not come?"

"No, dear; we never go out here: we are so sad and solemn that we
know nothing of gaiety."

"You need not be solemn unless you like it."

"I don't know but what I do like it, Fanny; I have become so used to
it that I am as grave as an owl."

"That comes of having an old lover, Linda."

"I have not got an old lover," said Linda, petulantly.

"You have got a young one, at any rate."

"What do you mean, Fanny?"

"What do I mean? Just what I say. You know very well what I mean. Who
was it jumped over the river that Sunday morning, my dear? I know
all about it." Then there came across Linda's face a look of extreme
pain,--a look of anguish; and Fanny Heisse could see that her friend
was greatly moved by what she had said. "You don't suppose that I
shall tell any one," she added.

"I should not mind anything being told if all could be told," said
Linda.

"But he did come,--did he not?" Linda merely nodded her head. "Yes; I
knew that he came when your aunt was at church, and Tetchen was out,
and Herr Steinmarc was out. Is it not a pity that he should be such a
ne'er-do-well?"

"Do you think that I am a ne'er-do-well, Fanny?"

"No indeed; but, Linda, I will tell you what I have always thought
about young men. They are very nice, and all that; and when old
croaking hunkses have told me that I should have nothing to say to
them, I have always answered that I meant to have as much to say to
them as possible; but it is like eating good things;--everybody likes
eating good things, but one feels ashamed of doing it in secret."

This was a terrible blow to poor Linda. "But I don't like doing it,"
she answered. "It wasn't my fault. I did not bid him come."

"One never does bid them to come; I mean not till one has taken up
with a fellow as a lover outright. Then you bid them, and sometimes
they won't come for your bidding."

"I would have given anything in the world to have prevented his doing
what he did. I never mean to speak to him again,--if I can help it."

"Oh, Linda!"

"I suppose you think I expected him, because I stayed at home alone?"

"Well,--I did think that possibly you expected something."

"I would have gone to church with my aunt though my head was
splitting had I thought that Herr Valcarm would have come here while
she was away."

"Mind I have not blamed you. It is a great shame to give a girl an
old lover like Peter Steinmarc, and ask her to marry him. I wouldn't
have married Pe