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MIMILI.
91

tuitous embellishment; but I have seen with my own eyes, in her letters, specimens of flowers, which she transmitted to my friend, that her doubts relative to their names might be solved by our botanists. I have also seen in them highly appropriate quotations from Homer and Virgil, and particularly from Ovid, with reference to the pain occasioned by their separation; so that I can no longer question the veracity of his statement.

The probationary year is nearly over. Many suitors have presented themselves from far and near. Mimili’s descriptions of these wooers are unique in their kind; a vein of the keenest satire, mingled with the greatest good-nature, runs through every line. Their overtures, as might be foreseen, were all rejected; and there was now no obstacle to the accomplishment of the mutual wishes of the lovers. I had received a formal invitation to the nuptials, when the fiend broke loose from the Isle of Elba, and duty once more called my friend to the field.

Whoever feels interested in the fate of Mimili, pray for her; and whoever meanwhile visits the valley of Lauterbrunn—it is impossible to miss the lonely and scarcely beaten path which leads up on the left to her flowery Alp—and sees the lovely maiden before I do, salute her cordially from me.