a delicate
face, just as I had imagined him. Does he always stoop like that when
he walks?"

"No, only now, because he is feeling so badly at his mother's death. He
is a good fellow, though a little too soft-hearted. I know two eyes
that are looking out at him from a vine-covered house, wishing they
might tempt him in; and the eyes belong to Bertha."

"Indeed? Is there any engagement between them?" asked the engineer, the
color mounting to his forehead.

"I don't suppose they are engaged, but she would be glad enough to
catch him; for he has a pretty property, while she has nothing but a
pretty straw hat and a pair of ragged stockings."

The landlord's daughter--or Annele of the Lion, as she was commonly
called--congratulated herself on having administered this bitter pill,
and quite forgot her own vexation in delight at the pain she had
caused.

"Where are you going?" she continued, as the young man took his hat,
and prepared to depart.

"I want a farther walk, and think of going up the Spannreute."

"It is beautiful, but as steep as the side of a house."

Annele hurried into the back garden as soon as he left, and watched
him. He did, in fact, go a little way up the mountain, but soon
retraced his steps, and went down the valley towards the doctor's.

"Plague on you!" she said to herself; "not another kind word shall you
get from me."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DEPARTED SAINT AND THE NEW MOTHER.

"He is not at home," cried Don Bastian's wife, as Lenz came up the slope
to the house. "He must have gone to see you. Did you not meet him?"

"No; is his room open?"

"Yes."

"I will go up awhile," he said, and approached the familiar room. But,
on opening the door, all power to enter forsook him. There stood
his mother smiling upon him. His first thought, on recovering his
self-possession, was one of gratitude to the faithful friend who had
fixed upon the canvas those dear features, so honest and kindly, before
their memory had faded. "He is always my good angel," he said to
himself. "He was doing me service when he could not be with me, and
such a service!--the greatest in all the world."

Long and fixedly, through gathering tears, Lenz gazed at the beloved
face. "While I have eyes left, they shall look upon her. O if I could
only hear her speak! if the voice of the departed could only be brought
back!" He could hardly tear himself away. It was so strange t