n, 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