r and brewer, joined her
brother in the clock business, and who, when his brother-in-law died,
had almost compelled him to continue the business alone, although he
had no proper understanding of it; this woman, who had been constantly
goading him on to new enterprises, and knew his affairs almost better
than he did himself,--this woman had now called in the common servants
to bear witness that he alone was guilty, and that on him alone must
fall the blame.

One moment revealed to the unhappy landlord the whole extent of his
misery. Five and thirty years it stretched behind him, and forward--how
far, none could tell. To save herself, to expose him, his wife had
carried her hypocrisy to this extremity.

His glasses grew dim with moisture; he could see no more. Quietly he
passed his handkerchief first over them and then over his eyes. From
that moment a rancor that never softened struck its roots into his
heart; but his pride presented the same quiet, unruffled front.

"You have your own reasons for acting thus," he said, when the
postilion and maids had left the room. "They are beyond my finding out.
I shall say no more upon the matter." And he kept his word. His wife
might talk and lament as she would, she could not move him out of his
silence. It almost entertained him to see what a fine face she could
assume before the world. He grew to be almost the sage he had been
taken for. It is wonderful what woman can do, he thought, as he watched
his wife's man[oe]uvres. Practice certainly makes perfect.

The unwise world, however, did not accept the landlord's fall so
patiently. Like a thunder-clap the report spread over mountain and
valley, The landlord is bankrupt! Incredible! impossible! What can
stand if the landlord of the Lion falls?

Even the golden lion on the sign seemed to protest against it, and
creaked angrily on its supporting hinges. But auctioneers subdue even
lions, and make no account of a coat of gilding. The sign was taken
down. Most pitiable the lion looked with one eye hidden by the wall,
and the other seeming to blink wearily, as if it, too, would fain close
for grief and shame.

There was a crash in the village below, and there was a crash above on
the Morgenhalde.

Lenz hurried down into the town, and back again to the inn. The
landlord kept walking solemnly up and down the great public room,
saying, with dignity: "This, too, must I bear like a man,"--like a man
of honor, he had almost said.