if the young Italian had suddenly become the idol of the
inhabitants of Leipsic, so many were the inquiries about her condition,
so numerous the friendly offers of service, the kindly gifts of hot-house
flowers and rare wines. Just as the Christmas bells rang out along the
streets of the city the joyful tidings "Christ is born" a sharp cry rang
through the rooms of The Three Holy Kings and Melchior knelt beside his
blighted flower that now was whiter even than the lily, for the last
shimmer of red had faded forever from her wan cheeks, and he wrung his
hands in utter despair.

The funeral train that followed the young Italian, who had appeared among
them like a fleeting vision of Paradise, would have done honour to the
wife of the Chief Justice.

Every one who was respectable and aristocratic in Leipsic followed her,
as well as many humbler folk on whom Bianca's glance had rested but once.
People were now so open-hearted, and seemed to wish to give to the dead
what they had withheld from the living. Hot tears were shed, for though
not one of all the mourners had ever really known Bianca, they felt that
they had lost something beautiful.

The only member of the family of Ueberhell who did not make part of the
funeral train was the chief mourner, the bereaved Doctor Melchior
himself.

Alone and tearless he paced the chamber that Bianca had occupied. He
denied himself to all who wished to see him or to comfort him, he even
refused to admit the notary Winckler.

That the flower of his life was crushed, and that he carried a
death-wound in his heart was all that he felt or thought.

Frau Schimmel began at last to fear that he too would die. If the vision
that showed her Frau Bianca on her death-bed had come true, why should
not the other one concerning the doctor? He ate and drank less than a
Carthusian on a fast-day, he offended all the good people who had shown
his wife such honour, he went neither to mass nor to his work in the
laboratory, and consequently her husband, too, was idle and threatened to
become unbearable once more.

How would it all end?

The burghers exhibited great indulgence towards him. He had received a
terrible blow, and one must forgive him for not having followed the
coffin, particularly, as nothing else was wanting that was necessary to
an imposing and expensive funeral: Frau Schimmel had taken care of that,
having arranged it on her own responsibility. When the great healer,
Time, had co