open the door and leaped out. It
entered the big gateway, crossed a green garden and was ushered into the
presence of the Baroness von Herkomer.

She stood beneath the picture, her eyebrows bent, her lips drawn, and
her hands resting on the stout cane.

"Will you come with me?" he asked deferentially.

"Where to?"

He hesitated. "You will see. I cannot tell you--now. But I need
you--with the picture." He motioned toward it.

She eyed him grimly for a second. Then she touched a bell.

The wooden butler appeared. "Send Wilhelm," she commanded.

Half an hour later the Herr Doctor Holtzenschuer was handing a bundled
figure into the closed carriage that stood before the gate. A huge,
oblong package rested against a lamp-post beside him, and near it stood
the Fraeulein Marie, rosy and shy. The young man turned to her with a
swift gesture.

"Come," he said.

He placed her beside her grandmother, and watched carefully while the
heavy parcel was lifted to the top of the carriage. With an injunction
to the driver for its safety, he turned to spring into the carriage.

The voice of the baroness, from muffled folds, arrested him.

"You will ride outside with the picture," it said. "I do not trust it to
a driver."

With a bow he slammed the carriage door and mounted the box. In another
minute the Herr Professor Doctor Holtzenschuer was driving rapidly
through the streets of Munich, on the outside of a common hack, a clumsy
parcel balanced awkwardly on his stiff shoulders.

From the windows below, on either side, a face looked out upon the
flying streets--a fairy with gentle eyes and a crone with toothless
smile.

"The Pinakothek!" grumbled the old woman. "Does he think any one at the
Pinakothek knows more of Albrecht Duerer than Henriette von Herkomer?"
She sniffed a little and drew her folds about her.

Past the Old Pinakothek rolled the flying carriage--on past the New
Pinakothek. An old face peered out upon the marble walls, wistful and
suspicious. A mass of buildings loomed in view.

"The university," she muttered under her breath. "Some upstart Herr
Professor--to tell _me_ of Albrecht Duerer! Fool--fool!" She croaked
softly in her throat.

"The Herr Doctor is a learned man, grandmamma--and a gentleman!" said a
soft voice beside her.

"A gentleman can be a fool!" returned the old woman tartly. "What
building is this?"

The carriage had stopped before a low, square doorway.

"It is the chemistry laborat