"We may hope that the disagreeable affair has come to an end for all concerned in it," concluded the Professor with a light heart.
But the hopes even of a great scholar are not always fulfilled. This quarrel of the scepter-bearing princes of the University had not only introduced Ilse into a new position, but had brought another into notice.
On the evening of the decisive day that revealed the worthlessness of the parchment, Magister Knips sat shivering upon the floor in an unwarmed room of his poverty-stricken dwelling. Books lay in disorderly heaps on the shelves by the wall and on the floor, and he sat surrounded by them, like an ant-lion in his den. He shoved into a dark corner an old cigar chest of his brother's, which was filled with many small bottles and paint-pots, and laid the old books upon it. Then he placed the lamp on a stool near him, and with secret satisfaction took up one old book after another, examined the binding, read the title and last page, stroked it caressingly with his hand, and then again laid it on the heap. At last he seized an old Italian edition of a Greek author with both hands, moved nearer to the lamp, and examined it leaf by leaf.
His mother called through the door:
"Leave your books and come from that cold room to your supper."
"This book has not been seen by any scholar for two hundred years. They deny, mother, that it is even in existence; but I have it in my hands--it belongs to me! This is a treasure, mother."
"What good will your treasure do you, wretched boy?"
"But I have it, mother," said the Magister, looking up at the hard-featured woman; and his winking eyes glistened brightly. "To-day I have read some proof-sheets in which a man of note maintains that this volume which I hold here has never existed. He wishes the 'never existed' to be printed in italics, and I have so marked it for the compositor, though I know better."
"Are you coming?" called out the mother angrily. "Stop your work. Your beer is getting flat."
The Magister rose unwillingly, slipped out of the room with his felt shoes, and seating himself at the table helped himself to the scanty fare before him and without further ado began to eat.