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Updated: June 3, 2025
"I have not been moping now. But, Fanny, I cannot talk to you about it. I cannot indeed not now. Do not be angry with me if I go in and leave you." Then Linda ran in, and went up to her bedroom and bolted the door. Peter Steinmarc had a cousin in a younger generation than himself, who lived in Nuremberg, and who was named Ludovic Valcarm.
Nor was the name of Ludovic Valcarm so much as mentioned in her presence. Between Tetchen and her there was not a word passed, unless such as were spoken in the presence of Madame Staubach. Linda found that she was hardly allowed to be for a moment out of her aunt's presence, and at this time she was unable not to be submissive.
Some messenger from Jacob Heisse's house had brought him the tidings to the town-hall. "What is this?" said he. "What is this? She has gone again." "Yes," said Tetchen, "she has gone again. What did you expect?" "And Ludovic Valcarm is with her?" "Ludovic Valcarm is not with her!" said Madame Staubach, with an expression of wrath which made him start a foot back from where he stood.
Now she had a moment for thought, a moment in which she could ask herself whether it would be good for her to place herself again in his hands. She said that it would not be good, and she walked steadily down to her aunt's parlour. "Aunt Charlotte," she said, "Ludovic Valcarm is in the house." "In this house, again!" exclaimed Madame Staubach.
Ludovic Valcarm was still in prison, and there was no knowing what might be done to him. To be imprisoned for life in some horrible place among the rats seemed to be the least of it. Linda, when she heard this, gave one slight scream, but she said nothing. Because Herr Molk was a burgomaster, she need not on that account believe every word that fell from his mouth.
Surely five days would not have elapsed without a word had not the plan been deserted. If that were the case, how good would she be! If that were the case, she would resolve, on her aunt's behalf, to be very scornful to Ludovic Valcarm. But though she had never gone outside the house without her aunt, though she had never even leaned on the front wicket, yet she had seen Ludovic.
But in what words was she to tell her tale? That was now her immediate difficulty. Her aunt was standing before her, hard, stern, and cruel, expecting an answer to her question. How was that answer to be made on the spur of the moment? "I did nothing, aunt Charlotte. A man came here while you were absent." "What man?" "Ludovic Valcarm."
Linda, though she could utter no articulate word, acknowledged to herself that her aunt had been good to her, and almost forgot the evil things that her aunt had worked for her. Linda Tressel, before she had gone to bed on that night which she had passed at Augsburg, had written a short note which was to be delivered, if such delivery should be possible, to Ludovic Valcarm.
"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 Tetchen's opinion, that if Linda would declare to her aunt that she meant at once to marry Ludovic Valcarm, and make him master of the house in which they lived, Madame Staubach would have no alternative but to submit quietly; that she would herself go forth and instruct the clergyman to publish the banns, and that Linda might thus become Valcarm's acknowledged wife before the snow was off the ground.
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