da
alone, requiring her company when she went out to make her little
purchases in the market, and always on those more momentous and
prolonged occasions when she attended some public prayer-meeting.
Linda resolved to obey in such matters, and she did obey. She went
hither and thither by her aunt's side, and at home sat with her aunt,
always with a needle in her hand,--never leaving the room, except
when Peter Steinmarc entered it. This he did, perhaps, on every other
evening; and when he did so, Linda always arose and went up to her
own chamber, speaking no word to the man as she passed him. When her
aunt had rebuked her for this, laying upon her a command that she
should remain when Steinmarc appeared, she protested that in that
matter obedience was impossible to her. In all other things she would
do as she was bidden; nothing, she said, but force, should induce
her to stay for five minutes in the same room with Peter Steinmarc.
Peter, who was of course aware of all this, would look at her when he
passed her, or met her on the stairs, or in the passages, as though
she were something too vile for him to touch. Madame Staubach, as she
saw this, would groan aloud, and then Peter would groan. Latterly,
too, Tetchen had taken to groaning; so that life in that house had
become very sad. But Linda paid back Peter's scorn with interest.
Her lips would curl, and her nostrils would be dilated, and her eyes
would flash fire on him as she passed him. He also prayed a little
in these days that Linda might be given into his hands. If ever she
should be so given, he should teach her what it was to scorn the
offer of an honest man.

For a month or six weeks Linda Tressel bore all this with patience;
but when October was half gone, her patience was almost at an end.
Such a life, if prolonged much further, would make her mad. The
absence of all smiles from the faces of those with whom she lived,
was terrible to her. She was surrounded by a solemnity as of the
grave, and came to doubt almost whether she were a living creature.
If she were to be scorned always, to be treated ever as one unfit
for the pleasant intercourse of life, it might be as well that she
should deserve such treatment. It was possible that by deserving it
she might avoid it! At first, during these solemn wearisome weeks,
she would tell herself that because her aunt had condemned her,
not therefore need she feel assured that she was condemned of her
heavenly Father. S