my dear Lenz, to think that you really wished to
make away with yourself! Surely you could not have done so when it came
to the last, for the children's sake; but I am the guilty cause of your
ever dreaming of so fearful a sin. Oh! how your heart must have bled! I
don't know what is the worst thing I have done, to implore your
forgiveness for."

"It is all over now," said Petrowitsch, soothingly. It was singular
that the same ideas should be working in Annele's brain, in her room,
where she could not possibly hear a word of what the two men were
saying in cautious whispers. Both tried to pacify her.

Several clocks now struck three.

"Is that noon or night?" asked Annele.

"It must be night."

They recapitulated all that had occurred since the snow had been
precipitated on the house; and they agreed it must be long past
midnight.

"Oh! daylight! if I could only once more, only just once more, see the
blessed sun! Oh! rise in the sky and succour us! Oh! that it were
light!" cried Annele, incessantly. They could not quiet her nervous
excitement, till at last she dropped asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Petrowitsch also fell into a doze, and Lenz alone remained awake. He
dared not sleep; it was indispensable that he should steadily face
their deadly peril, and ward it off, so far as human means could avail.
He extinguished the light. The store of spirits for the lamp must not
be wasted--who knows how long it may still be required! And soon, as
Lenz sat thus in silence and darkness, it seemed first noon, and then
night; at one moment he wished it were day, at the next he hoped it was
night. If it were day, help would be nearer; if night, those outside
would have been working on longer, shovelling away the snow, and
rolling away the heavy trunks of trees. Often he thought that he heard
sounds outside, but it was all a delusion--it was the raven croaking in
his sleep.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
A PHALANX.

At the self-same hour--it was twelve o'clock at noon--Faller went to
Lenz's home, wishing to tell him that he was now freed from the
security for his house. It was raining and snowing alternately, and a
violent wind drove the rain and snow about, so that it was scarcely
possible to see through it. Faller, however, strode on sturdily, his
head bent forward, struggling manfully with the storm. Suddenly he
looked up, having arrived at his destination, when he