The House of Heine Brothers, in Munich

In the bustling old market square of Munich, the modest Heine Brothers bank has built a quiet reputation for honesty and reliability. Unlike the sprawling English houses of finance, the firm is run by two elderly brothers—Uncle Hatto, a solitary bachelor, and his younger sibling Ernest, a married man with a family—who conduct their business from a dingy office on Schrannen Platz, assisted by a handful of clerks, including a curious young Englishman. The description paints a city caught between freshly built palaces and a labyrinthine old town, giving the setting a vivid, almost tactile feel.

Ernest’s domestic world unfolds above the bank’s modest chambers, where he shares a spacious yet gaudy suite on the fashionable Ludwigs Straße with his wife and three children—Isa, Agnes, and a newborn son named Hatto. Their lives blend the comfortable middle‑class values of the German capital with the narrator’s own English sensibilities, illuminating the subtle cultural contrasts that color everyday interactions. As the story begins, the young English clerk’s curiosity about the Heine family hints at observations that may prove both enlightening and gently humorous.