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Updated: June 23, 2025
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.
Old Scholastique could not contain her joy, and at last found irrefutable arguments' against the gossiping tongues which accused her master of impiety. She spoke of it to her neighbours, her friends, her enemies, to those whom she knew not as well as to those whom she knew.
He has put them together yet more carefully; but, despite his skill, they will not go." "The devil's in it!" cried Scholastique. "Why say you so?" asked Gerande. "It seems very natural to me. Nothing lasts for ever in this world. The infinite cannot be fashioned by the hands of men." "It is none the less true," returned Aubert, "that there is in this something very mysterious and extraordinary.
One of the houses of the island was striking for its curiously aged appearance. It was the dwelling of the old clockmaker, Master Zacharius, whose household consisted of his daughter Gerande, Aubert Thun, his apprentice, and his old servant Scholastique. There was no man in Geneva to compare in interest with this Zacharius. His age was past finding out.
Hold my father!" cried Gerande. But the old man had leaped across the threshold, and plunged into the night, crying, "Mine, mine, my soul!" Gerande, Aubert, and Scholastique hastened after him. They went by difficult paths, across which Master Zacharius sped like a tempest, urged by an irresistible force.
I have myself been helping Master Zacharius to search for the cause of this derangement of his watches; but I have not been able to find it, and more than once I have let my tools fall from my hands in despair." "But why undertake so vain a task?" resumed Scholastique. "Is it natural that a little copper instrument should go of itself, and mark the hours? We ought to have kept to the sun-dial!"
He scarcely answered the sweet words of Gerande, who evidently noticed her father's silence, and even the clatter of Scholastique herself no more struck his ear than the roar of the river, to which he paid no attention. After the silent meal, the old clockmaker left the table without embracing his daughter, or saying his usual "Good-night" to all.
"Dost thou hear, my Gerande? I live, I still live! Listen to my breathing, see the blood circulating in my veins! No, thou wouldst not kill thy father, and thou wilt accept this man for thy husband, so that I may become immortal, and at last attain the power of God!" At these blasphemous words old Scholastique crossed herself, and Pittonaccio laughed aloud with joy.
"You will not talk thus, Scholastique," said Aubert, "when you learn that the sun-dial was invented by Cain. "Good heavens! what are you telling me?" "Do you think," asked Gerande simply, "that we might pray to God to give life to my father's watches?" "Without doubt," replied Aubert. "Good!
It was the family custom to kneel before this protecting Madonna of the domestic hearth, and to beg her kindly watchfulness during the coming night; but on this evening Gerande remained silent in her seat. "Well, well, dear demoiselle," said the astonished Scholastique, "supper is over, and it is time to go to bed. Why do you tire your eyes by sitting up late? Ah, Holy Virgin!
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