arranging his affairs." He hid himself in a corner of the church, where he could observe the fair Meta, without himself being seen; he turned not his eye from the maiden, and drank from her looks the actual rapture which in foretaste had restrained him from the breakneck somerset on the bridge of the Weser. When the thanksgiving came in hand, a glad sympathy shone forth from all her features, and the cheeks of the virgin glowed with joy. The customary greeting on the way homewards was so full of emphasis, that even to the third party who had noticed them it would have been intelligible. Franz now appeared once more on the exchange; began a branch of trade which in a few weeks extended to the great scale; and as his wealth became daily more apparent, Neighbour Grudge, the scandal-chewer, was obliged to conclude, that in the cashing of his old debts he must have had more luck than sense. hired a large house, fronting the Roland, in He the market-place; engaged clerks and warehousemen, and carried on his trade unweariedly. Now the sorrowful populace of parasites again diligently handled the knocker of his door, appeared in crowds, and suffocated him with assurances of friendship and joy-wishings on his fresh prosperity; imagined they should once more catch him in their robber claws. But experience had taught him wisdom; he paid them in their own coin, feasted their false friendship on smooth words, and dismissed them with fasting stomachs; which sovereign means for scaring off the cumbersome brood of pickthanks and toad-eaters produced the intended effect, that they betook themselves elsewhither. 66 301 flattering hope of binding an inconstant heart, ear of the re-awakened Meta. which, like a feather, is the sport of every wind. He loved thee, and was faithful to thee, 'Forego the while his lot was as thy own: like only draws to like. Now a propitious destiny exalts the changeful far above thee. Ah! now he scorns the truest thoughts in mean apparel, now that pomp, and wealth, and splendour dazzle him once more; and courts, who knows what haughty fair one that disdained him when he lay among the pots, and now with siren call allures him back to her. Perhaps her cozening false words: For thee, God's garden blossoms voice has turned him from thee, speaking with in thy native town: friend, thou hast now thy dence, not by the eye alone. choice of all our maidens; choose with prumany, and of fathers many, who in secret lie in wait for thee; none will withhold his darling Of girls are the fairest, likewise birth and fortune. daughter. Take happiness and honour with councillor dignity awaits thee, where vote of friends is potent in the city.' The 399 tormented her heart without ceasing: she reviewed her fair contemporaries in Bremen, esThese suggestions of Jealousy disturbed and timated the ratio of so many splendid matches to herself and her circumstances, and the result was far from favourable. The first tidings of her lover's change of situation had in secret charmed her, not in the selfish view of becoming participatress in a large fortune; but for her mother's sake, who had abdicated all hopes of earthly happiness ever since the marriage project with neighbour Hop-King had made shipwreck. or granted to the traveller any such abundance calculated to conceal an inward care. In Bremen, the remounting Melcherson had become the story of the day; the fortune which in some inexplicable manner he had realized, as was supposed, in foreign parts, was the subject-matter of all conversations at formal dinners, in the courts of justice, and at the exchange. But in proportion as the fame of his fortune and affluence increased, the contentedness and peace of mind of the fair Meta diminished. The friend in petto was now, her opinion, well qualified to speak a plain in word. Yet still his love continued dumb, and except the greeting on the way from church, he gave no tidings of himself. Even this sort of visit was becoming rarer; and such aspects were the sign not of warm, but of cold weather in the atmosphere of love. Jealousy, the bale-plaining what he meant. Yet out of tenderful harpy, fluttered round her little room by night, and when sleep was closing her blue eyes, croaked many a dolorous presage into the ness to her daughter, she let no hint of this Bremen. This Job's-news drove the lovely maiden from her last defence; she passed on the apostate sentence of banishment from her heart, and vowed from that hour never more to think of him; and as she did so, wetted the twining thread with her tears. she made her mother the confidant of her sor- | Antwerp lady, who was already on her way to row, and disclosed to her its true origin. The shrewd old lady learned little more by this disclosure than she knew already. But it afforded opportunity to mother and daughter for a full, fair, and free discussion of this delicate affair. Brigitta made her no reproaches on the subject; she believed that what was done could not be undone, and directed all her eloquence to strengthen and encourage the dejected Meta to bear the failure of her hopes with a steadfast mind. With this view she spelled out to her the extremely reasonable moral, a, b, ab; discoursing thus: "My child, thou hast already said a, thou must now say b too; thou hast scorned thy fortune when it sought thee, now thou must submit when it will meet thee no longer. Experience has taught me that the most confident hope is the first to deceive us. Therefore, follow my example; abandon the fair cozener utterly, and thy peace of mind will no longer be disturbed by her. Count not on any improvement of thy fate, and thou wilt grow contented with thy present situation. Honour the spinning-wheel, which supports thee; what are fortune and riches to thee when thou canst do without them?" Close on this stout oration followed a loud humming symphony of snap-reel and spinningwheel, to make up for the time lost in speaking. Mother Brigitta was in truth philosophizing from the heart. After her scheme for the restoration of her former affluence had gone to ruin, she had so simplified the plan of her life that Fate could not perplex it any more. But Meta was still far from this philosophical centre of indifference; and hence this doctrine, consolation, and encouragement affected her quite otherwise than had been intended: the conscientious daughter now looked upon herself as the destroyer of her mother's fair hopes, and suffered from her own mind a thousand reproaches for this fault. Though she had never adopted the maternal scheme of marriage, and had reckoned only upon bread and salt in her future wedlock, yet on hearing of her lover's riches and spreading commerce, her diet-project had directly mounted to six plates; and it delighted her to think, that by her choice she should still realize her good mother's wish, and see her once more planted in her previous abundance. This fair dream now vanished by degrees, as Franz continued silent. To make matters worse, there spread a rumour over all the city that he was furnishing his house in the most splendid fashion for his marriage with a rich In a heavy hour she was breaking this vow, and thinking, against her will, of the faithless lover; for she had just spun off a rock of flax, and there was an old rhyme which had been taught her by her mother for encouragement to diligence: Spin, daughterkin, spin, Thy sweetheart's within!" which she always recollected when her rock was done; and along with it the memory of the deceitful necessarily occurred to her. In this heavy hour a finger rapped with a most dainty patter at the door. Mother Brigitta looked forth: the sweetheart was without. And who could it be? Who else but neighbour Franz from the alley? He had decked himself with a gallant wooing-suit, and his welldressed, thick brown locks shook forth perfume. This stately decoration boded, at all events, something else than flax-dealing. Mother Brigitta started in alarm; she tried to speak, but words failed her. Meta rose in trepidation from her seat, blushed like a purple rose, and was silent. Franz, however, had the power of utterance; to the soft adagio which he had in former days trilled forth to her, he now appended a suitable text, and explained his dumb love in clear words. Thereupon he made solemn application for her to the mother; justifying his proposal by the statement that the preparations in his house had been meant for the reception of a bride, and that this bride was the charming Meta. Franz provided comfortably for old Timbertoe, lived happily with his wife, and found Brigitta the most tolerable mother-in-law that has ever been discovered. WEEP NO MORE. Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan, |