open
and disclose to him a sight of Heaven, he seemed so great, and
unapproachable, and apart, that she feared him, though in years gone by
she had tucked his luncheon into his knapsack before sending him off to
school, and tremblingly she yielded to his will as she had done before
to his father's and swore again a solemn oath never to reveal what she
might see or hear concerning the elixir.

This vow oppressed Frau Schimmel and she breathed more freely when he
began to talk about things within the range of her comprehension, about
the details of the housekeeping, and the laboratory on the second floor
with the big furnace. He must find an assistant who would be silent and
discreet and Frau Schimmel knew of one whom she could recommend, for her
husband did not enjoy his newly acquired leisure; he had been so used to
blowing a furnace and decocting medicines that he could not give up
the occupation and consequently she could not roast so much as a pigeon
without having his grim and blear-eyed visage peering over her shoulder.

The sensible woman foresaw that idleness would soon render the old
bridegroom discontented, and Doctor Melchior, who remembered the silent
man and his skilful hands, was very easily persuaded to give him a
trial. At the back of the house there was a cheerful suite of rooms
where the housekeeper and the apprentices had formerly lived. Melchior
now put this apartment at the disposition of the old couple. Frau
Schimmel would lend her aid to his wife, for Frau Bianca understood
neither German nor the management of a German household, while from Herr
Schimmel he anticipated the best particularly as he--the doctor--meant
to devote himself at first entirely to the discovery of a remedy for his
wife, whose condition filled him with the deepest apprehension.

The new laboratory was presently the scene of the most zealous labours,
and Herr Schimmel was delighted with his new position, for no apothecary
and chemist had ever before had such a well-fitted furnace and such
delicate scales and instruments to work with; and if he did not
understand what was the end of so much weighing and fusing and
distilling, or what the remedies were that the doctor was always
decanting from the boiling liquids, yet the occupation made the long
summer days pass most pleasantly, for he had none of that love of the
open air that most Leipzigers bring into the world with them.

Since his apprenticeship, and a whole lifetime had