would not, be hoped, prove unpleasing, as for the arrangement of the
interior, that was to be made in accordance with his own taste and needs,
and to please himself alone.

These wishes seemed reasonable enough to the lawyer, and as the Italian
architect, who arrived a few weeks later in Leipsic, laid before him a
plan showing the facade of a burgher's house finished with a stately
gable which rose by five successive steps to its peak crowned by a statue
of the armed goddess Minerva with the owl at her feet, no objection could
be made to such an addition to the city, although some of the clergy did
not hesitate to express their displeasure at the banishment of the Three
Saints in favor of a heathen goddess, and at the height of the middle
chimney which seemed to have entered the lists against the church towers.
However, the rebuilding was put in hand, and, of course, the business had
to be wound up and the shop closed before the old front was torn down.

Schimmel, the gray-haired dispenser, married the widow Vorkel, who had
kept house for the late Herr Ueberhell. These two might have related
many strange occurrences to the cousins and kin had they chosen, but he
was a reserved man, and she had been so sworn to silence, and had lived
through such an agitating experience before the death of the old man that
she repulsed all questioners so sharply that they dared not return to the
charge.

The old housekeeper as she watched the deserted father grow indifferent
to what he had to eat and drink--though he had once been so quick to
appreciate the dishes which she prepared so deftly--and neglectful of the
attentions which he had been wont to pay to the outside world, became
embittered towards Melchior whom she had carried in her arms and loved
like her own child. In former times Herr Ueberhell had been accustomed