tter any day, desiring it to be sent off."

"Will you let my mother and me come up to see it and hear it before it
goes?"

"I shall be highly honoured. Pray come whenever you choose."

"Now, good night! sleep sound, and remember me to Franzl, and tell her
that if she wants anything, she is to come to us for it."

"Thank you very much--I won't fail to tell her."

It was a good quarter of an hour's walk to Lenz's house, and a steep
hill all the way. Today he was soon at home, however. He did not know
why, but when he was once more alone in his room, he became very
sorrowful. He gazed long out into the summer night--he did not know
what he was thinking about. Here nothing is seen or heard of the world
of human beings; the only object visible in the distance, on a far away
hill, is a solitary cottage, where a blacksmith lives--a light sparkles
up through the windows, but soon disappears. Those men who have no
grief in their hearts can sleep.

Not far from the house of the smith, a sawmill is heard through the
stillness of the night, busily revolving from a current of air. The
stars are shining brightly over the dark line of the forest, and on the
spot where the moon has gone down behind the hills, a pale blue halo is
visible, and the fleecy clouds in the sky are gently illuminated.

Lenz supported his burning forehead on his hands: his pulses were
beating--the world seems going round with him. No doubt the new wine is
the cause of these sensations. "I ought not to have drunk wine at
night. What a clever, good girl Annele is! Don't be a fool--What is she
to you?--'Good night!--Sleep sound.'" He repeated her words gently, and
indeed he did sleep soundly all night.

CHAPTER IX.
A PARLEY WITH FRIENDS.

The journeymen and the apprentice, whom Lenz had sent home to their
parents during his domestic troubles, were already busy in the workshop
when Lenz awoke in the morning. It had never before happened that they
were before their master at their work. Indeed, when Lenz opened the
window the sun was already high in the heavens, and five or six clocks
that were in the room, struck seven at the same moment. It seemed to
Lenz as if his wish had been fulfilled, that he might sleep for a whole
week. Between yesterday and today, weeks indeed seemed to have passed.
The time appeared so long to Lenz, because such unwonted feelings had
entered his heart.

Franzl brou