f which Peter Steinmarc
had assented, and at the end of which it was to be settled whether
Linda would renounce Ludovic Valcarm, or Peter himself would renounce
Linda. With a manly propriety he omitted any spoken allusion to the
subject during those smoking visits which he still paid on alternate
days to the parlour of Madame Staubach. But, though he said nothing,
his looks and features and the motions of his limbs were eloquent
of his importance and his dignity during this period of waiting.
He would salute Madame Staubach when he entered the chamber with a
majesty of demeanour which he had not before affected, and would say
a few words on subjects of public interest--such as the weather, the
price of butter, and the adulteration of the city beer--in false
notes, in tones which did not belong to him, and which in truth
disgusted Madame Staubach, who was sincere in all things. But Madame
Staubach, though she was disgusted, did not change her mind or
abandon her purpose. Linda was to be made to marry Peter Steinmarc,
not because he was a pleasant man, but because such a discipline
would be for the good of her soul. Madame Staubach therefore
listened, and said little or nothing; and when Peter on a certain
Thursday evening remarked as he was leaving the parlour that the week
would be over on the following morning, and that he would do himself
the honour of asking for the fraulein's decision on his return from
the town-hall at five P.M. on the morrow, apologising at the same
time for the fact that he would then be driven to intrude on an
irregular day, Madame Staubach merely answered by an assenting motion
of her head, and by the utterance of her usual benison, "God in
His mercy be with you, Peter Steinmarc." "And with you too, Madame
Staubach." Then Peter marched forth with great dignity, holding his
pipe as high as his shoulder.

Linda Tressel had kept her bed during nearly the whole week, and had
in truth been very ill. Hitherto it had been her aunt's scheme of
life to intermit in some slight degree the acerbity of her usual
demeanour in periods of illness. At such times she would be very
constant with the reading of good books by the bedside and with much
ghostly advice to the sufferer, but she would not take it amiss if
the patient succumbed to sleep while she was thus employed, believing
sleep to be pardonable at such times of bodily weakness, and perhaps
salutary; and she would be softer in her general manner, and