avely, 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