n she was alone, she would
tell herself that it was her lot to undergo that eternal condemnation
with which her aunt threatened her; though in telling herself so she
would declare to herself also that whatever that punishment could be,
her Creator, let Him be ever so relentless, could inflict nothing
on her worse than that state of agony with which His creatures had
tormented her in this world.

She was in this state when Tetchen crept up to her room, on that
evening on which Peter had been with Herr Molk. "Fraulein," said
Tetchen, "you are very unkind to me."

"Never mind," said Linda, not looking up into the woman's face.

"I have done everything in my power for you, as though you had been
my own."

"I am not your own. I don't want you to do anything for me."

"I love you dearly, and I love him,--Ludovic. Have I not done
everything in my power to save you from the man you hate?"

"You made me go off with him in the night, like a--like a--! Oh,
Tetchen, was that treating me as though I had been your own? Would
you have done that for your own child?"

"Why not,--if you are to be his wife?"

"Tetchen, you have made me hate you, and you have made me hate
myself. If I had not done that, I should not be such a coward. Go
away. I do not want to speak to you."

Then the old woman came close up to Linda, and stood for a moment
leaning over her. Linda took no notice of her, but continued by a
certain tremulous shaking of her knee to show how strongly she was
moved. "My darling," said Tetchen, "why should you send away from you
those who love you?"

"Nobody loves me," said Linda.

"I love you,--and Ludovic loves you."

"That is of no use,--of none at all. I do not wish to hear his name
again. It was not his fault, but he has disgraced me. It was my own
fault,--and yours."

"Linda, he is in the house now."

"Who--Ludovic?"

"Yes; Ludovic Valcarm."

"In the house? How did he escape?"

"They could do nothing to him. They let him go. They were obliged to
let him go."

Then Linda got up from her seat, and stood for a minute with her eyes
fixed upon the old woman's face, thinking what step she had better
take. In the confusion of her mind, and in the state to which she
had been reduced, there was no idea left with her that it might yet
be possible that she would become the wife of Ludovic Valcarm, and
live as such the life of a respectable woman. She had taught herself
to acknowledge that her elopement with h