ght effect
absolute pardon in the world to come, such a deed as that which had
been done by this young woman was beyond the pale of pardon in this
world. And the Giver of all mercy was specially asked so to make
things clear to that poor sinful creature, that she might not be
deluded into any idea that the thing which she had done could be
justified. She was told in that prayer that she was impure, vile,
unclean, and infamous. And yet she probably did not suffer from the
prayer half so much as she would have suffered had the same things
been said to her face to face across the table. And she recognised
the truth of the prayer, and she was thankful that no allusion was
made in it to Peter Steinmarc, and she endeavoured to acknowledge
that her conduct was that which her aunt represented it to be in
her strong language. When the prayer was over Madame Staubach stood
before Linda for a while, and put her two hands on the girl's arms,
and lightly kissed her brow. "Linda," she said, "with the Lord
nothing is impossible; with the Lord it is never too late; with the
Lord the punishment need never be unto death!" Linda, though she
could utter no articulate word, acknowledged to herself that her aunt
had been good to her, and almost forgot the evil things that her aunt
had worked for her.

CHAPTER XIII

Linda Tressel, before she had gone to bed on that night which she
had passed at Augsburg, had written a short note which was to be
delivered, if such delivery should be possible, to Ludovic Valcarm.
The condition of her lover had, of course, been an added trouble to
those which were more especially her own. During the last three or
four hours which she had passed with him in the train her tenderness
for him had been numbed by her own sufferings, and she had allowed
herself for a while to think that he was not sufficiently alive to
the great sacrifice she was making on his behalf. But when he was
removed from her, and had been taken, as she well knew, to the prison
of the city, something of the softness of her love returned to her,
and she tried to persuade herself that she owed to him that duty
which a wife would owe. When she spoke to Fanny on the subject, she
declared that even if it were possible to her she would not go back
to Ludovic. "I see it differently now," she said; "and I see how bad
it is." But, still,--though she declared that she was very firm in
that resolve,--she did not like to be carried back to her o