brought up the matter of the forest, and prayed for speedy help,
+that his house might not be exposed to the force of the storms, and
+perhaps be buried by the mountain itself. The doctor acknowledged he
+had right on his side. "To make a clean sweep of the forest would be an
+injury to the whole district; perhaps destroy utterly our best spring
+of water, that by the church, which is fed from the forest. Some of the
+trees, at least, should be left standing on the crest of the mountain,
+but I fear we are powerless to insist upon it. It is a great misfortune
+that the owners are at liberty to cut down the trees at their pleasure.
+To try to make a law against it now, however, would be the old story of
+locking the barn door when the cow has escaped."
+
+"But, Mr. Mayor, I shall be the first victim. Is there no help for me?"
+
+"Hardly, I fear. At the time that the restrictions on the tenure of
+land were removed, during the mayoralty of your father-in-law, the
+authorities neglected to protect your rights as well as those of the
+community. You may say, to be sure, that nobody would have built a
+house where yours stands, if the forest behind it could be cleared; but
+you have no legal document guaranteeing you its permanent shelter. Your
+only chance is to lay your case before the court. Perhaps something can
+yet be done. I will give you a paper that may be of service."
+
+Lenz felt his strength forsaking him. He could hardly stir from the
+spot, but the case admitted of no delay. No cost must be spared. He
+hired a wagon, and drove to the city.
+
+At the Morgenhalde, meanwhile, appeared in gorgeous attire an almost
+forgotten figure. The shopkeeper's wife from the next village, that
+cousin Ernestine whom Annele had so mercilessly ridiculed on the
+occasion of her first drive with Lenz, now came to call on her,
+resplendent in a new silk gown, and a gold watch hanging at her waist.
+She had been in the village to put some money in the bank, being, she
+was happy to say, very well off. Her husband was doing a good business
+in rags, besides being a real-estate broker and the agent of a fire and
+hail insurance company, whose beautifully printed advertisements were
+at all the shop windows, and which paid him a regular salary without
+exposing him to any risks. She had been collecting some back pay, and
+could not find it in her heart to be in Annele's neighborhood without
+coming up to see her.
+
+Annele politely expressed her thanks, and regretted she had no
+entertainment to offer. Ernestine protested that it was not for that
+she had come.
+
+"I believe you there," said Annele, meaningly. She was convinced that
+Ernestine had come to be revenged upon her, to witness the rage and
+jealousy of that Annele who had always asserted such superiority over
+her poorer cousin. But Annele was woman of the world enough to ward off
+the malice of her visitor with a few stereotyped phrases of politeness,
+and at the same time to maintain the proper distance between herself,
+the child of the Golden Lion, and a poor relation who had only lived in
+the house as her servant, by giving Ernestine to understand that
+certain employments which were perfectly respectable and profitable for
+some persons were for others entirely out of the question.
+
+In truth it was not without a certain feeling of malicious exultation
+that Ernestine had ascended the Morgenhalde. Her fingers often closed
+with satisfaction on the bag she carried on her arm, in which were a
+pound of burnt coffee and a pound of sugar for Annele. But at the sight
+of her cousin her exultation melted into sincere compassion. All the
+humble deference of former days returned upon her at Annele's
+assumption of her old superiority. The silk gown and gold watch were
+utterly forgotten, and the coffee and sugar offered only as samples in
+the hope of gaining her cousin's custom. If the many whom the Lion had
+benefited would now only return the favors they had received, Annele's
+parents would have enough to live upon for a hundred years to come, she
+said, with heartfelt tears; and added cordially that, if Annele had but
+married and remained at the Lion, the house would still have been kept
+up in the good old way.
+
+This praise was more than Annele could resist, and completely effaced
+from her mind the new clothes and all her old grudges against her
+despised cousin. They talked over the good old times,--bewailed the
+present and condemned the ingratitude of mankind, until such perfect
+sympathy was established between them that they parted as if they had
+always been the dearest of friends and had lived together like sisters.
+
+Annele accompanied Ernestine a little way down the hill, and
+commissioned her to tell her husband he must be looking out for a
+suitable hotel for them, a post station if possible, which they could
+buy and improve, and sell their house on the Morgenhalde. Ernestine
+promised the commission should be faithfully executed, and begged
+Annele repeatedly to be sure and apply to her for whatever groceries
+and other household goods she might need.
+
+Many thoughts chased one another through Annele's mind as she retraced
+her steps homeward. Shall our house have supported and raised to
+prosperity so many humble dependants, and shall we ourselves be
+nothing? Even that simple Ernestine has had her wits so sharpened by
+living among us as to be able to carry on a shop and make something of
+her miserable tailor of a husband. She used to wear my cast-off
+clothes, and now what a figure she cuts! for all the world like a
+magistrate's wife, with her pocket full of money. And am I to do
+nothing but wither away up here and be reduced to receiving favors from
+Ernestine? It was all a pretence her leaving the coffee and sugar as
+samples; she meant to make me a present of them if she had dared. No,
+Mr. Clockmaker, I will wind you up another way and to a different tune.
+
+She rejoiced to think of the commission she had given. If anything
+should come of it, they would lead a different sort of life. Meanwhile
+she would keep quiet and say nothing.
+
+Late at night Lenz returned from the city, weary and dejected. No paper
+had been found guaranteeing him the protection of the forest. When he
+awoke the next morning, and heard the axes at work on the hill behind
+his house, every stroke seemed to fall upon his heart. Would I could
+die! he thought, as he settled down to his work. Not a word did he
+speak the whole day; only when putting out the lamp at night he said
+aloud, "I wish I could put out my own life as easily!" His wife
+pretended not to hear.
+
+Hitherto neither her parents' fate nor her own had drawn a tear from
+Annele. Except for the one exclamation of distress for her children,
+she had remained perfectly calm. But the next morning, when no fresh,
+white bread came up from the village, and she laid the usual coarse
+loaf on the table, the big tears rolled down her cheeks and fell upon
+the bread. She cut off the moistened slice before Lenz saw it, and ate
+it with her tears.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                          EVERYTHING LAID LOW.
+
+
+The court of inquiry brought to light all the secrets of the Lion. The
+landlord was shown to be a perfect monster. In order to satisfy those
+who insisted upon fair dealing and their full rights, he had sacrificed
+the humble and dependent. His own postilions lost their little savings.
+Poor clockmakers walked up and down the village street in despair,
+complaining that the landlord had been stealing months and years of
+their life all the while they were upholding him as the most honorable
+man in the country. Even the landlady was not saved by her pretended
+innocence. She had always spread such a glamour about her house, and
+uttered such magnificent boasts, and so honored the world with her
+patronage! The landlord, at least, had only lied by his silence and his
+quiet acceptance of the titles of man of honor and such like that were
+showered on him from every side.
+
+Many creditors were undeterred by the long walk from visiting Lenz on
+the Morgenhalde. They had come as far as the village, and had a right
+to see the whole extent of the disaster. There was a blending of
+compassion with comfort at the sight of misfortune greater than their
+own, in the condolences they expressed. Many tried to console him with
+hopes of inheriting from his uncle, and promised they would make no
+claims upon him when he should come into his fortune. Wherever Lenz
+appeared he was compassionated for the baseness of his father-in-law in
+thus robbing his own son. Only one man had a good word for the
+landlord, and that was Pilgrim, who quite won Annele's heart by
+asserting at Lenz's house, in all sincerity, that her father had not
+meant to be dishonest, but had only been out in his calculations, and
+unfortunately risked his all in that unlucky Brazilian suit. A report
+was circulated that the landlady was having everything that could be
+smuggled out of sight carried up to the Morgenhalde. One poor
+clockmaker came to Lenz and promised to betray nothing if he might but
+have restored to him what was rightfully his. Lenz called in his wife
+and declared he would never forgive her if she had received into the
+house a farthing's worth of goods that did not belong to her. Upon the
+head of her child she swore she never had and never would. Lenz took
+her hand from the child's head; he would have no oaths.
+
+Annele had said truly that there were no forfeited goods at the
+Morgenhalde. The landlady was often at the house, but Lenz held little
+communication with her. Well it was for her that Franzl was no longer
+there; for the new maid, a near relation of Annele's, made frequent
+journeys in the night between the Lion and the neighboring village,
+carrying heavy baskets full of things to be exchanged by Ernestine for
+money. Her husband, the shopkeeper, was the only one of the landlord's
+dependants who had not suffered. The clockmakers, instead of receiving
+ready money, had had the privilege of taking various stores from his
+shop on the landlord's security. The poor fellows found themselves now
+with no clocks and deep in debt. The shopkeeper told them frankly that
+they were better able to pay than the man who had given them security.
+
+To all expressions of condolence Lenz had made answer that he should be
+able to stand his ground; but fearful and unexpected demands poured in
+upon him. Every petty creditor clamored for the instant payment of his
+farthing debt. All confidence, even in him, was destroyed. He knew not
+which way to turn. The heaviest claim of all, and one which he could
+not tell Annele, because she had given him fair warning on that very
+score, was for the security on Faller's house. The poor fellow came to
+him, quite beside himself with grief, to say that the owner of the
+house no longer considered Lenz's security valid, and that with his
+large family he saw no refuge open to him. Lenz promised him certain
+help. His good name and that of his parents could not fail to be
+honored. The world surely had not become so depraved as to have lost
+all regard for long-tried honesty.
+
+Annele, who knew only of the lesser debts, advised Lenz to go to his
+uncle for assistance.
+
+To his uncle indeed! The same disinclination to encounter disagreeable
+sights which made Petrovitsch invariably leave the village when a
+funeral was to take place, prompted him now to start off on a journey.
+The day after the landlord's disgrace he had disappeared, leaving his
+roadside harvest of unripe cherries to be gathered by the boys in the
+street; nor did he show himself again till the winter was well on,
+a new landlord established at the Lion, and the two old people settled
+in a house near the city, adjoining that of their son-in-law, the
+lumber-merchant.
+
+The landlord had borne his fate with an equanimity almost deserving of
+admiration. Only once, at sight of the engineer driving his two bays,
+did his composure forsake him; but it was outside the town, and no one
+saw how he stumbled and fell into the ditch and lay grovelling there
+without the power to rise.
+
+Petrovitsch took his walks now in another direction, and was no longer
+seen on the path by Lenz's house, nor in the wood, little of which
+indeed was now standing.
+
+Lenz often spent half the night looking over his accounts and trying to
+make both ends meet. A way was offered at last; but the money burned as
+if hot from the Devil's mint.
+
+Ernestine's husband appeared on the Morgenhalde with a stranger whom he
+presented to Lenz as a would-be purchaser of his house.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Lenz, in great surprise; "my house?"
+
+"Yes: it is worth much less now, as you say yourself, than it was
+before the wood was cut down. It stands in a very precarious position,
+but that can be partially remedied by precautionary measures."
+
+"Who told you I wanted to sell my house?"
+
+"Your wife."
+
+"My wife? Annele, come here! Did you ever say I wanted to sell my
+house?"
+
+"Not exactly. I only told Ernestine that if her husband should hear of
+a good hotel, in a favorable situation, we should like to buy it, and
+then sell our house."
+
+"It would be much wiser," suggested the shopkeeper, "to sell your house
+first. You would easily find a suitable hotel, if you had the ready
+money to pay for it."
+
+Lenz turned pale as death, and with difficulty brought out the words,
+"I shall on no account sell my house."
+
+The two men departed, complaining bitterly of those shiftless persons
+who did not know their own mind from one day to another, and put others
+to a vast amount of needless trouble.
+
+Lenz with difficulty commanded his rising passion.
+
+Annele paid no heed to the frequent glances he turned upon her when
+they were left by themselves, but preserved a sullen silence. At last
+he spoke.
+
+"Why did you play me such a trick?"
+
+"I have played you no trick. This is a thing that must be done. We
+shall have no peace till we leave this place. I will stay here no
+longer. I want to be mistress of a hotel. You will see that I can earn
+in a year three times as much as you with your barrel-organs."
+
+"Do you think you can force me to it?"
+
+"If I could, you would have reason to thank me. You seem quite unable
+to help yourself out of your old ruts."
+
+"I am not; I am out of them already," he said in a hollow voice, as he
+hastily put on his coat and left the house.
+
+Annele ran a few steps after him.
+
+"Where are you going, Lenz?"
+
+He made no answer, but kept steadily on up the mountain.
+
+Arrived at the highest point he turned and looked behind him. There lay
+his old homestead, stripped of its shelter of trees, naked and bare as
+he felt his own life to be. He turned away and hurried on. Abroad,
+abroad into strange lands he would go, and never come back till all in
+himself and in the world was changed.
+
+He ran on and on, an almost irresistible impulse all the while tempting
+him back. He sat down at last on the stump of a tree, and covered his
+face with his hands. It was a still, soft afternoon of late autumn,
+when the sun's beams still fell kindly on the earth, especially on the
+Morgenhalde, and spread lovingly over the fallen trees they had so long
+nourished. The voices of the magpies were heard busily chattering in
+the chestnut-tree below, mixed with the frequent chirp of the
+nutpecker. In Lenz's heart was the blackness of death. "Man, help me up
+with this!" suddenly cried a child's voice. He rose and helped Faller's
+eldest daughter lift upon her back the bundle of chips she had been
+gathering among the fallen trees. The child was terrified at his wild
+looks, so like a murderer or a ghost as she thought, and hurried down
+the hill. He stood long watching the retreating figure.
+
+It was night before Lenz returned home. He spoke not a word, but sat
+for an hour staring blankly on the ground. When he looked up, it was
+only to turn a wondering gaze on the tools hanging about the walls and
+suspended from the ceiling, as if questioning in his mind what they all
+were, and what they were used for.
+
+The child in the next room began to cry, and would not be pacified till
+Annele went in and sang to it.
+
+The mother must sing for the sake of her child, though her heart be
+breaking. Lenz roused himself, and followed her into the chamber.
+"Annele." he said, "I have been out into the country; I wanted to be up
+and away from here. Yes, you may laugh; I knew you would."
+
+"I am not laughing. I had already thought it would be a good plan for
+you to go abroad for a year. Perhaps you would come back a wiser man,
+and all might be well again."
+
+It cut him to the heart to hear her urging him to leave her; but he
+only answered: "If I could not go abroad while I was happy, still less
+can I go with this miserable weight at my heart. I am nothing, and am
+good for nothing when my thoughts are not free and happy."
+
+"Now you do indeed make me laugh," said Annele; "so you can neither go
+abroad when you are happy nor when you are unhappy."
+
+"I do not understand you. I have never understood you, nor you me."
+
+"That is the worst of all, that there should be misery within as well
+as without."
+
+"Do away with it, then, and be kind and good."
+
+"Don't speak so loud; you will wake the child," answered Annele.
+
+As soon as the conversation took this turn, there was nothing more to
+be got from her. Lenz returned to the sitting-room, and when Annele
+followed him, and had gently closed the door, he said: "Now in our
+misfortune is the time to love and cherish each other. That comfort
+alone might still be left us; why will you refuse it?"
+
+"Love cannot be forced."
+
+"Then I must go away again."
+
+"And I shall stay at home," said Annele, indifferently; "I shall stay
+with my children."
+
+"They are as much mine as yours."
+
+"Of course," said Annele, in the same hard voice.
+
+"There is the clock beginning to play!" cried Lenz, in distress, "and
+that merry waltz too! I wish I might never hear another note. Oh, if
+one would but dash out these miserable brains that have lost all power
+to think! Can you not speak one kind word, Annele?"
+
+"I know of none."
+
+"Then I will. Let there be peace between us, and all will be well."
+
+"I am willing."
+
+"Can you not throw your arms about my neck and say you are glad to have
+me back again?"
+
+"No; but to-morrow perhaps."
+
+"And if I should die to-night?"
+
+"Then I should be a widow."
+
+"And marry some one else?"
+
+"If any one would have me."
+
+"You will drive me mad!"
+
+"It would not take much to do that."
+
+"Annele!!"
+
+"That is my name."
+
+"What is to be the end of this?"
+
+"God knows."
+
+"Annele! Is it true that we were once so happy together?"
+
+"I suppose it must be."
+
+"And can we never be again?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Why do you answer me so?"
+
+"Because you ask me such questions."
+
+Lenz buried his face in his hands, and remained in that attitude
+through almost the entire night.
+
+He tried to make out how and why things had come to this extremity; why
+to his other misfortunes this so horrible one was added. He could not
+explain it. He lived over every moment from the first day to this
+night, and still could not explain it. "I cannot make it out! I cannot
+make it out!" he cried. "If a voice would but come down from heaven and
+tell me!" But there came no voice from heaven. All was still save the
+monotonous ticking of the clocks.
+
+He stood at the window, gazing out. The night was still; no living
+thing stirred. Only snow-clouds were chasing each other across the sky.
+All night long, a lamp burned at the blacksmith's on the neighboring
+mountain. The smith had died that day. "Why was he allowed to die and
+not I? I would so gladly be dead." Life and death drove in wild
+confusion through his brain; the living were not alive; the dead were
+not dead; life is but one great horror; no bird ever sang; no human
+being ever made melody. The whole world is waste and void as it was
+before the creation. All is chaos....
+
+His forehead dropped upon the window-sill; the blow scared him from his
+horrible waking dreams; he tried to find rest and forgetfulness in
+sleep.
+
+Annele had long been asleep. If he could but read her dreams! he
+thought, as he watched her. If he could but find some help for her and
+for himself!
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+               A BEGGAR'S HAT, AND AN OLD MAN'S EARNINGS.
+
+
+In this part of the country the frost, when it has once set in, holds
+on unrelentingly for many months. The Morgenhalde alone makes a happy
+exception to the rule. There the sun has sufficient power to make a
+dripping from the roof, when all elsewhere is hung with heavy icicles.
+But this winter even the sun in heaven failed to treat the Morgenhalde
+with its wonted friendliness. There was no thawing outside the house
+nor in.
+
+Not only was the cold greater than it used to be,--that was easily
+accounted for by the cutting down of the forest, whose tall trunks lay
+scattered about, waiting for the spring floods to carry them down into
+the valley,--but a weight as of frost lay heavy on the hearts of the
+dwellers upon the Morgenhalde. Annele seemed to have lost the power of
+rousing herself to life. Something had frozen up within her, which no
+warm breath could have melted, had any such breath reached her.
+
+Annele, the only child who had remained near her parents, felt herself
+now the most cruelly deserted by their removal. The secret
+mortification of being the only poor one of the whole family of sisters
+seemed more than she could bear. She could do nothing to help her
+father and mother; nay, might even be reduced to asking charity of her
+sisters, to begging their children's cast-off clothes for her own
+little ones.
+
+She moved silently about her work, her love of talking all gone,
+answering whatever question might be put to her, but nothing beyond.
+She scarce ever left the house. Her former restlessness seemed to have
+passed into Lenz. He so wholly despaired of accomplishing anything by
+his old quiet industry that the chair on which he sat and the tools he
+held in his hand seemed coals of fire to him. Petty creditors whom he
+was unable to pay, and was obliged to put off with fair words, were
+constantly annoying him. He, the Lenz who had only needed to say, "Thus
+and thus it is," to command instant confidence, now had to make solemn
+promises to this man and that, that his money should be paid him. The
+greater was his anxiety lest he should be unable to redeem his word,
+and the more did he exaggerate the danger that threatened his honor.
+The thought of the various persons here and there who were waiting for
+the receipt of their money haunted his sleeping and waking hours and
+increased his restlessness. He had always been considered a man who
+could be perfectly depended upon; now he frequently disappointed hopes
+that he had raised, and even failed to keep his engagements. He had
+trusted that the mere knowledge of his distress would be a sufficient
+protection against outside annoyances; he soon learned that men accept
+no excuses in lieu of their ready money. The ring of that is better
+than the echo of any good name; the best have too often proved a poor
+dependence.
+
+Annele saw that Lenz was tormenting himself unreasonably. She was often
+tempted to turn his importunate creditors out of doors, and bid him not
+yield so meekly to their cruel exactions. It was the way of the world,
+as she knew, to trample upon those who cringed to it. But she kept her
+thoughts to herself. His distress should drive him to adopt her
+cherished plan of buying a hotel. Then, and not till then, would
+matters assume a different aspect.
+
+In his anxiety and despair Lenz felt keenly the desolation at his
+heart, and his sidelong glance at Annele often said, as plainly as
+words could have done: You are right. You have often reproved me for
+being shiftless and good-for-nothing. Your words are coming true; I am
+good-for-nothing. My heart is consumed with anxieties, and this
+unloving life is wearing me away. I am like a candle that is kept
+burning at both ends. May it soon be burned out!
+
+Many persons brought him articles to be repaired, and obliged him to
+work off part of his debt in that way. Now, now when bread was needed
+for to-day, and there was no provision for the future, it was hard to
+have to work for the past.
+
+Some sat by him while he did their little jobs, keeping him thus a
+prisoner in his own house; others with complaints and revilings took
+away again the commissions he had failed to execute.
+
+Such an existence was not to be endured. He must find some remedy, some
+lasting remedy. His present state was neither living nor dying. "It is
+intolerable to hang thus suspended by the hair of my head. I am
+resolved once more to have solid ground under my feet," he said to
+Annele. She vouchsafed a scarce perceptible nod of assent, but the mere
+exercise of his will gave him new strength.
+
+Early the next morning he set off across the mountain to visit his
+mother's relations in the next valley. He had always been a favorite
+with them, and felt sure they would not look on and see him perish.
+
+The stars were just fading in the light of approaching day, when he
+reached the top of the mountain-ridge. He looked abroad over the
+snow-covered world. Nowhere a sign of life; why must he be living?
+
+A phrase that had haunted him in one of his sleepless nights came now
+into his mind: "The white sleep," this was it.
+
+An icy wind from the mountains blew against his fevered checks, and
+rudely recalled him to his senses by tearing the hat from his head and
+whirling it down the abyss on whose brink he stood. His first impulse
+was to rush after it; but a look showed him that it would be rushing to
+certain death. One instant the thought flashed through his brain that a
+happy accident might thus end his life forever; the next he had put the
+cowardly suggestion behind him.
+
+The blinding snow drifted ceaselessly across the ridge. The very raven
+scarce was able to guide his flight, but, with fluttering wings, was
+driven now high aloft, now deep into the abyss.
+
+Lenz plodded painfully through snow and wind, till at last his eyes
+were greeted by the sight of human habitations. The smoke, beaten down
+by the wind, was spread in light clouds above the roofs of the houses.
+Chimneys were almost unknown in this part of the country.
+
+Lenz sought shelter at the first farm-house. "Welcome, welcome, Lenz! I
+am glad you have not forgotten me," exclaimed a tall, handsome woman
+standing by the hearth, with the pieces of a stout bough she had just
+broken still in her hand.
+
+"What have you done with your hat?"
+
+"I did not recognize you at first. You are Katharine, are you not? How
+strong you have grown. Katharine, I am come begging."
+
+"Not so bad as that, I hope, Lenz."
+
+"Yes, but it is though," said Lenz, with a bitter smile. He felt this
+was no subject for joking. "You must lend or give me an old hat; mine
+has been blown away by the wind."
+
+"Come into the sitting-room. My husband will be sorry not to have been
+at home to see you. He is carting wood in the forest."
+
+The bailiff's daughter opened the sitting-room door, and politely
+invited Lenz to precede her into the warm, cosey parlor.
+
+He told her frankly when they were seated together that he had had no
+intention of coming to see her; that in fact he did not even know where
+she lived; but was glad that chance had led him to her door. She took
+the confession in good part, saying, "You always were a true, honest
+fellow, and I am glad you keep so." She brought out an old gray hat and
+a soldier's cap of her husband's for him to take his choice between,
+recommending the cap, as the hat was really too shabby to wear. It was
+very much crushed and wanted a ribbon besides. He chose the hat,
+however, and Katharine, finding he could not be induced to change his
+mind, cut off one of the broad black ribbons from her Sunday hood, and
+made it serve as a hatband, talking all the while of the people and
+things in her old home,--everything connected with which she held in
+fond remembrance.
+
+"Do you remember throwing your hat up into the air one night as we were
+coming home from the musical festival at Constance, and my running down
+to the meadow to pick it up for you?"
+
+"To be sure I do. I don't throw my hat up into the air nowadays; the
+wind blows it up."
+
+"The summer is sure to follow the winter," said Katharine,
+comfortingly.
+
+Lenz looked in wonder at the handsome woman so ready to help with hand
+and tongue. She soon had a cup of coffee ready which she insisted upon
+his drinking, sitting by him while he did so and talking over old days
+and old acquaintances. "Franzl often comes to see us," she said; "we
+are still the best of friends."
+
+"I can see that life has prospered with you," said Lenz.
+
+"Thank God, I have nothing to complain of. I have good health, money
+enough for myself, and something to spare for others. My husband is
+honest and industrious. It is not quite so merry here as it used to be
+at home, for we have no singing. I would not mind that, if only I had a
+child. My husband and I have agreed that, if we still have none of our
+own on the fifth anniversary of our marriage, we will adopt one. Faller
+must let us have one of his. You will try to persuade him, will you
+not?"
+
+"Gladly."
+
+"How old you have grown, Lenz! You look all fallen away. Is it true
+that Annele has turned out such a bad wife?"
+
+Lenz's face flushed crimson. "Good Heavens!" cried Katharine; "how
+stupid I am! I beg your pardon, Lenz, a thousand times. I did not mean
+to wound you. I know it is not true. People will talk as long as the
+day lasts, and when the days are short they take the night for it. I
+pray you again and again to forget I ever said such a thing. I have
+been so happy at having you see me in my own home, and now all my
+pleasure is gone; I shall be miserable for weeks. You and the landlady
+said I was too stupid, and I really am. Please give me back my heedless
+words, Lenz."
+
+She held out her hand as if expecting him to lay the words in it.
+
+Lenz grasped her hand, assuring her that he was not offended, but, on
+the contrary, grateful to her from his very heart. The hands of both
+trembled. Lenz said it was time he was on his way again, but she held
+him fast, and seemed anxious, by talking of all manner of other topics,
+to efface the remembrance of her heedless speech. When he left at last,
+she cried out after him: "Remember me to your Annele, and bring her
+soon to see me."
+
+Lenz went on his way with the borrowed hat; a beggar's hat, as he
+called it, sadly.
+
+Katharine's words pursued him. The same pity that was expressed for him
+in that house was doubtless felt in many others. The thought almost
+unmanned him, but he would not give way. He told himself that it was
+his own fault; he ought to have showed more firmness.
+
+Again and again his stick fell from his hands, and every time he
+stooped to pick it up, he almost lacked the power to rise.
+
+So much for a man's brooding over his sorrows instead of giving heed to
+his way! You would lose your hands if they were not fastened to your
+body. Mind what you are about!
+
+He straightened himself up and walked on more briskly. The sun shone
+bright and warm; the icicles on the rocks glittered and dripped; joyous
+mountain songs, that he used to sing with the Liederkranz, began to
+ring in his ears. Away with them! It could not have been he who once
+sang such songs out of the gladness of his heart.
+
+The relations he visited gave him a friendly welcome. At first he
+related everywhere the adventure of the hat as an excuse for appearing
+in such a dilapidated condition; but, finding that no one seemed to
+think it required an explanation, he finally ceased to mention it. Of
+course, in those very houses where he said nothing of the hat, it
+excited great speculation; and was taken as a proof of the abject
+poverty into which he had fallen.
+
+His request for money was everywhere refused with more or less
+civility. Some wondered at his applying to them when he had rich
+brothers-in-law and an uncle rolling in money; others more politely
+excused themselves on the plea of having just bought some land and
+needing all their money for building; or regretted he had not applied a
+few days ago, before they made their last investment.
+
+Sorely dispirited, Lenz pursued his way. He could not bear to think of
+home. His one wish was that he might never see the Morgenhalde again,
+but could lie down in some ditch, or in the wood, or in any one of the
+many quiet places he passed; lie down and die. Still, an irresistible
+force drove him ever onward.
+
+Before him lay Knuslingen, where Franzl lived with her brother. There
+was at least one person in the world who would be glad to see him.
+
+Who indeed could be so happy as Franzl when Lenz entered her room? She
+was sitting at the window, spinning coarse yarn, and a great bound her
+distaff gave at the sight of him. Twice she wiped the chair on which he
+was to sit, uttering all the while many apologies at the untidiness of
+the room. She had never noticed before how damp and smoky it was. Lenz
+must tell all about himself, and yet she could not keep still long
+enough to listen. She began running on in her old way. "At first the
+cold here was more than I could bear, after being used to our good sun
+on the Morgenhalde. Whenever there is a ray of sunlight anywhere, we
+were sure to get it there. Whatever else may go wrong, Lenz, be
+thankful for so much good sunlight; that no one can rob you of. It is
+very different here. For seven weeks and five days not a glimmer
+reached this valley. On the second day after the festival of the Three
+Kings, at eleven o'clock, the first ray of sun fell on that pear-tree
+at the edge of the hill, and from that time the sun kept climbing up so
+that in summer it is warm and pleasant. By this time I have grown to
+feel quite at home here again. But, Lenz, what makes you look so? There
+is a something in your face that I never saw before,--something that
+does not belong there. Ah! that is better; when you smile you have your
+old look again,--your pleasant look. You must have felt how I have
+prayed for you and yours every morning and every evening. I bear no
+grudge against Annele, not the least. She was quite right. I am a poor,
+worn-out tool. Whom do your children look like? What are their names?
+When the spring comes again, I must get to see them if I have to creep
+on my hands and knees." Then Franzl went on to tell how she had three
+hens and three geese and a potato-patch, all her own. "We are poor,"
+she said, folding her hands on her bosom, "but, thank Heaven, we have
+never been reduced to looking on and seeing others eat. We have always
+had something to put in our mouths. Please Heaven, next year I mean to
+buy myself a goat." She bestowed great praise upon her geese, and
+greater still upon her hens. The hens, whose winter-quarters were in a
+coop by the stove, politely clucked their thanks and took as good a
+view as their space permitted of the man to whom their good qualities
+were thus set forth. The gold-colored hen, called Yellow-hammer,
+flapped her wings with delight, and then gave herself a good,
+comfortable shake.
+
+Lenz had no time to speak, before Franzl, thinking to comfort him,
+broke out into fierce abuse of the landlady, mixed with commendations
+of Katharine and her kindness to her, as well as to all the poor in the
+neighborhood. "She feeds my hens, and they in return feed me," said the
+old woman, laughing at her own wit.
+
+Lenz at last made out to say that it was time for him to be going. He
+heard Annele's sharp words as plainly as if she were standing at his
+elbow, reproaching him for his foolish waste of time, in sitting
+listening to any old woman's tale that was poured into his ears. He
+cast a hurried look behind him to see if she were not actually in the
+room, and hastily seized his hat and cane. Franzl begged him before he
+went to mount with her into her little chamber under the roof where she
+had something to say to him. He trembled inwardly lest Franzl too was
+about to speak of his unhappiness at home. She did not refer to that,
+however, but brought out from the straw of her bed a heavy, well-filled
+shoe, tied with many fastenings, saying: "You must do me a favor; I
+cannot sleep in peace with this thing here; and I pray you to take it
+away and do what you please with it. Here are a hundred florins and
+three crown-pieces. You will take them, won't you? and give me back my
+quiet sleep." Lenz declined the proffered money, and again prepared to
+depart; but Franzl wept and held him fast. "If you have any message for
+your mother, let me know. Please God, I shall soon be with her, and
+will deliver it faithfully. And if your mother is too timid to tell our
+Lord God the whole truth, I will do it myself. You can rely upon me."
+
+Still the old woman would not let go of Lenz's hand, and kept saying:
+"There was something else I wanted to say to you; it has been on my
+tongue, but now I cannot think what it was. As soon as you are gone I
+shall certainly remember it. I was to remind you of something; don't
+you know what it was?"
+
+Lenz did not know what it was, and at last almost reluctantly took his
+departure.
+
+He entered a wayside inn, where a noisy welcome awaited him. "Hurrah,
+hurrah! that is jolly to have you here too," cried a voice in greeting;
+and there at a table, on which stood a great flagon of beer, sat
+Proebler with two of his associates. One of his pot companions was the
+blind musician from Fuchsberg, whose instrument Lenz was in the habit
+of putting in order every year. An expression of embarrassment and
+mortification overspread the blind man's face at the sound of Lenz's
+voice, but he assumed a braggadocio air, and, flourishing his glass
+above his head, cried out, "Come, Lenz, pledge me out of my glass!"
+Lenz courteously declined. Old Proebler tried to get up and advance to
+meet him, but his legs soon admonished him that he was safer sitting,
+and he contented himself with calling out: "Take a seat with us, Lenz,
+and let the bankrupt world without snow itself away as it will. There
+is no good left in it. Here we will sit till the day of judgment. I
+want nothing more; when I have spent my last farthing I shall sell my
+coat for drink, and then lay me down in the snow and save you the cost
+of burying me. Here you have a proof, comrades, of what a worthless
+world it is, that can thus bring its best and noblest to ruin. Have a
+drink, Lenz! That is well. Look at him, the best and bravest fellow in
+all the world; and how has the world used him? When his mother died,
+and the whole town was talking of nothing but Lenz's marriage,--why,
+the sparrows could not be madder after a sack of corn than the girls
+were for Lenz."
+
+"Enough of that," interposed Lenz.
+
+"No, no; you need not be ashamed to hear the truth. The doctor's
+daughters, and the paper-miller's only daughter, who was so rich and
+handsome and married Baron Thingummy,--every one of them would have
+jumped at him. The paper-miller said to me the day after the betrothal:
+'Lenz of the Morgenhalde might have had my daughter and welcome.' And
+now--Peace, Lenz; I have done--only the Lord or the Devil knows who
+will get the upperhand. Look at that man! His own father-in-law has
+robbed him, has sold the very hair off his head, and left his house
+bare in the middle of winter. I was honest too once, Lenz; but I have
+had enough of it, and you will see the folly of it presently. Go about
+the world, if you are in want, and ask of the good and charitable. Take
+a pinch; take a pinch! their snuff-boxes are open to you, and that is
+all. Take a pinch!" Proebler pressed his snuff-box upon him and laughed
+immoderately.
+
+Lenz shuddered at hearing himself thus held up to view as the most
+striking example of failure and ruin. Such a notoriety he had never
+thought to attain. He tried to convince Proebler that a man had no right
+to ruin himself, and then cry out against the world for having ruined
+him. His arguments in favor of every man's helping himself instead of
+expecting the world to help him greatly strengthened his own
+confidence, but failed to affect his hearer, who drew a knife from his
+pocket, and forcing it into Lenz's hand, together with the knife that
+lay on the table, cried out: "There, you have all the knives; I can do
+you no hurt. Now tell me honestly, am I a good-for-nothing fellow, or
+might I have been the foremost man in the world, if the world had
+helped me? Your father-in-law, whose soul the Devil must weigh out
+like so much lead, smeared his creaking boots with the marrow of my
+bones; and capital blacking he found it. Tell me honestly, am I a
+good-for-nothing fellow, or what am I?"
+
+Of course Lenz had to acknowledge that Proebler would have been a master
+in his art, if he had remained in the right road; at which the old man
+shouted and beat upon the table, and was with difficulty prevented from
+throwing his arms about Lenz's neck and kissing him.
+
+"I want no other funeral oration. Lenz has pronounced my eulogy. Drink,
+drink! empty your glasses!"
+
+Lenz had to drink with the rest, and Proebler, filling the glasses
+again, cried out exultingly: "The doctor wants to take me into his
+hospital, his manufactory. It is too late. The time for doctoring and
+manufacturing is past. There is Lenz of the Morgenhalde, whom all
+respect to-day and to-morrow, and how much longer? I was once like him,
+and now when I go through the town men point their fingers at me and
+shrug their shoulders and cry, 'Pah, there is that scamp of a Proebler!'
+Follow my advice, Lenz. Don't wait till you are as old as I, but make
+your bow in good season. Hark to me, brother, I have something to tell
+you. Do you remember our setting up those standard regulators? Do you
+know what we were then? A couple of pattern fools. Did you want to
+unite the clockmakers in an association? You might as well try to make
+them join hands with the Devil. Hark to me, brother! Don't tear
+yourself away; stay here, stay here! I have something to tell you. I
+make you my heir. There is a way to buy jollity in the world, and
+forgetfulness, and good cheer. I know your heart is heavy; I know where
+the shoe pinches. Old Proebler knows more than other men; he knows
+everything. Pour wine on the worm in your heart; wine or brandy.
+Whatever drowns it is good. Then we shall have no more clocks, no more
+hours, no day and no night, no more time, but all eternity."
+
+The old man fell into the most frenzied ravings. At times a spark of
+intelligence shone through his wild utterances, and then again all was
+delirium. It was impossible to tell whether it was a fact, or only his
+fancy, that the landlord's failure had robbed him of all provision for
+his old age, or whether it was the sale of his mysterious work that had
+reduced him to this state of despair. The burden of his cry was ever
+"Lenz, drink your life out while you are young, and don't be so long
+killing yourself as I have been." Lenz turned sick with horror at this
+living proof of what a man may come to who has lost his self-respect,
+and whose only refuge is self-forgetfulness.
+
+"Your mother had a good saying," began Proebler again; "did I tell you
+that was Lenz of the Morgenhalde? Yes, your mother. 'Better go barefoot
+than in ragged boots,' she used to say. Do you know what she meant? I
+have a better proverb: 'Tear off the nag's shoes before you take her to
+market.' Landlord! here is another horseshoe for you. Wine, wine!" He
+threw down a dollar.
+
+The mention of his mother's name, though in such an unworthy
+connection, acted as a warning to Lenz as effectually as if her eye
+were suddenly and sternly fixed upon him. He rose from his seat, in
+spite of all Proebler's efforts to detain him. Gladly would he have
+taken the old man with him, but it was impossible to stir him from the
+spot. All he could do was to charge the landlord to keep him where he
+was till morning, and on no account to give him anything more to drink.
+"There is my last pinch gone," cried Proebler, throwing his snuff-box
+after him as he closed the door.
+
+Drawing his breath hard, as if escaping from a close and burning hell,
+Lenz staggered out into the free air of heaven.
+
+The night was coming on. The ice-bird twittered by the frozen brook,
+and the ravens sought the cover of the forest. A buck came out to the
+edge of the wood, stood with his great eyes fixed on Lenz till he came
+close up to him, then with a bound vanished again into the thicket,
+marking his course by the fresh snow he shook from the tender firs as
+he passed.
+
+Lenz often stopped, thinking he heard himself called. Perhaps Proebler
+was following him. He shouted in reply till the echoes rang; he went
+back a space; but no one did he see or hear. Again he pushed on. The
+trees, the mountains, seemed dancing to meet him. A woman who looked
+like his mother came towards him. If his mother should see him thus!
+The old woman gave him a friendly greeting as she passed, and warned
+him not to linger in the valley after dark, for there were black
+gullies in the snow, and avalanches were falling which might bury a man
+and no one be the wiser.
+
+A wonderful tone there was in the old woman's voice, just like his
+mother's. Thanks for the friendly warning!
+
+A sacred vow Lenz registered in his heart.--
+
+He also resolved, however, not to go home empty-handed, and, turning
+his steps to the city, sought the house of his brother-in-law, the
+lumber-merchant. The rich man was happily at home, but gave him such an
+ungracious reception that he found it difficult to state his errand.
+Sister Babette's husband laid all the family misfortunes at Lenz's
+door; he alone was to blame for not having taken affairs from the
+beginning into his own hands. Whether the accusation was made in good
+faith or not, it furnished an excellent excuse for refusing help. In
+vain did Lenz pray, with clasped hands, to be saved from absolute ruin.
+The lumber-merchant only shrugged his shoulders and advised him to
+apply to his rich uncle, Petrovitsch.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                             ANOTHER WORLD.
+
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Lenz," a voice cried to the dispirited wayfarer, as
+he was turning sadly away. Lenz started. Who could be calling him "Mr.
+Lenz?"
+
+A sleigh drew up by his side, and the engineer, throwing back his fur
+wrappings, pressed him to jump in and occupy his empty seat. There was
+no resisting his cordial manner. He made Lenz, who was warm from
+walking, take the fur robe, while he covered himself over with the
+horse-blanket. The horses set off at a brisk pace; the bells jingled
+merrily; they seemed to be flying through the strangely soft air.
+
+Annele is right; I ought to have managed to keep a carriage and horses,
+was Lenz's bitter thought in his poverty and debasement. A tormenting
+spirit seemed ready to turn every occurrence of this day into a
+reminder of his life's failure, and a temptation to unholy desires.
+
+The engineer was very communicative. He spoke with peculiar
+satisfaction of the friendly relations that existed between himself and
+Pilgrim. With his knowledge of drawing,--for he had studied a year at
+the academy before entering upon his present profession,--and Pilgrim's
+eye for coloring; they could not only teach one another a great deal,
+but hoped to invent some new designs for furniture and wooden
+ornaments. They had already made some sketches of clock-cases, which
+they hoped would be of benefit to the trade. Pilgrim was as happy as
+possible in the exercise of his inventive genius, and in the prospect
+of seeing his pet plan carried into execution.
+
+Lenz listened as in a dream. What was the man talking about? Were there
+still persons in the world who took an interest in such things, and
+rejoiced to further another's plans? Lenz spoke little, but felt the
+better for his drive. To be borne along so was much pleasanter than to
+have to walk wearily over the mountain and valley. For the first time
+in his life he felt something like envy.
+
+At the doctor's door he was most hospitably obliged to descend and
+enter the house.
+
+How delicious it was within! He had almost forgotten there were such
+peaceful, happy homes in the world, where all was so genial and warm,
+and fragrant hyacinths bloomed at the double windows; where all things
+showed that no angry word was ever spoken, but that the kind, true
+hearts that lived together gave out a pleasanter warmth than the best
+of fires.
+
+"I am glad to see you once in our house," said Amanda, handing him a
+cup of tea. "How is Annele? If I thought your wife would like to see
+me, I should be glad to call on her some time."
+
+"I have not been at home since four o'clock this morning, or was it
+longer ago? it seems to me a week. I believe she is well. I will send
+you word when she is ready to receive visitors." His voice was firm,
+but his eyes turned searchingly from one to the other as he spoke.
+Strange thoughts were sweeping through his brain.
+
+How different his life might have been had he tried to win this woman
+for his wife! Pilgrim had seemed sure she would not refuse him. Then he
+would be sitting here at home; would have a position in the world, a
+wife to honor and uphold him, and all these kind friends for his own
+family. His first swallow of tea almost choked him.
+
+The old mayoress, the doctor's mother, who sat at the tea-table eating
+her oatmeal porridge, had a great fancy for Lenz. He was made to sit
+close beside her and raise his voice very loud in order that she might
+hear. She had been a playmate of his mother when a girl, and liked to
+tell of the gay times they used to have together, especially on their
+Shrove-tide sleighing parties, which now were given up with many other
+of the old sports. Marie was always the merriest of the company. The
+old mayoress inquired about Franzl, listened with interest to Lenz's
+account of his visit to her,--he omitting, of course, all mention of
+the money she had offered him,--rejoiced at hearing of Katharine's
+prosperity and beneficence, and sympathized with her desire to adopt a
+child.
+
+The whole company listened with polite attention. Poor Lenz, so long
+accustomed to being contradicted in all he said, or interrupted by
+exclamations of "O, what is that to me!" looked from one to another in
+amazement.
+
+The old mayoress urged him to come often and bring his wife, adding: "I
+hear a great deal said of her goodness and cleverness. Give my
+greetings to her and your children." Lenz hardly knew how to respond to
+such unwonted words. He would have thought she was mocking at him, had
+her manner been less sincerely cordial. It must be that nothing but
+good was spoken of others in this house, and therefore she had heard
+only the good of Annele.
+
+"Just as you arrived," said the old lady, "we were speaking of your
+father and my dear husband. A clock-dealer from Prussia had been saying
+that our clocks were not so good as they used to be when your father
+and my husband were alive; that they did not keep so good time. I told
+him I did not agree with him; that, with all respect to the dead, I was
+sure the clocks were just as exact now as in old times, but that the
+men who used them were more particular. Was I not right, Lenz? You are
+an honest man; tell me if I was not right."
+
+Lenz assured her she was perfectly right, and thanked her for not
+extolling the old times at the expense of the new.
+
+The engineer cited railways and telegraphs as proofs of the superior
+exactness of the present day.
+
+When the conversation became general, the doctor drew Lenz aside and
+said to him, "Lenz, you will not be offended at what I have to say to
+you?" Lenz's heart sank within him. So the doctor, too, was going to
+speak of the ruin in his house.
+
+"What is it?" he said, with difficulty.
+
+"I wanted to propose, if it were not distasteful to you, and I really
+do not see why you should object--but what need of so much preparation?
+I want you to be director in the clock manufactory which my son and
+son-in-law have set up here. Your knowledge will be of service to them,
+and you shall receive in time a share of the profits besides your
+regular salary."
+
+Here was a hand stretched out from heaven to save him. "I should be
+very glad to undertake it, certainly," returned Lenz, turning red and
+hot; "but you know, doctor, it has always been my endeavor to form an
+association of all the clockmakers of our district. Various
+circumstances have thus far prevented my accomplishing this plan, but I
+still cherish it, and therefore can only join this enterprise on
+condition that your two sons promise to connect the manufactory with
+the association, perhaps in time even to make it a part of the property
+of the association."
+
+"That is precisely our intention; I am glad to see you still so
+thoughtful of others."
+
+"Agreed then; yet I must make one other condition; please say nothing
+of our plan till--" Lenz hesitated.
+
+"Well, till when?"
+
+"Till I have spoken with my wife. She has her own ideas on such
+matters."
+
+"I know her well. She is always rightly disposed when her pride does
+not stand in the way. An honest pride is greatly to be respected."
+
+Lenz cast down his eyes, accepting the doctor's lesson, so kindly and
+courteously given.
+
+His thoughts quickly reverted to the manufactory, however, and he
+begged leave to ask the doctor yet another question.
+
+"Certainly; don't be so modest."
+
+"Who among our best workmen are to be admitted?"
+
+"We have as yet spoken with no one. Proebler we shall offer some
+subordinate position to,--not so high a place as yours, of course. He
+is ingenious, and his ingenuity may, perhaps, be turned to practical
+account. The poor devil ought to be put in the way of laying up
+something for his old age. He has been almost out of his senses since
+his grand secret was sold at auction."
+
+After some hesitation Lenz told of the condition in which he had found
+Proebler, and said, in conclusion: "I have one more favor to ask,
+doctor. I cannot myself speak with my uncle; will you intercede with
+him for me? You are the foremost man in our district, and one to whom
+nobody, with a heart in his body, can refuse a request. I do not think,
+the more I consider the matter, that my wife will consent to my
+entering the factory, and, as you yourself say, her pride is to be
+respected."
+
+"I will go at once. Shall I leave you here, or will you go with me to
+the town?"
+
+"I will go with you."
+
+He shook hands all round, each one wishing him a cordial good-night,
+and the old mayoress taking his hand in both of hers with peculiar
+tenderness.
+
+They heard Pilgrim playing on his guitar and singing, as they passed
+his house. The faithful fellow felt a hearty sympathy for his friend,
+but sympathizing with another's grief is a different thing from bearing
+it. One's own life asserts the first claim.
+
+Where the path began to ascend the hill, Lenz and the doctor parted.
+"Wait at home till I come," the latter said. "What a singular softness
+there is in the air this evening! We shall certainly have a thaw."
+
+Here have I been seeking help abroad, while it was waiting for me at my
+own door. There are good people still in the world; better than I ever
+was, Lenz said to himself, as he went homewards up the hill.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                  PETROVITSCH THAWS AND FREEZES AGAIN.
+
+
+"I know what you have come for," said Petrovitsch to the doctor as he
+entered. "Take a seat." He drew a chair up to the well-heated stove, in
+front of which a bright open fire was burning.
+
+"Well, what have I come for, Sir Prophet?" asked the doctor, summoning
+all his good-humor to his aid.
+
+"Money; money for my nephew."
+
+"You are but half a prophet; I want a kind heart too."
+
+"But money, money is the main point. Let me tell you at the start that
+I am not one of those who spend their tenderness over a drunkard by the
+roadside. On the contrary, if the fellow has a broken leg, he has no
+one but himself to thank for it. I speak thus freely to you because you
+are one of the few men whom I respect."
+
+"Thank you for the compliment. An honest physician, however, must heal
+the diseases that are of a man's own making as well as those he could
+not prevent."
+
+"You are a physician, and you are sick too, like our whole
+district,--like our whole race in these days."
+
+The doctor expressed surprise at the new light Petrovitsch thus threw
+upon his character, revealing principle and not a love of ease as the
+groundwork of his misanthropy.
+
+"Can you sit an hour with me? To-day is my seventieth birthday."
+
+"I congratulate you."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+Petrovitsch sent the maid to Ibrahim to say that he should be an hour
+later than usual at his game that evening, and then, resuming his seat
+by the doctor, continued: "I am inclined to be communicative to-day and
+talk about myself. Let me tell you that, as for the opinion of the
+world at large, I care as little about it as this stick of wood which I
+am laying on the fire cares who burns it."
+
+"I should be greatly interested in hearing by what process you have
+thus reduced yourself to the hardness of a log of wood."
+
+The doctor was anxious to avail himself of the unusual mood in
+which he found the crabbed old fellow, to gain a better insight into
+his character, even at the expense of prolonging Lenz's painful
+uncertainty. He was not without hope of inducing Petrovitsch to advance
+a sum of money which would enable Lenz at once to become a shareholder
+in the new factory.
+
+"You were eight years old when I went abroad," began Petrovitsch, "and
+therefore know nothing about me."
+
+"Begging your pardon, we heard a deal about the wild pranks of the--"
+
+"Of the goatherd, I suppose. Thereby hangs a tale. For the forty-two
+years that I was travelling by land and by sea, in all degrees of heat
+and cold that man or beast can endure, that name pursued me like a dog,
+without my having the sense to give it a kick that should silence it
+forever.
+
+"Our family consisted of only three brothers. Our father was proud, in
+his way, of having us all boys; but children then were not thought so
+much of as they are in these days. They had to learn to take care of
+themselves. Fewer words, good or bad, were thrown them, and every one,
+therefore, was made to go farther than a hundred do now. My brother
+Lorenz, generally called by the family name, Lenz, the father of the
+present Lenz, was the oldest; I was the youngest, and between us came
+Mathes, a handsome fellow, who was carried away by that great butcher
+Napoleon, and lost his life in Spain. I once visited the battlefield
+where he fell, and saw a great hill under which all the dead bodies had
+been huddled together. There was no telling any man's brother. But why
+dwell upon that? Not long after our Mathes turned soldier, my brother
+Lorenz went to Switzerland for three months, and took me with him. Who
+so happy as I? My brother was a quiet, thoughtful man, regular and
+exact as clock-work, and fearfully strict. I was a wild, ungovernable
+child, inclined to no good, and with a special distaste to sitting
+behind a work-bench. What does my brother do but take me, soon after
+Candlemas, to a boy-sale at St. Gall? There were boy-sales held there
+then every year, where the Swiss farmers came to buy farm-hands from
+Suabia.
+
+"As we were standing together on the market-place, a square-built
+Appenzeller came along, and planting himself in front of us asked my
+brother, 'What is the price of the boy?'
+
+"'A cord of Swiss impudence,' I answered, pertly; 'six feet wide and
+six feet high.'
+
+"The stout Appenzeller laughed, and said to my brother, 'The boy is
+smart, I like him.' He asked me various questions, all of which I
+answered as well as I knew how.
+
+"My brother and the Appenzeller agreed upon the terms. The only
+farewell I received was, 'You will get thrashed if you come home before
+winter.'
+
+"The whole summer I served us goatherd, and a merry life I had; but
+those words, 'What is the price of the boy?' often rang in my ears. I
+felt like another Joseph, sold into Egypt by my own brother, but with
+no likelihood of becoming king. In the winter I was at home again,
+where I was not well treated, nor, I confess, very well-behaved. In the
+spring I said to my brother, 'Give me a hundred florins' worth of
+clocks, and let me join you in the clock trade.' 'A hundred cuffs, more
+likely,' was all the answer my brother Lorenz gave me. At that time he
+had the whole charge of the business and the household, my father being
+sick and my mother not daring to interfere. Women were not of as much
+account in those days as they are now,--fortunately for them and their
+husbands, too, in my opinion. I induced a travelling merchant to let me
+go with him and carry his clocks. He almost broke my back with the
+burdens he imposed upon me, and nearly starved me into the bargain; yet
+I could not get away from him. I was worse off than the poor horse in
+harness, for he is at least of value enough to be cared for. Many times
+I was tempted to run away with the wares intrusted to me; but always
+atoned for my evil thoughts by compelling myself to remain awhile
+longer with my tormentor. No harm came to me from this experience,
+however, hard as it was. I kept healthy and honest.
+
+"One occurrence, which exerted a great influence on my future
+movements, I must relate here, because I shall have occasion to refer
+to it later. Anton Striegler and I were sitting chatting together one
+beautiful summer morning, before the posada--as they call the inns in
+Spain--of a large town about six leagues from Valencia, when a handsome
+boy, who happened to be passing, stopped, listened to our talk for a
+while, and then began wringing his hands like one possessed. Just as I
+was about to call my companion's attention to the boy, he suddenly
+sprang towards us, and seizing Striegler, cried out in Spanish, 'What
+is that you were saying?'
+
+"'None of your business,' returned Striegler, also in Spanish.
+
+"'What language was it?' asked the Spaniard again.
+
+"'German,' answered Striegler. The boy seized the image of the saint
+that hung from his neck, and fell to kissing it as if he would eat it
+up. Finally he begged us to go with him to his house, where his father
+was talking in that language and no one could understand him. On the
+way he explained that his father was a blacksmith from Germany, who had
+lived in the town for forty years, and had married here; that for weeks
+he had been lying dangerously ill, and during the last few days had
+talked in an unknown language, so that he could neither make himself
+understood nor understand those about him. The whole family were in
+the greatest distress. On entering the house we found an old man with
+snow-white hair and long white beard, sitting upright in bed, and
+calling out, 'Give me a bunch of rosemary!' then he would begin to
+sing,--'And plant it on my grave.' The sight and the sounds chilled
+every drop of blood in my veins; but Striegler is not easily daunted,
+and, approaching the bed, said in German, 'How are you, countryman!' If
+I live to be a hundred, I shall never forget the old man's face when he
+heard those words. He stretched out his arms and then folded them on
+his breast, as if to gather the sounds to his heart. Striegler talked
+further with him. The old man was able to give sensible answers; a
+little confused at times, but in the main intelligible. He was a
+Hessian by birth, named Reuter, but had changed his name to Caballero.
+For fifty years he had spoken nothing but Spanish, and now at the point
+of death every Spanish word had forsaken him. I believe that, for the
+rest of his life, he never understood another word of that language.
+The whole family was made happy by having us as interpreters of the old
+man's wants. Striegler took advantage of this incident to gain for
+himself something of a position in the town and turn it to profitable
+account, while I sat by the sick-bed. The best part of my life abroad
+was that I spent with Striegler. I had plenty to eat and drink, and for
+the sake of the old man was abundantly well treated. At the end of
+three days we left him; but hardly had we gone a couple of leagues
+before the son came riding after us to say we must go back, for his
+father was crying for us. We went to him again. He was talking German;
+but too incoherently for us to make out his meaning. At last, with the
+cry, 'Now I will go; now I will go home!' he fell back and died."
+
+Here Petrovitsch paused in his story. "The whole thing made a deeper
+impression on me than I knew at the time. Striegler, after a while,
+returned to Spain and, I hear, married a daughter of Caballero. I
+continued my travels through France. At Marseilles I met your father,
+who saw I was not such a good-for-nothing fellow as the world supposed,
+and gave me the means of starting business on my own account. The
+saving and starving I had long practised for others I now tried for
+myself. I met with considerable success, paid back your father's money,
+and received from him more wares. My business led me over half the
+world. I could speak five languages; but a word of German, especially
+of Black Forest German, always made my heart leap in my bosom. One
+great weakness of mine was that I could never conquer my homesickness.
+It haunted my steps like a ghost, and spoiled the relish of many a
+jolly drinking-bout."
+
+Petrovitsch paused again, poked the fire till it crackled merrily, and
+then, rubbing his hand over his old, wrinkled face, resumed: "I pass
+over ten years. I am in Odessa, and a made man. A fine city Odessa is,
+where all nations are at home. One friend I have there whom I never
+shall forget. There are villages in the neighborhood, Lustdorf,
+Kleinliebenthal, and others, occupied wholly by Germans; not from our
+part of the country, however, but chiefly from Wurtemberg. Many
+commissions were intrusted to me by persons at home; but I kept
+faithfully by your father until his death. Although my property was
+handsome, quite sufficient to enable me to drive, I travelled over all
+Russia on foot, not knowing what fatigue meant. Look at the muscles of
+that arm; they are of steel. What must they have been thirty years ago?
+They were something to be proud of then, I can tell you. I settled in
+Moscow, and remained there four years. Yet I can hardly call it
+settling, for I never rested an hour; never made myself at home, as the
+phrase is. In that way I could better earn and save. I never, in all my
+life, was called in the morning, nor turned over for another nap when I
+once waked.
+
+"Many of our country-people came to me, and always found me ready to
+help. Not a few out in the world owe their fortune to me. I asked about
+home, and was told my father was dead, my mother was dead, and my
+brother was married. I asked if he never inquired about me. That was a
+hard question to answer. All he had ever been heard to say of me was
+that I should one day come home a beggar. But the cruelest thing of all
+was my countrymen's calling me the goatherd. My brother was to blame
+for my having to bear that nickname through life. I always meant to
+send him a couple of thousand florins, with a letter saying: 'The
+goatherd sends you this for the hundred cuffs you owe him, for all the
+good you have done him, and for your faithful care of him.' I kept
+thinking I would do it, but, the devil knows why, I never did, I got
+tired living in Moscow, and wanted to go home; instead of which I went
+to Tiflis, and stayed there eleven years.
+
+"As I began to grow old my feelings changed, I resolved to go home with
+a bag of gold, that all men should see but my brother; with him I would
+have nothing to do. The more I thought of it, the more I was convinced
+that he had dealt cruelly with me, and would be glad to know I was
+dead. He should suffer for it. I hated him and often reviled him in my
+thoughts; yet my thoughts kept returning to him. An indescribable
+homesickness consumed me. No water tasted as good as that of the old
+well at home by the church, and no air was as fragrant as ours of a
+summer evening. Thousands and thousands of times I have thought how
+gladly I would give a hundred florins for a roomful of the air of my
+native valley. Then I imagined the delight of getting home and having
+all the dwellers above the town and below it gathering together to see
+Peter, or Petrovitsch, as they call me now. There should be long tables
+spread on the meadow before our house, where all should come who would,
+and eat and drink for three days,--all but my brother. Yet all the time
+I felt in my heart, though I would not confess it, that he was the only
+person I loved. Every year I said, next year I shall go; but I kept
+staying on. It is hard to leave a business in which everything you
+touch turns to gold. I wondered how I came to be so gray and old. At
+last I fell sick,--for the first time in my life dangerously sick. For
+weeks I was out of my head, and talked, as I afterwards learned, in a
+language that no one about me understood. The doctor was able to make
+out a few words, which he said were German. I frequently cried out,
+'Cain!' and, 'What is the price of the boy?' Then I remembered
+Caballero in the village near Valencia. Suppose you should one day be
+lying so on your death-bed, and should cry out for water, and there
+should be no one to understand you!-- Now the time was come. Home,
+home, home! Thanks to a good constitution, I quickly recovered and
+proceeded to carry out my fixed resolution. Perhaps my brother would
+humble himself and acknowledge his injustice to me; then I would stay
+by him till I died. How much time might still remain to us? What was
+the whole world away from those of our own blood? On the way,--for I
+actually set out at last,--I was like a child who has been lost in the
+wood and runs crying home. I often had to remind myself how old I was.
+Hatred of my brother revived in my heart and tormented me. It was like
+a severed artery that will not heal: a touch, a thought, brings the
+bad, black blood again.
+
+"I reached home.
+
+"The mountains seemed to be rising and running to meet me, as I entered
+the valley.
+
+"I drove through the different villages. There was where such and such
+a one lived; I could not think of the names till I had passed. The road
+was broader and more convenient than it used to be, and followed the
+valley instead of going over the Woltending mountain. I was in a
+strange land and yet at home. Mountains that used to be thickly wooded
+were now as bare as a Turk's head. There had been a terrible sacrifice
+of trees. I entered the village on a beautiful summer evening at
+haying-time, just as the bells were ringing. They seemed voices not of
+this world. I had heard many bells in the forty-two years I was abroad,
+but none like these. Involuntarily I took off my hat; it was so good,
+so heavenly to feel my native air blowing about my head! I know not
+what echo it woke within me. The gray hairs on my head seemed growing
+young again. Most of the persons I met on the way were strangers to me.
+You, doctor, I recognized from your resemblance to your father. No one
+knew me. I drew up at the 'Golden Lion' and inquired if Lorenz Lenz of
+the Morgenhalde was at home. At home? He had been dead these seven
+years. A thunderbolt falling at my feet could not have more confounded
+me. Fortunately I recovered myself before my agitation was observed.
+
+"I went up to my room, and late at night walked through the village,
+meeting many familiar objects that convinced me I was once more at
+home. All was still about my parents' house. The pine trees at the back
+of it, that were hardly twice as tall as I when I left home, were now
+giants, ready to be cut down. I half resolved to depart before day.
+What should I do here? It would be easy to go, for no one had
+recognized me.
+
+"But I did not depart.
+
+"Persons came to me from all quarters, and offered me their hands--to
+be filled. But, doctor, I once to kill time fed the sparrows on my
+window-sill, and from that day the importunate beggars are possessed to
+come here every morning, and distract me with their noise; there is no
+frightening them away. It is easy to acquire habits, but hard to break
+them up. I stopped asking about anybody, for I heard of nothing but
+death and disaster, and a hundred times a day got a stab at my heart.
+Whoever came in my way was very well; who did not, was gone. All came
+to see me except my sister-in-law and her prince. 'My brother-in-law
+knows where his parents' house is,' she said. 'It is not for us to run
+after him.' The very first time I saw young Lenz, I conceived a dislike
+to him. He looked like none of us, but took after his mother's family.
+When I look round upon the village now, and the whole district, in
+fact, I am ready to tear my old hair out for having come home.
+Everything is stunted and lazy and spoiled. Where is the old
+light-heartedness, the old high spirit? Gone. The youths are good for
+nothing. Don't I have to pick the cherries before they are ripe to
+prevent the young trees from being broken? My musical nephew there
+cossets himself up in his room, while I, at his age, was out making my
+way in the world. I mind nothing; but he turns pale and sick at every
+rough wind and every rough word. There was a time when I hoped
+something from him, and thought he might still make my life happy. If
+he had married your daughter Amanda, the young people should have come
+to me, or I would have gone to them. My property would have come into
+your family, as it is right it should; for I am indebted to your father
+for the beginning of my good fortune, if good fortune it is. That
+cursed Pilgrim guessed my thoughts, and tried to make me a go-between.
+I would have nothing to do with it. I never give advice nor take it.
+Every man must work out his life in his own way. And this is the point
+I want to come at: that I won't give a red cent; rather would I throw
+my money into the fire. Now I have talked enough. I have made myself
+quite hot."
+
+"How did the water of the spring by the church taste, that you had
+longed for so much?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Bad; very bad. It is too cold and too hard. I cannot bear it."
+
+With this for a text, the doctor undertook to reason Petrovitsch into a
+better way of thinking. He tried to convince him that the world had not
+changed for the worse any more than the spring of water; only his eyes
+and thoughts, as well as his palate, had lost their youth. He explained
+to him, that while he was perfectly right in strengthening his mental
+and bodily powers by contact with the outside world, yet domestic
+industry and economy required that many should stay at home, and be
+screwed, like their own vice, to the work-bench. He laid special stress
+on the delicacy, amounting almost to morbid sensitiveness, that
+accompanies a talent for music; at the same time pointing out to the
+old man the same soft-heartedness in himself that he censured in his
+nephew. He strongly urged upon him the necessity of extending a helping
+hand. But Petrovitsch had relapsed into his old obstinacy, and silenced
+the doctor by saying: "I keep to what I said before. I neither give
+advice nor take it. I shall take no steps in the matter. If you say
+another word, doctor, I will not answer for the consequences."
+
+It was clear there was nothing further to be hoped for, and, as a
+message arrived at this moment from Ibrahim, Petrovitsch and the doctor
+left the house together. The doctor was obliged to draw his cloak close
+about him as he went up the Morgenhalde. It was blowing fiercely,
+though the wind was strangely warm.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+                    ANNELE THAWS AND FREEZES AGAIN.
+
+
+While Lenz, in his great distress, was wandering about the world,
+Annele was visited at home. She was alone, wholly alone; for her
+husband had left no parting word behind. He had gone away moody and
+silent, without opening his lips. Pooh! Two words would have brought
+him back, she thought, and yet a strange fear oppressed her heart, and
+flushed her cheeks. She had never been used to the company of her own
+thoughts. In the constant bustle and stir in which her life had been
+spent, she had never sat down quietly to think. Now it was forced upon
+her. No matter what she turned her hand to, or how persistently she
+went about her household work, something was always following her,
+pulling at her gown, and whispering, "Hearken to me!"
+
+Little William was sitting by the servant-maid, winding the yarn as
+fast as it was spun. The baby had been put to sleep, and as Annele sat
+by the child's bed an invisible power held her in her chair, and forced
+her to listen to the voice of her own thoughts: Annele, what change has
+come over you? The gay, handsome Annele, whom all loved and flattered,
+sitting here in a darkened chamber of a lonely house, having to delve
+and to save!--I would not mind that; I would do it gladly, if I were
+but honored in the household. But nothing I do or say suits him. What
+do I do that is wrong? Am I not frugal and industrious, willing to work
+even more than I do? But this place is like a grave.--
+
+She started, trembling, from her seat. A dream she had had in the night
+came vividly to mind,--not a dream, this time, of merry parties or
+flattering guests, but of her own open grave. She had stood beside it,
+and distinctly seen the little clods of earth rolling down into the pit
+that had been dug for her. She screamed aloud and stood as one
+paralyzed.
+
+With an effort she recovered herself; all the life within her cried: "I
+will not die, not yet; for I have not yet lived, either at home or
+here."
+
+She wept in deep compassion with herself as her thoughts travelled back
+over the years that were gone. She had imagined life would be so happy
+alone with the man she loved, far away from the world; from the
+publicity that had grown irksome to her, and the undefined feeling of
+insecurity that had begun to poison her enjoyment of the profusion
+about her. It was her husband's fault that she longed now for a wider
+field in which to use her wasted powers. He was like his own clocks,
+that play their little tunes, but hear nothing beyond. The comparison
+made her laugh in the midst of her wretchedness.
+
+She would gladly have yielded obedience to one who showed himself a
+master among men, but not to a miserable sticker of pins.
+
+Yet you knew who and what he was, whispered something in her heart.
+
+Yes, but not like this, not like this, she answered.
+
+Has he not a good heart?
+
+Towards every one but me. No one who has not lived with him knows his
+many whims, his frightful bursts of passion. This clock-making is
+fatal; we must try another mode of life.
+
+This was the point to which Annele's thoughts always reverted. If she
+could only be a landlady at the head of the first establishment in the
+country; could only be earning some money and have some communication
+with the world, happy days would come again.
+
+She went to the glass and rearranged her dress. She could never go
+about in any slatternly fashion; no slippers for her, though Lenz often
+did not draw on his boots from one Sunday to another. For the first
+time for many months she dressed her hair in its triple crown of
+braids, and her proud glance as she stood before her glass said
+plainly: I am Annele of the Lion; I have no idea of pining away for any
+man. I have harnessed afresh, and he must drive with me. Our two
+strongest horses are put to the carriage. She snapped with her tongue,
+and raised her right hand as if brandishing a whip over the horses'
+heads.
+
+"Is your mistress at home?" asked a voice without.
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was a knock, and, to Annele's great surprise, the minister
+entered.
+
+"Welcome, sir," said Annele, courtesying; "did you wish to see me or my
+husband?"
+
+"I came to see you, knowing your husband was absent. I have not seen
+you in the village since your parents' misfortune, and thought I might
+perhaps be of some service to you in your trial."
+
+Annele breathed more freely. She had feared her visitor might have been
+sent by Lenz, or had come to speak with her about Lenz.
+
+She spoke with sorrow of the fate of her parents; her mother, she
+feared, would not long survive the shock.
+
+The minister talked with her kindly and seriously, urging her to be
+resigned to what had happened, whether merited or unmerited, and not to
+let distress and anger tempt her to shut herself from the world. He
+reminded her of the one honor that he had spoken of at her marriage; he
+spoke pleasantly of her father, whose misfortune was due to a
+miscalculation on his part, not to any intentional dishonesty.
+
+"I have not forgotten your wedding day," pursued the minister, giving a
+slight turn to the conversation, "and wished to bid you good morning on
+this fifth anniversary of it."
+
+Annele smiled and thanked him; but the thought struck to her heart that
+Lenz had gone away without bidding her good morning. With a return of
+her old fluency she expressed her pleasure at the honor her minister
+paid her; spoke of his great goodness, and of the daily prayers the
+whole village ought to offer up to Heaven for his life and health. She
+evidently was bent upon keeping the conversation away from her own
+affairs. She would allow no approach, on the minister's part, to the
+subject of her domestic difficulties. Under the influence of that
+determination she drew in her breath and moistened her lips, as the
+postilion Gregory might when he was about to blow one of his elaborate
+pieces on the horn.
+
+The minister understood it all. He began by praising Annele for her
+many good qualities,--for her neatness and careful management in her
+parents' house, and her keeping her purity unharmed by the temptations
+which assailed her there.
+
+"I have long been unaccustomed to praise," answered Annele. "I had
+almost forgotten I was ever of account in the world."
+
+The minister saw his bait was taking. As a physician wins the
+confidence of his patient by describing to him all his aches and pains,
+till the sick man looks up joyfully and says, "the doctor knows my
+whole case; he will surely help me," so the minister described to
+Annele all her mental sufferings, and wound up with saying: "You have
+often seen blood flow from a wound, from a blow or a bruise, and know
+how the black blood gradually takes on all the seven colors. So it is
+with the soul's wounds. An injury, an offence, like that black blood
+gradually takes on all the colors,--hate, contempt, anger, self-pity,
+pain at the wrong, a desire to return evil for evil, and again to let
+all go to wreck and ruin."
+
+It seemed to Annele that she was holding her heart in her hand, and
+showing how it had been bruised and lacerated and beaten to pieces. The
+good-for-nothing barrelmaker, he would have his full deserts now! "O,
+help me, sir!" she cried.
+
+"I will; but you must help yourself. You do not need to change your
+nature. Alas for you, if you did! I am old enough to know how easy that
+is to say, and how hard to do. You only need to shake off something
+foreign to yourself that has taken possession of you. There is goodness
+in you, only you have forgotten it, wilfully forgotten and ridiculed
+it, and prided yourself on your sharpness of tongue. Have done with all
+pride and ambition. Where is no oneness of heart is a continual wearing
+upon each other."
+
+The little man's figure dilated, and his voice gathered strength as he
+laid bare before Annele her false pride and her hard-heartedness
+towards Franzl. Annele's eyes flashed at the mention of Franzl.
+
+So the secret was out. It was she, the thievish, hypocritical old
+woman, who had brought this upon her, and turned all against her. No
+cat ever mangled a mouse with greater pleasure than Annele now pulled
+to pieces old Franzl.
+
+"If I could but have her once in my clutches!" she snarled.
+
+The minister waited till her fury had spent itself. "You make yourself
+out to be wicked and vindictive," he said; "but I still maintain you
+are not so at heart."
+
+Then Annele cried to think she should be so sadly changed; it was not
+like her to be so angry. It was all because she had nothing to do; was
+not allowed to be earning anything. She was not made to keep house for
+a petty clockmaker; she was made to be a landlady. If the minister
+would only help her to be landlady, she promised he should never see
+another spark of anger or cruelty in her.
+
+The minister admitted that she had all the requisite qualities for a
+landlady, and promised to do everything in his power to make her one;
+but implored her, as she kissed his hands in gratitude, not to trust
+for her improvement to any external circumstances.
+
+"You are not yet subdued by your grief and humiliation. Your pride is
+your sin, the cause of unhappiness to you and yours. God forbid you
+should need the loss of husband or children to bring you to your better
+self!"
+
+Annele's seat was opposite the mirror, and as she caught the reflection
+of her face in the glass there seemed to be a cobweb floating before
+it. She passed her hand several times across her face.
+
+The minister got up to go, but Annele begged him to sit with her a
+little longer; she could think better when he was by.
+
+The two sat in silence. No sound was heard except the ticking of the
+clocks. Annele's lips moved, but no voice came from them. She kissed
+his hand devoutly when he at last departed, and he said: "If you feel
+yourself worthy, if your heart is softened, really softened, come to
+the communion to-morrow. God bless you!"
+
+She wished to accompany him part of the way. "No courtesies now," he
+said; "be first pure and humble in heart. Judge not, that ye be not
+judged, says the Saviour. Judge yourself; look into your own heart.
+Accustom yourself to sit quiet and think."
+
+Annele remained sitting where the minister had left her. She found
+it hard, for sitting with her hands before her and thinking was
+not her habit. She forced herself to it now. One sentence of the
+minister's kept ringing in her ears: "You have often good and pure
+thoughts,--thoughts of penitence; but they visit you as guests, drink
+their glass, and are gone. You put the chairs in place again, wipe off
+the table, and all is as if they had not been."
+
+Annele reflected upon it and acknowledged it was true.
+
+She could be hard upon herself as well as upon others. Why have you
+thus misused your life? she asked herself.
+
+The child woke up and cried. "The minister has no children; it is very
+well for him to tell me to sit and think, but I must quiet my child."
+
+She took the little girl out of bed and fondled her more tenderly than
+usual. The child helped to drive away her solitary thoughts.
+
+She suddenly remembered the tune that Lenz had played the first time
+she was at the house, and she sang her baby to sleep by it now: "Love
+it is the tender blossom." She still sang on after the child was asleep
+and lying quiet in her arms, and as she sang the words she thought:
+Whom have I ever loved? whom?--I wanted to marry the landlord's son and
+the engineer in order to have a good position; but as for loving any
+man with my whole heart, I never did. And my husband? I married him
+because one of the doctor's daughters would have taken him, and because
+I wanted to get away from home, and because he was good-tempered and
+everybody spoke well of him.
+
+Annele started as the child turned in her sleep. She quieted her again,
+but felt uneasy at being thus alone with her thoughts. There seemed
+ghosts lurking in all the corners, even in broad daylight. If only some
+one were here to cheer me up! Come, Lenz; come home! Be kind, and all
+will go well. We need no priest to help us; we can help ourselves. We
+are helped; I love you.
+
+It was noon, and the sun was shining warm out of doors. Annele wrapped
+the child carefully up and carried it out in front of the house.
+Perhaps Lenz was on his way home; she would give him a cordial
+greeting, bid him the good morning he had forgotten to say, and tell
+him all should henceforth be peace between them. At this hour, five
+years ago, they had been married, and now they would be married again.
+
+The figure of a man, still too far off to be recognized, was seen
+coming up the hill. "Call father!" she said to the child.
+
+"Father! father!" the little thing cried.
+
+The man came nearer. It was not Lenz, but Faller, hurrying up with an
+extra hat in his hand. "Is Lenz at home yet?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Good Heavens! this is his hat. My brother-in-law picked it up in the
+gully where he was cutting wood. If Lenz should have done himself any
+violence!"
+
+Annele's knees shook; she pressed the child to her till it cried. "You
+are mad, and want to make me mad!" she exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Is that not his hat?"
+
+"Good Heavens, it is!" she shrieked, and fell to the ground with the
+child.
+
+Faller raised them both.
+
+"Has he been found? dead?" asked Annele.
+
+"No, thank Heaven! Come into the house. Let me take the child. Be calm,
+he has only lost his hat."
+
+Annele staggered into the house, waving her hands before her face to
+brush away the mist that dimmed her sight. Was it possible? Lenz dead
+now,--now, when her heart had opened to him? It cannot be, it is not
+so. "Why should my Lenz kill himself?" she asked as she sank upon a
+seat. "What do you mean by it?"
+
+Faller made no answer.
+
+"Can you only talk when you are not wanted to?" she asked angrily. "Sit
+down, sit down, and tell me what has happened."
+
+As if he could punish Annele by not doing her bidding, Faller remained
+standing, though his knees shook under him. The look he turned upon her
+was so full of sorrow and bitter upbraidings, that her eyes fell
+beneath it. "How can I sit in your house?" he said at last. "You have
+taken the comfort out of every chair."
+
+"I do not need your admonitions. I told you that long ago. If you know
+anything of my husband, tell it. Has he been found dead? where? Speak,
+you--"
+
+"No, thank Heaven. God forbid! The shingle-maker from Knuslingen,
+Franzl's brother, reported him as having been with Franzl, and she
+lives almost two leagues beyond the place where his hat was picked up."
+
+Annele breathed more freely. "Why did you frighten me so?" she asked
+again.
+
+"Frighten you? Can you still be frightened?"
+
+Faller told how Lenz had been everywhere, trying to borrow money to pay
+the security on his house, and added that that need burden him no
+longer, as Don Bastian had just advanced the required amount.
+
+Annele drew herself up as he spoke. The old spirit of wrath and
+bitterness rose again within her, mightier, more vengeful than ever. He
+has deceived you, he has lied to you, her every feature said. He lives,
+he must live to atone for it. He told you he had withdrawn his
+security. Come home, you liar, you hypocrite! Annele went into her
+chamber, and Faller was obliged to depart without seeing her again.
+Gone was all sorrow, all contrition, all love. Lenz had deceived
+her, had told her a lie, and he should pay for it. Just like these
+good-natured milksops who, because they cannot stand up like men for
+their own rights, must be handled like a soft-shelled egg! Let me
+alone, and I will let you alone; refuse me nothing, and I will refuse
+you nothing, though you make me a beggar. Come home, you pitiful
+milksop!
+
+Annele put no food on the fire, to be ready for her husband's return. A
+very different kind of cooking was going on.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+                           A NIGHT OF STORMS.
+
+
+Lenz went up the hill, after parting from the doctor, with a light and
+happy heart. From one of two sources help must certainly come,--from
+his uncle or the factory.
+
+He saw the glimmer of a lamp as he approached his house. Thank Heaven,
+all is waiting for the good news, he said to himself. Poor Annele! you
+are more to be pitied than I, for you see the bad side of human nature,
+while I have only to go abroad to find the world full of kindness. I
+will help to lighten your burden.
+
+Suddenly, like a burning arrow, came the thought: You have been a
+traitor to-day in your heart,--twice and thrice a traitor. At
+Katharine's, and again at the doctor's, you entertained the sinful
+thought that your life might have been different. Where is the honor
+you pride yourself upon? You have been five years married, and are the
+father of two children. Good Heavens! this is our wedding day.
+
+He stood still listening to the voice within him: "Annele, dear Annele!
+This one day has seen my first and last unfaithfulness. May my parents
+in heaven refuse to pardon me if I ever give way to such thoughts
+again! From this time forth we will keep a new wedding day."
+
+In this feeling of self-accusation, and of joy that all things would
+henceforth be well, Lenz entered his house.
+
+"Where is my wife?" he asked as he saw the two children in the
+sitting-room with the servant.
+
+"She has just lain down."
+
+"Is she ill?"
+
+"She complained of nothing."
+
+"Annele," he said, going into the sleeping-room; "I am come to wish you
+good evening and good morning; I forgot it early to-day. I have good
+news, too, for you and for me. Please God, all things shall go well
+with us from this day forward."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Is anything the matter? Are you ill?"
+
+"No; I am only tired, tired almost to death. I will be up in a minute."
+
+"No; keep in bed if it does you good. I have news for you."
+
+"I don't want to keep in bed. Go into the sitting-room; I will be out
+in a minute."
+
+"Let me tell my news first."
+
+"There is time enough for that; it won't spoil in a couple of minutes."
+
+A shadow fell on Lenz's happiness. Without a word he returned to the
+sitting-room and fondled the children till Annele came out. "Will you
+have anything to eat?" she asked.
+
+"No. How came my hat here?"
+
+"Faller brought it. I suppose you gave it to Faller to bring to me, did
+you not?"
+
+"Why should I have done that?" he answered. "The wind blew it off my
+head."
+
+He told in few words his chance visit to Katharine. Annele was silent.
+She kept her charge of falsehood ready to launch at him when occasion
+offered. She could bide her time.
+
+Lenz sent the maid into the kitchen, and, holding the boy in his lap,
+gave a full account of his day's experiences, all but of those thoughts
+of infidelity which had risen in his heart.
+
+"Do you know the only one point of consequence in the whole story?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The hundred florins and three crown-pieces that Franzl offered you.
+The rest is nothing."
+
+"Why nothing?"
+
+"Because your uncle will not help you. Do you see now the mistake you
+made in letting him off five years ago?"
+
+"And the factory?"
+
+"Who is to be admitted besides yourself?"
+
+"I know of no one yet but Proebler, whose ingenious inventions have
+certainly earned him a place."
+
+"Ha, ha! that is too good; you and Proebler! You are capital
+yokefellows. Did I not always tell you you would come down to his
+level? But you are more pitiful than he, for he at least has not
+dragged down a wife and children. Out of my sight, you poor, miserable
+milksop! Let yourself be yoked to the same team with Proebler!" She
+snatched the child from its father's knee and, turning the torrent of
+her words upon the terrified boy, continued, passionately: "Your father
+is a pitiful milksop, who needs to have the bottle always held to his
+lips. Pity his mother is not alive to make his pap for him! Oh, how low
+have I fallen! But one thing I insist upon, you shall not enter the
+factory; I will drown myself and my children first. When I am dead you
+can go and ask the doctor's crooked daughter to leave her weeds and
+marry you."
+
+Lenz sat motionless, chilled with horror.
+
+"Mention not my mother's name," he cried at last. "Leave her to her
+eternal rest."
+
+"I have no objection to leaving her. I neither want nor have anything
+of hers."
+
+"What? Have you no longer that sprig of edelweiss? Tell me, have you
+not kept it?"
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! of course I have kept it."
+
+"Where? Give it to me!"
+
+Annele opened a drawer and showed it.
+
+"Thank God! you have it still; it will still bring us its blessing."
+
+"The man has actually lost his senses with his superstition. The idea
+of pinning his faith to a wretched bit of dried grass instead of trying
+to help himself! Just like these beggars to go tearing about the world
+distracted."
+
+Annele poured forth all this venom with her back upon her husband, as
+if calling the world to witness his degradation. Her utter ignoring of
+his presence, and thus speaking of him in the third person, was a
+keener stab than even her cruel epithets.
+
+With great self-control he said: "Do not speak so, Annele; it is not
+yourself, but a devil speaking in you. And do not crush the little
+flower; keep it sacred."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Annele. "That is too much. I won't give way to such
+miserable superstition. Out of the window, Edelweiss, and take this
+precious bit of writing with you."
+
+A tempest of wind was raging without.
+
+"Come, Wind," she cried, as she threw open the window; "come, take
+all this sacred trumpery." She let go flower and letter. The wind
+whistled and howled, and whirled them high in the air over the bald
+mountain-top.
+
+"What have you done, Annele?" groaned Lenz.
+
+"I am not superstitious like you, nor am I yet fallen so low as to make
+an idol of such trash."
+
+"It is no superstition. My mother only meant that so long as my wife
+honored the memory of my parents, a blessing would rest upon the house.
+But nothing is sacred to you."
+
+"I do not hold you sacred, nor your mother either."
+
+"That is too much, too much!" cried Lenz, his voice choked with the
+passion he in vain endeavored to repress. "Leave the room and take the
+boy with you. I have heard enough. Go, or you will drive me mad!--Hush!
+There is some one at the door."
+
+Annele withdrew with the child into the inner chamber, just as the
+doctor entered the room.
+
+"It is as I feared," he said. "Your uncle will not lift a hand to help
+you. He says you married against his will, and not another word can I
+get from him. I have used every argument in my power; all was vain. He
+at last almost turned me out of the house."
+
+"And all because of me! I must bring evil on all who love me and try to
+serve me. Forgive me, doctor. I cannot help it."
+
+"Why, how you talk; of course you cannot help it. I have known plenty
+of strange men in my life, but never one like your uncle. He opened his
+whole heart to me, and a tender heart it is; he is not a jot behind the
+rest of your family in that. I thought I surely had him and could guide
+him like a child; but when it came to money, off he was again." Here
+the doctor gave an expressive snap of his fingers. "Nothing more was to
+be got out of him. In fact, I don't believe he has anything besides a
+trifling annuity from some insurance office. Let us put him out of the
+question altogether. I shall talk the matter over with my sons, and if
+you prefer not to enter the factory, we can make some arrangement by
+which you shall employ five or six workmen here, or more, if you can
+accommodate them, to be paid by our establishment."
+
+"Not so loud, please. My wife can hear us from the next room. I was
+prepared for the result of your interview with my uncle; there was
+little else to be looked for. As for the factory, the mere mention of
+the word has thrown my wife into such a state as I never saw her in
+before. She will not hear of it."
+
+"Take time to consider it. Will you not come a little way down the hill
+with me?"
+
+"Pray excuse me; I am so tired! My knees bend under me. Since four
+o'clock this morning I have scarcely sat down, and I am not used to
+such long tramps. I almost fancy I am going to have a fit of illness."
+
+"Your pulse is feverish, as is natural after so much fatigue and
+excitement. A good night's sleep will set you right again. But you must
+be careful of yourself for some little time to come. You may really
+work yourself into a serious fit of illness if you don't rest more and
+husband your strength. Tell your wife from me," he continued, raising
+his voice so that his words could not fail to be heard in the adjoining
+room, "that she must take very good care of the father of her children
+during this season of thaw, and make him keep housed. A clockmaker,
+used to such constant sitting, gets to be delicate. Good night, Lenz;
+pleasant dreams to you!"
+
+The doctor had a hard walk down the hill, often sinking deep into the
+melting snow, on whose surface lay a treacherous covering of stones and
+gravel. He was obliged to divest his mind of its anxiety for Lenz, and
+concentrate all his thoughts on the path he was treading. A remark of
+Pilgrim's constantly recurred to his memory, that Lenz could make
+as much of life as any man, but he craved joy and love; the dry
+companionship his home afforded was killing him.
+
+Lenz meanwhile sat alone in his room. He was tired out, yet could find
+no rest. He paced the room like a wild beast in its cage. Racked with
+pains, and sick in body and mind, his heart cried out: Alas, to be sick
+and at the mercy of a cruel wife! to have no escape, to lie under the
+scourge of her tongue, to hear your fevered fancies blamed as evil
+passions, to be cut off from your friends; sick and dependent upon an
+unloving woman!--rather death by my own hand!
+
+The wind put out the fire, filling the room with smoke. Lenz opened the
+window and gazed out. No light now in the blacksmith's house; he is
+buried in the dark ground. Would I too were at rest from my many
+sorrows!
+
+The air was warm, unnaturally warm. The water dripped from the roof;
+from the bare mountain-top to the valley below, the wind was rushing
+and roaring as if one gust were driving hard upon another. There was a
+rattling and rumbling on the heights behind the house. The tempest, in
+rage at the loss of its playground in the forest, seemed to be wreaking
+its vengeance on the chestnut and pines in the garden, twisting them
+till they creaked and groaned. It was well that his house was firm in
+its stout oaken beams, else the wind might sweep it away with all in
+it. "That would be gay travelling," laughed Lenz, bitterly, starting at
+the same time and casting a frightened look behind him, as the old
+timbers cracked in ghostly sympathy with the misery within the
+dwelling. Such words were never heard within these walls before, nor
+did ever dweller here live through such a night in such a mood; neither
+father, nor grandfather, nor great-grandfather.
+
+He turned to get his writing materials, and, as he passed the mirror,
+stopped involuntarily and gazed at the figure whose swollen and
+bloodshot eyes were reflected there. At last he sat down and began to
+Write, pausing often and pressing his hand to his eyes, then dashing
+his pen along the paper again. He rubbed his eyes, but no tears fell
+from them. "You have lost the power to weep," he said, hoarsely; "best
+so; you have wept too much already for a man."
+
+He wrote:--
+
+
+"DEAREST FRIEND AND BROTHER: My heart is breaking as I write, but I
+must talk with you once more. I think of the days and the many summer
+nights I have spent in happy walk's with you, my one ever-loving
+friend. It could not have been I; it was some one else. God is my
+witness, and so is my mother in heaven, that I never wilfully wronged a
+fellow-being. If I ever wronged or grieved you, dear brother, forgive
+me. I did it not intentionally, and humbly beg your forgiveness. I am
+not fit to live.
+
+"Here is my confession; I see no escape but death. I know that to kill
+myself is a sin, but to live is a greater. Every day I am a murderer. I
+can bear it no longer. I spend my nights in weeping, and all the time
+despise myself for it. I might have been a quiet, honest, upright man,
+had I been allowed to remain in the beaten track; but I was not made
+for contest. I weep to think of what I have become; I who was once so
+different! If I live, my life will be a greater shame upon my children
+than my death. That will be soon forgotten; the next season the grass
+will be growing on my grave. By your faithful heart, and by all the
+acts of kindness you have ever done me, I conjure you to be a father to
+my forsaken children. My poor children,--I dare not think of them. I
+was foolish enough once to fancy I could make a good father; but I
+cannot; I can be nothing. If love is not freely given me, I cannot win
+it; that is my misery, that is my ruin. A wall of glass is about me
+that I try in vain to surmount. My mother was right in saying we can
+sow and plant and force a harvest by our industry, but one thing must
+grow of itself, and that is love. It will not grow for me where I had a
+right to look for it.
+
+"Take my children out of the village when I am buried. I would not have
+them see me. Pray the mayor and the minister to have me laid beside my
+parents and my brethren. They were happier than I. Why was I alone left
+to live for such an end as this?
+
+"You are my little William's godfather,--take him now for your own
+child. You always said he had a taste for drawing; take him to your own
+home and teach him. If it be possible, be reconciled with my uncle
+Petrovitsch. Perhaps he will do something for my children when I am
+gone, for I am sure he likes you; I would not tell you now what I did
+not know to be true. You may still be good friends together. His heart
+is kinder than he will acknowledge, as my mother always said. My
+wife--but I will say nothing of her. If my children are happy, let her
+be forgiven for my sake.
+
+"I have been driven to hearing and saying such words as I had never
+imagined tongue could utter.
+
+"I am in prison and must escape. I have lived through days and watched
+through nights that were as years. I can endure no more; I am tired,
+tired even to death. For months I have not closed my eyes and tried to
+sleep, without being assailed by visions of horror that pursue me
+through the day. I can bear this black and haunted sleep no longer; I
+must have the quiet sleep of death.
+
+"In return for the money I owe you, take the watch which you will find
+on my body. It will tick on against your faithful heart when my heart
+shall have ceased to beat. When my effects are sold, buy my father's
+file and keep it for my son. I have no legacy to bequeath to him. Teach
+him that his father was not a bad man. He has my unhappy sensitiveness;
+drive it out of him, make him strong and self-reliant. And the baby-.
+
+"It is hard--hard that I must die; I am still so young; but better now.
+The doctor must see that my body is not carried to Freiburg for the
+students to dissect. Give to him and all his household my cordial
+greeting. He has long known how things were with me; but they were past
+any doctor's help. Bid our comrades good by for me, especially Faller
+and the schoolmaster. My dearest, dearest brother, I have still much to
+say to you, but my head swims. Good night. Farewell.
+
+                             "In eternity,
+
+                                         "Your loving
+
+                                                           "LENZ."
+
+He folded the letter and wrote the address: "To be delivered to my
+friend and brother Pilgrim."
+
+The day began to dawn. He extinguished the lamp, and, holding the
+letter in his hand, approached the window to take his last look of the
+world of nature. The sun was just rising above the mountain; first a
+pale streak of yellow, soon obscured by a long stretch of dark cloud;
+above the cloud, the deep blue of the open heavens, and beneath the
+broad expanse of snow shimmering in the ghostly light. A rosy flush
+floats on the black bosom of the cloud, and lo! in an instant the mass
+is rent with golden fissures; the whole heaven is spread with gold,
+that gradually turns to crimson, till of a sudden all is aglow with
+purple flame. That is the world of light, of bright existence. Take
+your last look of it before leaving it forever.
+
+Lenz put the letter in his pocket, and went out to take a turn about
+the house. At every step he sank to his knees in melting snow. He
+returned to the sitting-room, and, finding that Annele was not inclined
+to get up, dressed the children himself and gave them their breakfast.
+When the village bells began to ring he ordered the maid to take
+William by the hand and the baby in her arms and go with them to
+Pilgrim's. He gave the letter into the girl's hand, but finally changed
+his mind about it, and taking it from her, concealed it in the little
+girl's pocket. When the child's clothes were taken off at night, the
+letter would be found. All would be over then.
+
+"Go to Pilgrim's," he repeated to the girl, "and wait there till I
+come; if I do not come, wait till night."
+
+He kissed the children, and, turning away, laid his head upon the
+table. Long he lay in the same position. Nothing stirred in the house.
+He waited till the last sound of the church-bells had died away, then
+rose and bolted the house door. "God forgive me, it must be done," was
+his bitter cry. He sank upon his knees; he tried to pray, but could
+not. "She often said her prayers, and before the last word had fairly
+passed her lips, her anger and abuse and mockery broke out afresh. She
+has sinned against everything in heaven and on the earth. She, too,
+shall--no; let her live. But in her presence I will do the deed; she
+shall see the work of her hands."
+
+He covered his face with both hands, then clenched his fists and burst
+into the chamber, meaning to kill himself before his wife's very eyes.
+He drew back the bed-curtains. "Cuckoo! cuckoo!" cried the little girl
+from the bed. Lenz sank half fainting to the floor.
+
+Suddenly there was a rushing sound;--the earth seemed opening to
+swallow them,--there was a rolling as of thunder over the earth and
+under it,--a mighty crash above their heads,--and it was night, deep,
+dark night.
+
+"What is the matter? For Heaven's sake, what is it?" screamed Annele.
+Lenz rose to his feet. "I do not know; I cannot tell what has
+happened." Annele and the child were beside themselves; they wept and
+screamed with terror. Lenz tried to open a window; he could not stir
+it. Tumbling over the chairs, he groped his way into the outer room,
+where, too, all was in total darkness. "Annele," he cried, "we are
+buried under the snow!" A silence fell upon them both; only the child
+sobbed and shrieked, and the poultry in the wood-shed cackled as if a
+hawk were among them. An instant more and all was still as death.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+                           A FRIEND IN NEED.
+
+
+At that very hour Pilgrim was on his way to church. When nearly there,
+however, he changed his purpose, took several turns in front of old
+Petrovitsch's house, and finally mustered courage to pull the bell.
+Petrovitsch had been watching him from his window, and muttered to
+himself, as he heard the ring: "You are going to make me a visit, are
+you? I will give you a reception you won't forget in a hurry."
+
+Petrovitsch was as much out of sorts as if he were suffering from the
+effects of a night's debauch; and indeed it was pretty much so. He had
+committed an excess in calling up old associations, and admitting a
+guest to share them. The idea of having given way to the wretched
+weakness of desiring to appear well before a fellow-man angered him.
+How could he meet the doctor again in the full light of day? There was
+an end to his proud boast of caring nothing for the opinion of the
+world. Pilgrim was an excellent object on which to wreak his ill-humor;
+he would put a stop to the fellow's playing and singing for one day at
+least.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Lenz!" said Pilgrim, entering.
+
+"The same to you, Mr. Pilgrim."
+
+"Mr. Lenz, I have come to see you instead of going to church."
+
+"I did not know I was considered such a saint."
+
+"I do not come hoping for any great results from my visit, but only
+that I may feel I have done my duty."
+
+"If every one did his duty it would be a fine world to live in."
+
+"Your Lenz, as you know--"
+
+"I have no Lenz but that one," interrupted Petrovitsch, pointing to the
+reflection of his carefully shaven face in the glass.
+
+"You know that your brother's son is in great trouble."
+
+"No; the trouble is in him. It all comes from a man's priding himself
+on his kind heart, and having friends who pet him till he thinks all
+other views than his are the whimsies of a crabbed old croaker."
+
+"You may be right; but talking won't mend the matter. Your Lenz's
+difficulties are greater than you think."
+
+"I never measured them."
+
+"He is even in danger of taking his own life."
+
+"He did that long ago, when he married as he did."
+
+"I can say no more. I thought I was prepared for everything, but this I
+had not expected. You are much more,--you are a different man from what
+I took you for."
+
+"Thanks for the compliment. I only regret I cannot wear it as a medal
+about my neck, as you singers wear your badges."
+
+The gay, open-hearted Pilgrim stood before the old man as disconcerted
+as a fencer who at every sally finds his weapon struck from his hand.
+
+Petrovitsch hugged himself on his success, and putting an unusually
+large lump of sugar into his mouth, said, as he smacked his lips: "The
+son of my deceased brother has done according to his own will and
+pleasure. It would be unjust in me to try to defraud him of the fruits
+of his own choosing. He has squandered his life and money,--I cannot
+restore them."
+
+"Good Heavens, Mr. Lenz, you can. His life and that of his whole family
+may yet be saved. The discord in his house will cease when plenty
+returns and this wear of anxiety is removed. 'Horses quarrel over the
+empty crib,' says the proverb. Wealth is not happiness, but it can
+command happiness."
+
+"Young people nowadays are very generous with others' money, but have
+no taste for earning their own. I will do nothing for the husband of
+Annele of the Lion, whose fair words have to be bought with gold."
+
+"What if your nephew should die?"
+
+"He will probably be buried."
+
+"And what will become of the children?"
+
+"We can never tell what will become of children."
+
+"Has your nephew ever offended you in any way?"
+
+"I know not how he could offend me."
+
+"Then what can you do better with your money than now--"
+
+"If I ever need a guardian, I will ask to have you appointed, Mr.
+Pilgrim."
+
+"I see I am not clever enough for you."
+
+"You do me too much honor," said Petrovitsch, putting one foot over the
+other and playing with the lappet of his slipper.
+
+"I have done my duty," said Pilgrim again.
+
+"And cheaply, too, at the expense of a couple of fair words. A bushel
+of them would not cost much. I would buy at that rate."
+
+"This is my first and last request to you."
+
+"And this is my first and last refusal to you."
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Lenz!"
+
+"The same to you, Mr. Pilgrim."
+
+At the door Pilgrim turned, his face crimson and his eyes flashing.
+"Mr. Lenz, do you know what you are doing?"
+
+"I generally know pretty well what I am doing."
+
+"You are absolutely turning me out of your house."
+
+"Indeed!" said Petrovitsch with an ugly smile; but his eyes fell before
+the look of mingled pain and defiance in Pilgrim's face. "Mr. Lenz,"
+continued the young man, "from you I bear everything. There lives not a
+man within sight of a hedge or a tree that can yield a stick, who can
+boast of having insulted Pilgrim with impunity. You can: and do you
+know the reason? Because I am willing to bear insults in my friend's
+cause. Unhappily it is all I can do for him. No angry word shall you
+hear from me that you can use as a pretext for not helping my friend.
+For his sake I gladly suffer insults. Tell all the world, if you will,
+that you have turned me out of your house."
+
+"It would not be much to boast of."
+
+Pilgrim's breath came short and quick; his lips grew white, and without
+another word he left the room.
+
+Petrovitsch sent after him such a look of triumph as a satisfied fox
+might send after the wounded and fugitive hare whose blood he had
+sucked, but whose life the poor creature might save as he could.
+
+With great satisfaction he paced about his room, stroking himself down
+with his hands. He seemed actually so puffed up with satisfaction that
+he had to let out the tasseled cord of his dressing-gown. Now
+Petrovitsch is himself again, his every motion seemed to say; last
+night you behaved like an old fool and forfeited all right to revile
+the dish-clouts about you.
+
+Pilgrim silently wended his way homeward, but, being in no mood for
+entering his room at once, passed his house and took a long walk
+through the fields. On returning, he was most agreeably surprised by
+finding his friend's little boy. That is the way, he thought, when
+friends heartily love one another. At the very moment I was thinking of
+Lenz, his heart was full of me. Perhaps he had a presentiment of my
+intended visit to Petrovitsch, and so sent his boy to help my petition.
+But the child could have done no good. The voices of men and angels
+would have been alike useless.
+
+There was no end to the games Pilgrim invented, and the pictures he
+drew, for the child's entertainment. Little William screamed with
+delight at the hare and hounds made out of a handkerchief and a black
+necktie, and called for the same stories over and over again. Pilgrim's
+great story was of a Turk named Kulikali, who had an immense nose and
+could swallow smoke. He dressed himself up like the Turk Kulikali, and
+spreading a cloth on the floor, sat in the middle of it with his legs
+crossed, and played all manner of tricks. He was as much of a child for
+the time as his little godson. After dinner, which they ate down stairs
+with Don Bastian, William insisted on being taken, in spite of the
+sleet and slosh, down to the brook. That was the best fun of all. Great
+blocks of ice went floating by with ravens perched upon them; and when
+one of their rafts cracked and broke to pieces, the ravens flew up and
+perched upon another. It was dizzying to look down on them from the
+height where the two stood. The earth seemed to be in motion while the
+ice stood still. The child clung anxiously to Pilgrim. When that
+entertainment failed, Pilgrim took his godson home and made him up a
+bed on his well-worn sofa, which they agreed should be little Lenz's
+own, and he should never go away any more. "At home papa cries," the
+little fellow said; "and mamma too; and mamma says papa is a wicked
+man." Poor Pilgrim was cut to the heart at hearing of it. The snow and
+rain increased so much in violence, and the avalanches from the roofs
+of the houses and from the upland slopes were so constant, that it soon
+became impossible to step out of doors. The evening came, but no Lenz.
+The servant-maid told of her having met Petrovitsch on his way to the
+Morgenhalde, not far from the house. He had asked whose the child was,
+and on her replying it was Lenz's William, had given him a little bit
+of sugar,--not a whole lump, for he broke off half of it first and put
+it into his own mouth.
+
+"Is it possible? can Petrovitsch really have been softened? Who can
+read the hearts of men?"
+
+Petrovitsch, after giving full scope to his exultation at this double
+triumph over the doctor and Pilgrim, felt very tranquil in his mind. He
+sat at his window watching the groups of church-goers, till at last all
+were gone by except a single woman and a single man, who came hurrying
+along to take their seats before the service should begin.
+Petrovitsch's custom was to go to church himself; in fact, so regular
+was his attendance that it was reported he meant to leave a handsome
+sum in his will towards erecting a new building. To day, however, he
+stayed at home, being busy with his own thoughts. One idea in
+particular occupied his mind: The fellow has good friends in his time
+of need. Pooh! would they be quite so good if they were rich? Pilgrim's
+friendship perhaps is sincere; it almost looked so. He was very near
+letting his passion break out at one time; but he kept it down and let
+me say what I would, rather than injure his friend's cause.--It was all
+a trick likely enough,--and yet there is such a thing as friendship.
+
+He heard the rumbling of the organ from the distant church, the singing
+of the congregation, and then came a silence which implied that the
+minister had begun his sermon. A voice seemed to be preaching to
+Petrovitsch as he sat with folded hands in his chair. Suddenly he rose
+saying half aloud: "It is very well to show men their master, but it is
+pleasant too to be thought well off.--No, no; that is not worth while;
+that is not what I mean; but to make men rub their eyes and cry:
+'Thunder and lightning, who would have thought it?' there is some fun
+in that."
+
+Petrovitsch had not for many years dressed himself so quickly as he did
+to-day. Generally he took his dressing easily and comfortably, like
+most things that he did, spending at least an hour over it; but to-day
+he was soon ready, even to the putting on of his costly fur coat which
+he had brought from Russia himself. The old housekeeper, who had seen
+him a few minutes before in dressing-gown and slippers, stared in
+amazement, but dared not utter a word, as she was not spoken to. With
+his gold-headed cane, furnished with a hard, sharp ferrule at the
+bottom, in case of need, Petrovitsch walked through the village and
+straight up the hill. No human being was in the street; none at the
+windows to wonder at seeing him leave his house at this unwonted hour
+and in this ugly weather. Bubby had to represent the whole absent
+humanity, and proclaimed, as well as his barking could: My master is
+behaving himself in a way you would not believe; I would not have
+believed it myself. He barked it at a raven sitting meditatively on a
+hedge, sagely reflecting upon the melting snow; he barked it for his
+own gratification as he leaped ever higher and higher through the
+deepening drifts, on his useless digressions to and fro; and between
+his barks his look at his master seemed to say: No human soul
+understands us two; but we know each other.
+
+I sacrifice all my peace of mind by doing it, said Petrovitsch to
+himself; but if I don't do it I have no peace of mind either. I might
+as well secure some thanks at least. After all, he is a good, simple,
+honest fellow, as his father was before him.
+
+Lenz's door was locked when the two reached the house. Bubby was
+already on the threshold, and Petrovitsch had his hand on the latch
+when--he sank to the ground, and an avalanche of snow overwhelmed him.
+So much for troubling yourself about other men, was his first thought
+and his last, for immediately consciousness failed him.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+                             BURIED ALIVE.
+
+
+"Strike a light, Lenz; strike a light! If there is any danger, I must
+see it. What makes you stand there crying in the dark. I feel your
+tears on my hand. What is the matter? Let me go; I will get up myself
+and light a lamp."
+
+"Be quiet, Annele," said Lenz, his teeth chattering so he could hardly
+speak. "Annele, I had meant to kill myself here before your eyes."
+
+"Better kill me; I should be too glad to die."
+
+"Did you not understand me, Annele? We are blocked up by the snow;
+buried alive with our child."
+
+"If death had had to wait for you to bring it, it never would have
+come."
+
+Still that hard, cutting tone; those biting, stinging words! Lenz felt
+his breath come hard.
+
+"Let me get up, let me get up!" continued Annele; "I am not like you,
+to let my arms hang down at my side. I don't care what becomes of me;
+but I choose to see the danger. You would like to wait till some one
+came to dig you out or till the snow went away of itself; that is not
+my way. Defend yourself, is our family motto."
+
+"Stay where you are; I will strike a light," answered Lenz; but hardly
+had he reached the next room before Annele stood beside him with the
+child in her arms. On attempting to go to the garret a new misfortune
+disclosed itself; the roof had been broken in. "The snow alone could
+not have done the damage," he said; "it has brought trunks of trees
+down with it, and that was what made such a crash."
+
+"I don't care what made it; only let us find some help, some way of
+escape."
+
+She ran hither and thither trying all the windows and doors. Not till
+she found that all were firmly walled up and yielded nothing under her
+fiercest efforts, did she admit the full extent of the catastrophe, and
+setting the child down upon the table, broke out into screams and
+tears. Lenz took the child in his arms, and with difficulty persuaded
+Annele to be quiet. "The hand of death is upon our house," he said;
+"all struggle is unavailing. Did you keep William too at home? Is he
+concealed anywhere here?"
+
+"No; he went with the maid. I kept only the baby."
+
+"Thank God! we are not all lost; one of us at least is saved. Poor
+little child! I sent the boy away, Annele, that he might not see his
+father kill himself; but now all is changed. God summons us all. Poor
+child, to have to perish for your parents' sins!"
+
+"I have not sinned; I have nothing to reproach myself with."
+
+"Good; hold to that to the last. Do you not know that you have murdered
+me, poisoned the very heart in my body, disgraced me in my own eyes,
+trodden me under foot, taken all strength from me?"
+
+"A man who allows his strength to be taken from him deserves nothing
+better."
+
+"An hour more and we may be standing before another judgment-seat. Look
+into your heart, Annele."
+
+"Keep your preaching to yourself; I don't want it."
+
+An instant afterwards her screams summoned Lenz to the kitchen, whither
+she had gone to light the fire, and where he found her gazing in terror
+at the rats and mice congregated on the hearth, while a raven flew
+round and round the kitchen, knocking down plates and pots in his
+course.
+
+"Kill them! kill them!" shrieked Annele, and fled into the adjoining
+room.
+
+The rats and mice were soon disposed of, but the raven it would have
+been impossible to catch without breaking every article of crockery in
+the kitchen. The lamp made the bird frantic, and without a light
+it was impossible to find him. "I might shoot the raven with my pistol
+which I have here, ready loaded," he said, returning to Annele in the
+sitting-room; "but the jar would hasten the fall of the house. The best
+thing I can do is to make this room safe."
+
+He drew a heavy press into the middle of the room directly under the
+main beam, piled a smaller one above it, and filled in the space so
+tightly with clothes as to prop up the roof against a considerable
+pressure from without.
+
+"We must bring all the eatables we have in here." That too he did
+quickly and handily, while Annele sat like one paralyzed, and could
+only look on in wonder.
+
+Lenz brought his own prayer-book and Annele's, opened them both at the
+same place,--the preparation for death,--and laying his wife's open
+before her, began to read aloud. Seeing she did not follow him, he
+looked up presently and said: "You are right not to read; there is
+nothing there for us. Never were any two like us, who should have lived
+together in peace, each doubling the other's life; but who instead of
+that pulled away from each other, and are now both imprisoned at the
+gates of death, and must die together, since they could not live
+together. Hark! Do you not hear cries? I thought there was a growling
+sound."
+
+"I hear nothing."
+
+"We cannot light a fire," continued Lenz; "for there is no way for the
+smoke to escape, and we should be stifled. Thank God, there is the
+spirit-lamp that my mother bought. You help even in death, mother," he
+said, looking up at the picture. "Light it, Annele; only economize the
+spirit; we cannot tell how long we shall have to make it last."
+
+Annele watched his movements in blank amazement. She was often tempted
+to ask whether this were really that Lenz who had been so incapable of
+helping himself. But no words came from her stiffened lips. She was
+like a person in a deathly trance who tries to speak and cannot.
+
+Her first swallow of warm milk revived her. "What if the mice should
+come in here?" was her first question.
+
+"I will kill them here too, and bury them in the snow to get rid of the
+stench. By the way, I must bury those I killed in the kitchen."
+
+Again Annele looked at him in amazement. Was this man, so bold in the
+face of death, the old, sensitive, shiftless Lenz? A kind word rose to
+her lips, but did not get spoken.
+
+"That plaguy raven has bitten me," said Lenz, returning with his hand
+bleeding. "The fellow is wild with terror at having been swept away by
+the force of the avalanche; there is no catching him. A whole pillar of
+snow has fallen down the chimney. Hark! that is ten o'clock. People are
+coming out of church now. We were buried just as the last bells were
+ringing. It was our death-knell."
+
+"I will not die yet; I am so young! And my child! I never knew, I never
+imagined that I was going to my death when I condescended to live in
+this desert with you clockmakers."
+
+"It is your father's fault," answered Lenz. "My parents were three
+times snowed up, so that for two and three days they could not go
+outside the house, on account of the depth of snow that lay there; but
+they were never buried. Your father disposed of the wood, and had it
+cut down over my head. This is his work."
+
+"You have no one but yourself to blame. He wanted to give you the
+wood."
+
+"That is true."
+
+"Oh, if I and my child were but out of this place!" cried Annele,
+beginning her lamentations afresh.
+
+"And do you care nothing for me?"
+
+Without appearing to hear him she cried again, "O God, why must I die
+thus? What have I done?"
+
+"What have you done? yet a little while and God himself will tell you.
+My words are spent in vain."
+
+Both were silent; a secret power seemed forcing Annele to speak, but
+she could not.
+
+"Good God!" began Lenz; "here we two stand at the gates of death and
+with what feelings towards each other! If we should be saved, it would
+be only to renew the old pain and torment. My parents were three times
+snowed up. My mother always made provision against such an event, and
+kept on hand a plentiful supply of salt and oil. Of the first two times
+I know nothing, but the last is distinct in my memory to this day.
+Dearly as my father and mother loved each other, I never before saw
+them kiss. When my father said: 'Mary, we are once more alone in the
+world, out of the world'; then for the first time I saw my mother kiss
+him. For those three days it was like living in eternity, in paradise.
+Morning, noon, and night my father and mother sang together out of the
+hymn-book, and every word they spoke was more sweet and holy than
+tongue can tell. I remember my mother's saying once: 'Would we might
+die at such a moment as this; pass out of this earthly rest into the
+eternal, neither one left behind to grieve for the other!' Then and
+only then did I hear my father speak of my uncle. 'If I were to die
+now,' he said, 'I should leave no enemy behind. I owe no man anything.
+My one grief is that my brother Peter dislikes me.'"
+
+Lenz suddenly paused in his story. There was a scratching at the
+house-door, a whimpering and howling. "What is there? I must see what
+it is," said Lenz.
+
+"No, no; for Heaven's sake!" cried Annele, sending a thrill through him
+by the touch of her hand on his shoulder. "Let it be, Lenz! It is a fox
+howling, or a wolf. I heard the howl of a wolf once, and it sounded
+just like that."
+
+Whatever the creature was outside, it seemed to be roused to fresh
+exertion by the sound of voices within; the scratching and barking grew
+louder.
+
+"That is no wolf; it is a dog. Hark! it is Hubby's bark. Great Heavens,
+it is Bubby! and where his dog is my uncle must be too. He must be
+buried in the snow."
+
+"Let him lie there, if he is; it serves him right."
+
+"Woman! are you mad? must you still spit out your poison?"
+
+"I am full of poison up to my throat. For days and days I had nothing
+else to drink; it has been my only food."
+
+Lenz went to the kitchen and returned with an axe.
+
+"What do you mean to do?" screamed Annele, holding the child as a
+shield before her.
+
+"Out of my way!" he cried, and raising the axe brought it down with all
+his force against the door, which fell outward. It was indeed Bubby,
+who now sprang in howling, but in an instant was back again scratching
+in the snow, and uttering short, sharp barks.
+
+Lenz began to shovel away the snow. A piece of fur soon came to view,
+and laying shovel and pick aside, he set carefully to work, digging
+with his hands, and bringing the snow into the house in order to clear
+a space. When he found his uncle, the old man's consciousness was gone.
+All Lenz's strength was required to drag his seemingly lifeless body
+out of the snow. He bore him into the chamber, stripped off his
+clothing, put him to bed, and began rubbing him with all his might,
+till he at last drew a deep breath.
+
+"Where am I?" groaned Petrovitsch; "where am I?"
+
+"In my house, uncle."
+
+"Who brought me here? who took off my clothes? where are my clothes?
+where is my fur? where is my waistcoat? it has my keys in it. So you
+have me at last, have you?"
+
+"Be calm, uncle; I will find everything for you. See, here is your fur,
+and here is your waistcoat."
+
+"Let me have them. Are the keys in the pocket? yes, there they are. Ha,
+Bubby, are you here too?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, he saved your life."
+
+"Ah, now I remember. We were buried by the snow. How long ago was it?
+was it not yesterday?"
+
+"Scarce an hour ago," said Lenz.
+
+"Hear you no help coming?"
+
+"I hear nothing. Keep quiet a few minutes while I go into the other
+room, and get you something to drink."
+
+"Leave me the light; bring me something warm."
+
+"Serves me right," said Petrovitsch when he was left by himself;
+"serves me exactly right. What business had I to go out of my
+accustomed way?"
+
+He seemed revived by the brandy Lenz brought him, and caressing his
+dog, who had nestled close to his master's side, said: "Let me go to
+sleep now. What is that noise? Is there not a raven crying?"
+
+"Yes, one was swept down the kitchen chimney by the snow."
+
+"Very well; let me sleep now."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+                         SMITTEN TO THE HEART.
+
+
+Lenz and Annele sat without in the sitting-room, neither speaking a
+word. The child laughed and stretched out its little hands now towards
+the light, and now towards its father's eyes, that were broodingly
+fixed upon it. "If we must die, thank God our son is saved!" said Lenz.
+Still Annele was silent. The monotonous ticking of the clocks was
+suddenly interrupted by one of the musical works beginning to play a
+hymn. For the first time the eyes of husband and wife met. Annele
+changed the child's position on her lap, and clasped her hands over its
+buoyant bosom.
+
+"If you can pray," said Lenz, "you ought to be able to look into your
+heart and repent."
+
+"I have nothing to repent of in my conduct towards you; whatever other
+sins I may have committed, I confess only to God. I have meant nothing
+that was not kind and honest towards you."
+
+"And I?"
+
+"You did right too, as far as you knew how. I am more just to you than
+you are to me. You would never put me in a position where I could earn
+anything."
+
+"And your horrible words?"
+
+"Pooh! words break no bones."
+
+Lenz implored her to be kind and peaceable before his uncle. "Your
+uncle and the raven in the kitchen tell me we must die," she answered
+as in a dream.
+
+"You are not generally superstitious; I hope, for your sake, you are
+not going to be so now. It was you who threw the writing and the plant
+to the wind, and called on the storm to visit us."
+
+Annele made no answer. After another interval of silence Lenz arose,
+saying he would go on digging at the place where he had found his
+uncle, for if he could dig through to the mountain, he should be able
+to crawl out and summon help. Annele had her hand stretched out to
+detain him, imagining the horror of having him buried in the snow, and
+she and Petrovitsch too weak to dig him out. She had her hand stretched
+out to detain him, but passed it over her face instead, and let him go.
+He soon returned, however, and reported the snow to be so loose that
+every space filled in again as soon as cleared. There was reason to
+fear, also, that the snow still continued to fall. The best he could do
+was to shovel out again what he had been obliged to bring into the
+house, and push a clothes-press against the entrance, where the
+battered door no longer served as a protection.
+
+His wet clothes had to be changed for his Sunday suit; it was no
+wedding garment he put on.
+
+"Five years ago to-day," he murmured, "many sleighs stood before the
+door of the Lion inn; would that the guests were here now to dig us
+out!"
+
+Petrovitsch had awaked from a short sleep, but still lay quiet in bed
+in the sleeping-room. He thought over with calmness all that had
+happened. Haste and complaints were here equally unavailing. Yesterday
+he had recalled his whole past life, had lived it over again in a few
+short moments, and here was the end. He accepted it with indifference.
+How to conduct himself towards those in the next room was the question
+that chiefly occupied him. At last he called Lenz and asked for his
+clothes, as he wished to get up. Lenz advised him to remain where he
+was, for the sitting-room was cold and his clothes wet, there being no
+way of lighting a fire. Petrovitsch, however, still desired to get up,
+and asked if there was no comfortable dressing-gown in the house.
+
+"One of my father's," replied Lenz; "will you have that?"
+
+"If there is no other, give me that," said Petrovitsch, angrily, while
+in his heart was a sorrow, almost a fear, at the thought of wearing
+what had been his brother's.
+
+"You look quite like my father in it," cried Lenz; "quite like him,
+only a little smaller."
+
+"I had a hard youth, or I should have been larger," said the old man,
+looking at himself in the glass, as he entered the room. The cry of the
+raven in the kitchen startled him; he imperatively ordered Lenz to kill
+the bird. Lenz's chief occupation, however, for the time was to keep
+the peace between Bubby and the cat. The dog betrayed his discomfort by
+continued barks and whines, till the cat was finally shut up in the
+kitchen, where she did them good service by silencing the raven.
+Petrovitsch called for more cherry-brandy, of which Lenz said there
+were happily three bottles left of his mother's making, at least twelve
+years ago; with hot water and sugar he mixed himself a nice glass of
+grog. "How absurd all this is!" he cried, growing talkative under its
+genial influence; "I have dragged my body over the whole world, only to
+be squeezed to death in my father's house. It serves me right; why
+could I not have conquered that foolish homesickness? Homesickness
+indeed!" he gave a laugh of derision and continued: "there is an
+insurance on my life, but of what use is that to me now? Do you know
+who has buried us here? that man of honor, the stout landlord,
+destroyed the forest over our heads."
+
+"Alas! he buries his child and his child's child with us," added Lenz.
+
+"You are neither of you fit to mention my father's name," cried Annele,
+passionately. "My father was unfortunate, but he was never dishonest.
+If you say another word against him, I will set fire to the house."
+
+"You are mad!" cried Petrovitsch; "shall we thank him for throwing this
+little snow-ball at our heads? Be quiet, Annele; come, sit here by me;
+give me your hand. I have something to say to you, Annele; I never
+fancied that you yourself were quite good and true; but now I see you
+are. I like you for not letting any word of blame fall on your father.
+Few keep loyal to a ruined man. 'Oh, how I love you!' is only heard as
+long as we have money in our pocket. I like you for it, Annele." Annele
+cast a quick glance at her husband, whose eyes were fixed on the
+ground.
+
+"It is well that we should spend this hour together," continued
+Petrovitsch; "who knows but it may be our last? Let us come to a full
+and free understanding with each other. Draw your chair nearer, Lenz.
+You looked for consolation from your wife in your misfortune. Because
+you were dissatisfied with yourself and could give yourself no praise,
+you craved it from others, instead of helping her, the proud Annele of
+the Lion. You are proud, Annele, you need not shake your head. A good
+thing pride is; I only wish Lenz had a little more of it. Your turn is
+coming; don't be impatient."
+
+"Yes," cried Annele; "he deceived me, he said he had given up the
+security for Faller; it was false."
+
+"I did not tell you so; I only tried to escape from your
+importunities."
+
+"Your turn is coming. Now tell me one thing, on your honor, Annele,"
+continued Petrovitsch. "Did you know when you married Lenz that your
+father was a ruined man?"
+
+"Must I tell you honestly?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, I swear before God, that I knew my father was no longer
+rich, although I thought he had still a considerable property. I liked
+Lenz while we were rich, but then my mother would not hear of my
+marrying him. She was very ambitious for her daughters, and especially
+disliked the idea of one of us living with a mother-in-law."
+
+"For yourself, then, you would have come to my mother had she been
+living? Pilgrim said you would not."
+
+"If Pilgrim said so, he was right. I said many foolish things as a
+girl, that I might be thought well of and be praised for my saucy wit."
+
+Lenz looked earnestly at her, and Petrovitsch went on: "Talk no more of
+that yet, till I ask you some questions. You both deceived each other
+and yourselves. You both persuaded yourselves you were marrying from
+pure love, when in reality each thought the other rich; and when that
+turned out not to be the case, mutual anger and recriminations arose
+between you. Say, Lenz; did you not think Annele was rich."
+
+"I did think so; but, uncle, that is not the cause of the misery that
+consumes me,--of my bleeding heart and my burning brain. I thought the
+landlord was rich, but I did not care for his money."
+
+"And you, Annele?"
+
+"I did not think Lenz was rich. You may tear me in pieces between you
+if you will; I did not."
+
+"You have not made a full confession yet; one thing, however, you will
+admit, that you are both sick with the same disease. You, Lenz, prided
+yourself on your good-nature, and you on your cleverness, did you not,
+Annele?"
+
+"I did not pride myself on my cleverness, but I am more capable and
+more experienced than he, and better able to take care of myself. If he
+had let me have my way, and be at the head of a hotel, we should not
+now be in misery and waiting for death."
+
+"And what measures did you take to persuade him to do as you liked?"
+
+"I showed him that he was a do-little, a good-for-nothing pin-sticker.
+I deny nothing. I took all the life out of him; I said whatever came to
+my lips, and the more it pained him, the better I was pleased."
+
+"Annele, do you believe in hell?"
+
+"I must, for I have it before me. I am in the power of you two men; can
+any hell be worse? You can torment me as you will; I am a weak woman,
+unable to defend myself."
+
+"A weak woman?" cried Petrovitsch, with unwonted sharpness. "A weak
+woman? a pretty way, to drive a man distracted with your obstinacy, to
+drop poison into his heart till he is on the verge of despair, and then
+say, 'I am a weak woman!'"
+
+"I might tell a lie," continued Annele, "and make promises for the
+future; but I will not. Rather will I let myself be torn in pieces than
+give up one jot of my rights. All I said was true, and that I knew it
+was poison is also true."
+
+"All true?" cried Lenz, pale as death. "Think of one thing you said:
+that my good deeds were only a cloak for my laziness, and that I
+ill-treated my mother. My mother! In one hour perhaps we shall stand
+before her; how can you meet her face to face?"
+
+Annele was silent. Petrovitsch, too angry to speak, sat pressing his
+teeth against his lips, till at last he broke out: "Annele, if Lenz had
+throttled you when you said those words, he would have been hung, but
+he would have been innocent in the sight of God. You inn-keeper's
+daughter, used to the wretched rabble that haunts a tavern, you have a
+quick wit of your own, and hearing from some gallows-bird of a
+postilion that the way to urge a horse in a race was to put burning
+tinder in his ears, you laid your words like burning tinder in Lenz's
+ears, and drove him mad. There is my hand, Lenz; you are a beggar for
+kind looks and words, which is pitiful; but you have not deserved a
+punishment like this, to be driven mad by a devil in your house. Give
+me the child! you are not fit to hold an innocent child in your arms."
+
+The little girl screamed as he snatched her from her mother. Lenz
+interposed: "Not so, uncle, not so. Listen to me, Annele; I have only
+kind words to speak. Annele, we are standing beside an open grave--"
+
+Annele shrieked and covered her face with her hands. "You, too, are
+standing by your open grave," he continued.
+
+Without uttering a word Annele sank lifeless to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+                         VOICES FROM THE DEAD.
+
+
+The lamp was thrown from the table and extinguished by Annele's fall,
+leaving the four in total darkness. Lenz rubbed her with the brandy,
+which happily was just under his hand, until she presently drew a
+shuddering breath and placed her hand on his face. He laid her on the
+bed in the next chamber, and hastened to strike a fresh light.
+
+The raven, in his flight about the kitchen, had upset and broken a
+great jug of oil of turpentine, which Lenz kept on hand for use in his
+night work, and an intolerable smell of resin filled the room the
+moment the door was opened. He poured brandy into the lamp. A pale blue
+light spread a ghastly hue over the faces of the buried party.
+
+Petrovitsch laid the child on the bed, and finding its little feet were
+stone cold, called Bubby to lie upon them. Then he took Lenz by the arm
+and led him back into the sitting-room, leaving the chamber-door open.
+The cat and the raven were fighting together in the kitchen, but were
+left to settle the quarrel between themselves.
+
+"Have you nothing to eat?" asked Petrovitsch; "it is five o'clock and I
+am half famished."
+
+There was plenty to eat; a ham which had been thrown down from its
+place in the chimney, bread, and a bag of dried fruit.
+
+Petrovitsch ate with a good appetite, and pressed Lenz to do the same;
+he was too intent upon what went on in the adjoining room, however, to
+swallow a morsel. The child talked in its sleep, an unintelligible
+murmur, that seemed their one connecting link with the world of nature.
+It chilled their hearts to hear the unconscious little thing laugh in
+its dreams. Annele breathed quietly. Lenz went in to take the child,
+but started back with a cry of horror, for he had seized Bubby instead,
+and the dog snapped at him. His cry awoke Annele, who, sitting up in
+bed, called him and Petrovitsch to her. "Thank God, I am still alive,
+if it be but for one hour! I pray forgiveness of all; chiefly of you,
+Lenz."
+
+"Don't try to talk now," he interposed. "Will you not swallow
+something? I have found the coffee, but not the mill; if the child is
+awake I will pound it up. There is nice ham here too."
+
+"I want nothing; let me speak. What happened? What made you scream,
+Lenz?"
+
+"Nothing; I only took hold of the dog instead of the child, and he
+snapped at me; in my excitement he seemed a monster seeking to devour
+me."
+
+"Yes, yes; this distraction," said Annele; "this distraction that I
+have made! O Lenz, my dream has come to pass as you described. Last
+night I stood before an open grave and looked down into its dark
+depths. Little clods of earth kept rolling into it, and I tried to hold
+myself back, but could not; I began falling, falling; some power drew
+me down. Hold me! There, there, now it is over; it is passed now. Lay
+your hand upon my face; so. O gracious God! that you all should have to
+die with me! that all this should have come upon you for my sins! I
+have deserved it! but you and my child! and oh, my William; my poor
+William! You looked at me so pitifully when you went away, and said, 'I
+will bring you something good when I come back, mother.' You must bring
+me something good in heaven. Be true and good and--"
+
+Tears choked her voice; she grasped Lenz's hand and held it to her
+face. "An hour ago I had gladly died; now I long to live, to have one
+more chance of showing in this world that I can be true and loving. I
+see now what a woman I have been. Henceforth I will pray for a kind
+look and word. O God, save us, but for one hour, for one day! I will
+send for Franzl, Lenz; that was the beginning of my evil-doing."
+
+"I really believe now that the devil is driven out," said Petrovitsch;
+"your thinking of Franzl, and wanting to show kindness to one whose
+life you have imbittered, is a sure sign. There is my hand; now all is
+well."
+
+Lenz could speak no word. He hurried to the sitting-room, and bringing
+what was left of the brandy his uncle had mixed, put it to Annele's
+lips, saying: "Drink, and for every drop you swallow I would gladly
+give you a thousand blissful words! Drink more, drink it all!" he
+continued, as Annele set down the glass. "And then lie still and don't
+speak another word."
+
+"I cannot drink any more; believe me, I cannot," said Annele. She
+lamented piteously that they all must die. When Lenz tried to soothe
+her by telling her that they had provisions for many days yet, and that
+before those were exhausted help would surely come, she broke out into
+fresh lamentations over her wicked life, her ingratitude and hardness
+of heart in turning her back upon the abundance of good things that
+were given her, and persisting in demanding those she could not have.
+
+"My head seems covered with snakes. Put your hand on it; is not every
+hair a serpent? O Heavens! only this very day, or was it yesterday, I
+put on my crown of braids. Go away! I must take down my hair!"
+
+With trembling and feverish hands she took down her hair, and as it
+hung about her shoulders she looked like one crazed with grief.
+
+Lenz and Petrovitsch had great difficulty in quieting her. The old man
+finally persuaded his nephew to go with him into the sitting-room and
+leave her to herself. "Keep calm," he said, when they were alone
+together, "else your wife will die before help comes. I never saw such
+a change in any human being, and never would have believed it possible.
+It is more than human constitution can bear. Tell me now what sort of a
+letter this is which I found in your little girl's dress when I laid
+Bubby on her feet."
+
+Lenz told the horrible resolution he had formed, and begged his uncle
+to give back the letter which contained his farewell to life. The old
+man, however, held it fast and read it half aloud.
+
+Lenz's heart trembled at hearing the words which were not to have been
+read till he was out of the world. He tried to make out his uncle's
+thoughts, as far as the pale blue light would let him study the
+expression of his features. The old man read steadily to the end
+without once looking up, and then, with a short, quick glance at his
+nephew put the letter in his pocket.
+
+"Give me the letter; we will burn it," said Lenz, scarcely above a
+whisper.
+
+In the same low tone Petrovitsch answered: "No; I will keep it; I never
+half knew you till now."
+
+Whether the words were meant favorably or otherwise it was hard to
+tell.
+
+The old man rose, took his brother's file from the wall, held it
+firmly, and pressed his thumb into the groove worn by the dead man's
+steady toil of years. Perhaps he was registering there a vow to fill a
+father's place to Lenz, if they should be saved. He only said: "Come
+here; I have something to whisper in your ear. The meanest act a man
+can commit is to take his own life. I once knew a man whose father had
+killed himself. 'My father took the easiest way for himself and the
+hardest for us,' he said, and the son"--here Petrovitsch drew Lenz
+close to him, and shouted in his ear--"cursed his father's memory."
+
+Lenz staggered backward and almost fell to the ground at the words.
+
+"Lenz, for Heaven's sake, Lenz, stand up!" cried Annele from the
+chamber. "Dear Lenz," she continued, as the two men hastened to her,
+"you had meant to take your own life. I know not whether you could
+really have done it; but that you thought of it, and meant to do it,
+was my fault. Oh, how your heart must have suffered! I cannot tell what
+sin of mine most needs your forgiveness."
+
+"It is over now," said Petrovitsch, soothingly. It was strange that
+Annele's mind should be working on the same subject they had been
+discussing in the next room. Their tone was so low that she could not
+possibly have heard them. Both men did their best to soothe her.
+
+"Is that noon or night?" asked Annele, as several clocks struck three.
+
+"It must be night."
+
+They rehearsed together all that had happened since the avalanche, and
+concluded it must be past midnight.
+
+"O Day! if I could once, but once again, behold the sun! rise and help
+me, Sun!" was Annele's constant cry. "I will live, I must live for long
+years yet. If a single day could but undo such great misery! but it
+will need years. I will persevere faithfully and patiently." There was
+no quieting her till presently she dropped asleep.
+
+Petrovitsch too slept, leaving to Lenz his solitary watch. He dared not
+sleep; he must face this threatening death, and avert it if he could.
+He extinguished the light to save their precious store of brandy, for
+they could not tell how long it might be needed. As he sat gazing into
+the darkness, one moment he thought it was day, the next that it must
+be night; now one was a comfort to him, now the other. If it was day,
+help was nearer; if night, the work of forcing a passage through the
+snow and gravel and fallen trees had been going on the longer.
+
+At times he seemed to hear a sound without; it was only seeming. There
+was no sound save the raven croaking in his sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+                               A PHALANX.
+
+
+At noon of that same Sunday Faller started for the Morgenhalde to tell
+Lenz the good news about his house. It was impossible to see his way
+before him, so fiercely did the snow and rain beat against his face. He
+plodded along with his head down till he supposed his place of
+destination must be nearly reached, when he looked up and rubbed his
+eyes in wonder and consternation. Where was he? had he lost his way?
+where was Lenz's house? There were the pine-trees that stood by it, but
+the house, the house! In his excitement he lost the path and fell into
+a deep snow-drift, into which all his efforts to extricate himself only
+made him sink the deeper. He cried in vain for help; no one heard him.
+He had just strength left to work his way along to a tree, by whose
+branches he clung till a fresh avalanche from above bore the snow away
+from under him and left him free. By following the clearing which the
+avalanche had made in its descent he succeeded in reaching the valley.
+It was already dark, and the lights were shining from the houses as he
+ran through the village, crying, "Help! help!" in a tone loud enough to
+wake the seven sleepers. All hastened to the windows or into the
+street, and the report quickly spread from mouth to mouth that the
+house of Lenz of the Morgenhalde had been buried under the snow.
+
+The alarm-bell which Faller hastened to ring from the church had small
+effect in bringing persons from beyond the village. The wind prevented
+the sound from reaching to any great distance, and those who heard it
+were deterred by the violence of the storm from obeying the summons.
+
+Pilgrim and the engineer were the first who appeared on the square
+before the church. Pilgrim was struck dumb with horror at the terrible
+misfortune which had overtaken his friend in this night of fearful
+storm. The engineer displayed the greatest bravery and presence of
+mind. "Bring all the ladders and cords you can lay hands on," he cried;
+"and shovels and picks besides."
+
+Torches flared in the wind, casting a wild light upon the pale,
+dishevelled women, who, with their cloaks thrown over their heads to
+keep out the sleet and rain, clung to their husbands and sons, and
+besought them not to risk their lives in this dreadful storm.
+
+The engineer fastened one end of a long rope about his body, and,
+instinctively assuming the place of leader, commanded that every six
+men should fasten themselves together at convenient distances to afford
+mutual support, and prevent loss of time from having to hunt up
+scattering members of the party. Pilgrim tied himself to the same rope
+with the engineer; Don Bastian was about to do likewise, but their
+temporary leader advised his heading a second company of six. A
+quantity of dry wood was collected to light fires with, and, armed with
+picks, shovels, and ladders, the party began the ascent of the
+mountain.
+
+Within fifty paces of the house,--they could not approach nearer,--a
+clearing was made in a comparatively sheltered spot, and a fire
+lighted. Ladders were placed against the wall of snow, which proved,
+however, too soft to bear a man's weight. Cries of "I am sinking! I am
+sulking!" were heard here and there, while the confusion and danger
+were increased by the impossibility of keeping the torches alight in
+the wind. All expedients having failed, it was pronounced useless to
+attempt the rescue in the night, and the party went homewards. Faller
+at once offered to remain behind to watch the fire,--a duty which
+Pilgrim would have shared, had not the engineer, seeing how the poor
+fellow's teeth were chattering, made him go home with him, comforting
+him with the assurance that, if the buried inmates were still alive,
+they would be able to hold out till morning.
+
+It soon became known in the village that Petrovitsch also must be
+buried under the snow. He had started for the Morgenhalde in the
+morning, and had not since returned. Ibrahim, his companion at cards,
+appeared in the street at the ringing of the alarm-bell with the cards
+in his hand, crying out, "Where is Petrovitsch? I am waiting for
+Petrovitsch."
+
+"It would be terrible," said Pilgrim to his new friend the engineer,
+"if Petrovitsch should have perished in attempting to offer his tardy
+help."
+
+Pilgrim reproached himself bitterly for having spent the whole day in
+childish games, instead of going to the Morgenhalde. His mind had
+misgiven him all the while that things were not right with Lenz, but he
+had reasoned away his fears and been merry with his godson. The child
+lay quietly sleeping in bed, unconscious of the fate which that night
+might be bringing him, perhaps had already brought. Pilgrim established
+himself in a chair by the little fellow's side, and sat watching him
+till his anxious eyes closed, and he too fell asleep.
+
+Faller, meanwhile, remained like a soldier at his post, happily not
+quite alone, for a workman of the village, who had once been a pioneer,
+stayed behind with him on the field of danger. The two held counsel
+together how the snow-fortress should best be taken, but no possible
+mode of attack did they see. Poor Faller poked the fire in wrath that
+he could be of so little use.
+
+A stranger joined them at their watch-fire,--a messenger from the city
+who had been sent to summon Annele to her mother's death-bed.
+
+"There she is," said Faller, in bitter irony. "Fetch her out, if you
+can!" After learning what had happened, the man returned as he had
+come, through the night and storm.
+
+Faller managed, by means of a by-path, to mount up into what had been
+the forest, hoping thus to be able to reach the pine-trees by the house
+and bring help nearer. With his comrade's assistance he rolled several
+great logs down the slope towards the pines. Some rolled beyond the
+trees and remained upright in the snow, while one fell in the desired
+position, with its end resting upon one of the projecting branches.
+
+The second man here suddenly bethought himself, that the logs they had
+been rolling down might break in the roof and crush all under it.
+
+"What a fool I am!" cried poor Faller; "the greatest fool in all the
+world. Dear, dear Lenz, God grant I may not have been your murderer!"
+
+Finally he crawled across the bridge which the one log had formed and
+succeeded in kindling by his torch several of the other logs that stood
+or lay near it.
+
+"That will melt the snow," he cried, exultingly.
+
+"Yes; and set fire to the thatched roof," returned his comrade.
+
+Faller stood in mute despair. The two began rolling up great snowballs
+and throwing them into the fire, just as the day was dawning, which
+they succeeded in extinguishing.
+
+It was a clear day, almost as warm as spring. The sun shone bright on
+the Morgenhalde, seeking the house it had so often greeted; seeking the
+master who on Monday morning always sat busy at work in the window, as
+his father and grandfather had done before him. It found neither house
+nor master. The sunbeams quivered and shimmered here and there as if
+they had lost their way. There lay the defiant snow, challenging them
+to do their worst. The sun sent its fiery darts against the few
+cowardly flakes that yielded, but the solid fortress would hold out for
+days.
+
+All the villagers were on the spot, the engineer at their head. Other
+villages too and other parishes had sent men and help in abundance.
+
+Faller's logs offered a firm support, and companies were organized for
+working systematically both from below and above. A single raven flew
+persistently round and round the workmen and would not be frightened
+away. The men perched high in the air shouted at him; he heeded not
+their cries, but watched them at their work as if he knew what they
+were about, and had something to tell them if he could but have spoken.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+                     A PLANT GROWS UNDER THE SNOW.
+
+
+Lenz sat mute and motionless, watching in the face of night and death.
+
+Petrovitsch was the first to rouse himself. He told of a house that had
+once been buried in this way, and of those who came to the rescue
+finding the bodies of four peasants with the cards still in their
+hands, crushed to death at the table round which they had been sitting.
+The old man shuddered as he told the story, and yet he could not keep
+it to himself; he must tell it and relieve his mind, though it should
+freeze the hearer's blood. But God would save them, he added, for the
+sake of the innocent child. He almost railed against the Providence
+which could doom the child as well as themselves to destruction.
+
+"She too is like a child again," replied Lenz. Petrovitsch shook his
+head and warned him not to trust to such sudden conversion. If ever
+they got out he must oblige Annele to sue daily and hourly for his
+love. Lenz disputed the matter with his uncle, who had never known what
+it was to be married; there was an angel in Annele, he said, that might
+well raise a man to a heaven on earth; the trouble had been that, in
+her frenzy, she had debased the good in her to the level of the evil.
+
+Petrovitsch only shook his head; he was evidently not convinced.
+
+Annele and the child awoke simultaneously with a cry of terror: "The
+roof is breaking in!" screamed Annele. "Where are you, Lenz? Keep by
+me; let us die together! put the child in my arms."
+
+When she was quieted, they all went together into the sitting-room.
+Lenz pounded up Cousin Ernestine's coffee-beans, and they drank their
+coffee by the light of the ghastly blue flame. The clocks struck.
+Annele said she should stop counting the strokes, and asking whether it
+was night or day; they were already in eternity. If the last cruel step
+were only over!--She had hoped for some answer to relieve her fears,
+her certainty of death; but none came.
+
+They sat for a long while in silence; words were useless. Lenz ventured
+at last to take advantage of the pleasant terms on which he and his
+uncle now stood, to ask why he had manifested such cruel reserve
+towards him.
+
+"Because I hated the man whose dressing-gown I now am wearing; yes,
+hated him. He treated me cruelly in my youth, and fixed the nickname of
+goatherd on me. Constant pressure leaves its mark on the hard wood, why
+not on a human heart? The thought that my only brother had rejected and
+banished me was always wearing into my soul. I came home in the hope of
+laying down the burden of hate which I had so long carried about the
+world. I can truly say, I hated him to his death. Why did he die before
+the word of reconciliation was spoken between us? On the long journey
+home I rejoiced at the prospect of having a brother again, and I found
+none. In the bottom of my heart I did not hate him, or why should I
+have come home? Never again in this world shall I hear the name of
+brother; soon elsewhere--"
+
+"Uncle," said Annele, "at the very moment we heard Bubby scratching at
+the door Lenz was telling me how his father, when he was once snowed up
+here, though not buried as we are, said that if he should have to die
+then, he should leave no enemy behind but his brother Peter, and that
+he would gladly be friends with him."
+
+"So, so?" said Petrovitsch, pressing one hand to his eyes, while the
+other closed convulsively over that grooved handle which his brother's
+hand had worn.
+
+For a while nothing was heard but the ticking of the clocks, till Lenz
+asked again why his uncle had refused to recognize him, during the
+first year after his return home, when his heart was yearning towards
+his father's only brother, and he had longed, whenever he met him in
+the street, to run to him and grasp his hand.
+
+"I knew how you felt," replied Petrovitsch, "but I was angry with both
+you and your mother. I was told she petted you to death, and praised
+you half a dozen times a day for being the best son, and the wisest,
+cleverest man in all the world. That is a bad plan. Men are like birds.
+There are certain fly-catchers who must always have something in their
+crops. You are just such a bird, always crying out for a pat of the
+hand or a kind word."
+
+"He is right, Annele,--is he not?" said Lenz with a bitter smile.
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Annele.
+
+"You need not talk!" cried Petrovitsch. "You are a bird yourself, or at
+least have been; and do you know what kind of a one? A bird of prey,
+who can go for days without food, but when he does eat, devours all he
+can seize hold of, innocent singing-birds or little kittens, swallowing
+bones, skin, hair and all."
+
+"Alas! he is right there, too," said Annele. "I never was so happy as
+when I had some one to worry and tear to pieces. I was not conscious of
+it till our first drive together, when you asked me how I could take
+pleasure in exulting over Ernestine as I did. The words dwelt in my
+heart, and I determined to become as good as you. It seemed to me I
+should be much happier so. When on the way home you wanted to give old
+Proebler a seat in the carriage, I could have pitched you out for being
+such a simpleton; but afterwards, when you gave up the idea, excusing
+yourself to God and your conscience for not giving a poor old fellow a
+lift on the road, and seeming so happy, I could gladly have kissed your
+hands for love of your goodness, if my pride had permitted. I resolved
+to be like you, yet still I kept on in my old way, putting off from day
+to day beginning on my new life, till the old devil took possession of
+me again. I first grew ashamed of my good resolutions, and finally
+ceased to entertain them. I was Annele of the Lion, whom all flattered;
+I needed not to change. You were the first person who blamed in me what
+others had found pretty and amusing. I was angry, fearfully angry. I
+resolved to show you that you were no better than the rest of the
+world. Finally, one idea took entire possession of me: I must be once
+more at the head of a public-house; then you and the world would see
+what talents I had. So I went on from worse to worse. Yesterday,--was
+it yesterday that the minister was here?--hark! uncle is asleep. That
+is good. I want one hour with you alone before we go into eternity. No
+third person can understand our two hearts after all we have been
+through together. Yesterday, Lenz, as I was sitting here by myself, the
+thought came to me, that I had never known what it was to love with my
+whole heart. I had been your wife for five years, and never found out
+till yesterday how much I loved you. If you had come home then, I
+should have kissed your eyes and your hands. Oh, you do not know how
+dearly I can love! But instead came Faller, who first frightened me,
+and then told how you had deceived me about the security. I became
+again possessed with the evil spirit that makes me do and say what he
+will, not what I will. But he is gone now; his power is over. I would
+crouch at your feet if it would serve you. Oh, if I could but see you
+once more; only once in the light of day! There is no seeing by this
+blue flame. If I could but once more see your kind, good face, your
+honest eyes! To die thus without seeing or being seen; it is terrible!
+How often I met your eyes with averted looks! Oh for one flash, one
+single flash of light, to show you to me!"
+
+Petrovitsch had only feigned sleep, seeing that Annele wanted to open
+her heart to her husband, alone. The child was playing with Bubby. "If
+I could but call back the years!" continued Annele. "One day at noon
+you said, 'Is there anything better than the sun?' and in the evening,
+'O, this good fresh air! it is pure blessing.' I laughed at your folly;
+yet you were right,--you were happy. Happiness came to you as naturally
+as the light and air. I sinned against you in all ways. When I threw
+down your father's file and broke it, the point pierced my heart; but I
+would not show that I was sorry. I threw out of the window that dear
+writing of your mother's and that memento of her. Nothing that was
+sacred to you escaped my venom. You forgive me, I know; pray God to
+forgive me, whether I live or die."
+
+A musical clock began to play. Petrovitsch turned involuntarily in his
+chair, but appeared to drop off to sleep again. When the piece was
+finished, Annele cried again: "I must beg forgiveness of everything,
+even of the clock. I was always ridiculing it, and now I hear how
+beautiful it is. O God! not for myself I pray. Save us, save us all!
+Let me show that I can make all well again."
+
+"All is well now," said Lenz; "even though we die. While the clock was
+playing the thought came to me that we have our edelweiss again. It has
+grown up in your good heart and in the hearts of us all? Why do you
+tremble so?"
+
+"I am so cold; my feet are like ice."
+
+"Take off your shoes and let me warm your feet. So will I bear you up
+in my hands my life long. Are you not better now?"
+
+"Yes, much better; but oh, my head! every hair seems dropping blood.
+Hark! I hear the cock crow and the raven scream. Thank God, it is day."
+
+They all rose, even the uncle from his pretended sleep, as if
+deliverance were at hand. A fearful pounding now began overhead. "We
+are lost," cried Petrovitsch. Again all was still. The roof of the
+sleeping-room had been broken in, so that the door refused to open.
+After the first shock Lenz thanked God that a presentiment of the
+coming danger had startled both wife and child from their sleep. He
+comforted his companions by telling them that the sleeping chamber had
+been lately added to the original house, and was quite independent of
+it. The old oaken timbers of the main building would resist every
+shock. Even while he spoke he thought he saw the roof giving way in the
+direction of the sleeping-room; but he did not express his fears,
+thinking he might easily be mistaken in this uncertain blue light.
+
+Again followed a long, breathless silence, unbroken except when a
+distant cock-crow was answered by a bark from Bubby and a croak from
+the raven in the kitchen.
+
+"This is a veritable Noah's ark," said Petrovitsch.
+
+"Whether we are nearing life or death, we are saved from the deluge of
+sin," returned Lenz.
+
+Annele laid her hand upon his face.
+
+"If I only had a pipe of tobacco! it is a shame you don't smoke, Lenz,"
+complained Petrovitsch. Reminded of his fire-proof safe by the thought
+of his row of pipes at home, he continued: "One thing I tell you; if we
+ever are saved, you will get no money from me: not a penny."
+
+"We shall not need it now," replied Lenz; while Annele said,
+cheerfully, "Do you know who will not believe that?"
+
+"You?"
+
+"No; the world. Nobody will believe, though you swear it a hundred
+times, that one who was in death with us will not continue with us in
+life. The world will give us credit on your account, and make us rich
+if we will let it."
+
+"You are the same old rogue as ever," said Petrovitsh, trying to scold.
+"I thought you were done with your jests."
+
+"Thank God, she is not!" cried Lenz. "Keep your happy heart, Annele, if
+God delivers us."
+
+Annele threw her arms about her husband's neck and hugged and kissed
+him. All were surprised at finding they had suddenly grown as gay as if
+the danger were passed, whereas it was really at its height. Neither
+communicated his fears to the others, but each saw how the walls
+trembled and the main beam seemed about to fall.
+
+Annele and Lenz held each other in a close embrace. "So let us die and
+shelter our child!" cried Annele.
+
+"Hark! there is a hollow sound without. It is our deliverers; they are
+coming, they are coming! they will save us!--"
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+                                 SAVED.
+
+
+"There are two blows following close upon each other," cried Lenz. "I
+will make the clocks play together, as a sign to those without."
+
+He set the two musical clocks in motion, but the dreadful confusion of
+sounds drove him almost frantic. Even in this hour of deadly danger a
+discord was intolerable to him. He stopped them suddenly. With a pang
+as of the severing of a heart-string he heard something in his great
+clock snap at the hasty check.
+
+Again they held their breath and listened; no further sounds were
+heard.
+
+"You rejoiced too soon," said Petrovitsch, his teeth chattering so that
+he could hardly speak. "We are nearer death than life now."
+
+The pounding was repeated from above. "Bum, bum!" imitated the child,
+while Petrovitsch complained that he felt every blow of the hammer in
+his brain.
+
+Lenz could not have touched the right spring in one of the clocks, for
+it suddenly began to play the air of the grand Hallelujah. "Hallelujah,
+blessed be God the Lord!" sang Lenz with the full force of his voice.
+Annele sang too, keeping one hand upon Lenz's shoulder, and the other
+upon the head of the child. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" cried a voice
+from above.
+
+Once more that piercing cry of old rang through the house "My Pilgrim!
+my faithful brother!"
+
+The chamber-door was battered down with an axe.
+
+"Are you all alive?" cried Pilgrim,
+
+"All; thank God!"
+
+Pilgrim embraced Petrovitsch first, taking him for Lenz, and the old
+man returned the greeting with a kiss on both cheeks, after the Russian
+fashion.
+
+Close upon Pilgrim came the engineer, followed by Faller, Don Bastian,
+and the members of the Liederkranz.
+
+"Is my William safe?" asked Lenz.
+
+"Yes indeed, safe in my house," answered Don Bastian.
+
+Some of the men shovelled away the snow from the outside of the
+windows.
+
+"Sun, sun! I behold you again!" cried Annele, sinking upon her knees.
+
+The clock kept on playing the Hallelujah, the schoolmaster added his
+voice, and the whole Liederkranz joined in with full, firm tones. As if
+shaken by the mighty song, the snow-fortress in front of the house
+suddenly loosened and rolled down the valley.
+
+The house stood free.
+
+The door into the kitchen was opened, and, upon the window being
+lifted, the raven darted across the room above the head of the child
+out into the open air.
+
+"Birdie gone!" cried the child. A second raven was waiting without, and
+the two now soaring high in the air, now swooping towards the ground,
+flew up through the valley.
+
+The first woman who made her way to Annele was Ernestine, who, having
+heard of the disaster on the Morgenhalde, and also of the landlady's
+death, had lost no time in coming to her cousin's help. She knelt
+beside her. Lenz leaned upon Pilgrim's bosom.
+
+Petrovitsch was beginning to be angry because no one paid him any
+attention, when happily the engineer approached him, and, with a manner
+at once respectful and cordial, congratulated him on his deliverance.
+The best fellow of the whole company, thought the old man. Pilgrim
+politely apologized for the embrace he had inadvertently given, and was
+treated to a cordial shake of the hand.
+
+"I have found a scrap of your mother's handwriting in the snow," said
+Faller hoarsely; "most of the writing is washed out, but these few
+words are left: 'This little plant is called edelweiss. Marie Lenz.'"
+
+"The paper is mine!" cried Annele, rising. All looked at her in
+astonishment. "Why, Annele!" screamed Ernestine, "what in Heaven's name
+have you on your head? your hair is all white!"
+
+Annele went to the mirror, and, with a cry of anguish, clasped both
+hands above her head.
+
+"An old woman! an old woman!" she moaned, and fell upon Lenz's neck.
+After a while she rose, sobbing, dried her tears and whispered in his
+ear, "That is my edelweiss that has grown for me under the snow."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+                              ALL IS WELL.
+
+
+The ravens flew across the valley and over the mountains, past a humble
+cottage where sat an old woman at the window, spinning coarse yarn,
+while big tears rolled down her withered cheeks upon the threads she
+spun. It was Franzl. The tidings that Lenz with his whole household had
+been buried in the snow had reached Knuslingen, and men from her
+village had gone to their rescue. Franzl would gladly have gone with
+them and done her part; but her poor old feet refused to bear her.
+Moreover, she had lent her one good pair of shoes to a poor woman who
+had to go to the doctor's. In the midst of her sorrow Franzl often
+clapped her hands to her stupid head and said to herself: Why did I not
+think of it yesterday, while he was here? it is too late now. I had it
+on my tongue's end to tell him he must make provision against being
+snowed up. We were thrice snowed up for days at a time, and such an
+accident should be provided for every winter. It is too late now. The
+old mistress was right in saying, as she did a hundred times: "Franzl,
+you are always very clever, an hour behind the time."
+
+The ravens that now flew past her window might have told Franzl to dry
+her tears, for the buried family was saved. Unhappily man cannot
+understand the ravens, and is a long while conveying his good news
+across mountain and valley.
+
+At evening a sleigh with merry jingling bells came driving up to the
+door. What could it want? there was no one at home but Franzl. It
+stopped just before her window. Who was getting out from it? was it not
+Pilgrim? She tried to go to meet him, but her strength failed her.
+
+"Franzl, I have come for you," cried Pilgrim. The old woman rubbed her
+forehead. Was it a dream? or what was it? "Lenz and his household are
+saved," continued Pilgrim; "and I am sent to fetch you, most high and
+mighty princess Cinderella. Will you trust yourself to the Swan."
+
+"I have no shoes," stammered out Franzl.
+
+"For that reason I have brought you fur boots that will just fit your
+little foot," returned Pilgrim; "and here is the skin, I mean the
+sheep-skin, of the monster Petrovitsch. You must drive with me,
+well-beloved Franzl of Knuslingen, Fuchsberg, and Knebringen. Your
+magic spinning-wheel you must leave behind, unless it chooses to hop
+after us on its wooden legs.
+
+           "'So gird thyself, my Gretchen,
+              Thou must with me to-day;
+            The corn is cut and garnered,
+              The wine is stored away.'"
+
+Thus merrily singing, Pilgrim offered old Franzl his arm, as if to lead
+her to the dance. She was in a state of perfect bewilderment. Happily
+her sister-in-law came home at this moment, and was by no means
+displeased at the idea of having Franzl carried off in a sleigh. The
+old woman, however, turned her unceremoniously out of the room when she
+wanted to help her pack up her things: she could have no one by to see
+her stow away that mysterious shoe.
+
+"The bed is my own; can you not pack it away in the sleigh?" she asked.
+
+"Let Knuslingen have it to sleep upon," answered Pilgrim. "Use your
+pillow for a footstool and leave the rest behind. You will be cushioned
+like a queen."
+
+"Must I leave my hens and my geese behind too? They are all my very
+own, and my gold-hammer has been sitting for six weeks."
+
+The hen thus complimented thrust her gay crest through the bars of her
+coop.
+
+The hens and geese, Pilgrim said, ran after the true princess
+Cinderella of their own accord, and these were free to do the same if
+they were so inclined; carrying them was out of the question.
+
+Franzl recommended her beloved fowls most pressingly to the tender
+mercies of her sister-in-law, and charged her to send them by the first
+messenger that should be going her way.
+
+The hens cackled uneasily in their coop as Franzl left the room, and
+the geese in the barn added their note of remonstrance when the sleigh
+flew by.
+
+It was on a beautifully clear winter's night that Pilgrim and Franzl
+started from Knuslingen. The stars were glittering above their heads
+and a firmament of glittering stars was in Franzl's heart. She was
+obliged to seize her bag and pinch it till she felt her well-stuffed
+shoe in order to convince herself that the whole was not a dream.
+
+"See, there is my potato-patch," said Franzl; "I bought it with my own
+money when it was nothing but a heap of stones, and in these four years
+the value of it has doubled. The potatoes are as white as the whitest
+meal."
+
+"Let the Knuslingers enjoy your potatoes; you shall get something
+better," answered Pilgrim. He went on to tell of the rescue of the
+buried household, and how they were all living now with Petrovitsch,
+who was a changed man and had become one of his best friends. It was
+Annele's first request, he said, that Franzl should be sent for. The
+old woman wept aloud when she heard of Annele's white hair. She once
+knew a woman, she said, whose mother had a relation, a man up in
+Elsass, whose hair turned white in a night from fright. It was
+wonderful, and she was filled with compassion for Annele, who would now
+be the town talk. "Folks are so stupid, and yet think they must always
+be saying some smart thing. I will soon teach them we don't need their
+silly gossip."
+
+At every house where they saw lights Franzl wanted to get out and tell
+what had happened. "There lives Mr. So-and-so and Mrs. Such-a-one;
+kind, honest people who have grieved at Lenz's fate. It is too bad they
+should keep on being unhappy when there is no need of it. They would be
+glad, too, to know that Franzl was the first person sent for. Who can
+tell whether there will ever be another chance to bid good-by in this
+world?"
+
+Pilgrim, however, drove pitilessly past all the good peoples' houses,
+stopping nowhere. If a window was opened and a head thrust out to look
+at the sleigh, Franzl cried as loud as she could, "Good by; God bless
+you." It was no matter if the bells did nearly drown the words; she had
+had the satisfaction of sending a kindly farewell to those she might
+never see again.
+
+At the farm where the bailiff's daughter lived Pilgrim had to stop.
+Alas! no joy is complete in this world; Katharine was not at home.
+Having no children of her own, she was frequently called on to assist
+in bringing into the world those of others, and was at that moment
+watching by a sick-bed. Franzl told her news twice over to the maid, to
+make sure of her not forgetting a word.
+
+Her sense of content came over her afresh on re-entering the sleigh.
+"Now I feel better," she said. "It is like half waking up from a good
+night's sleep, and just being conscious of how deliciously comfortable
+you are, before tumbling off to sleep again. I am not asleep; though I
+feel as if I were already in the life everlasting."
+
+Pilgrim came near destroying all her pleasure by an ill-timed joke.
+
+"Franzl," he said, "you won't fare very well up there."
+
+"Up where?"
+
+"In the next world. You are having your paradise now. You must not
+expect to have it here and there too; that would be more than your
+share."
+
+"Stop! stop! let me get out; I want to go home," cried Franzl. "I will
+have nothing to do with you! nothing on this earth shall tempt me to
+give up my hope of the life everlasting. Stop, or I shall jump out!"
+
+With a greater strength than he had supposed the old woman possessed
+she seized hold of the reins and tried to force them from Pilgrim's
+hand. He had great difficulty in quieting her by protesting it was all
+a joke. She could not understand a man's joking about such things as
+that. He quoted in Greek, and obligingly translated into Black-forest
+German, a passage from the life of Saint Haspucias to prove that she
+would not after all lose the life everlasting, because a special
+exception was made in favor of servants, whose life in this world was
+hard enough at the best. Pilgrim showed a wonderful acquaintance with
+the heavenly arrangements, and with difficulty resisted the temptation
+of assuring Franzl that he was employed by St. Peter as court-painter.
+
+Franzl was quite pacified, and fully admitted the truth of his
+statement about the hard life of servants. "I am so glad to be going to
+see my Lenz's children," she began again presently. "The boy is called
+William, after you, is he not? And what is the little girl's name?"
+
+"Marie."
+
+"O yes; for her grandmother."
+
+"That happily reminds me of something I had quite forgotten. The
+children think I have gone for their grandmother, and am fetching her
+home in a swan. They are depending on keeping awake till we arrive. The
+high and mighty princess of Knuslingen, Fuchsberg, and Knebringen must
+let it please her grace to be called grandmother."
+
+Franzl thought the deception very wicked; such a name was sacred, and
+should only be given to a blood-relation. Her only consolation was that
+she would soon undeceive the children; she was not born in Knuslingen
+for nothing. The necessity of keeping up the honor of her native town
+soon restored her to complete composure.
+
+It was well that Franzl became somewhat sobered by these discussions on
+the way, else she would certainly have expected to see the whole
+population of the village drawn up by the roadside to welcome her. As
+it was, her first greeting was a burst of laughter from Petrovitsch,
+who was so convulsed by the oddity of her appearance that he had no
+strength to stand. Bubby, also, excited by his master's unwonted
+gayety, began to bark as the best substitute for laughter at his
+command. "Anton Striegler knew you would come to look like that some
+day," cried the old fellow, maliciously; "and therefore he let you be."
+
+"And the worms will let you be for a while longer, till you are better
+done; you are too tough for them now," retorted Franzl, the
+concentrated hate of years, and indignation at being taunted with her
+blighted love, finding vent in the stinging answer. It silenced Bubby's
+bark and Petrovitsch's laughter. Both had a salutary fear of the old
+woman from that time forth.
+
+Lenz was asleep, and Annele in the room with the children, who after
+all had not been able to keep awake. She would have thrown her arms
+about old Franzl's neck, if the presence of Pilgrim and Petrovitsch had
+not restrained her.
+
+"See, here are our children," she said. "Give them just one kiss; it
+will not wake them."
+
+She insisted on Franzl staying in the parlor while she went into the
+kitchen to cook her supper. Surprise at the change that had come over
+her former mistress kept the old woman sitting for a while in the chair
+where she had been placed, but she presently followed into the kitchen.
+
+"Oh how good it is to be able to light a fire!" said Annele. Franzl
+looked at her in amazement, not understanding that Annele was grateful
+now for everything, all the thousand little blessings that the rest of
+us take as a matter of course.
+
+"What do you say to my white hair?" asked Annele.
+
+"I wish I could give you mine; there is not a white hair on my head,
+and never will be. My mother used to tell me that I was born into the
+world with a full crop of hair."
+
+Annele said, with a smile, that her white hair was sent her as a sign
+that she had been in the shadow of death and must now live at peace
+with all the world.
+
+"You will forgive me too, Franzl, will you not? I thought of you in
+that hour of death."
+
+Franzl could only answer with her tears.
+
+The change in Annele was indeed wonderful. The first time she heard the
+bells ring she took the baby in her arms, and said, as she folded its
+little hands together, "O child! I never thought to hear that sound
+again"; and when Franzl brought the first bucket of water, she
+exclaimed, "Oh, how clear and beautiful the water is! I thank God for
+giving it to us!"
+
+Long after the memory of this time of terror had faded from the minds
+of her two companions in danger, the thought of it was still vivid, to
+Annele, making her gentle and tender, sensitive to every hasty word.
+Franzl could not help saying to Pilgrim sometimes, that she feared
+Annele would not live long, there was something so almost heavenly
+about her.
+
+The burial and deliverance of Lenz's household quite cast into the
+shade another event, which otherwise would have given rise to much
+speculation and comment.
+
+Two days after his disaster the frozen body of a man was found under
+the snow in a woody hollow near Knuslingen. It was poor old Proebler. No
+one mourned him so deeply as Lenz. He believed now that he had heard
+the old man calling him, and read a lesson in the death of this poor,
+half-crazy discoverer that was revealed to no one else.
+
+Annele continued to thrive in her uncle's great house, and was as fresh
+and blooming as ever. She and Lenz lived there till late into the
+summer, when their own house was ready for them. Little William sorely
+troubled the old man by jumping up on sofas and chairs which Bubby was
+allowed to tumble about on with impunity.
+
+Petrovitsch caught a violent cold from his exposure that night, and was
+strongly urged by the doctor to try the baths for his cough. He
+steadily refused, however, resolving in his own mind that, if he must
+die, he would die at home; he had had enough of homesickness. He
+often walked with little William on the Spannreute, where well-grown
+larch-trees had been set out, and trenches dug to protect the house.
+One day he said to him reprovingly: "William, you are just like Bubby,
+never satisfied with the straight path. Why will you always be jumping
+this way and that, over a ditch or up the side of a rock? you two are
+fit companions for each other." "Uncle," answered little William, "a
+dog is not a man, nor a man a dog." These simple words so pleased the
+old uncle, that he begged Lenz to leave the boy behind if he ever
+should return to his house on the hill.
+
+Annele was the one most desirous of going back to the Morgenhalde. Once
+she would have thought it a paradise upon earth to keep Petrovitsch's
+big house for him, in the expectation of becoming his heir; now she
+cared for nothing but to pass her days in quiet, happy industry among
+the lonely hills.
+
+The death of her mother, which had been concealed from her for a time,
+did not fall upon her as a sharp and sudden blow; it counted as one of
+the many horrors which were crowded into that terrible night.
+
+Petrovitsch kept little William in the house, and induced Pilgrim to
+make his home with them. The passersby were often entertained by the
+sounds that came from the big house; the neighing as of a horse, the
+grunting of a pig, the whistle of a nightingale, or the squeaking of
+little owls. Two heads, the one of an old child, the other of a young
+one, were generally to be seen at the window. They were Pilgrim's and
+his godson's. Their great delight was trying to see which could imitate
+the greater number of animal sounds. Bubby joined in with a genuine
+bark, and Petrovitsch laughed till his laughing was cut short by his
+cough. For years the old man had not been out of the village. As for
+trying any baths, he maintained that the laughing he did at home was
+better than all the washing in the world.
+
+Lenz's friends showed themselves eager to help in the rebuilding of the
+house on the Morgenhalde. They flocked from all sides, bringing
+contributions of wood and stone. But the prospect of returning to his
+old life gave Lenz no pleasure; he wanted to start on a new and wider
+field. As a man recovering from a severe illness is not satisfied with
+resuming the threads of his life where his illness interrupted them, so
+Lenz felt himself a wiser and stronger man, able to undertake larger
+works.
+
+All seemed ready now for the execution of his old pet plan, and no one
+favored it more than Annele. Her hearty encouragement strengthened and
+cheered her husband. "You have always had at heart the happiness of
+your fellow-men. I remember your saying soon after our marriage that
+you rejoiced in a bright Sunday because it made thousands and thousands
+of persons happy. Go about among men; wherever you go, you will bring
+the sunlight with you. I wish I could go too and tell them all how good
+you are."
+
+Accompanied by the engineer, the doctor, Pilgrim, the schoolmaster, and
+the weight-manufacturer, Lenz went from house to house, and from
+village to village, where his eloquence, his wisdom and goodness were
+praised by all, as well as his ready sympathy with others' needs and
+his quick suggestions of relief.
+
+What in his days of prosperity he could not succeed in accomplishing
+was effected now as by tacit agreement; the various independent
+clockmakers were united in a general association.
+
+After building afresh his old house, and bringing prosperity into those
+of his fellow-workmen, he now had the happiness of helping to found a
+new home.
+
+He performed for Pilgrim the office which Pilgrim had once offered to
+perform for him in the doctor's house, and won for his friend the hand
+of Amanda, Pilgrim became overseer of the case-making department of the
+factory, and to him are due the many graceful forms of clock-cases,
+carved with leaves and other ornamentations, for which the wood of the
+new Spannreute forest, and the well-seasoned timber taken from the old
+house on the Morgenhalde, furnished abundant material.
+
+In the second summer after the catastrophe on the Morgenhalde Lenz came
+to his uncle with the first request he had made him; it was for the
+means to send Faller to the baths. The doctor had recommended them as a
+relief for a severe bronchial affection that had been contracted on the
+night of the avalanche.
+
+"There is the money for it. Tell Faller he must go to the baths for
+himself and me too. I am glad you do not beg on your own account. Your
+way of helping yourself is much better."
+
+Great persuasions were needed to induce Faller to visit the baths. He
+was finally brought to consent only by Annele's earnest representations
+to his wife.
+
+Annele had two friends of very different character, Faller's wife and
+Amanda, now Mrs. Pilgrim. Many a slip from the doctor's garden found
+its way up to the Morgenhalde, and was carefully planted and tended by
+Annele's own hand.
+
+Faller went to the bathing establishment kept by Annele's older sister,
+and there fell in with an old acquaintance. The manager of the bath was
+the former landlord of the Lion, who had retired thither after the
+death of his wife. The old gentleman was as patronizing as ever, and
+seemed to thrive on his freedom from care. He was cheerful and even
+communicative. One subject, however, he never alluded to,--his past
+life; that would have compromised his dignity, and might have awakened
+awkward reminiscences between himself and Faller. He spoke handsomely
+of Lenz, and enjoined upon Faller to tell him that he must never allow
+himself to be goaded into any undertaking that he did not feel himself
+thoroughly fitted for. This sentence he made Faller repeat over and
+over again, word for word, till he knew it by heart, when the landlord
+put on his spectacles to see how a man actually looked who had such a
+sentence in his head.
+
+His two favorite topics were the absence of justice in Brazil, and the
+wonder-working qualities of the springs and the whey. If some princess
+would only set the fashion by visiting his baths, they would become the
+first in importance in the world.
+
+By telling his wish with regard to the princess, the landlord thought
+to show his forethought as well as the loftiness of his aspirations.
+Poor Faller had it impressed upon him again and again, as if he might
+at any moment have the disposing of a couple of dozen princesses great
+and small.
+
+Faller came home apparently improved in health. Early in the spring,
+however, when the snow was beginning to melt, he died.
+
+Not long afterward old Petrovitsch, too, was buried. He had made a
+brave struggle against death. His paroxysms of coughing had increased
+in violence and frequency since the autumn, and in one of them he was
+finally choked to death. As the doctor had conjectured, he left no
+property except a life-annuity which he had bought with what little
+money the gaming-table at Baden-Baden had spared. Thus many seeming
+inconsistencies in the old man's conduct were accounted for. The
+doctor maintained that all his dislike of other men sprang from
+dissatisfaction with himself.
+
+Faller's sons were all provided for. Lenz took one into his house, and
+Katharine adopted the second pair of twins. She only wanted one, but
+the children could not bear to be parted. The little girl remained with
+her mother.
+
+Franzl took delight in telling her old friend Katharine of the sort of
+life that was led on the Morgenhalde.
+
+"I don't know which of us Annele spoils the most, her husband or me.
+The angels in heaven must rejoice to see the life they lead together.
+You know I am from Knuslingen, and therefore, though I mean to take no
+credit to myself, manage to see more than most persons. At first there
+lurked a fear of each other in their hearts,--a fear lest some
+thoughtless word might open the old wound, as flames sometimes break
+out afresh amid the ruins of a house that has been burned. But they
+gradually learned that each had always dearly loved the other, and that
+what had seemed unkindness and hate was only the pain of not having
+rightly learned to conform to each other's habits. Now Annele has given
+up all desire for a hotel, and Lenz has grown more of a man. The
+Liederkranz has become quite a different sort of society, and my Lenz
+is the chief member of it; all say he has the finest voice and the best
+managed of all the singers. There is a new society started which in
+some way is to help everybody. The weight-manufacturer from Knuslingen
+can explain it better than I can, for he is one of the members. Did you
+know that my Lenz's musical clock had taken the first prize at some
+great exhibition, and that he had received a medal from England? He
+told Annele that he cared for it only as it might prove to her that he
+was capable of accomplishing something after all; at which she cried
+and told him, all that was buried with their past life, and never to be
+recalled; that she needed no one now to bear witness to his worth; none
+knew it as well as she. Then Lenz looked up to his mother's picture and
+said, 'Mother, sing in heaven! Your children are happy.'"
+
+Katharine listened to this glowing account with proper expressions of
+joy. Franzl, however, was not easily stopped when once wound up, and
+continued: "Do you know what we inherited from Petrovitsch? Nothing but
+his dog, which has to be fed on the fat of the land. I say dry bread
+and potatoes are good enough for him, but Lenz pets him on account of
+his having saved little Marie's life. Not a penny did Petrovitsch
+leave us. The doctor always said he had put all his money into a
+life-insurance company,--I think he called it,--which paid him so much
+a year. The handsome fortune that he scraped together from all parts of
+the world was lost at the gaming-table. Players are certainly the
+cleverest and the stupidest creatures in the world. The doctor says so,
+and it must be true.--Don't you mean to stay over to-morrow for the
+funeral of the old mayoress? She was nearly seventy-eight years old,
+and the last of that generation. Lenz said, when his uncle died, that
+he was glad he left him nothing, for he would rather make his own way
+in the world. He means to take William and young Faller as apprentices,
+and later to send them abroad."
+
+"And do they treat you well?" asked Katharine, for the sake of saying
+something.
+
+"Dear me, only too well! I don't know why it is that every one thinks
+life could not go on happily without me. I wish I was not quite so old;
+my comfort is that my grandmother lived to be eighty-three, and for
+aught any one can tell, it might have been ninety-three; those old
+people who can't read and write often make mistakes. Perhaps I shall
+live as long myself. I enjoy my food and my sleep. There is a blessing
+on all that goes on in this house. Look at the wood; has it not grown
+nicely? and it is all our own. As truly as that forest grows and
+thrives where God planted it, so truly does all good grow and thrive
+with us. Are they not fine young trees? we shall live to see them grow
+strong and tall."
+
+Katharine could not wait for that, and as she went off with the twins,
+accompanied by their mother, Lenz, and Annele, Franzl called after her
+from the kitchen: "Katharine, you must make up your mind to stand
+god-mother next time."
+
+That is the story of Lenz and Annele of the Morgenhalde; which explains
+why the young, white-haired mother asked her son, when he was setting
+off for foreign lands, to bring her home a sprig of edelweiss.
+
+When Lenz returned from starting the two youths on their way, he found
+a garland of fresh flowers about his mother's picture. Eighteen years
+ago that day she had been buried, and Annele always kept the
+anniversary. They felt in their hearts, though they never said it, that
+her blessed memory bloomed ever fresh within them, like the flowers in
+the field.
+
+Faller's widow and daughter sat down to dinner with them at noon. "If
+my husband had but lived to see our two sons set off on their travels
+together!" sighed the poor woman. Lenz tried to comfort her by telling
+how well the twins were doing that Katharine had adopted. One had
+already risen to be sergeant in the army, the other was his adopted
+father's assistant, and would doubtless be his heir. Faller's daughter,
+a tall, slender girl of fifteen, said she had promised to write to
+William and her brother the first of every month.
+
+After dinner Lenz sat down to his work as usual. Eighteen years ago it
+had calmed a greater grief than the departure of his son occasioned him
+to-day. Annele sat by him with her sewing; no longer full of an unrest
+which she communicated to him, but rather shedding a beneficent
+influence around her. His work prospered better when she looked on. She
+spoke little, and the few words she did say showed within what a narrow
+circle her thoughts were now confined. "William takes six shirts with
+him, made from the cotton your blessed mother spun."
+
+The places of the two apprentices were already filled; for parents the
+country round were anxious to have their boys learn their trade with
+Lenz. One of the new-comers was, to Franzl's great delight, a grandson
+of the weight-manufacturer of Knuslingen.
+
+Towards evening the schoolmaster came up the hill with a great bundle
+of papers under his arm, labelled in large letters, "Acts of the
+Clockmakers' Union." He asked Lenz to go a little way into the wood
+with him before the other members arrived, and during their absence
+Annele ranged two rows of chairs about the room, for Lenz was now
+president of the association.
+
+
+[Illustration: Edelweiss.]
+
+
+MRS. BRASSEY'S AROUND THE WORLD IN THE YACHT SUNBEAM. With Chart and
+Illustrations. 8vo. $3.50.
+
+The history of this leisurely and luxurious cruise of the Brassey
+family and a few friends, in their own yacht, is given in such easy and
+familiar style as to make the reader feel almost one of the party.
+
+"It is altogether unlike all other books of travel.... We can but
+faintly indicate what the reader may look for in this unrivaled book.
+Mrs. Brassey writes delightfully of men and cities, and has a faculty
+for seeing and acquainting herself with the conditions of human life
+everywhere, unsurpassed within our knowledge of travelers."--_London
+Spectator_.
+
+"Mrs. Brassey's delightful cruise in the 'Sunbeam' is the very romance
+of adventurous yachting; it is the voyages of the rough old
+circumnavigators, translated into the picturesquely luxurious....
+Wherever they went--whether at the Government house in the colonies, at
+the residences of the English consuls, or of rich and hospitable
+foreigners--they seem to have been invariably entertained with equal
+cordiality. They saw wild horses lassoed and broken by the Guachos;
+they climbed the glowing craters of volcanoes; they made pilgrimages
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+they even did a passing stroke of trade with naked Patagonians, who put
+off in conoes in the Straits of Magellan.... She tells you just what
+you care to hear, changing the subject before it has begun to bore
+you. She has quick, artistic perceptions, with a subdued sense of
+humor."--_London Times_.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+                          THE AMATEUR SERIES.
+
+LEWES (G. H.) ON ACTORS AND THE ART OF ACTING. 12mo, $1.50.
+
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+a mind of singular sensibility by many actors of renown, and lastly,
+indeed chiefly, because it formulates and reiterates sound opinions
+upon the little-understood principles of the art of acting."--_Nation_.
+
+"Appeals to the great public who are interested in the advancement of
+the drama, and the still greater public of theatre-goers who are
+interested in the drama merely as a source of amusement."--_N. Y.
+Evening Post_.
+
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+exponents can afford to leave unread."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
+
+THORNBURY'S LIFE OF J. M. W. TURNER 12mo. With eight colored
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+
+"The author has told fully and fearlessly, the story of Turner's Life
+an far as he could learn it, and has filled his pages with anecdotes
+which illustrate the painter's character and habits, and his book is
+therefore one of great interest."--_N. Y. Evening Post_.
+
+"It is a book which every one with the slightest interest in art will
+read with eager interest."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
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+yet had."--_Springfield Republican_.
+
+
+CHORLEY'S RECENT ART AND SOCIETY. 12mo, $2.00.
+
+
+MOSCHELES' RECENT MUSIC AND MUSICIANS. 12mo, $2.00.
+
+
+WAGNER'S ART LIFE AND THEORIES. Selected from his writings, and
+translated by Edward L. BURLINGAME. $2.00.
+
+
+SINGLE FAMOUS POEMS. Edited by ROSSITER JOHNSON. Square 12mo, gilt
+edges, $2.00.
+
+The object of this book is to give a local habitation to some famous
+poems, existing only in the fugitive condition of the daily and
+periodical press, and also to make more accessible certain other poems
+by standard authors not renowned as poets.
+
+          _HENRY HOLT & CO., Publishers, 25 Bond St., N. Y._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edelweiss, by Berthold Auerbach
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