gance 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
expected and after saying that unfortunately the written instructions,
which Doctor Melchior had given him at the same time with the box, had
fallen a victim to the flames, he broke the seals that had fastened
the package for so many years, and Rosalie clapped her hands when the
beautiful casket of carved ivory mounted in gold came to view.

It was opened with great care, and Zeno took from it a paper which lay
on a rose-coloured silk pad and on which Doctor Melchior had written in
large Roman characters: "To my son Zeno Ueberhell