uple themselves, and was relieved when the party
adjourned to the church.

The Liederkranz was there, and sang beautifully, though perceptibly
weakened by the absence of the two best voices, Faller's and Lenz's.
The whole village--certainly all the women, married and single--were
present at the wedding. The married were glad to hear the solemn
service read again, and the unmarried tried to imagine how it would
seem when their turn came, as they hoped it soon would. The matrons
wept, while the maidens cast curious glances about the church. If Lenz
had looked up, he would have found himself the centre of many eyes. He
separated from the bridal party after the ceremony and took his lonely
way homeward. At the churchyard gate stood Katharine, the bailiff's
daughter, with a nice-looking young man, dressed like one of the
peasants from the neighboring valley. She greeted Lenz as he passed,
and blushed under his earnest gaze. The next moment he raised his hat
politely to the doctor's eldest daughters, who were picking their way
through the wet streets, showing their pretty laced boots.

"We thought you had gone on a journey," said Bertha, the bolder of the
two sisters.

"No, I have been all the time at home," answered Lenz.

"So have we," retorted Bertha. Lenz was silent.

"Are you engaged upon any new work?" asked Amanda.

"On a new and an old one too. Our work never ceases."

"Is not such constant labor a severe strain upon you?" Amanda asked
again.

"Oh no; I don't know what I should do without it."

"You clockmakers," said Bertha, archly, "are like your clocks, always
wound up."

"And you are a key to wind us up," replied Lenz, inconsiderately. It
was not what he had meant to say; but the right words would not come.

"I am glad you pay her back in her own coin, Mr. Lenz," said Amanda.
"Our ways part here; we must say good by."

"Perhaps Mr. Lenz is going in our direction," ventured Bertha. "Were
you not going to Pilgrim's?"

Lenz felt his heart beat. He wanted to say yes; he wanted to say he was
going to Pilgrim's; but involuntarily, almost in fear and trembling, he
said, "No, I am going home. Good by!"

"Good by!"

Lenz breathed hard as he went up the hill. He would turn back; who
knows what might come of it? He could still overtake them; they were at
the Lion by this time; now they must be at the churchyard wall. But all
the while he kept steadily on, and, reaching home with a beating heart,
fled as f