wing
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