im had made that quite
impossible;--that by what they had done they had both put themselves
beyond the pale of such gentle mercy. Such evil had come to her from
her secret interviews with this man who had become her lover almost
without her own acquiescence, that she dreaded him even though she
loved him. The remembrance of the night she had passed with him,
partly in the warehouse and partly in the railway train, had nothing
in it of the sweetness of love, to make her thoughts of it acceptable
to her. This girl was so pure at heart, was by her own feelings so
prone to virtue, that she looked back upon what she had done with
abhorrence. Whether she had sinned or not, she hated what she had
done as though it had been sinful; and now, when she was told that
Ludovic Valcarm was again in the house, she recoiled from the idea of
meeting him. On the former occasions of his coming to her, a choice
had hardly been allowed to her whether she would see him or not. He
had been with her before she had had time to fly from him. Now she
had a moment for thought,--a moment in which she could ask herself
whether it would be good for her to place herself again in his hands.
She said that it would not be good, and she walked steadily down to
her aunt's parlour. "Aunt Charlotte," she said, "Ludovic Valcarm is
in the house."

"In this house,--again!" exclaimed Madame Staubach. Linda, having
made her statement, said not a word further. Though she had felt
herself compelled to turn informant against her lover, and by
implication against Tetchen, her lover's accomplice, nevertheless she
despised herself for what she was doing. She did not expect to soften
her aunt by her conduct, or in any way to mitigate the rigour of her
own sufferings. Her clandestine meetings with Ludovic had brought
with them so much of pain and shame, that she had resolved almost by
instinct to avoid another. But having taken this step to avoid it,
she had nothing further to say or to do. "Where is the young man?"
demanded Madame Staubach.

"Tetchen says that he is here, in the house," said Linda. Then Madame
Staubach left the parlour, and crossed into the kitchen. There,
standing close to the stove and warming himself, she found this
terrible youth who had worked her so much trouble. It seemed to
Madame Staubach that for months past she had been hearing of his
having been constantly in and about the house, entering where he
would and when he would, and in all those