was only a misstep. But how is it now? And I
believe Landolin is not tough enough--how shall I say it--he is not man
enough to blot out the sense of his guilt from his own mind, and from
other people's. But, Anton, let this be the last time we dispute about
him. I don't deny that I have no place in my heart for him; but we two
need not, on that account, live in discord. It is time for you to go
now."

Anton went up the stream, and set himself busily to work, helping
to bind the logs and planks together into a raft. He who saw this
well-built man, handling the oar and boat-hook so energetically, and in
his quickly changing attitudes presenting such a picture of strong,
graceful manhood, would not have dreamed that he carried in his heart a
bitter sorrow.

As Thoma was estranged from her father, so Anton was estranged from
his. Thoma and the miller were of the same opinion, with only this
difference; that in Thoma deep respect for her father had changed
into the opposite feeling; whilst with the miller, a deeply hidden
hostility, or rather aversion toward the haughty Landolin had only come
to the surface.

The acquittal made no change in the miller's feelings, except,
possibly, to intensify them; and perhaps it was so also with Thoma.
Still Anton hoped that matters would change for the better; and he was
continually studying how he could bring it about.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

At the capital, the night following the trial was to be spent in
revelry and carousal.

When Landolin entered the chamber prepared for him at the Ritter inn,
he pulled off his coat, and hurling it across the room, exclaimed:

"There! I'm rid of it! I've felt the whole time as if I had an iron
jacket on."

In the great dining-room, where the table was already spread, he walked
up and down in his shirt sleeves. The host said smilingly that supper
would soon be served.

"Are the twelve men all coming?" asked Landolin.

"They were all invited, but they seem to have slipped into the ground
and vanished."

The first to arrive was Landolin's lawyer. He seemed far from being
elated with his victory; and in Landolin's manner toward him there was
by no means the same dependence and helplessness as before. Then
Landolin had treated him as a very sick man does his physician; every
word and every glance were welcomed as though fraught with healing. Now
Landolin was an ungrateful convalescent, who has come to the concl