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Updated: June 1, 2025
One day Gerande perceived this monster looking at her with a hideous smile. She clung to her father with a frightened motion. "What is the matter, my Gerande?" asked Master Zacharius. "I do not know," replied the young girl. "But thou art changed, my child. Art thou going to fall ill in thy turn? Ah, well," he added, with a sad smile, "then I must take care of thee, and I will do it tenderly."
"And then, Gerande, thou wilt be happy with him. See this man, he is Time! Thy existence will be regulated with absolute precision. Gerande, since I gave thee life, give life to thy father!" "Gerande," murmured Aubert, "I am thy betrothed." "He is my father!" replied Gerande, fainting. "She is thine!" said Master Zacharius. "Pittonaccio, them wilt keep thy promise!"
The scene had now two new witnesses, the hermit and Aubert. Master Zacharius lay upon the floor; Gerande was praying beside him, more dead than alive. Of a sudden a dry, hard noise was heard, which preceded the strike. Master Zacharius sprang up. "Midnight!" he cried. The hermit stretched out his hand towards the old clock, and midnight did not sound.
I know he has had no appetite, because his words stick in his inside, and it would take a very clever devil to drag even one out of him." "My father has some secret cause of trouble, that I cannot even guess," replied Gerande, as a sad anxiety spread over her face. "Mademoiselle, don't let such sadness fill your heart. You know the strange habits of Master Zacharius.
The old man had not only not been shocked by these impious maxims, but read them deliriously, and flattered himself with thoughts of pride, whilst Pittonaccio kept close by him. The marriage-contract was to be signed at midnight. Gerande, almost unconscious, saw or heard nothing. The silence was only broken by the old man's words, and the chuckling of Pittonaccio. Eleven o'clock struck.
All the watches or clocks made by the old man, and which had been returned to him because they were out of order, were stricken out excepting one: "Sold to M. Pittonaccio, an iron clock, with bell and moving figures; sent to his château at Andernatt." It was this "moral" clock of which Scholastique had spoken with so much enthusiasm. "My father is there!" cried Gerande.
She waited for him all day. Master Zacharius did not return. Gerande wept bitterly, but her father did not reappear. Aubert searched everywhere through the town, and soon came to the sad conviction that the old man had left it. "Let us find my father!" cried Gerande, when the young apprentice told her this sad news. "Where can he be?" Aubert asked himself.
But Gerande did not deceive herself; her father's body and soul were for ever lost. The old man got together his last remaining resources, without thought of those who were dependent upon him. He betrayed an incredible energy, walking, ferreting about, and mumbling strange, incomprehensible words. One morning Gerande went down to his shop. Master Zacharius was not there.
"He is at work repairing my watches, is he not? But he will never succeed; for it is not repair they need, but a resurrection!" Gerande remained silent. "I must know," added the old man, "if they have brought back any more of those accursed watches upon which the Devil has sent this epidemic!"
You have come to give me your daughter! You have remembered my words, 'Gerande will not wed Aubert." The young apprentice rushed upon Pittonaccio, who escaped from him like a shadow. "Stop, Aubert!" cried Master Zacharius. "Good-night," said Pittonaccio, and he disappeared. "My father, let us fly from this hateful place!" cried Gerande. "My father!" Master Zacharius was no longer there.
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