es
independent of retail dealers, and merchants. But instead of any
effectual support, they found only grumbling and complaints, and
Annele, when she heard of the plan, said:--

"For goodness' sake give it up; I wonder you don't tire of always
rolling the balls for others to play."

Annele, however, repeatedly urged Lenz to undertake an establishment of
this kind along with her father, and if it was necessary, he might
travel for a year in the interests of the firm, while she would stay
with her parents. Lenz, however, declared,--

"I am not suited to that kind of thing, and I shall certainly not leave
home as a married man, when I never did so as a bachelor."

He therefore entirely gave up all idea of an Association, and pacified
Annele by assuring her that they would have quite as good an income;
that she need have no fears on that account, and Pilgrim quite agreed
with Lenz's views.

Annele consequently regarded Pilgrim as the chief obstacle to Lenz's
advancement in life.

"He is a man," said she, "who never in all his life succeeded in
anything, and he never will."

She tried, in every possible way, to sow discord between Pilgrim and
Lenz, but she entirely failed.

Annele brooded over various plans, and was constantly reckoning and
calculating in her head. She knew that Lenz had become security for
Faller when he bought his house, and now she constantly pressed on him
the propriety of recalling this security. He was obliged to consent to
her wish, but just as he arrived at Faller's house his friend came out
to meet him, laughing, and saying--

"My wife has just presented me, for the second time, with twins."

Lenz of course could not, at such a moment, plague Faller by depriving
him of the security; and when Annele inquired what he had done, he gave
her an evasive answer.

The night before the Techniker's marriage with the Doctor's daughter,
Annele had a son. When Lenz was standing by her bedside, full of joy,
she said:--

"Lenz, promise me one thing; promise me that you will give up Pilgrim,
or that you will try for three months to do so."

"I can make no such promise," said Lenz, and a bitter drop fell into
the cup of his joy.

Annele was painfully excited when the sounds of the wedding music in
the valley reached her ears, and both her mother and her husband were
alarmed for her life from such agitation; but she fell into a sound
sleep at noon, and Lenz closed every door carefully to exclude al