was to
secure to every workman his full earnings. They made faces of
astonishment when Lenz declared that the sooner the association was
formed the better he should be pleased, and that he should be one of
the first to join it. When these poor fellows, whose poverty you could
read in their faces, who with fourteen hours' daily labor could only
make out to live by practising an almost incredible economy and
self-denial, pressed their half-florin or a sixpenny piece, sometimes
only a threepence, into Lenz's hand, it burned him like live coals. He
would gladly have returned the gifts, had he not feared to hurt their
feelings. When a pause enabled him to get Annele's attention, he told
her how he felt. She stared hopelessly at him, and said, shaking her
head: "My father is right, you are no business man. You can work and
earn your bread, but as for making others work and earn for you, you
have no conception of it. You are always asking how this one or that
one gets on. That is not the way. You must drive through the world as
comfortably as you can, and not ask who has to go barefoot. But you
would like to take old Proebler and your whole swarm of beggars to drive
with you. However, I will not read you a lesson now.--Ah, welcome, dear
landlady of the Lamb! the later the hour the fairer the guest. I have
long been thinking, and a minute ago was saying to my mother, Where can
the good landlady of the Lamb at Edelshof be? Half my pleasure would be
destroyed if she did not come to honor my wedding. And this is your
daughter-in-law? Where is the husband?"

"He is below with the horses. It is hard to find shelter for them
to-day."

"Yes; thank Heaven, we have many good friends. Such a day shows how
full the world is of them. Lenz, show the landlady of the Lamb to the
upper table. I have reserved a seat of honor there for her." And Annele
turned away to welcome other guests.

That she should reproach him--reproach him on such a day as this--with
thinking too much of others was a cruel sting to Lenz, though he did
not let it dwell on his mind. He was forced to own that she was right;
that this very weakness of his made him less successful in the world
than other men,--made him seem less capable than he really was. The
recollection of a word or action would haunt him for days, destroying
all his peace. Other men fare better. They live for themselves, and
heap together what they get without asking about their fellows. He must
lea