Page:German Stories (Volumes 2–3).djvu/386

196 whatever on his volatile heart. Even the threat that she would soon fall a victim to her grief, and, according to contract, that her avenging spirit would not cease to follow him, made no impression on Felippo, who now rejected every idea but that of the happiness which he would enjoy with his beloved and enchanting Camilla.

“This young lady’s father, with whom I was so well acquainted, that I lived as familiarly in his house as if it had been my own, had invited me already, by anticipation, to the wedding. Though an extraordinary pressure of business had this year detained him in town, so that he could not enjoy so much of the country life as usual, yet we made excursions several times in the week to his fine villa on the banks of the Brenta, where the marriage festival of his daughter was to be celebrated with all due magnificence. A particular circumstance made this be postponed, however, for a considerable time. As the bride’s parents had always lived very happily in the married state, they wished that the same clergyman, by whose good offices they were united, should also pronounce the nuptial benediction over their daughter. But the clergyman, who, though now