George had just time to take observation of these things, when the door opened, and the old woman entering, begged him to follow her, as her master would see him.
Down a long passage and across a small garden, not trim or neat by any means--more of a yard, indeed--in which linen that had been washed was hanging out to dry, and so to the Doctor's study--a large room surrounded with bookcases crammed and overflowing. Books piled in the middle of the floor in miscellaneous heaps; Pelions on Ossas of books in the corners having overcharged themselves, and shot their contents all over the neighbouring space. A large eight-day clock in a heavy open case ticking solemnly on one side of the fireplace, the niche on the other side being occupied by a suspended skeleton. On the mantelpiece bottles of anatomical preparations, polished bones, and cases of instruments; in the middle of the room an enormous old-fashioned writing-table, littered with papers and books on which the dust had thickly accumulated. Seated at it, busily engaged in writing, and scarcely looking up as they entered the room, was Dr. Hildebrand, one of the greatest men of science of his day.
A tall man, standing over six feet in height, of strange aspect, rendered still more strange by the contrast between his soft silver-white air, brushed back from his forehead and hanging down over his coat-collar, and the sable hue of an enormous pair of bushy bristly eyebrows, which stuck out like pent-houses, and from under which his keen black eyes looked forth. His features were coarse and rugged, his nose large and thick, his mouth long and ill-shaped, his jaw square, and his chin enormous. He was dressed in a long gray, greasy dressing-gown, an old black waistcoat and black trousers, and had frayed worked slippers on his feet. He was smoking a long pipe, the painted porcelain bowl of which hung far below his knees; and from its depths, in the influence of the excitement as he wrote, he kept drawing up and emitting short thick puffs of smoke, in which he was enshrouded.
After a short space of time, during which George sat motionless, the old gentleman came to the end of the passage which he was writing; and, looking up for inspiration or what not, perceived his visitor.
He looked at him sharply from under his heavy brows, and then, in a harsh voice, and with but scant show of courtesy, said:
"Gefällig?" (What is your pleasure?)
George, speaking in German, began to inform the old gentleman that he had travelled a very long way for the purpose of seeing and consulting him. His fame had reached England, where----
"You are von England out?" interrupted the Doctor.
"I am."
"And yet you speak die Cherman speech so slippery!" said the old gentleman. "So to me is it mit the English, it is to me equal; but as I hef not the praxis had, if it is so bleasant to you, we will the English langvitch dalk."