34
PARTISAN REVIEW
toward evening; the cloud formations, constant and motionless, hung
in the sky; as far as the eyes could reach, nothing but summits from
which broad stretches of land descended, and everything so still, so
gray, lost in twilight. He experienced a feeling of terrible loneliness;
he was alone, quite alone. He wanted to talk to himself, but he
could not, he hardly dared to breathe; the bending of his feet sounded
like thunder beneath him, he had to sit down. He was seized with a
nameless terror in this nothingness: he was in the void! He leaped to
his feet and rushed down the slope.
It had grown dark, heaven and earth were melting into one.
It seemed as though something were following him, as though some–
thing horrible must catch up with him, something that men cannot
bear, as though madness on horseback were chasing him.
At last he heard voices; he was relieved, his heart grew lighter.
He was told that another half-hour would see him to Waldbach.
He passed through the village. Lights shone in the windows, he
looked inside as he went by: children at table, old women, girls, all
with quiet, composed faces . It seemed to him that it was these faces
that radiated light; he began to feel quite cheerful, and soon he was
at the vicarage in Waldbach.
They were at table when he came in; his blond hair hung in
locks about his pale face, his eyes and the corners of his mouth were
twitching, his clothes were torn.
Oberlin welcomed
him,
thinking he was a workman: "You're
welcome, although you're a stranger to me."
"I'm a friend of --'s, and convey his regards to you."
"Your name, if you please?"
"Lenz."
"Ha, ha, ha, has it not appeared in print? Haven't I read several
dramas ascribed to a gentleman of that name?"
"Yes, but be kind enough not to judge me by them."
The conversation continued, he groped for words and told his
story quickly, but in torment; gradually he was calmed by the homely
room and the quiet faces that stood out from the shadows; the bright
child's face on which the light seemed to rest and which looked up
inquisitively and trustingly, and the mother who sat further back
in the shadow, motionless as an angel. He began to tell them about
his home; he drew a number of costumes; they surrounded him
closely, sympathetically, soon he felt at home. His pale childish face,
