So the time passed, and his twenty-fifth birthday was
approaching. The young Frau Ueberhell awaited with even greater
curiosity than her husband, the disclosure of the contents of the sealed
package which Herr Winckler had in charge for his ward.
On the morning of the birthday Frau Rosalie dismissed the housekeeper,
whom she kept at a distance, and herself admitted the notary when she saw
him approach The Three Kings, which by her wish had been richly decorated
with stucco and gilding, and furnished with stable room for Zeno's horse
and her two ponies.
The old gentleman brought with him the parcel, as the young couple
expected and after saying that unfortunately the written instructions,
which Doctor Melchior had given him at the same time with the box, had
fallen a victim to the flames, he broke the seals that had fastened the
package for so many years, and Rosalie clapped her hands when the
beautiful casket of carved ivory mounted in gold came to view.
It was opened with great care, and Zeno took from it a paper which lay on
a rose-coloured silk pad and on which Doctor Melchior had written in
large Roman characters: "To my son Zeno Ueberhell. To be used according
to the directions found in the letter accompanying the casket, afterwards
to be given to his eldest son on his twenty-fifth birthday, and thus
always to be handed down from first-born to first-born, to the last one,
which, please Heaven, will be to the end of Time, in order that the
phial, destined to change the aspect of human life, and lead it to its
true salvation, may remain forever a priceless heirloom in the Ueberhell
family.
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