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