e, and dishevelled hair, and streaming
tears, shrieking to Heaven in her agony, every now and again kissing
the hand of the poor sinner, she besought the Lord her God that He
would give to her the thing for which she asked;--and that thing
prayed for with such agony of earnestness, was a consent from Linda
to marry Peter Steinmarc! It was very strange, but the woman was as
sincere in her prayer as is faith itself. She would have cut herself
with knives, and have swallowed ashes whole, could she have believed
that by doing so she could have been nearer her object. And she had
no end of her own in view. That Peter, as master of the house, would
be a thorn in her own side, she had learned to believe; but thorns
in the sides of women were, she thought, good for them; and it was
necessary to Linda that she should be stuck full of thorns, so that
her base human desires might, as it were, fall from her bones and
perish out of the way. Once, twice, thrice, Linda besought her aunt
to arise; but the half frantic woman had said to herself that she
would remain on her knees, on the hard boards, till this thing was
granted to her. Had it not been said by lips that could not lie, that
faith would move a mountain? and would not faith, real faith, do
for her this smaller thing? Then there came questions to her mind,
whether the faith was there. Did she really believe that this thing
would be done for her? If she believed it, then it would be done.
Thinking of all this, with the girl's hands between her own, she
renewed her prayers. Once and again she threw herself upon the floor,
striking it with her forehead. "Oh, my child! my child, my child! If
God would do this for me! my child, my child! Only for my sin and
weakness this thing would be done for me."

For three hours Linda lay there, hearing this, mingling her screams
with those of her aunt, half fainting, half dead, now and again
dozing for a moment even amidst the screams, and then struggling up
in bed, that she might embrace her aunt, and implore her to abandon
her purpose. But the woman would only give herself with the greater
vehemence to the work. "Now, if the Lord would see fit, now,--now; if
the Lord would see fit!"

Linda had swooned, her aunt being all unconscious of it, had dozed
afterwards, and had then risen and struggled up, and was seated in
her bed. "Aunt Charlotte," she said, "what is it--that--you want of
me?"

"That you should obey the Lord, and take this man