"I tell you I have never seen his equal! Look at this place here--hasn't he called it up out of the dust?" "Yes, yes, he did. He made it all," she said. "It must be conceded that Albert Spener is a great man--in Spenersberg." "How, then, can I keep back from him the best I have when he asks for it --asks for it as if I were a king to refuse him what he wanted if I pleased? I would give him my life!" "Ah, Frederick, you have! It isn't you that denies now--think of that! Remind him of it. _Who_ spoke by the lot? Where are you going, husband?" Mr. Loretz had turned away from the piazza rail and picked up his hat. His wife's question arrested him. "I--I thought I would speak with Brother Wenck," said he, somewhat confused by the question, and looking almost as if his sole purpose had been to go beyond the sound of his wife's remonstrating voice. "Husband, about this?" "Yes, Anna." "Don't go. What will he think?" "Nobody knows about it yet, except Wenck, unless he spoke to Brother Thorn." "Oh, Frederick, what are you thinking?" "I am thinking"--he paused and looked fixedly at his wife--"I am thinking that I have been beside myself, Anna--crazy, out and out, and this thing can't stand." "Husband, it was our wish to learn the will of God concerning this marriage, and we have learned it. The Lord----" "I will go back to the factory," said Mr. Loretz, turning quickly away from his wife. "I must see if everything is right there before it gets darker." He had caught sight of the tall figure of a woman at the gate when he snatched up his hat so suddenly and interrupted his wife. Then he turned to her again: "Is Elise within?" "No, husband: she went to the garden for twigs this afternoon." "She had not heard?" "No. It is Sister Benigna that is coming. Must you go back?" She poured another glass of water for her husband, and walked down the steps with him; and coming so, out from the shade into the sunlight, Sister Benigna was startled by their faces as though she had seen two ghosts. Two hours later, Mr. Loretz again turned his steps homeward, and Mr. Wenck, the minister, walked with him as far as the gate. They had met accidentally upon the sidewalk, and Mr. Loretz must of necessity make some allusion to the letter he had received from the minister that day acquainting him with the allotment which had made of him so hopeless a mourner. The good man hesitated a moment before making response: then he took both the hands of Loretz in his, and said in a deep, tender voice, "Brother, the wound smarts." "I cannot bear it!" cried Loretz. "It is all my doing, and I must have been crazy." "When in devout faith you sought to know God's will concerning your dear child?" "I cannot talk about it," was the impatient response. "And you cannot understand it," he continued, turning quickly upon his companion. "You have never had a daughter, and you don't understand Albert Spener."