Master Zacharius read the hour on this strange creature's visage?
"By the by," continued the old watchmaker, paying no further attention to the matter, "I have not seen Aubert for several days."
"He has not left us, however, father," said Gerande, whose thoughts turned into a gentler channel.
"What is he doing, then?"
"He is working."
"Ah!" cried the old man. "He is at work repairing my watches, is he not? But he will never succeed; for it is not repairs they need, but a resurrection!"
Gerande remained silent.
"I must know," added the old man, "if they have brought back any more of those damned watches, upon which the Devil has imposed an epidemic!"
After these words Master Zacharius fell into absolute taciturnity, till he knocked at the door of his house, and for the first time since his convalescence descended to his shop, while Gerande sadly repaired to her chamber.
At this moment when Master Zacharius crossed the threshold of his shop, one of the many clocks suspended on the wall struck five o'clock. Usually the bells of these clocks—admirably regulated as they were—struck simultaneously, and this rejoiced the old man's heart; but on this day the bells struck one after another, so that for a quarter of an hour the ear was deafened by the successive noise. Master Zacharius suffered terribly; he could not remain still, but went from one clock to the other, and beat the measure for them, as an orchestra leader who has no longer control over his musicians.
When the last had ceased striking, the door of the shop opened, and Master Zacharius shuddered from head to foot to see before him the little old man, who looked fixedly at him and said, "Master, may I not speak with you a few moments?"
"Who are you? " asked the watchmaker, abruptly.
"A colleague. I am charged with regulating the sun."
"Ah, you regulate the sun!" replied Master Zacharius, eagerly, without wincing. "I can scarcely compliment you upon it. Your sun goes badly, to make ourselves agree with it, we have to keep advancing and retarding our clocks!"
