Page:Belle Assemblée (Volume 10, 1814).djvu/272

 dow that he might still look at the pretty gown, or rather at the fine shape of the wearer. Meta, at that same instant, turned round her head just to tuck up her gown, when a look at the window of her neighbour, who still held his lute in his hand, convinced her that she had not been mistaken, and that the observer and the musician were but the same identical being. She felt overjoyed at the discovery, and the first thing she did on her return home, was to run to her flower-pots. She was a long time about them, and placed the myrtle so near its companion, that a beautiful full blown rose got interwoven between the verdant branches of the shrub. Meta seemed delighted at the sight, at her neighbour still more so, for, at the very instant, his lute was heard, but words are insufficient to render all that it expressed. Alas! it will not unfrequently happen, that when we think ourselves the most happy, then the greatest misfortune is near at hand, and Frank experienced it most severely. Dame Brigite had been so pleased with her purchase of hemp, that in hopes of procuring more, and through gratitude for the vender, she invited her to a small collation. The repast being ended, Brigite enquired whether there was any more hemp to be got at the same price? The guest replied, that she was not certain her employer would wish to continue so ruinous a traffic: this was the prelude to an explanation, in consequence of which the dame discovered that the musician and the hemp merchant were no other than the young profligate, whose assiduity at his window had created so much uneasiness to her; and what he had done with the hemp, evinced that he had neither quitted the neighbourhood, nor renounced his pretensions on the heart of Meta. She cast a look at her daughter, who, with a blush of similar hue to that of the rose interwoven with the myrtle branches, cast down her beautiful eyes, and was enraptured at what she had just heard; yet she wished she alone had been apprized of it. Dame Brigite, on her side, was no less grieved at her daughter being made acquainted with the circumstance. She exclaimed aloud against the young prodigal seducer, as she called him upwards of fifty times; however, she proceeded to farther extremities. Notwithstanding the tears of Meta, the new gown was sold, and the amount of what it fetched, together with what remained from the sale of the hemp, was carefully wrapped up, and directed to Frank, under the post-mark of Hamburgh. When the young man first received it, he thought that some of his father’s former debtors were making restitution; he thanked his kind stars for the unexpected relief, and flew before his glass in hopes to enjoy the still greater happiness of seeing his Meta; when, alas! he only discovered the plaguy curtain, more closely drawn, and thicker, in his opinion, than it was before. The flower-pots, however, were still out. Dame Brigite’s penetration had not gone so far as to suspect their meaning; the luxuriant rose still shone amidst the branches of the myrtle plant, and the sight of it kept the lover’s hopes alive; the flowers must needs be taken care of, thought he, and he waited for the event. Towards the evening the curtain, indeed, was withdrawn; his heart began to beat; he drew nearer to his glass, when he saw the emaciated hands of Brigite unmercifully separating the two vases, and successively taking them into the room; but love, with a view of alleviating his sorrow, allowed him to see Meta, standing by the side of her mother, and wiping off her tears with her sweet hand. He immediately applied to his lute, in strains so expressive of blended grief and joy, that all who were passing by stopped to listen to them. Dame Brigite heard them also, but now put a right construction upon them; she recollected that her daughter’s partiality to flowers was nearly of the same date as the first sounds she had heard of the lute; and by means of summing up what she knew with what had taken place, she guessed at their dumb intelligence, and immediately determined upon leaving so alarming a neighbourhood.

Frank, when he awoke on the next morning, enjoyed the lively, but short pleasure, of discovering every part of Meta’s chamber; no curtain, no mother, no obstacle obstructed his view: but there was no Meta, no spinning wheel, no rose, no myrtle shrub to be seen, the whole had disappeared, and all Frank’s hopes vanished.

On his going to enquire what was become of his neighbours, the landlady in-