illage that the Landlady
was anxious to dispose of all the things she had secreted, by conveying
them to Lenz's house. A poor clockmaker came straight to Lenz one day,
and declared he would not say a word of these secret doings if he was
only paid his own deposit. Lenz summoned his wife, and told her that he
would never forgive her, if she received into the house one single
article that ought to have been given up to the creditors. Annele swore
on the head of her child, that such a thing had never occurred and
never should. Lenz removed her hand from the head of the child, for he
disliked all oaths. Annele told the truth, for the house on the
Morgenhalde harboured no forfeited property. The mother-in-law was,
however, often there. Lenz seldom spoke to her, and it proved very
convenient that Franzl was no longer one of the family, for the new
maid--a near relation of Annele's--conveyed repeatedly at night to the
adjacent village, heavy baskets from the "Lion," and the grocer's wife,
Ernestine, managed to turn all their contents into money.

People had pitied Lenz, because his father-in-law's ruin would probably
be fatal to him also. He had answered confidently that he would stand
firm; now, however, there was an incessant coming and going. Wherever
Lenz owed a few kreuzers they were demanded from him, and he no longer
got credit from anyone. Lenz did not know which way to turn, and he
dared not confess to Annele the most severe blow of all, for she had
warned him against it,--in the midst of all these troubles, Faller's
creditors called up the sum due on his house; Lenz's security being no
longer valid in their eyes. Faller was in an agony of distress when he
was forced to tell this to Lenz, bewailing that, being a married man,
he did not know where to lay his head.

Lenz unhesitatingly promised him speedy help; his former good name, and
that of his parents, would still be remembered. The world cannot be so
hard as to forget the well known integrity of his family.

Annele only knew of the smaller debts, and said:--"Go to your uncle, he
must assist you."

Yes, to his uncle! Petrowitsch made a point of invariably leaving the
village when a funeral took place there--not from compassion--but it
was a disagreeable sight--and the very day after the ruin of the
Landlord, Petrowitsch left home, yielding up on this occasion the
unripe cherries in his avenue, as a harvest to the passers by, and he
did not return till winter ha