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power, when she wished to please, that no one could resist. Pilgrim
succeeded in pacifying Lenz entirely. He tried to persuade him that
Annele could only now, for the first time, feel herself really mistress
of the house, since the old maid took her departure, who had acquired a
certain mastery in the family. Annele had certainly been accustomed to
much greater activity in the house, and was much better pleased when
there was a great deal to do; she declared to Lenz that she would never
hire another maid, as so small a household was scarcely half sufficient
work for herself alone. The apprentice was to assist her; it was not
till Lenz brought in the aid of his mother-in-law that a new maid was
engaged.

All continued now cheerful and peaceful in the house, far into the
summer. Annele urged her mother to see that her father soon paid back
Lenz his money, and the latter came one day and offered Lenz the wood
behind his house instead of payment, but demanded another thousand
gulden. Lenz replied that he did not want to buy the wood, he wished to
have current money, so the affair was set at rest, and the worthy
landlord gave Lenz his acknowledgment in due form, and properly
executed.

Late in the summer there were great doings in the village. The
Techniker married Bertha, the doctor's second daughter,--the eldest was
resolved to remain single,--and the doctor's son, who made
chronometers, returned from his travels. It was said that he intended
to erect, near his father's house, a large establishment for the
fabrication of clocks and watches, with all kinds of new machinery. In
the whole country there were lamentations, for it was feared everyone
would be ruined, and that now clocks would be made here, as they were
in America, without a single stroke of a file, and entirely by the
pressure of machinery. Lenz was one of those in no manner disturbed; he
said that hitherto they had been able to compete with the American
clockmakers, and he saw no reason why they should not do the same with
regard to the Doctor's case; moreover, no machinery could place the
mechanism properly together,--man's intelligence was required for that.
It would be rather an advantage to many parts of the clocks, if they
could be made quicker by machinery.

Lenz and the schoolmaster were, in the mean time, much occupied in
trying to effect a project they had long cherished. The principal
traders were to enter into an association, to render themselv