ceeded. This is doomed to be our fate--both
yours and mine. Come, let us finish our wine and go home."

They went along together in a cheerful mood, this fine autumnal
evening, singing all kinds of melodies together, and when they were
tired of singing they whistled duets. Pilgrim took leave of Lenz at his
own house. Lenz, however, seeing lights in the "Lion," and hearing the
sound of loud voices, went in.

"I am so glad that you have come again to see us," said Annele,
stretching out her hand to him. "I could not help thinking that you
must feel it very solitary at home, now that your work is gone; almost
as bad as the day you lost your poor mother."

"Oh! not quite so bad as that, though something of the same kind; but,
Annele, people may praise my musical clock as much as they like, but I
know it should be very different. I don't wish to praise myself, but
this I will say, that I understand how to listen to music, and really
to understand that, is no small merit."

Annele looked at him in surprise, and thought: "To know how to listen
to music; what knowledge does that require? any one can do that who has
ears, if they do not put cotton into them." She, however, had a
suspicion that Lenz meant something more; she knew well, from long
experience, that people often begin with some very opposite subject
when they have something to communicate which they are full of; she
therefore cast a sympathising glance at Lenz, saying, "Yes, indeed; it
is no small merit."

"You understand then what I mean?" cried Lenz with enthusiasm.

"Yes; but I don't exactly know how to express it."

"That is precisely my case. When I come to this point I get puzzled. I
never learned the science of music, I can neither play on the violin
nor on the piano; but when I hear the notes, I seem to know at once
what the composer meant. I cannot express music, but I can listen to
it."

"That is a capital expression," said Annele joyfully. "I shall never
forget that phrase so long as I live; to express music and to listen to
it are two different things; it is easy to learn from you, for though I
feel just so myself, I could not explain it as you do."

Lenz drank in the good wine, the good words, and the good looks of
Annele at the same time, and then continued, "Mozart especially I seem
to hear without losing a note, and I think I hear him correctly. Oh! if
I could only have given him my hand once while he was alive! but I
think I should have di