Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/302

 ink; the person receiving the letter then was to cover the paper, by means of a brush or sponge, with another chemical solution, which made what had been written in ordinary ink disappear. Thereupon the paper was to be warmed near a stove or a lamp to make the communication written with the magic ink become legible. Kinkel's eldest son, Gottfried, at that time a little boy, told me later that he had often looked on while his mother washed sheets of paper and then dried them near the stove.

When I had seen Frau Kinkel my most important business in Bonn was finished and I could give myself for some days, or so long as I could hope to remain undiscovered, to the joy of living once more with my family. With some of my oldest student friends I came together in the rooms of one of them, and there I met also a young student of medicine, Abraham Jacobi. Jacobi was a zealous democrat who afterwards won in America a great name for himself as a physician and scientist—so great, indeed, that many years later, when he had become one of the most prominent physicians of America, this revolutionary exile was distinguished by the university of Berlin with a call to a professorship. His invaluable friendship I have enjoyed down to this moment, and hope to enjoy it to the last.

In the darkness of night I went out to take my accustomed walks once more; and on one of those nightly expeditions I could not refrain from passing Betty's window in order, perhaps, to catch a gleam of light which might issue through the shutters; but all was dark. The next morning, however, I received more than an accidental gleam of light. One of my best friends, who also knew Betty, came to the house of my parents bringing a bouquet of flowers. “This bouquet,” he said to me, “is sent to you by a girl whom I could safely