my mother can gaze at us with satisfaction."

Annele was on the point of saying: "Oh! pray don't make a pattern saint
of the good woman;" but she gulped it down.

The whole week--it was now only Wednesday--was kept like a half
holiday; Lenz worked for a couple of hours, but, apparently, only to
remind him of his calling; and he was always in better spirits after he
had been busy at work. The various events, during the marriage
festivities, were naturally recalled and commented on. It was certainly
not a little amusing to hear the way in which Annele could imitate and
quiz them all. The landladies of the "Bear," the "Lamb" and the
"Eagle," were to the very life; Faller in particular she could take
off exactly, in the way in which he constantly stroked his moustaches,
till one could almost have believed that there were the same appendages
on Annele's pretty mocking face. She intended no malice in these
tricks--but she enjoyed any kind of fun, and was always well amused at
the Carnival merry making, and now nothing but good humour shone forth,
and she exclaimed: "Oh! how agreeable it is here in the hills, and how
still and quiet! I had no idea that there could be such perfect peace.
When I am seated here, and see and hear nothing of the world, and have
no one to give an answer to, I almost feel as if I were sleeping with
my eyes open--and sleeping pleasantly too; below there, it is like
being constantly in a busy mill; up here, it is like another existence:
I think I could actually hear my heart beat. I will not go down into
the village for the next fortnight; I will accustom myself by degrees
to give up going there, and it will be no hardship to me; they have no
idea below there what enjoyment there is in being out of the bustle,
and strife, and tumult of life. Oh Lenz, I don't think you know how
fortunate you have been all your life!"

Annele was seated one morning beside Lenz, uttering all these
exclamations of happiness and contentment, and the husband replied,
with a glad face: "This is just as it should be; I knew you would like
this house; and, believe me, I feel thankful to God, and to my parents,
that I have been permitted to pass my life hitherto here. But, my dear
little wife, we must not remain here for fourteen days, cut off from
everybody. At all events, we must go to church together next Sunday;
indeed, I think that we ought to go to see your parents for a little
today."

"Just as you like; and, fortuna