the
lighter would be the storm on Linda's head when it did come. "After
supper, Madame Staubach; Linda wants her supper; don't you, my pet?"
Linda answered nothing. She could not even look up, so as to meet the
glance of her aunt's eyes. But Fanny Bogen succeeded in arranging
things after her own fashion. She would not leave the room, though in
sooth her presence at the preparation of the supper might have been
useful. It came to be understood that Madame Staubach was to sleep
at the lawyer's house, and great changes were made in order that
the aunt and niece might not be put in the same room. Early in the
morning they were to return together to Nuremberg, and then Linda's
short hour of comfort would be over.

She had hardly as yet spoken a word to her aunt when Fanny left them
in the carriage together. "There were three or four others there,"
said Fanny to her husband, "and she won't have much said to her
before she gets home."

"But when she is at home!" Fanny only shrugged her shoulders. "The
truth is, you know," said Max, "that it was not at all the proper
sort of thing to do!"

"And who does the proper sort of thing?"

"You do, my dear."

"And wouldn't you have run away with me if father had wanted me to
marry some nasty old fellow who cares for nothing but his pipe and
his beer? If you hadn't, I'd never have spoken to you again."

"All the same," said Max, "it won't do her any good."

The journey home to Nuremberg was made almost in silence, and things
had been so managed by Fanny's craft that when the two women entered
the red house hardly a word between them had been spoken as to the
affairs of the previous day. Tetchen, as she saw them enter, cast
a guilty glance on her young mistress, but said not a word. Linda
herself, with a veil over her face which she had borrowed from her
friend Fanny, hurried up-stairs towards her own room. "Go into my
chamber, Linda," said Madame Staubach, who followed her. Linda did
as she was bid, went in, and stood by the side of her aunt's bed.
"Kneel down with me, Linda, and let us pray that the great gift of
repentance may be given to us," said Madame Staubach. Then Linda
knelt down, and hid her face upon the counterpane.

All her sins were recapitulated to her during that prayer. The
whole heinousness of the thing which she had done was given in its
full details, and the details were repeated more than once. It was
acknowledged in that prayer that though God's grace mi