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The Elixir by Georg Ebers
page 3 of 62 (04%)
as faded and yellow as the pale half moon, and the cheeks that had once
been so full hung down on his ruff like little empty sacks. He also
withdrew more and more from the weighing house and the Raths-keller where
he had once so loved to pass his evenings in the company of other worthy
burghers, and he was heard to speak of himself now and then as a "lonely
man." Finally he stayed at home altogether, perhaps because his face and
the whites of his eyes had turned as yellow as the saffron in his shop.
There he left Schimmel, the dispenser, and the apprentice entirely in
charge, so that if any one wished to avoid the Court apothecary that was
the surest place. When, in the end, he died at the age of fifty-six, the
physicians stated that it was his liver--the seat of sorrow as well as of
anger--which had been overtaxed and abused.

It is true that no one ever heard a word of complaint against his son
pass his lips, indeed it was certain that to the very last he was well
acquainted with his son's whereabouts; for when he was asked for news,
he answered at first: "He is finishing his studies in Paris," later:
--"He seems to have found in Padua what he is seeking," and towards the
end: "I think that he will be returning very soon now from Bologna."

It was also noticeable that instead of taking advantage of such
questioning to give vent to his displeasure he would smile contentedly
and stroke his chin, once so round, but then so peaked, and those who
thought that the Court apothecary would diminish his legacy to his truant
son, learned to know better, for the old man bequeathed in an elaborate
will, the whole of his valuable possessions to Melchior, leaving only to
the widow Vorkel, who had served him faithfully as housekeeper after the
death of his wife, and to Schimmel, the dispenser, in the event of the
shop being closed, a yearly stipend to be paid to the end of their days.
To his beloved daughter-in-law, the estimable daughter of the learned Dr.
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