for the making of the elixir, and also the
recommendation that it should be sent to all universities and faculties,
as well as to the spiritual and temporal authorities of his beloved
fatherlands, Saxony and Germany, that it might become the common property
of the whole world.

To Frau Schimmel the doctor entrusted the worldly welfare of little Zeno,
and to the notary the responsibility of his education, and both of these
people not only fulfilled their duties, but gave the child a large share
of their love, so that the orphan throve both in mind and body.

That he was neither wiser nor duller, stronger nor weaker than his school
companions pleased Frau Schimmel, for as she loved to say: "Those people
over whom one exclaims when one meets them, either because of their
exceptional goodness or badness, are destined to be unhappy in this
world."

The old lady also took great pleasure in dressing the boy very finely,
and as he would one day be rich, she had no fear for his future, save
that on his twenty-fifth birthday he was to receive his father's elixir,
concerning which, loyal to her oath, she maintained silence towards
everyone.

But even this anxiety was, she thought, to be removed when one day there
was an alarm of fire, and she learned that a conflagration had broken out
in the oil cellar of the Winckler house, and that the notary's quarters
had been entirely destroyed by the flames.

But she rejoiced too soon, for only Doctor Melchior's letters to his son
and to the notary were burned, and the strange old lady could hardly
bring herself to forgive the brave and conscientious guardian of her
favourite, because at great personal risk he had saved the casket
containing the phial.

Of Zeno there is very little to tell, except that from a child he grew to
be a fine youth, with the great dark eyes of his mother, and that he
cared much about his elegant clothes, and was devoted to his noble horse.

In his twenty-third year he became a doctor of ancient and modern
jurisprudence, in his twenty-fourth he gained admission to the famous
Leipsic "Schoppen" court of justice, and now the venerable Frau Schimmel
as well as his guardian, the notary, whose housekeeper had died in the
meanwhile, were strongly urging him to choose a helpmate for life.

As the wishes of his guardians coincided with his own in this particular,
he hastened to fulfil them, and his choice fell upon the daughter of an
officer of high rank, who had