g his boy on his knee, he
told Annele honestly everything, with one exception--the faithless
thoughts he had entertained towards her. And Annele said: "Do you know
the only reality in all that?"

"What?"

"The hundred gulden and three crown dollars old Franzl offered you. All
the rest is stuff."

"Why so?"

"Because your uncle will never help you. I suppose you will own now,
that you should not have helped him to slip through our fingers as to
his intentions towards you, this day five years?"

"But the proposal about the manufactory?"

"Who is to enter it besides you?"

"I know of no one at this moment but Proebler; and it is true he has
made many useful discoveries in his life."

"Ha! ha!--capital! Proebler and you!--a famous match, certainly! Have
not I told you a hundred times that you would sink to his level? But he
is better than you, for at least he has not brought a wife and family
to beggary by his misconduct. To the deuce with such hypocrites and
milksops! Go in harness with Proebler, by all means!" cried Annele.
And snatching the boy from his knee, she said passionately to the
child--"Your father is a scamp and an idler, and expects us to put
every morsel of bread into his mouth. It is a pity his mother is not
still living, to feed him with bread and milk. Oh! how low I am sunk!
But this I tell you, that so long as I live you shall not enter that
manufactory. I would rather drown both myself and my children; then,
perhaps, the Doctor's long-legged daughter, the young lady who is so
learned in herbs, might marry you."

Lenz sat still, entirely confounded. His hair stood on end. At last he
said--"Don't dare to call on my mother: leave her at peace in
eternity."

"I can do that easily enough. I didn't want anything from her, and I
never had anything from her."

"What?--have you thrown away the plant of Edelweiss that was hers?"

"Oh, stuff! I have it yet."

"Where? give it to me."

Annele opened a cupboard and showed him the plant. "I am thankful that
you still have it," said Lenz, "for it will bring a blessing on us
both."

"You seem pretty well out of your mind with your foolish
superstitions," answered Annele. "Must I submit to that, too? There!
fly away in the air, Edelweiss, along with the sacred inscription!"

She opened the window. A stormy wind was howling outside. "There,
wind!" called she, "come! Carry it all off with you--the whole precious
concern!" The writing and the plant wer