; you recollect my telling you of the
lucky chance which threw that splendid Amati[1] into my hands. Well,
I've only cut it open to-day--not before to-day. I hope Antonia has
carefully taken the rest of it to pieces." "Antonia is a good child,"
remarked the Professor. "Yes, indeed, that she is," cried the
Councillor, whisking himself round; then, seizing his hat and stick, he
hastily rushed out of the room. I saw in the mirror how that tears were
standing in his eyes.

As soon as the Councillor was gone, I at once urged the Professor to
explain to me what Krespel had to do with violins, and particularly
with Antonia. "Well," replied the Professor, "not only is the
Councillor a remarkably eccentric fellow altogether, but he practises
violin-making in his own crack-brained way." "Violin-making!" I
exclaimed, perfectly astonished. "Yes," continued the Professor,
"according to the judgment of men who understand the thing, Krespel
makes the very best violins that can be found nowadays; formerly he
would frequently let other people play on those in which he had been
especially successful, but that's been all over and done with now for a
long time. As soon as he has finished a violin he plays on it himself
for one or two hours, with very remarkable power and with the most
exquisite expression, then he hangs it up beside the rest, and never
touches it again or suffers anybody else to touch it. If a violin by
any of the eminent old masters is hunted up anywhere, the Councillor
buys it immediately, no matter what the price put upon it. But he plays
it as he does his own violins, only once; then he takes it to pieces in
order to examine closely its inner structure, and should he fancy he
hasn't found exactly what he sought for, he in a pet throws the pieces
into a big chest, which is already full of the remains of broken
violins." "But who and what is Antonia?" I inquired, hastily and
impetuously. "Well, now, that," continued the Professor, "that is a
thing which might very well make me conceive an unconquerable aversion
to the Councillor, were I not convinced that there is some peculiar
secret behind it, for he is such a good-natured fellow at bottom as to
be sometimes guilty of weakness. When he came to H---- several years
ago, he led the life of an anchorite, along with an old housekeeper, in
---- Street. Soon, by his oddities, he excited the curiosity of his
neighbours; and immediately he became aware of this, he sought and ma