A messenger presently arrived from the Landlady, to say that Lenz was to come there at eleven o'clock. Lenz dressed himself in his Sunday suit, and hurried to his uncle Petrowitsch. After he had repeatedly rung at the bell, and was at last admitted, his uncle came towards him, looking considerably disturbed. "What brings you here at this early hour?" "Uncle, you are my father's brother." "Yes; and when I left the country I left everything to your father. All that I possess, I earned for myself." "I don't want any money from you, but to represent my father for me." "How? what?" "Uncle, Annele of the 'Lion' and I are attached to each other, truly attached; and Annele's mother knows about it, and has given her consent; and I am to propose for her to-day, at eleven o'clock, in due form to her father, according to custom; and I wish you to go with me, as you are my father's brother." "So?" said Petrowitsch, cramming a large piece of white sugar into his mouth, and walking up and down the carpeted room. "Really?" said he, after a few turns. "You will get a sharp, quick wife, and I must say you show considerable nerve. I never should have imagined that you had sufficient courage, to take such a wife." "Why courage? What has that to do with it?" "Nothing bad; but I had no idea you were so vain as to try for such a wife." "Vain? What vanity is there in it?" Petrowitsch smiled, and made no reply. Lenz continued: "You know her, uncle. She is prudent and frugal, and her family most respectable." "That is not what I mean. It is vanity on your part to imagine that you can supply to a girl of twenty two the place of the numerous guests that swarm in the Inn, all complimenting her and flattering her. It is vanity in you to wish to secure for yourself alone, a woman who can conduct a large inn. A prudent man takes no wife who will make him spend half his substance, if he wishes to please her. And to rule such a woman is no trifle. It is far more difficult than to drive four wild horses on the steppes." "I don't intend to rule her." "Perhaps! But one of the two must be: to rule or to be ruled. I must say, however, that she is good tempered: only, indeed, towards those who praise her, or are submissive to her will. She is the only good one in the house. Both the old people are hypocrites in their various ways; the woman with her incessant talk, the man with his few words. Every step the Landlord takes has a solid sound: 'Here comes a honest man.' When he takes up his knife and fork, 'This is the way an honest man eats;' when he looks out of the window, 'This is the way an honest man looks:' and I would stake my life that neither his boots, nor his knife and fork are paid for." "It is very painful, uncle, to hear you say such things." "I should think it was." "I only wished to ask you, from proper respect, whether you would take the place of a father, and go with me to make my proposals?"