Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of AllCountries” edition , email
The house of Heine Brothers, inMunich, was of good repute at the time of which I am about totell,—a time not long ago; and is so still, I trust. It was of good repute in its own way, seeing that no man doubtedthe word or solvency of Heine Brothers; but they did not possess,as bankers, what would in England be considered a large orprofitable business. The operations of English bankers arebewildering in their magnitude. Legions of clerks areemployed. The senior book-keepers, though only salariedservants, are themselves great men; while the real partners areinscrutable, mysterious, opulent beyond measure, and altogetherunknown to their customers. Take any firm atrandom,—Brown, Jones, and Cox, let us say,—theprobability is that Jones has been dead these fifty years, thatBrown is a Cabinet Minister, and that Cox is master of a pack ofhounds in Leicestershire. But it was by no means so withthe house of Heine Brothers, of Munich. There they were,the two elderly men, daily to be seen at their dingy office inthe Schrannen Platz; and if any business was to be transactedrequiring the interchange of more than a word or two, it was theyounger brother with whom the customer was, as a matter ofcourse, brought into contact. There were three clerks inthe establishment; an old man, namely, who sat with the elderbrother and had no personal dealings with the public; a youngEnglishman, of whom we shall anon hear more; and a boy who ranmessages, put the wood on to the stoves, and swept out thebank. Truly he house of Heine Brothers was of no greatimportance; but nevertheless it was of good repute.
The office, I have said, was in the Schrannen Platz, or oldMarket-place. Munich, as every one knows, is chiefly to benoted as a new town,—so new that many of the streets andmost of the palaces look as though they had been sent home lastnight from the builders, and had only just been taken out oftheir bandboxes. It is angular, methodical, unfinished, andpalatial. But there is an old town; and, though the oldtown be not of surpassing interest, it is as dingy, crooked,intricate, and dark as other old towns in Germany. Here, inthe old Market-place, up one long broad staircase, were situatedthe two rooms in which was held the bank of Heine Brothers.
Of the elder member of the firm we shall have something to saybefore this story be completed. He was an old bachelor, andwas possessed of a bachelor’s dwelling somewhere out in thesuburbs of the city. The junior brother was a married man,with a wife some twenty years younger than himself, with twodaughters, the elder of whom was now one-and-twenty, and oneson. His name was Ernest Heine, whereas the senior brotherwas known as Uncle Hatto. Ernest Heine and his wifeinhabited a portion of one of those new palatial residences atthe further end of the Ludwigs Strasse; but not because they thuslived must it be considered that they were palatial people. By no means let it be so thought, as such an idea wouldaltogether militate against whatever truth of character paintingthere may be in this tale. They were not palatial people,but the very reverse, living in homely guise, pursuing homelyduties, and satisfied with homely pleasures. Up two pairsof stairs, however, in that street of palaces, they lived, havingthere a commodious suite of large rooms, furnished, after themanner of the Germans, somewhat gaudily as regarded their bestsalon, and with somewhat meagre comfort as regarded their otherrooms. But, whether in respect of that which was meagre, orwhether in respect of that which was gaudy, they were as well offas their neighbours; and this, as I take it, is the point ofexcellence which is