, and I really am. Please give me back my heedless
words, Lenz."

She held out her hand as if expecting him to lay the words in it.

Lenz grasped her hand, assuring her that he was not offended, but, on
the contrary, grateful to her from his very heart. The hands of both
trembled. Lenz said it was time he was on his way again, but she held
him fast, and seemed anxious, by talking of all manner of other topics,
to efface the remembrance of her heedless speech. When he left at last,
she cried out after him: "Remember me to your Annele, and bring her
soon to see me."

Lenz went on his way with the borrowed hat; a beggar's hat, as he
called it, sadly.

Katharine's words pursued him. The same pity that was expressed for him
in that house was doubtless felt in many others. The thought almost
unmanned him, but he would not give way. He told himself that it was
his own fault; he ought to have showed more firmness.

Again and again his stick fell from his hands, and every time he
stooped to pick it up, he almost lacked the power to rise.

So much for a man's brooding over his sorrows instead of giving heed to
his way! You would lose your hands if they were not fastened to your
body. Mind what you are about!

He straightened himself up and walked on more briskly. The sun shone
bright and warm; the icicles on the rocks glittered and dripped; joyous
mountain songs, that he used to sing with the Liederkranz, began to
ring in his ears. Away with them! It could not have been he who once
sang such songs out of the gladness of his heart.

The relations he visited gave him a friendly welcome. At first he
related everywhere the adventure of the hat as an excuse for appearing
in such a dilapidated condition; but, finding that no one seemed to
think it required an explanation, he finally ceased to mention it. Of
course, in those very houses where he said nothing of the hat, it
excited great speculation; and was taken as a proof of the abject
poverty into which he had fallen.

His request for money was everywhere refused with more or less
civility. Some wondered at his applying to them when he had rich
brothers-in-law and an uncle rolling in money; others more politely
excused themselves on the plea of having just bought some land and
needing all their money for building; or regretted he had not applied a
few days ago, before they made their last investment.

Sorely dispirited, Lenz pursued his way. He could not bear to think of