d in a
form that would be capable of a future and a better life. Instead
therefore of shrinking from cruelty, Madame Staubach was continually
instigating herself to be cruel. She knew that the image of the
town-clerk was one simply disgusting to Linda, and therefore she was
determined to force that image upon her. She knew that the girl's
heart was set upon Ludovic Valcarm with all the warmth of its young
love, and therefore she conceived it to be her duty to prove to the
girl that Ludovic Valcarm was one already given up to Satan and
Satanic agencies. Linda must be taught not only to acknowledge, but
in very fact to understand and perceive, that this world is a vale
of tears, that its paths are sharp to the feet, and that they who
walk through it should walk in mourning and tribulation. What though
her young heart should be broken by the lesson,--be broken after
the fashion in which human hearts are made to suffer? To Madame
Staubach's mind a broken heart and a contrite spirit were pretty
much the same thing. It was good that hearts should be broken, that
all the inner humanities of the living being should be, as it were,
crushed on a wheel and ground into fragments, so that nothing should
be left capable of receiving pleasure from the delights of this
world. Such, according to her theory of life, was the treatment to
which young women should be subjected. The system needed for men
might probably be different. It was necessary that they should go
forth and work; and Madame Staubach conceived it to be possible that
the work of the world could not be adequately done by men who had
been subjected to the crushing process which was requisite for women.
Therefore it was that she admitted Peter Steinmarc to her confidence
as a worthy friend, though Peter was by no means a man enfranchised
from the thralls of the earth. Of young women there was but one
with whom she could herself deal; but in regard to that one Madame
Staubach was resolved that no softness of heart should deter her from
her duty. "Linda," she said, after pausing for a while, "I desire to
know from you what Herr Molk has said to you!" Then there was a short
period of silence. "Linda, did he sanction your love for Ludovic
Valcarm?"

"No," said Linda, sullenly.

"I should think not, indeed! And, Linda, did he bid you be rebellious
in that other matter?"

Linda paused again before she answered; but it was but for a moment,
and then she replied, in the same vo