ter Steinmarc for all the uncles and all the aunts in
creation; nor yet for father,--though father would never have thought
of such a thing. I think a girl should choose a lover for herself,
though how she is to do so if she is to be kept moping at home
always, I cannot tell. If I were treated as you are I think I should
ask somebody to jump over the river to me."

"I have asked nobody. But, Fanny, how did you know it?"

"A little bird saw him."

"But, Fanny, do tell me."

"Max saw him get across the river with his own eyes." Max Bogen was
the happy man who on the morrow was to make Fanny Heisse his wife.

"Heavens and earth!"

"But, Linda, you need not be afraid of Max. Of all men in the world
he is the very last to tell tales."

"Fanny, if ever you whisper a word of this to any one, I will never
speak to you again."

"Of course, I shall not whisper it."

"I cannot explain to you all about it,--how it would ruin me. I think
I should kill myself outright if my aunt were to know it; and yet I
did nothing wrong. I would not encourage a man to come to me in that
way for all the world; but I could not help his coming. I got myself
into the kitchen; but when I found that he was in the house I thought
it would be better to open the door and speak to him."

"Very much better. I would have slapped his face. A lover should know
when to come and when to stay away."

"I was ashamed to think that I did not dare to speak to him, and so I
opened the door. I was very angry with him."

"But still, perhaps, you like him,--just a little; is not that true,
Linda?"

"I do not know; but this I know, I do not want ever to see him
again."

"Come, Linda; never is a long time."

"Let it be ever so long, what I say is true."

"The worst of Ludovic is that he is a ne'er-do-well. He spends more
money than he earns, and he is one of those wild spirits who are
always making up some plan of politics--who live with one foot inside
the State prison, as it were. I like a lover to be gay, and all that;
but it is not well to have one's young man carried off and locked up
by the burgomasters. But, Linda, do not be unhappy. Be sure that I
shall not tell; and as for Max Bogen, his tongue is not his own. I
should like to hear him say a word about such a thing when I tell him
to be silent."

Linda believed her friend, but still it was a great trouble to her
that any one should know what Ludovic Valcarm had done on that Sunday
morning. A