been noticeable at the Rathhaus balls on
account of the elegance of her costume.

Frau Schimmel was apprehensive, for according to her ideas, an honourable
young woman of good burgher family was better suited to the heir of The
Three Kings; yet in reality she considered nothing too good or too
beautiful for Zeno, and after she had learned from the officer's servants
that their mistress was of a cheerful disposition, and was able with her
own skilful hands to dress herself well on very small means, and to keep
up an appearance of elegance in her father's house which swarmed with
children, she came to the conclusion that Zeno's choice was a wise one.

She therefore gave her consent to his wooing, and at the end of three
months the wedding took place with great magnificence, to the sound of
drums and trumpets. The young husband went about as if he were borne on
wings.

Surely there was no bride in all Saxony so lovely and so beautiful, and
when she refused flatly to have Frau Schimmel invited to the wedding
feast, he excused her, thinking that her refusal was the result of her
aristocratic surroundings and training. The question did not give rise to
any open quarrel, for Frau Schimmel of her own accord announced that it
was enough for her to pray for the happiness of the young couple in
church.

For four weeks after the wedding-day, Zeno continued to wonder that such
exquisite bliss could fall to the lot of any mortal in this world, which
so many people regarded as a vale of sorrow, and when his passionate dark
eyes were reflected in the cooler blue ones of his wife, and she returned
his caresses sweetly but without laying aside her distinctive and
reserved manner, which he laid to the account of maidenly bashfulness, he
felt that no one could be more blessed, and that he was the most enviable
of men. So the time passed, and his twenty-fifth birthday was
approaching. The young Frau Ueberhell awaited with even greater curiosity
than her husband, the disclosure of the contents of the sealed package
which Herr Winckler had in charge for his ward.

On the morning of the birthday Frau Rosalie dismissed the housekeeper,
whom she kept at a distance, and herself admitted the notary when she saw
him approach The Three Kings, which by her wish had been richly decorated
with stucco and gilding, and furnished with stable room for Zeno's horse
and her two ponies.

The old gentleman brought with him the parcel, as the young couple