n a village tavern
and drank the wretched beer they gave me. In came a miserable old
woman, worn with age and sorrow, and touched me on the shoulder,
saying, 'Give me a sup, for Christ's sake!' 'Here, old girl!' I said,
and gave her my glass. She sat down and drained it to the last drop;
then she looked up at me with her big old eyes and said, 'Now I have
drunk your cup of sorrow!'"

The engraver was silent; the others stared at him. "My hat comes
off to that word!" he said, and seemed to sink into himself. "That was
the greatest word of love that I ever heard in my life. Amen." The
young folks burst out laughing; old Sperber still caressed his glass,
and looked half-mockingly at the stranger. But he went on: "All the
church-bells ought to have been rung when the old woman said, 'Now I
have drunk your cup of sorrow!' People should have rushed out of their
houses to see what was happening--they should have cried, 'Hosanna!'
Does no one understand the immeasurable depth of such poverty and
goodness! I fell on my knees before the old woman, I kissed the
tattered hem of her garments--and she ... spat in my face! Amen. And
the meaning of it all is--that no one knows what he says and does in
this world, neither in the highest sense nor in the lowest. They utter
oracles like the gods, and understand nothing of them. They are angry
with each other, and know not why. A world of dreams ... Here's to your
good health!" And he raised his glass and drank.

"A positive fool!" whispered old Sperber to his neighbor. "Why can't he
talk like other people!" And the same sentiment might have been read in
the glances of the rest.

This brought all her blood to the hostess's cheeks. A warm, protecting
love for him seized upon her; a kind, inextinguishable flame sprang up
in her heart. It seemed to her as if she could dip her young soul in
his and bring it up again full of the power of life and of riches. He
was a revelation to her. She felt that she was escaping from a dark,
dumb world to him and to the light.

It was not long before the suitors became aware that the strange
engraver was on the road to snatching from under their very noses the
rich and beautiful prize to which they aspired. Even to Herr Sperber
the situation seemed to be getting queer; and Herr Kosch had a hard
time of it. The men made him a target for their remarks, and tried to
set him in an absurd light. He held his own bravely, and gave valiant
answers back. The rou