ing to obey at last, if she found her guardian stern
and resolute in her demand. "My dear," she said, "you have probably
not yet had time to think of the marriage which I have proposed to
you."

"I want no time to think of it."

"Nothing in life should be accepted or rejected without thinking,
Linda,--nothing except sin; and thinking cannot be done without
time."

"This would be sin--a great sin!"

"Linda, you are very wicked."

"Of course, I am wicked."

"Herr Steinmarc is a most respectable man. There is no man in all
Nuremberg more respected than Herr Steinmarc." This was doubtless
Madame Staubach's opinion of Peter Steinmarc, but it may be that
Madame Staubach was not qualified to express the opinion of the city
in general on that subject. "He holds the office which your father
held before him, and for many years has inhabited the best rooms in
your father's house."

"He is welcome to the rooms if he wants them," said Linda. "He is
welcome to the whole house if you choose to give it to him."

"That is nonsense, Linda. Herr Steinmarc wants nothing that is not
his of right."

"I am not his of right," said Linda.

"Will you listen to me? You are much mistaken if you think that it is
because of your trumpery house that this honest man wishes to make
you his wife." We must suppose that Madame Staubach suffered some
qualm of conscience as she proffered this assurance, and that she
repented afterwards of the sin she committed in making a statement
which she could hardly herself have believed to be exactly true. "He
knew your father before you were born, and your mother; and he has
known me for many years. Has he not lived with us ever since you can
remember?"

"Yes," said Linda; "I remember him ever since I was a very little
girl,--as long as I can remember anything,--and he seemed to be as
old then as he is now."

"And why should he not be old? Why should you want a husband to be
young and foolish and headstrong as you are yourself;--perhaps some
one who would drink and gamble and go about after strange women?"

"I don't want any man for a husband," said Linda.

"There can be nothing more proper than that Herr Steinmarc should
make you his wife. He has spoken to me and he is willing to undertake
the charge."

"The charge!" almost screamed Linda, in terrible disgust.

"He is willing to undertake the charge, I say. We shall then still
live together, and may hope to be able to maintain a God-fearing
h