and. Holding her hand in one of his, and stroking it gently
with the other, Landolin continued:

"Yes, one only finds an unfaithful man out when it's too late. When a
servant is discharged, his hidden meanness shows itself. Tobias has the
impudence to say that he invented a lie for my sake. It's infamous how
malicious the greatest simpleton can yet be. But, thank God, what he
says won't make any difference with you."

His wife looked at him with glistening eyes; and casting a sidelong
glance at Thoma, Landolin continued:

"I must beg Peter's pardon; I didn't know him. He's smart; smarter
than--than I knew. We send Tobias away, and that is the best proof that
we, thank God, have nothing to hide. But I've talked enough. Not
another angry word shall escape my lips. You know I'm going to
confession to-day?"

The farmer's wife lay perfectly quiet. She felt chilly, but she begged
the family to go to church; for the bells were just ringing.

Landolin went, and not without great self-satisfaction. To be sure, it
was not a difficult matter to deceive his confiding wife; but Thoma had
received a hit at the same time. She deserved it for her obstinate
hard-heartedness; for of course she must know in what direction the
praise of Peter led.

Thoma stayed with her mother, who prayed quietly.

CHAPTER LVII.

Up the same road over which Landolin had passed the night after the
celebration, now came, on this clear autumn Sunday, the judge's wife. A
scoffer, who knew her thoughts, might have said to her: Not the
intoxication of wine alone makes a man talk to himself, and changes
his view of everything; and, worse still, the recovery from an
over-indulgence in exciting thought is, perhaps, even bitterer.

This might have been said, and still the lady would not have stopped in
her walk. Obeying a voice from within and not from without, she felt
that she ought no longer delay in an effort to establish peace and
quietness in Landolin's house, and peace between them and Cushion-Kate.
She knew right well, for she had often enough experienced it, that a
man sets little value on unsolicited help; yes, even frequently refuses
it. But she also knew that her advice, even when repulsed, had had
effect, and worked for good; and, above all things, she felt herself
within the circle of the duties that spring from the union of man to
man. As in war the wounded is no enemy, so in peace the sufferer is no
str