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母ブリギッタは自分の商売に夢中で、この音楽家には目もくれず、娘も最近の発見を伝えようとはしなかった。それどころか、自分の洞察力を示したいと思ったのか、音楽家の隣人に対する密かな傾倒からか、彼の調和のとれた語りかけに、何か別の象徴的な言葉で答えることができないかと考えた。
窓の前に植木鉢少々を配置するにつき、彼女は母親の許可を求めた。老婦人としても、詮索好きな隣人の顔を見ることがなくなり、もはや恐れるものもなく。こんな罪のない娯楽でメラを甘やかしたところで、問題になるとも思えず、彼女の要求をあっさり認めた。
Mother Brigitta, intent on her trade, paid no attention to the musician, and her daughter was by no means anxious to impart her late discovery on the contrary, either from a desire to show her penetration, or from a secret inclination towards her musical neighbour, she considered how she might reply to his harmonious addresses in some other symbolical language. She requested permission of her mother, to place a few flower-pots before the window, and as the old lady, from no longer seeing her once prying neighbour, no longer dreaded him, she saw no harm in indulging Mela in this innocent amusement, and readily granted her request.
花を育て、水をやり、添え木に縛り、さらに成長して葉や芽を出すのを観察するために、メラは窓際にいる機会が多くなった。幸せな恋人は言いようのない喜びを感じながら、この象形文字を好いように解釈した。高らかに歓びを歌うリュートは小道を越えて、美しい庭師の注意深い耳へと、彼の感情を伝えて余すところがない。このことは、初心で優しい彼女の心に強い影響を与えた。母親が夕食後の徒然にする長いお喋りで、たまに旋律豊かな隣人を取り上げ、浪費家・甲斐性なし・怠け者と呼び、放蕩息子に例えたときには、不快を感じるようにも。そこでメラは、細心の注意を払いつつも、このような機会を捉えて彼の肩を持つ事があった。彼の愚かさは若気の至り、そして他の人の誘惑に起因していると。そしてただ、「今日できることを明日にするな」という諺を、間に合うように覚えていなかったことを非難した。
To cultivate these flowers, to water them and bind them to the sticks, as likewise to observe them growing and putting forth leaves and buds, now gave Mela a frequent opportunity of being at the window. With inexpressible delight did the happy lover explain these hieroglyphics to his advantage, and the eloquent lute did not fail to waft his joyful feelings across the narrow lane to the attentive ears of the fair gardener. This had a powerful effect on her tender virgin heart. She began to feel offended, when her mother, in the long discourse with which she sometimes entertained her after dinner, took the melodious neighbour for the theme of her harangue, and called him a spendthrift, a worthless fellow, and an idler; and compared him to the prodigal son. Mela even ventured, though with great caution, to take his part on such occasions; she attributed his folly to youthful imprudence, and the seductions of others, and only accused him of not having remembered in time, the proverb, which says :
Spare to day, it may rain to-morrow.
母ブリギッタが自分の家で、この若い浪費家を咎め立てたに対し、彼の方では好意を抱いた。自分の貧しさが許す限り、どうしたら彼女の境遇を改善できるか、でも自分に借りがあるとはバレないようにしたいと真剣に頭を悩ませたもの。実際のところ、母親よりも娘に贈り物をする積もりではあったが。メラが新しいドレスを欲しがっているのに、母親が不景気を口実に断っていることを、彼は密かに聞きつけていた。とはいえ危惧されて止まないのは、ガウン一枚であろうと、知りもしない人からのプレゼントなど受け取られないであろうし、贈り主が自分だと名乗れば、すべてが台無しになりかねない。しかし偶然にも、自分の望み通りにすべてを手配する機会を得ることができた。
While mother Brigitta, in her own house, thus censured the young spendthrift, he felt kindly disposed towards her, and thought with great earnestness how he might, as far as his own poverty permitted, improve her circumstances, without allowing her to know that she owed him any obligation. He meant, indeed, by his gifts, to assist the daughter more than the mother. He had received secret intelligence that Mela desired very much to have a new dress which her mother had refused her, under the pretext of bad times. He was greatly afraid that the present of a gown piece, from an unknown hand, would not be received, and that all his hopes would be ruined were he to name himself as the giver. Chance unexpectedly procured him an opportunity of arranging every thing according to his wishes.
母ブリギッタが隣人に愚痴をこぼした事には、糸くずが全く収穫できず、客が好む以上の値段がついてしまい、この商売は今は全く採算が取れないと。
願ってもない話とばかりに金細工師のところへ急いだフランクは、母の形見である金の耳飾りを売り、糸くずを大量に買い込み、それを安値で隣人に提供するよう、買収した女に命じた。この取引はすぐに成立し、至って好意的であることが証明されたので、美しいメラは優雅な新しいドレスで万聖節に輝いたのであった。
Mother Brigitta complained to a neighbour that the crop of lint having entirely failed, it cost more than her customers liked to pay for it, and this branch of trade, was therefore, at present, quite unprofitable. Frank did not wait for this to be repeated, before he hurried to a goldsmith, sold a pair of his mother's gold earrings, bought a quantity of lint and sent a woman, whom he bribed for that purposé, to offer it to his neighbour, at a very moderate price. The bargain was soon concluded, and proved so favourable, that the fair Mela shone on All-Saints-day in an elegant new dress.
この出で立ちで、彼女は注意深い隣人を魅了して止まなかった。もし彼が、1万1千の処女の中から恋人を選ぶことができようと、最愛のメラには代えられなかったであろう。
In this state, she charmed her watchful neighbour to such a degree, that, if he had had permission to chose a sweetheart from among the eleven thousand virgins, he would have rejected them all for his beloved Mela.
しかし、この無邪気な策略が成功したと自負していたまさにその時、彼の秘密はあばかれた。母ブリギッタは、糸くず販売で貢献してくれた女性にお返ししたいと思い、当時ではごく一般的だったご馳走に招待した。当時、紅茶やコーヒーが普及する以前は、ライスミルクに砂糖とスパイスを加えて甘く煮たものと、スペイン産のワインが一般的であった。このご馳走は、老婦人の歯のない歯茎を動かしただけでなく、舌もほぐした。商人が喜んでくれるなら、同じ値段でもっと糸くずを持ってくると約束し、それは彼女が言うように、疑う余地がないもっともな理由であったが。母ブリギッタとその娘は、女性特有の好奇心で、女性の思慮分別のもろい封印が解かれるまで、次から次へと質問攻めにした、そして遂には。
メラはこの発見に恐怖で青ざめた。母親がその場に居なければ、喜ぶところであったのに。しかし、メラは母親の礼儀作法を知っていた。そして、その結果、新しい衣裳のことで恐れをなしていた。この思いがけない知らせに、厳格な寮母は驚き、不愉快になった。自分だけに知らせてほしかったと心底悔やむのは、隣人の寛大さが娘の心に影響を与え、その結果、自分の計画に致命的な影響を与えるのではないかと恐れたのだ。初心なメラの心に潜んでいるかもしれない愛の種をすっかり壊してしまおうと、念入りに、決定的な措置を一斉に取ることを決定した。新しい衣裳は、美しい所有者の涙と懇願にもかかわらず、翌日売りに出され、その代金は、糸くずを売って得たお金と一緒に梱包され、ハンブルクの商人の助けを借りて、古い借金の名目でフランクに返された。彼はこの金額を予想外の恵みとして受け取り、父親のすべての債務者が、この正直な無名の者のように、支払いを厳守してくれることを願ったのであった。この事件の真相をフランクは一度も知らず、噂好きの助手も自分の裏切りを明かさないように気を配り、母ブリギッタが糸くずの商売をやめたことだけを告げた。
But, at the very moment that he prided himself in the success of this innocent stratagem, his secret was betrayed. Mother Brigitta, wishing to show a kindness to the woman who had, through the sale of the lint, done her so great a service, invited her to a feast, very common in those days, before tea or coffee were introduced into use, of rice milk, nicely sweetened with sugar, and spiced, and a bottle of spanish wine. These dainties not only set the toothless gums of the old lady in motion, but also loosened her tongue. She promised to bring more lint at the same price, provided her merchant should be willing, which, as she said, for very good reasons she could not doubt. One word brought on the other; mother Brigitta and and her daughter inquired with the inherent curiosity of their sex, till the brittle seal of female discretion was demolished. Mela grew pale with terror at this discovery, which would have delighted her if her mother had not been a party to it. But she knew her strict notions of decency and decorum, and consequently was in dread for her new frock. The severe matron was equally astonished and displeased at this unexpect ed intelligence; and heartily wished that she alone might have been informed of it, fearing their neighbour's generosity might make an impression on her daughter's heart, and thus prove fatal to her plans. She prudently resolved to take the most decisive measures at once to destroy every seed of love which might be hidden in the virgin heart of Mela. The new frock, in spite of the tears and intreaties of the lovely possessor, was sent on the follow ing day to be sold, and the price of it, with the money she had gained by the sale of the lint, was packed up, and, under the name of an old debt with the assistance of the Hamburg mercantile messenger returned to Frank, who received the sum as an unexpected blessing, and wished that all the debtors of his father might prove as punctual in their payments as this honest Unknown. The real state of the case never once occurred to him, and his gossipping assistant took care not to disclose her treachery; simply telling him that mother Brigitta had left off her lint trade.
しかし姿見により、一晩のうちに大きな変化があったことを知ることになる。植木鉢はすべて消え、カーテンは再び窓の前に下げられていた。メラはほとんど見えず、嵐の夜の暗い雲のよう。恋人の憂鬱の原因を突き止めようと、彼は自らを奮い立たせた。
しかし数日後、彼は自分の姿見が、全く役に立たなくなったと認めた。もはやメラの美しい姿を映さなくなったのだ。その原因を調べに行くと、すべてのカーテンが取り除かれ、部屋には誰も居ない。美しい隣人は前の晩、物音一つ立てずに住まいを出たのだった。
His looking-glass soon told him, however, that a great change had taken place opposite during one night. The flower-pots had all vanished and the curtains were again close drawn before the window. Mela was rarely visible, and, when she appeared like the silvery moon breaking from behind the dark clouds of a stormy night, her looks were mournful, and he even thought he saw her wipe away a tear. This filled his heart with sorrow; and his lute, in soft lydian tones, expressed his sympathetic grief. He teazed himself to discover the cause of his sweetheart's melancholy, but without A few days afterwards, he observed that his looking-glass was quite useless, as it no longer reflected the fair form of Mela. On going to examine the cause, he discovered that all the curtains had been taken away, and that the rooms were uninhabited; his fair neighbours had left their quarters the evening before in perfect silence.
