Would to Heaven this plan of theirs had succeeded! I should have been spared many a succeeding sorrow, and I would have been glad for their sakes. The world was large enough for me, and certainly it was not thoroughly fair that they, the nearest relatives of the inventor, should be shut out by the far-reaching plans of Herr Andre to obtain exclusive franchises everywhere. To be sure, I had told them that I would give them the Bavarian franchise; but as they had enjoyed it for several months with little profit, this did not seem to them a tempting equivalent. The news of my mother's journey to Vienna had been brought to Madame Gleissner quite accidentally, and it made her almost frantic. When she used to charge me with depending so completely on Herr Andre's promises, without possessing anything in writing, I used to comfort her by pointing out his righteous character, and also by reminding her that it was all agreed that I and Herr Gleissner should undertake the printery in Vienna as part of the general enterprise, and that we were to obtain the necessary advance funds as soon as I returned from England. The repeated complaints that she made, many of them in the presence of my brothers, possibly helped to give them the idea of trying themselves for a franchise in Austria. They may have thought, "If our brother is careless enough to depend on empty words, we will be wise enough to obtain a certainty. It remains open to us always to share our fortune with the inventor." Madame Gleissner had entertained great hopes about living in splendid Vienna and having means enough to take part in its brilliant life. This made the news about my mother's errand all the more irritating. She did not consider that an Imperial franchise is not easily obtained by women who are not even well informed on the case at issue. She succeeded in imparting her fears to Herr Andre, and as he himself was prevented from going, he entered into her fool's counsel to send her to Vienna at once. She had strong hopes of success, because as a matter of fact the Bavarian franchise had been obtained entirely through her efforts, and she also calculated that the Austrian Government would pay more heed to the inventor himself than to his brothers, who could not equal his attainments. Herr Andre had kept it all, even to the journey of Madame Gleissner, a secret from me, presumably because he wanted to save me annoyance and also to prevent my hasty return from England. Unfortunately I had conceived some suspicions in England, and these were increased when I received this unexpected news on my arrival in Offenbach. What was worse, Herr Gleissner gave me a letter from his wife, in which she adjured me to hurry to Vienna with all speed, as Andre was planning to deceive me and set me aside as a mere tool as soon as I had founded his own fortune.