e side of the house that faced the street
would not, be hoped, prove unpleasing, as for the arrangement of the
interior, that was to be made in accordance with his own taste and
needs, and to please himself alone.

These wishes seemed reasonable enough to the lawyer, and as the Italian
architect, who arrived a few weeks later in Leipsic, laid before him
a plan showing the facade of a burgher's house finished with a stately
gable which rose by five successive steps to its peak crowned by
a statue of the armed goddess Minerva with the owl at her feet, no
objection could be made to such an addition to the city, although some
of the clergy did not hesitate to express their displeasure at the
banishment of the Three Saints in favor of a heathen goddess, and at
the height of the middle chimney which seemed to have entered the lists
against the church towers. However, the rebuilding was put in hand, and,
of course, the business had to be wound up and the shop closed before
the old front was torn down.

Schimmel, the gray-haired dispenser, married the widow Vorkel, who had
kept house for the late Herr Ueberhell. These two might have related
many strange occurrences to the cousins and kin had they chosen, but he
was a reserved man, and she had been so sworn to silence, and had lived
through such an agitating experience before the death of the old man
that she repulsed all questioners so sharply that they dared not return
to the charge.

The old housekeeper as she watched the deserted father grow indifferent
to what he had to eat and drink--though he had once been so quick to
appreciate the dishes which she prepared so deftly--and neglectful
of the attentions which he had been wont to pay to the outside world,
became embittered towards Melchior whom she had carried in her arms
and loved like her own child. In former times Herr Ueberhell had been
accustomed now and then to invite certain friends to dine with him, and
these guests had praised her cooking, but later, and more especially
after the death of his cousin and colleague, Blumentrost, who had also
been his master, he had asked no one into his well-appointed house.

This retirement of the dignified and hospitable burgher was undoubtedly
caused by the absence of his son, but in a very different way to what
people supposed; for although the old man longed for his only child, he
was very far from resenting his absence; indeed the widow Vorkel herself
knew that it was the fa