aubach.

"Such a one as Ludovic Valcarm would only waste your property and
drag you into the gutters."

"No more--no more," said Madame Staubach.

"She will think better of it, Madame Staubach. She will not be so
foolish nor so wicked as that," said the burgomaster.

"May the Lord in His mercy give her light to see the right way," said
Madame Staubach.

Then Herr Molk took his departure with Madame Staubach at his heels,
and Linda was left to her own considerations. Her first assertion to
herself was that she did not believe a word of it. She knew what sort
of a man she could love as her husband without having Herr Molk to
come and teach her. She could not love Peter Steinmarc, let him be
ever so much respected in Nuremberg. As to what Herr Molk said that
she owed to the city, that was nothing to her. The city did not care
for her, nor she for the city. If they wished to take the house from
her, let them do it. She was quite sure that Ludovic Valcarm had not
loved her because she was the owner of a paltry old house. As to
Ludovic being in prison, the deeper was his dungeon, the more true
it behoved her to be to him. If he were among the rats, she would
willingly be there also. But when she tried to settle in her thoughts
the matter of the young woman with the felt hat and the blue frock,
then her mind became more doubtful.

She knew well enough that Herr Molk was wrong in the picture which
he drew of Peter; but she was not so sure that he was wrong in that
other picture about Ludovic. There was something very grand, that had
gratified her spirit amazingly, in the manner in which her lover had
disappeared among the rafters; but at the same time she acknowledged
to herself that there was much in it that was dangerous. A young man
who can disappear among the rafters so quickly must have had much
experience. She knew that Ludovic was wild,--very wild, and that wild
young men do not make good husbands. To have had his arm once round
her waist was to her almost a joy for ever. But she had nearly come
to believe that if she were to have his arm often round her waist,
she must become a castaway. And then, to be a castaway, sharing her
treasure with another! Who was this blue-frocked woman, with a felt
hat, who seemed to have been willing to do so much more for Ludovic
than she had done,--who had gone with him into danger, and was
sharing with him his perils?

But though she made a great fight against the wisdom of Herr