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THE MAKROPOULOS SECRET

What did he die of?

Inflammation of the brain, or something like that. His cousin, the Polish Baron Emmerich Prus, came into the inheritance. And a certain Ferdinand Karel Gregor, otherwise great-grand-father of my client, entered a claim on the property of Loukov.

When?

Just after his death in eighteen twenty-seven.

But at that time Ferdinand must still have been a little boy.

Quite right. At that time he was a pupil in the Teresan Academy. He was represented by a Viennese lawyer. His claim on the property of Loukov was based on these facts: That the deceased, one year before his death, came to the director of the Teresan Academy and declared that he was giving to Ferdinand Karel Gregor the aforesaid estate, along with the castle, farms, dairies and inventory. The income from the aforesaid property to be used for the education of the aforesaid minor, Gregor, which aforesaid must, as soon as he becomes of