Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 2).djvu/39

Rh went away, inspired him with confidence and courage. His first care was to discover mother Brigitta’s new abode, that he might be enabled, by some means or other, to continue his secret communication with her lovely daughter. This cost him only a little trouble, but he was too discreet to follow them, by likewise changing his residence; he contented himself with ascertaining the church where they went to mass, that he might have the satisfaction of daily seeing his beloved. He never forgot to lie in wait for them on their way home; sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, and then he always greeted Mela kindly, which was equal to a billet-doux.

if Mela had not been brought up like a nun, and if mother Brigitta had not watched her as carefully as the miser does his treasure, Frank’s secret wooing would have made little or no impression on her heart. But she was exactly at that critical period of life, when nature, and a careful mother, usually teach very different lessons. The former creates a series of new and warm feelings which she teaches the maiden, to regard as the very panacea of