Then Annele cried to think she should be so sadly changed; it was not
like her to be so angry. It was all because she had nothing to do; was
not allowed to be earning anything. She was not made to keep house for
a petty clockmaker; she was made to be a landlady. If the minister
would only help her to be landlady, she promised he should never see
another spark of anger or cruelty in her.

The minister admitted that she had all the requisite qualities for a
landlady, and promised to do everything in his power to make her one;
but implored her, as she kissed his hands in gratitude, not to trust
for her improvement to any external circumstances.

"You are not yet subdued by your grief and humiliation. Your pride is
your sin, the cause of unhappiness to you and yours. God forbid you
should need the loss of husband or children to bring you to your better
self!"

Annele's seat was opposite the mirror, and as she caught the reflection
of her face in the glass there seemed to be a cobweb floating before
it. She passed her hand several times across her face.

The minister got up to go, but Annele begged him to sit with her a
little longer; she could think better when he was by.

The two sat in silence. No sound was heard except the ticking of the
clocks. Annele's lips moved, but no voice came from them. She kissed
his hand devoutly when he at last departed, and he said: "If you feel
yourself worthy, if your heart is softened, really softened, come to
the communion to-morrow. God bless you!"

She wished to accompany him part of the way. "No courtesies now," he
said; "be first pure and humble in heart. Judge not, that ye be not
judged, says the Saviour. Judge yourself; look into your own heart.
Accustom yourself to sit quiet and think."

Annele remained sitting where the minister had left her. She found
it hard, for sitting with her hands before her and thinking was
not her habit. She forced herself to it now. One sentence of the
minister's kept ringing in her ears: "You have often good and pure
thoughts,--thoughts of penitence; but they visit you as guests, drink
their glass, and are gone. You put the chairs in place again, wipe off
the table, and all is as if they had not been."

Annele reflected upon it and acknowledged it was true.

She could be hard upon herself as well as upon others. Why have you
thus misused your life? she asked herself.

The child woke up and cried. "The minister has no children; it is very
wel