from her youth upwards, and she had not realised
the fact that she possessed any power of rejecting it. She would
tell herself, and that frequently, that to her religion held out no
comfort, that she was not of the elect, that manifestly she was a
castaway, and that therefore there could be no reason why she should
endure unnecessary torments in this life. With such impressions on
her mind she had suffered herself to be taken from her aunt's house,
and carried off by her lover to Augsburg. With such impressions
strong upon her, she would not hesitate to declare her hatred for
the man, whom, in truth, she hated with all her heart, but whom,
nevertheless, she thought it was wicked to hate. She daily told
herself that she was one given up by herself to Satan. But yet, when
summoned to her aunt's prayers, when asked to kneel and implore her
Lord and Saviour to soften her own heart,--so to soften it that she
might become a submissive wife to Peter Steinmarc,--she would comply,
because she still believed that such were the sacrifices which a true
religion demanded. But there was no comfort to her in her religion.
Alas! alas! let her turn herself which way she might, there was no
comfort to be found on any side.

At the end of the first week in February no renewed promise of assent
had been extracted from Linda; but Peter, who was made of stuff less
stern, had been gradually brought round to see that he had been
wrong. Madame Staubach had, in the first instance, obtained the
co-operation of Herr Molk and others of the leading city magistrates.
The question of Linda's marriage had become quite a city matter. She
had been indiscreet; that was acknowledged. As to the amount of her
indiscretion, different people had different opinions. In the opinion
of Herr Molk, that was a thing that did not signify. Linda Tressel
was the daughter of a city officer who had been much respected. Her
father's successor in that office was just the man who ought to be
her husband. Of course he was a little old and rusty; but then Linda
had been indiscreet. Linda had not only been indiscreet, but her
indiscretion had been, so to say, very public. She had run away from
the city in the middle of the night with a young man,--with a young
man known to be a scamp and a rebel. It must be acknowledged that
indiscretion could hardly go beyond this. But then was there not
the red house to make things even, and was it not acknowledged on
all sides that Peter S