Then he went to his own room and inhaled the elixir whose properties and effect he had long before learned from Frau Schimmel.

He called aloud, as if speaking to another person: "If she be good to the child, I will no longer make her feel how she hurt me, though I can never forget it." But it was not granted to him to show by his actions that he had forgiven her, for during the night fever supervened, and before morning she died.
Her hot hand had lain in his, just before her heart ceased to beat, and had pressed it, as if in farewell.
Frau Schimmel followed her darling's unfortunate wife shortly afterwards.

Her death was a peaceful and happy one, for Zeno held her withered hand, and talked to her of the days when she had dressed him in his beautiful light-blue frocks.

He closed her eyes himself, and followed her coffin to the churchyard.
Only Herr Winckler remained to the widower, who lived alone with his son in The Three Kings, and like a father, more than a friend, aided him in his researches concerning the elixir.
They discovered that it produced its effect only on those who were connected with the Ueberhell family.

This was a great disappointment to Zeno, for he set a high value upon truth, and had heard from his father's friend what great blessings for mankind the dead man had anticipated from his discovery.