bach 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."

"It is enough to know that one doesn't like a man."

"No, that is not enough. You should examine the causes of your
dislike. And as far as mere dislike goes, you should get over it,
if it be unjust. You ought to do that, whoever may be the person in
question."

"But it is not mere dislike."

"What do you mean, Linda?"

"It is disgust."

"Linda, that is very wicked. You should not allow yourself to feel
what you call disgust at any of God's creatures. Have you ever
thought who made Herr Steinmarc?"

"God made Judas Iscariot, aunt Charlotte."

"Linda, that is profane,--very profane." Then there was silence
between them again; and Linda would have remained silent had her aunt
permitted it. She had been called profane, but she disregarded that,
having, as she thought, got the better of her aunt in the argument as
to disgust felt for any of God's creatures. But Madame Staubach had
still much to say. "I was asking you whether you had thought at all
about marriage, and you told me that you had not."

"I have thought that I could not possibly--under any
circumstances--marry Peter Steinmarc."

"Linda, will you let me speak? Marriage is a very solemn thing."

"Very solemn indeed, aunt Charlotte."

"In the first place, it is the manner in which the all-wise Creator
has thought fit to make the weaker vessel subject to the stronger
one." Linda said nothing, but thought that that old town-clerk was
not a vessel strong enough to hold her in subjection. "It is this
which a woman should bring home to herself, Linda, when she first
thinks of marriage."

"Of course I should think of it, if I were going to be married."

"Young women too often allow themselves to imagine that wedlock
should mean pleasure and diversion. Instead of that it is simply the
entering into that state of life in which a woman can best do her
duty here below. All life here must be painful, full of toil, and
moistened with many tears." Linda was partly prepared to acknowledge
the truth of this teaching; but she thought that there was a great
difference in the bitterness of tears. Were she to marry Ludovic
Valcarm, her tears with him would doubtless be very bitter, but no
tears could be so bitter as thos