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And as for obedience, though she were willing to obey her aunt, she felt that her aunt had no right to transfer her privilege in that respect to another. But she said nothing, and her aunt went on with her proposition. "Our lodger, Peter Steinmarc, has spoken to me, and he is anxious to make you his wife." "Peter Steinmarc!" "Yes, Linda; Peter Steinmarc." "Old Peter Steinmarc!" "He is not old.
"Madame Staubach," he said, "that vagabond Ludovic Valcarm has just been here, in this house." "He went away but a minute since," said Madame Staubach. "Just so. That is exactly what I mean. This is a thing not to be borne, not to be endured, and shows that your niece Linda is altogether beyond the reach of any good impressions." "Peter Steinmarc!"
It was bad, this fact of her lover's imprisonment; but not so bad as the advice which her counsellor gave her, and which she knew she would be bound to repeat to her aunt. "But, Herr Molk, sir, if I do not love Peter Steinmarc if I hate him ?" "Oh, my dear, my dear! This is a terrible thing. There is not such another ne'er-do-well in all Nuremberg as Ludovic Valcarm. Support a wife!
"It isn't good that women should own houses," said Madame Staubach; "it should be enough for them that they are permitted to use them." Then Herr Steinmarc went on to explain that if the widow would consent to become his wife, he thought he could so settle things that for their lives, at any rate, the house should be in his care and management.
She was all at fault as to facts, and did not know what the personages of Nuremberg might be saying in respect to Linda. Were she to quarrel altogether with Steinmarc, she thought that there would be left to her no means of bringing upon Linda that salutary crushing which alone might be efficacious for her salvation. She was therefore compelled to temporise.
She was not able now to stand up bravely before her suitor, and fight him as she had done at first with all the weapons which she had at her command. The man knew something which it was almost ruinous to her that he should know, something by which, if her aunt knew it, she would be quite ruined. How could it be that Herr Steinmarc should have learned anything of Ludovic's wild love?
Linda knew their appearance well, and thought that it was not altogether unbecoming. But she knew also, for she had often been so told, that they were dangerous men, and she was grieved that Ludovic Valcarm should be among their number. But now now that her aunt had spoken to her of that horrid plan in reference to Peter Steinmarc, what would Ludovic Valcarm be to her?
He had not been in the house, he had been in the town-hall, sitting in his big official arm-chair, when Ludovic had stood in the low-arched doorway and blown a kiss across the river from his hand. And yet he did know it; and knowing it, would of course tell her aunt! "I did not mean to be unkind," she said. "You were very unkind." "I beg your pardon then, Herr Steinmarc."
But she felt, as she tried the telling of it to herself, that the task would be very difficult. And then her aunt would only half believe her, and would turn the facts, joined, as they would be, with her own unbelief, into additional grounds for urging on this marriage with Peter Steinmarc.
She watched him as he creaked down-stairs, and went into her aunt's apartments. For a moment she felt disposed to go and confront him there before her aunt. Together, the two of them, could not force her to marry him. But her courage failed her. Though she could face Peter Steinmarc without flinching, she feared the words which her aunt could say to her.
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