These words went through Frau Schimmel like a knife, and as Melchior
stood there looking up at the ceiling as if he expected it to open
and disclose to him a sight of Heaven, he seemed so great, and
unapproachable, and apart, that she feared him, though in years gone by
she had tucked his luncheon into his knapsack before sending him off to
school, and tremblingly she yielded to his will as she had done before to
his father's and swore again a solemn oath never to reveal what she might
see or hear concerning the elixir.

This vow oppressed Frau Schimmel and she breathed more freely when he
began to talk about things within the range of her comprehension, about
the details of the housekeeping, and the laboratory on the second floor
with the big furnace. He must find an assistant who would be silent and
discreet and Frau Schimmel knew of one whom she could recommend, for her
husband did not enjoy his newly acquired leisure; he had been so used to
blowing a furnace and decocting medicines that he could not give up the
occupation and consequently she could not roast so much as a pigeon
without having his grim and blear-eyed visage peering over her shoulder.

The sensible woman foresaw that idleness would soon render the old
bridegroom discontented, and Doctor Melchior, who remembered the silent
man and his skilful hands, was very easily persuaded to give him a trial.
At the back of the house there was a cheerful suite of rooms where the
housekeeper and the apprentices had formerly lived. Melchior now put
this apartment at the disposition of the old couple. Frau Schimmel would
lend her aid to his wife, for Frau Bianca understood neither German nor
the management of a German household, while from Herr Schimmel he
anticipated the best particularly as he--the doctor--meant to devote
himself at first entirely to the discovery of a remedy for his wife,