t he was not a man so
carried away by anger or by a spirit of revenge as to be altogether
indifferent to his own future happiness. There had already been some
among his fellow-citizens, or perhaps citizenesses, kind enough to
compliment him on his good-nature. He had been asked whether Linda
Tressel had told him all about her little trip to Augsburg, and
whether he intended to ask his cousin Ludovic Valcarm to come to his
wedding. And now Linda herself had said things to him which made him
doubt whether she was fit to be the wife of a man so respectable and
so respected as himself. And were she to do those things which she
threatened, where would he be then? All the town would laugh at him,
and he would be reduced to live for the remainder of his days in the
sole company of Madame Staubach as the result of his enterprise. He
was sufficiently desirous of being revenged on Linda, but he was a
cautious man, and began to think that he might buy even that pleasure
too dear. He had been egged on to the marriage by Herr Molk and one
or two others of the city pundits,--by the very men whose opposition
he had feared when the idea of marrying Linda was first suggested to
him. They had told him that Linda was all right, that the elopement
had been in point of fact nothing. "Young girls will be young before
they are settled," Herr Molk had said. Then the extreme desirability
of the red house had been mentioned, and so Peter had been persuaded.
But now, as the day drew near, and as Linda's words sounded in his
ears, he hardly knew what to think of it. On the evening of the third
day of his contemplation, he went again to his friend Herr Molk.

"Nonsense, Peter," said the magistrate; "you must go on now, and
there is no reason why you should not. Is a man of your standing to
be turned aside by a few idle words from a young girl?"

"But she told me-- You can't understand what she told me. She's been
away with this young fellow once, and she said as much as that she'd
go again."

"Pshaw! you haven't had to do with women as I have, or you would
understand them better. Of course a young girl likes to have her
little romance. But when a girl has been well brought up,--and there
is no better bringing up than what Linda Tressel has had,--marriage
steadies them directly. Think of the position you'll have in the city
when the house belongs to yourself."

Peter, when he left the magistrate, was still tossed about by an
infinity of doubts.