ther grave, play the merry song of the Moors, "Das klinget so
herrlich, das klinget so schoen."

"H'm, h'm!" growled the landlord, and a long speech he made out of his
growl, nodding his head the while, and drawing in his under lip, as if
tasting a delicate wine.

"Very well," he added, after a pause, and spreading out both hands as
he said it, as if he would literally be openhanded in bestowing his
commendations,--"very well indeed." Those were weighty words, coming
from mine host.

The landlady folded her hands, and looked admiringly at Lenz. "To think
that such a work should be made by human hands, and by so young a man
too! and yet he acts as if he were nothing more than the rest of the
world. Keep so always; nothing becomes a great artist so well as
modesty. Go on as you have begun; make more such works. You have a
great gift, my word for it."

That poverty-stricken individual, that may-pole, cannot use such
language, said her triumphant glance at the doctor's wife, after this
speech. And, if she did, what would her words signify? It is very
different coming from me.

"Your mother's blessing rests on your noble work, Lenz," said Annele,
"for she lived to see it finished. How hard for you to part with it!
Bring me the music, won't you? and I will learn to play it on the
piano."

"I can lend you the notes," said the doctor's eldest daughter, who had
heard Annele's concluding words.

"But ours is arranged for four hands," said Bertha.

"And I have but two," said Annele, snappishly.

The girls would have gone on chatting longer, had not the doctor
commanded silence. A new barrel had been put in, and the second piece
was beginning.

When this was ended, and the guests had gone into the other room to
partake of the bread and butter, cheese and wine that Franzl had
prepared, the landlord began upon business.

"How much do you receive for your musical clock, Lenz? You need not
hesitate to tell me; I won't take any unfair advantage of it."

"Twenty-two hundred florins. I don't gain much at that price, for the
work has cost me a great outlay of time and money. If I make another, I
shall drive a better bargain."

"Have you begun another?"

"No, I have had no order."

"I cannot give you an order, for musical clocks are out of my line of
business. I cannot order one, therefore, as I say; but, if you make
another, perhaps I will buy it. I think I could dispose of it."

"If that is so, I will begin a second