common in good society, sprang out of the professor's ardent desire to
leave behind him a direct heir to his very considerable wealth. By his
first two marriages, indeed, he had had large families, and was at this
very time surrounded by quite an army of little grandchildren, from
whom (all his direct descendants being dead) he might have been content
to select his heir; but the old German prejudices in these matters are
strong, and he still hoped to be represented on his decease by a son of
his own. To this whim the charming Ottilie was marked by her parents as
the victim. The wedding, however, had been postponed owing to a slight
illness of the veteran scientist, and just as he was on the point of
final recovery from it, death intervened to prevent altogether the
execution of his design. Never did death of man create a profounder
sensation; _never was death of man followed by consequences more
terrible_. The _Residenz_ of the scientist was a stately mansion near
the University in the _Unter den Linden_ boulevard, that is to say, in
the most fashionable _Quartier_ of Berlin. His bedroom from a
considerable height looked out on a small back garden, and in this room
he had been engaged in conversation with his colleague and medical
attendant, Dr. Johann Hofmeier, to a late hour of the night. During all
this time he seemed cheerful, and spoke quite lucidly on various
topics. In particular, he exhibited to his colleague a curious strip of
what looked like ancient papyrus, on which were traced certain
grotesque and apparently meaningless figures. This, he said, he had
found some days before on the bed of a poor woman in one of the
horribly low quarters that surround Berlin, on whom he had had occasion
to make a _post-mortem_ examination. The woman had suffered from
partial paralysis. She had a small young family, none of whom, however,
could give any account of the slip, except one little girl, who
declared that she had taken it 'from her mother's mouth' after death.
The slip was soiled, and had a fragrant smell, as though it had been