pride she nourished in her heart. Annele listened
with flashing eyes, and when the Pastor reproached her with her
transgression against Franzl, she broke loose, as if on some prey for
which she had laid in wait.

"So now it is come out,--the sly old woman! the horrid hypocrite!--it
was she who had told all these things of her, and exasperated the
Pastor, and the whole world, against her." No cat devours a mouse with
greater satisfaction, than Annele now clawed and tore at old Franzl.
"If I had her only here this minute!" said she repeatedly.

The Pastor let her rage till she was tired, and at last said: "You have
exhibited no little temper just now, but I maintain, for all that, you
are not really badhearted--in fact, not bad at all."

Annele burst into tears, and deplored her being so altered for the
worse. She had become so passionate, which was not her natural
disposition; and it all proceeded from her being able to earn nothing.
She was not fitted to be the wife of a small clockmaker, and to look
after his household. She ought to be a landlady, and if the Pastor
would assist her in this project, she faithfully promised him, that she
would never again give way to either anger or malice.

The Pastor agreed with her that to be a landlady was her peculiar
vocation. She kissed his hand in gratitude. He promised to do what he
could to effect this, but exhorted her not to expect a transformation
of heart from any outward events. "You are not yet," said he,
"sufficiently humbled by grief and misery. Pride is your besetting sin,
and causes your unhappiness, and that of others also. God grant that
some irrevocable misfortune to your husband, or children, may not
eventually be the first thing to convert your heart!"

Annele was seated opposite the mirror, and unconsciously she saw her
face reflected in it; it looked as if it was covered with cobwebs, and
involuntarily she passed her hand across it, to brush them away.

The Pastor wished to go away, but Annele begged him to stay a little,
as she could collect her thoughts better when he was there; she only
wished him to remain a short time longer.

The two sat in silence, and nothing was heard but the ticking of the
clocks. Annele's lips moved, without uttering any sound.

When the Pastor at length took leave of her, she kissed his hand
reverently; and he said, "If you feel in your inmost soul what a
privilege it is, and if your heart is humbled--thoroughly humbled, the