rovided-for children! I know I
should deeply affect your heart, if I were to paint to you the picture
of this family contending with want; but my tears would blot my writing.
Jacobi can do it--he has seen it, he has understood it; for this picture
which I have so carefully concealed from every other eye--this pale,
family misery I revealed to him, for I was in despair!

"The name of my husband stood on the list of candidates for the living
of T----. He had three-fold the legally-demanded requisites of Jacobi,
and was, over and above, known and beloved by the parish; all the
peasants capable of voting, openly declared their intention of choosing
him. Two great landed proprietors, however, had the ultimate decision:
Count D., and Mr. B. the proprietor of the mines, could, if they two
were agreed, they two alone, elect the pastor. They also acknowledged
the esteem in which they held my husband, and declared themselves
willing to unite in the general choice.

"For the first time in many years did we venture to look up to a
brighter future. Presently, however, we learnt that a powerful patron of
Mr. Jacobi had turned the whole scale in his favour, and that it would
be soon decided; the two great proprietors had promised their votes to
him, and our condition was more hopeless than ever.

"The day of nomination approached. I did not venture to speak with my
strictly conscientious husband of the design which I cherished. I had
heard much said of Jacobi's excellent character; I was a distracted wife
and mother. I sought out Jacobi, and spoke to him out of the depths of
my heart, spoke to his sense of right--to his sense of honour; I showed
him how the affair stood for us before he disturbed it, by means which
could not be justly called honourable. I feared that my words were
bitter, but all the more angel-like was it in Jacobi to hear me with
calmness. I pictured to him our present condition; told him how he might
save us from misery, and besought him to do it.

"My prayer at first was almost wild, and in the beginning Jacobi seemed
almost to think it so, but he heard me out; he let me conduct him to the
house of his former teacher, saw the consuming anxiety depicted on his
pale emaciated countenance; saw that I had exaggerated nothing; he wept,
pressed my hand with a word of consolation, and went out hastily.

"The day of nomination came. Jacobi renounced all claims. My husband was
elected to the living in T----. Good God!