The reform of the guilds, and the establishment of a technological
school for the young hand-workers--both through the instrumentality of
Jonas--we have no room to touch; for we must say a parting word on the
reunion of the family by Veit's return permanently from abroad.
Notwithstanding the prosperity of the now old couple, 'everything, ay,
everything, was as he had left it years ago--as he had known it from
childhood--only Christiane not. There stood yet the two well-scoured
old deal-tables, wrinkled, though, from the protruding fibres of the
wood; there were the straw-bottomed stools still; and at the window,
Mother Martha's arm-chair, before which, as a child, he had repeated
his lessons; there still hung the same little glass between the
windows; and the wall-clock above the stove sent forth its tic-tac as
fastly as ever. Father Jonas, in his enlarged workshop, with more
journeymen and apprentices, smelted and hammered, filed and formed
still, from morning to night, as before. The noble housewife flew
about yet busy as a bee: she had managed the housekeeping without a
servant since Christiane had been grown up. And Veit came back with
the same cheerful disposition that he had ever shewn. In the
simply-furnished rooms which Martha had fitted up for him, in the
upper storey of the house, he forgot the splendid halls, the boudoirs,
and antechambers of London, Paris, and the Bellarme estate; the
Gobelin tapestry, the gold-framed pictures; the convenience of elegant
furniture, and the artificial delicacies of the table on
silver-plate.' Assisted by the patronage of the prince, he established
a great foundry in his native town, of ball and cannon, bronze and
brass; and on his marriage with the aforesaid Christiane, the
sovereign made him a handsome present, in a handsome manner, 'as a
small token of his gratitude to a family that had been so useful to
the country.'