"But every one is fond of you."
"Yet, if I need a friend, I have, none."
There was a long pause.
"Do you know," said Annele at length, "that the bailiff's daughter Katharine is engaged to a young fellow from the next valley? They have just, sent for the betrothal wine."
"So?" said Lenz. "I saw her standing with some one to-day, as I came from church. She is a good, honest girl. I wish her all happiness. Were you at the wedding in the church to-day, Annele?"
"Yes, and I saw you there. You deserve to go to heaven for your kindness to Faller?"
"Heaven is easily won then. How well the minister preached, did he not? There was some good lesson for every one, married or single. The word of God is like music. Every hearer, though there should be hundreds and hundreds of them, takes the whole without robbing his neighbor."
"I assure you, I would almost rather hear you than the minister. Every word you speak is so clear, so--I hardly know how to tell what I mean. I sometimes think it is a pity you are only a clockmaker."
"Only a clockmaker? I am glad I am a clockmaker; it is a noble calling. I could preach you a sermon upon it. The world is a clock, wound up by God from everlasting to everlasting. The stars circle in the heavens, one about another. There are no clocks in Paradise, Pilgrim says. That may be; but from the hour when men had to labor they had to divide the time. Just think, we should be like children and fools if we could not tell the hours!"
"You make all so clear to me! I never thought of that before."