speak. "If you become my wife,
Linda, I will do my best to make you always happy."

"I shall never become your wife, never--never--never."

"Do not speak so decidedly as that, Linda."

"I must speak decidedly. I do speak decidedly. I can't speak any
other way. You know very well, Herr Steinmarc, that you oughtn't to
ask me. It is very wrong of you, and very wicked."

"Why is it wrong, Linda? Why is it wicked?"

"If you want to get married, you should marry some one as old as
yourself."

"No, Linda, that is not so. It is always thought becoming that the
man should be older than the wife."

"But you are three times as old as I am, and that is not becoming."
This was cruel on Linda's part, and her words also were untrue. Linda
would be twenty-one at her next birthday, whereas Herr Steinmarc had
not yet reached his fifty-second birthday.

Herr Steinmarc was a man who had a temper of his own, and who was a
little touchy on the score of age. Linda knew that he was touchy on
the score of age, and had exaggerated her statement with the view of
causing pain. It was probably some appreciation of this fact which
caused Herr Steinmarc to continue his solicitations with more of
authority in his voice than he had hitherto used. "I am not three
times as old as you, Linda; but, whatever may be my age, your aunt,
who has the charge of you, thinks that the marriage is a fitting
one. You should remember that you cannot fly in her face without
committing a great sin. I offer to you an honest household and a
respectable position. As Madame Staubach thinks that you should
accept them, you must know that you are wrong to answer me with scorn
and ribaldry."

"I have not answered you with ribaldry. It is not ribaldry to say
that you are an old man."

"You have answered me with scorn."

"I do scorn you, Herr Steinmarc, when you come to me pretending to
make love like a young man, with your Sunday clothes on, and your
hair brushed smooth, and your new shoes. I do scorn you. And you may
go and tell my aunt that I say so, if you like. And as for being an
old man, you are an old man. Old men are very well in their way, I
daresay; but they shouldn't go about making love to young women."

Herr Steinmarc had not hoped to succeed on this his first personal
venture; but he certainly had not expected to be received after
the fashion which Linda had adopted towards him. He had, doubtless,
looked very often into Linda's face, and had listene