is seeking," and
towards the end: "I think that he will be returning very soon now from
Bologna."

It was also noticeable that instead of taking advantage of such
questioning to give vent to his displeasure he would smile contentedly
and stroke his chin, once so round, but then so peaked, and those who
thought that the Court apothecary would diminish his legacy to his
truant son, learned to know better, for the old man bequeathed in an
elaborate will, the whole of his valuable possessions to Melchior,
leaving only to the widow Vorkel, who had served him faithfully as
housekeeper after the death of his wife, and to Schimmel, the dispenser,
in the event of the shop being closed, a yearly stipend to be paid to
the end of their days. To his beloved daughter-in-law, the estimable
daughter of the learned Dr. Vitali, of Bologna, the old man left his
deceased wife's jewels, together with the plate and linen of the house,
mentioning her in the most affectionate terms.

All of which surprised the legal gentlemen and the relatives and
connections and their wives and feminine following not a little,
and what put the finishing stroke to the disgust of these good folk,
especially to such of them as were mothers, was that this son and heir
of an honoured and wealthy house had married a foreigner, a frivolous
Italian, and that too without so much as an intimation of his intention.

With the will there was a letter from the dead man to his son and one to
the worthy lawyer. In the latter he requested his counsellor to notify
his son, Melchior Ueberhell, of his death, and, in case of his son's
return home, to see him well and fairly established in the position
which belonged to him as the heir of a Leipsic burgher and as Doctor of
the University of Padua.

These letters were sent by the first messenger going south over the
Alps, and that they reached Melchior will be seen from the fresh
surprises contained in his answer.

He commissioned Anselmus Winckler, an excellent notary, and formerly his
most intimate school friend, to close the apothecary shop and to sell
privately whatever it contained. But a small quantity of every drug
was to be reserved for his own personal use. He also, in his carefully
chosen diction begged the honourable notary to allow the Italian
architect Olivetti, who would soon present himself, to rebuild the old
house of "The Three Kings" throughout, according to the plan which they
had agreed upon in Bologna. Th