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Linda still cowered on the sofa, and was still speechless. Madame Staubach, when she heard this defence of her niece, was hardly pushed to know in what way it was her duty to answer it.
She had asked after her headache, as though nothing doubting the fact of the ailment; and when Linda had said that she had been able to rise almost as soon as her aunt had left the house, Madame Staubach expressed no displeasure. When the dinner was over, Peter was allowed to light his pipe, and Madame Staubach either slept or appeared to sleep.
"T-sh, t-sh, t-sh! my dear child; you don't know the world, and how should you? If you want to marry a husband who will remain at home and live discreetly, and be true to you, you must take such a man as Peter Steinmarc." "Of course she must," said Madame Staubach. "Such a one as Ludovic Valcarm would only waste your property and drag you into the gutters."
Not for security here or hereafter, even were such to be found by such means, would she consent to become the wife of the man proposed to her. Madame Staubach, finding that no spoken reply was given to her questions, at last proceeded from generalities to the special case which she had under her consideration. "Linda," she said, "I trust you will consent to become the wife of this excellent man."
"I can't allow you to think that I shall ever be his wife. That is all." After this there was silence for some minutes, and then Madame Staubach spoke again. "My dear, have you thought at all about marriage?" "Not much, aunt Charlotte." "I daresay not, Linda; and yet it is a subject on which a young woman should think much before she either accepts or rejects a proposed husband."
Madame Staubach therefore listened, and said little or nothing; and when Peter on a certain Thursday evening remarked as he was leaving the parlour that the week would be over on the following morning, and that he would do himself the honour of asking for the fraulein's decision on his return from the town-hall at five P.M. on the morrow, apologising at the same time for the fact that he would then be driven to intrude on an irregular day, Madame Staubach merely answered by an assenting motion of her head, and by the utterance of her usual benison, "God in His mercy be with you, Peter Steinmarc."
Tetchen, as soon as she saw Linda, explained that she must be off again at once. She had only returned to fetch some article for a little niece of hers which Madame Staubach had given her. "Aunt Charlotte," said Linda, "I am very weary. You will not be angry, will you, if I go to bed?" "It is not yet nine o'clock, my dear." "But I am tired, and I fear that I shall lack strength for to-morrow."
His name Madame Staubach never dared to mention; and Linda was silent, thinking always that it was a name of offence. But when she had been told that she must die, that her days were indeed numbered, and that no return to Nuremberg was possible for her, she did speak a word of Peter Steinmarc.
In fact, Rollo passed three more stands for selling such things on the way to the Staubach. Mr. George and Rollo continued their walk along the road, looking up constantly at the colossal column of water before them, which seemed to grow larger and higher the nearer they drew to it. At length they reached the part of the road which was directly opposite to it.
Her aunt put the matter to her in a more cunning way than Steinmarc had done, and Linda felt herself unable to deny the charge. "Then let me tell you, that of all the young women of whom I ever heard, you are the most deceitful," continued Madame Staubach. "Do not say that, aunt Charlotte; pray, do not say that." "But I do say it. Oh, that it should have come to this between you and me!"
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