child.

He answered in some embarrassment, and without looking at the old lady;
"It is because I have need of a larger quantity of the elixir. If I
were to bleed another child--and bleeding is good for every one, big or
little--they would accuse me of practising the black arts and perhaps,
after their fashion of making a mountain out of a molehill, would
denounce me as an infanticide. Therefore the boy must spare a few more
drops of his blood, and he will do so gladly if he receives something
pretty as a reward. I am very skilful and can draw the blood without
hurting him."

When, however, Frau Schimmel clasped her hands, and Zeno, whimpering,
hid his face in her skirts, the doctor hastened to add: "There, there,
I am not going to do it at once, and perhaps it is just as well that I
should experiment with my own blood first. So take the boy out and
buy him the finest plaything you can find, and leave a message at
Herr Winckler's; he is to come to-day to The Three Kings, for I have
something very important to communicate to him."

The old lady was very glad to get the child beyond the reach of his
father. His happiness was as incomprehensible to her, as his design on
the blood of his child was dreadful, and she led the boy forth quickly.
The doctor, however, went into the laboratory with wavering steps, and
in the next half hour prepared more of the elixir into which he mixed
some of his own blood.

The effect was the same as if he had used the blood of his child.

This delighted him so much that he fairly beamed with pleasure. But even
then he gave himself no rest. He took the elixir which he had made the
day before into the library, and there he wrote and wrote.

At noon he allowed a morsel of food to be brought to him, and ate it
seated at his desk. When he had finished he continued his work with
his pen, sealing-wax and seal, until the notary, Herr Winckler, called
towards evening.

For the first time in the course of their long friendship he fell on the
notary's neck, and told him with wet eyes, and broken voice that he had
reached the happiest hour of his life, for the great work to which
he had already dedicated himself while yet in Padua and Bologna, was
completed, and that only the preceding evening he had achieved the most
marvellous discovery of all times.

One of whose effects would be that a new epoch would dawn for the
profession to which Herr Winckler belonged--that of the law.

Here his friend