His wife! Oh, yes, she would be his wife,--if it were possible. Even
now, in the moment of her agony, there came to her a vague idea that
she might do him some service if she were his wife, because she had
property of her own. She was ready to acknowledge to herself that her
duty to him was stronger than her duty to that woman below who had
been so cruel to her. She would be his wife, if it were possible,
even though he should drag her through the mud of poverty and through
the gutters of tribulation. Could she walk down to her aunt's
presence this moment his real wife, she would do so, and bear all
that could be said to her. Could this be so, that storm which had
been bitter with brimstone from the lowest pit, would at once become
sweet with the air of heaven. But how could this be? She knew that it
could not be. Marriage was a thing difficult to be done, hedged in
with all manner of impediments, hardly to be reached at all by such
a one as her, unless it might be such a marriage as that proposed to
her with Peter Steinmarc. For girls with sweet, loving parents, for
the Fanny Heisses of the world, marriage might be made easy. It was
all very well for Ludovic Valcarm to ask her to be his wife; but in
asking he must have known that she could not if she would; and yet
the sound of the word was sweet to her. If it might be so, even yet
she would not be a castaway.

But she did not answer his question. Struggling hard to speak, she
muttered some prayer to him that he would leave her. "Say that you
love me," demanded Ludovic. The demand was only whispered, but the
words came hot into her ears.

"I do love you," she replied.

"Then you will go with me."

"No, no! It is impossible."

"They will make you take that man for your husband."

"They shall never do that;--never,--never." In making this assertion,
Linda found strength to extricate herself from her lover's arms and
to stand alone.

"And how shall I come to you again?" said Ludovic.

"You must not come again. You should not have come now. I would not
have been here had I thought it possible you would have come."

"But, Linda--" and then he went on to show to her how very
unsatisfactory a courtship theirs would be, if, now that they were
together, nothing could be arranged as to their future meeting. It
soon became clear to Linda that Ludovic knew everything that was
going on in the house, and had learned it all from Tetchen. Tetchen
at this moment was quite a