m a cordial good-night,
and the old mayoress taking his hand in both of hers with peculiar
tenderness.

They heard Pilgrim playing on his guitar and singing, as they passed
his house. The faithful fellow felt a hearty sympathy for his friend,
but sympathizing with another's grief is a different thing from bearing
it. One's own life asserts the first claim.

Where the path began to ascend the hill, Lenz and the doctor parted.
"Wait at home till I come," the latter said. "What a singular softness
there is in the air this evening! We shall certainly have a thaw."

Here have I been seeking help abroad, while it was waiting for me at my
own door. There are good people still in the world; better than I ever
was, Lenz said to himself, as he went homewards up the hill.

CHAPTER XXX.

PETROVITSCH THAWS AND FREEZES AGAIN.

"I know what you have come for," said Petrovitsch to the doctor as he
entered. "Take a seat." He drew a chair up to the well-heated stove, in
front of which a bright open fire was burning.

"Well, what have I come for, Sir Prophet?" asked the doctor, summoning
all his good-humor to his aid.

"Money; money for my nephew."

"You are but half a prophet; I want a kind heart too."

"But money, money is the main point. Let me tell you at the start that
I am not one of those who spend their tenderness over a drunkard by the
roadside. On the contrary, if the fellow has a broken leg, he has no
one but himself to thank for it. I speak thus freely to you because you
are one of the few men whom I respect."

"Thank you for the compliment. An honest physician, however, must heal
the diseases that are of a man's own making as well as those he could
not prevent."

"You are a physician, and you are sick too, like our whole
district,--like our whole race in these days."

The doctor expressed surprise at the new light Petrovitsch thus threw
upon his character, revealing principle and not a love of ease as the
groundwork of his misanthropy.

"Can you sit an hour with me? To-day is my seventieth birthday."

"I congratulate you."

"Thanks."

Petrovitsch sent the maid to Ibrahim to say that he should be an hour
later than usual at his game that evening, and then, resuming his seat
by the doctor, continued: "I am inclined to be communicative to-day and
talk about myself. Let me tell you that, as for the opinion of the
world at large, I care as little about i