s; but on this matter he kept an
accurate mental account-sheet, on which he strove hard to be able
to write the balance always on the right side. He was not cruel
by nature, but he had no tenderness of heart and no delicacy of
perception. He could forgive an offence against his comfort, as when
Tetchen would burn his soup; or even against his pocket, as when,
after many struggles, he would be unable to enforce the payment of
some municipal fee. But he was vain, and could not forgive an offence
against his person. Linda had previously told him to his face that he
was old, and had with premeditated malice and falsehood exaggerated
his age. Now she threatened him with her hatred. If he persevered in
asking her to be his wife, she would hate him! He, too, began to hate
her; but his hatred was unconscious, a thing of which he was himself
unaware, and he still purposed that she should be his wife. He would
break her spirit, and bring her to his feet, and punish her with a
life-long punishment for saying that he was sixty, when, as she well
knew, he was only fifty-two. She should beg for his love,--she who
had threatened him with her hatred! And if she held out against him,
he would lead her such a life, by means of tales told to Madame
Staubach, that she should gladly accept any change as a release. He
never thought of the misery that might be forthcoming to himself in
the possession of a young wife procured after such a fashion. A man
requires some power of imagination to enable him to look forward to
the circumstances of an untried existence, and Peter Steinmarc was
not an imaginative man.

But he was a thoughtful man, cunning withal, and conscious that
various resources might be necessary to him. There was a certain
packer of casks, named Stobe, in the employment of the brewers who
owned the warehouse opposite, and Stobe was often to be seen on the
other side of the river in the Ruden Platz. With this man Steinmarc
had made an acquaintance, not at first with any reference to
Linda Tressel, but because he was desirous of having some private
information as to the doings of his relative Ludovic Valcarm. From
Stobe, however, he had received the first intimation of Ludovic's
passion for Linda; and now on this very evening of which we are
speaking, he obtained further information,--which shocked him,
frightened him, pained him exceedingly, and yet gave him keen
gratification. Stobe also had seen the leap out of the boat, and
t