day--was it yesterday?
when the Pastor was here. Listen! your uncle is asleep; I am glad of
it. I am thankful to be one hour alone with you before we pass into
eternity. No third person could understand the love we bear each other
in our hearts, even amid all--all that has happened. If I could only
see your face once more, only once fairly in the bright daylight! I can
distinguish nothing by this blue flickering light. If I could see but
once your kind face and loving eyes! To die thus without one last look,
what agony it is! and how often I have turned away my eyes when I saw
that yours were seeking mine! Oh! for but one single look, that I could
see you once before we die."

Petrowitsch still pretended to sleep. He had quickly seen that Annele
was eager to unburthen her heart, and that no third person ought to
interfere. The child played with Bueble, and Annele continued:--

"Oh! if I could but recall the years that are past! Once you said
to me at noon: Is there anything in the world more cheering than the
sun?--and then again one evening: What pure happiness fresh air brings!
I ridiculed you for your simplicity; I was constantly sinning against
your better nature; everything makes you happy, and so it ought to be.
Just as I once threw away your father's file and broke the sharp point,
and it seemed to enter my heart, but I took care you should not know
this; and I threw out of the window your mother's pious writing, and
the plant: there is not a single thing in which I have not acted wrong.
I know--I know that you forgive me freely; pray to a gracious God that
He will also forgive me in life and in death."

A musical timepiece began to play a hymn. Petrowitsch moved uneasily in
his chair, but appeared to sleep again. When the air was ended, Annele
exclaimed:--

"What is there that I have not to ask forgiveness for? even that clock.
Now for the first time in my life, I hear how holy that music sounds,
and yet how often I vexed you on this subject also! Good and gracious
Lord! I ask it not for myself--but save us, oh! save us! let me prove
that I wish to make up for the past."

"I feel quite happy now, even if we are doomed to die," said Lenz;
"while the clock was playing it came into my thoughts--we have got the
precious plant Edelweiss again; it grew under the snow in your
naturally good heart. Why do you tremble so?"

"I am so cold, my feet are like ice."

"Take off your shoes, and I will warm your feet in