By numerous members of this brotherhood--young men fantastically
dressed, with long hair and quaintly-cut beards, and pipes of every
kind and shape pendent from their mouths--George was received with very
great enthusiasm. Some of them had been his fellow-students at the
University; all of them had heard of him and his learning, and his love
for German songs and traditions and student-life. And high revelry was
held that night in honour of his arrival; and _ohms_ of beer were voted
by acclamation and speedily drunk; and speeches were made, and songs
were sung, and George was kissed and embraced by full two-thirds of the
company present.
The next morning he was up betimes, and paid an early visit at the
Hofapotheke or Court-laboratory of the town, the manager of which
would, as he was informed, be able to give him Dr. Hildebrand's
address. The manager, who was a very little man, with large protruding
eyes covered with great horn spectacles, and very large flap ears, and
who looked so like an owl that George almost expected him to hop on to
the counter, was very polite but extremely reticent.
"Oh yes; he had the pleasure of the Herr Doctor's acquaintance. Who
was there in the great world to whom the berühmter Herr Doctor was not
known? It was in Dorrendorf that this so justly celebrated man formerly
resided had. Was it not true? But where did he reside now? Ah, that was
something quite otherwise. Was the Mr. Englishman who spoke the German
language with so excellent an accent--was he perhaps of the medical
profession?"
"No; but his father. And perhaps the courteous manager of the Court
laboratory might know the name of Wainwright."
"Vainrayte!" The courteous manager knew it perfectly. He had read the
even so clever treatises on the subject of "Mania and Mental Diseases,"
which that so justly renowned physician had written. And the Mr.
Englishman was the son of the Doctor von Vainrayte! There would be no
difficulty then in letting him know the address of Dr. Hildebrand.
And after further interchange of bows and courtesies, George took his
departure, bearing with him the old physician's address.
Dr. Hildebrand lived some distance from the town, in a little
road fringed on either side by detached villas standing in their
trim gardens, the road itself turning out of a noble _allée_ of
chestnut-trees, which forms one of the principal outlets of the town.
All the gardens were neatly kept, and all the houses seemed clean and
trim and orderly; but George remarked that the Doctor's house and
garden seemed the neatest of all. He was almost afraid to stand on the
doorstep as he rang the bell, lest he should sully its whiteness; and,
indeed, the old woman who opened the door immediately looked at the
prints of his boots with great disfavour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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