ddle of
the room listening. Had this been a thief who had come when she was
left in charge of the house, is it thus she would have protected her
own property and her aunt's? It was no thief. But why should she run
from this man whom she knew,--whom she knew and would have trusted
had she been left to her own judgment of him? She was no coward.
Were she to face the man, she would fear no personal danger from
him. He would offer her no insult, and she thought that she could
protect herself, even were he to insult her. It was not that that
she feared,--but that her aunt should be able to say that she had
received her lover in secret on this Sunday morning, when she had
pretended that she was too ill to go to church!

She was all ears, and could hear that he was within the house. She
had thought of the window the moment that she had barred the kitchen
door, and knew that he would be within the house. She could hear him
knock at the parlour door, and then enter the parlour. But he did
not stay there a moment. Then she heard him at the foot of the stair,
and with a low voice he called to her by her name. "Linda, are you
there?" But, of course, she did not answer him. It might be that
he would fancy that she was not within the house and would retreat.
He would hardly intrude into their bedrooms; but it might be that
he would go as far as his cousin's apartments. "Linda," he said
again,--"Linda, I know that you are in the house." That wicked
Tetchen! It could not be but that Tetchen had been a traitor.
He went three or four steps up the stairs, and then, bethinking
himself of the locality, came down again and knocked at once at the
kitchen door. "Linda," he said, when he found that the door was
barred,--"Linda, I know that you are here."

"Go away," said Linda. "Why have you come here? You know that you
should not be here."

"Open the door for one moment, that you may listen to me. Open the
door, and I will tell you all. I will go instantly when I have spoken
to you, Linda; I will indeed."

Then she opened the door. Why should she be a barred-up prisoner
in her own house? What was there that she need fear? She had done
nothing that was wrong, and would do nothing wrong. Of course, she
would tell her aunt. If the man would force his way into the house,
climbing in through an open window, how could she help it? If her
aunt chose to misbelieve her, let it be so. There was need now that
she should call upon herself for streng