Page:The German Novelists (Volume 3).djvu/107

 good city of Bremen. Every body talked of the great fortune which he had so unaccountably made abroad; it was equally the subject of conversation at feasts and funerals, in courts of law, and upon ’change. In proportion as his opulence increased, and became more known, Mela’s happiness seemed to diminish. She thought her mute lover was at last in a condition to declare himself; still he remained silent, except occasionally meeting her in the street, and even here he became daily less attentive. Such a demeanour showed but a cold lover; and that harpy, jealousy, soon began to torment her, whispering the most unpleasant suspicions possible: “Let me banish the fond hope of fixing so variable a being, thus changing like a weathercock blown about by the least breeze. True, he loved, and was faithful to thee as long as he was thine equal in rank; but with this revolution in his affairs, being raised so high above thee, he looks down upon the purest affection, because of thy poverty. Surrounded with wealth and splendour, he perhaps adores some haughtier beauty who abandoned him in his misfortune, but now with her syren voice calls him back. Yes, and the voice of adulation hath changed his heart. His new companions tell him to choose from among the richest and loftiest of his native place; that no fathers would refuse their daughters, no maidens reject him as a lover. They will make Rh