"You ought to invite your uncle also, it is only proper to do so."
"I thought of it repeatedly, but it is better not; I know his ways."
The church bells in the valley began to ring out, and Lenz said: "Is not that pleasant? My mother said a thousand times, that as we cannot hear the bells themselves, but only the echo from the wood behind our house, it is as if the melody came direct from heaven."
"Quite so," said Annele, "but it is time for us to set off." On the way she began: "Lenz, I do not ask through curiosity, but I am your wife, so you ought to tell me everything, and I promise you faithfully, by that solemn peal we are listening to, that I will never divulge it."
"You need make no vows—never do so, for I have a great objection to strong asseverations. What do you wish to know?"
"Well then, your uncle and you spoke in so obscure a manner on our wedding-day: what did you settle together about your inheritance?"
"Nothing at all: we never spoke one word together on the subject."
"And yet it seemed from your manner that it was all signed and sealed."
"I only said that my uncle and I understood each other; and so we do—we never speak about such things—he can do as he likes with his own."
"And you helped him out of his dilemma; for he was fairly beset and could not have escaped—such an occasion will never come again. He ought to have settled on us, I mean on you, a handsome sum."