a dozen times during the night linda had remembered that her old friend fanny heisse, now the wife of max bogen, lived at augsburg, and as she remembered it, she had asked herself what she would do were she to meet fanny in the streets. would fanny condescend to speak to her, or would fanny's husband allow his wife to hold any communion with such a castaway? how might she dare to hope that her old friend would do other than shun her, or, at the very least, scorn her, and pass her as a thing unseen? and yet, through all the days of their life, there had been in linda's world a supposition that linda was the good young woman, and that fanny heisse was, if not a castaway, one who had made the frivolities of the world so dear to her that she could be accounted as little better than a castaway. linda's conclusion, as she thought of all this, had been, that it would be better that she should keep out of the way of the wife of an honest man who knew her. all fellowship hereafter with the wives and daughters of honest men must be denied to her. she had felt this very strongly when she had first seen herself in the dawn of the morning.
but now there had fallen upon her a trouble of another kind, which almost crushed her,—in which she was not as yet able to see that, by god's mercy, salvation from utter ruin might yet be extended to her. what should she do now,—now, at this moment? the black bear, to which her lover had directed her, was so spoken of that she did not dare to ask to be directed thither. when a compassionate railway porter pressed her to say whither she would go, she could only totter to a seat against the wall, and there lay herself down and sob. she had no friends, she said; no home; no protector except him who had just been carried away to prison. the porter asked her whether the man were her husband, and then again she was nearly choked with sobs. even the manner of the porter was changed to her when he perceived that she was not the wife of him who had been her companion. he handed her over to an old woman who looked after the station, and the old woman at last learned from linda the fact that the wife of max bogen the lawyer had once been her friend. about two hours after that she was seated with max bogen himself, in a small close carriage, and was being taken home to the lawyer's house. max bogen asked her hardly a question. he only said that fanny would be so glad to have her;—fanny, he said, was so soft, so good, and so clever, and so wise, and always knew exactly what ought to be done. linda heard it all, marvelling in her dumb half-consciousness. this was the fanny heisse of whom her aunt had so often told her that one so given to the vanities of the world could never come to any good!
max bogen handed linda over to his wife, and then disappeared. "oh, linda, what is it? why are you here? dear linda." and then her old friend kissed her, and within half an hour the whole story had been told.
"do you mean that she eloped with him from her aunt's house in the middle of the night?" asked max, as soon as he was alone with his wife. "of course she did," said fanny; "and so would i, had i been treated as she has been. it has all been the fault of that wicked old saint, her aunt." then they put their heads together as to the steps that must be taken. fanny proposed that a letter should be at once sent to madame staubach, explaining plainly that linda had run away from her marriage with steinmarc, and stating that for the present she was safe and comfortable with her old friend. it could hardly be said that linda assented to this, because she accepted all that was done for her as a child might accept it. but she knelt upon the floor with her head upon her friend's lap, kissing fanny's hands, and striving to murmur thanks. oh, if they would leave her there for three days, so that she might recover something of her strength! "they shall leave you for three weeks, linda," said the other. "madame staubach is not the emperor, that she is to have her own way in everything. and as for peter—"
"pray, don't talk of him;—pray, do not," said linda, shuddering.
but all this comfort was at an end about seven o'clock on that evening. the second train in the day from nuremberg was due at augsburg at six, and max bogen, though he said nothing on the subject to linda, had thought it probable that some messenger from the former town might arrive in quest of linda by that train. at seven there came another little carriage up to the door, and before her name could be announced, madame staubach was standing in fanny bogen's parlour. "oh, my child!" she said. "oh, my child, may god in his mercy forgive my child!" linda cowered in a corner of the sofa and did not speak.
"she hasn't done anything in the least wrong," said fanny; "nothing on earth. you were going to make her marry a man she hated, and so she came away. if father had done the same to me, i wouldn't have stayed an hour." linda still cowered on the sofa, and was still speechless.
madame staubach, when she heard this defence of her niece, was hardly pushed to know in what way it was her duty to answer it. it would be very expedient, of course, that some story should be told for linda which might save her from the ill report of all the world,—that some excuse should be made which might now, instantly, remove from linda's name the blight which would make her otherwise to be a thing scorned, defamed, useless, and hideous; but the truth was the truth, and even to save her child from infamy madame staubach would not listen to a lie without refuting it. the punishment of linda's infamy had been deserved, and it was right that it should be endured. hereafter, as facts came to disclose themselves, it would be for peter steinmarc to say whether he would take such a woman for his wife; but whether he took her or whether he rejected her, it could not be well that linda should be screened by a lie from any part of the punishment which she had deserved. let her go seven times seven through the fire, if by such suffering there might yet be a chance for her poor desolate half-withered soul.
"done nothing wrong, fanny heisse!" said madame staubach, who, in spite of her great fatigue, was still standing in the middle of the room. "do you say so, who have become the wife of an honest god-fearing man?"
but fanny was determined that she would not be put down in her own house by madame staubach. "it doesn't matter whose wife i am," she said, "and i am sure max will say the same as i do. she hasn't done anything wrong. she made up her mind to come away because she wouldn't marry peter steinmarc. she came here in company with her own young man, as i used to come with max. and as soon as she got here she sent word up to us, and here she is. if there's anything very wicked in that, i'm not religious enough to understand it. but i tell you what i can understand, madame staubach,—there is nothing on earth so horribly wicked as trying to make a girl marry a man whom she loathes, and hates, and detests, and abominates. there, madame staubach; that's what i've got to say; and now i hope you'll stop and have supper with max and linda and me."
linda felt herself to be blushing in the darkness of her corner as she heard this excuse for her conduct. no; she had not made the journey to augsburg with ludovic in such fashion as fanny had, perhaps more than once, travelled the same route with her present husband. fanny had not come by night, without her father's knowledge, had not escaped out of a window; nor had fanny come with any such purpose as had been hers. there was no salve to her conscience in all this, though she felt very grateful to her friend, who was fighting her battle for her.
"it is not right that i should argue the matter with you," said madame staubach, with some touch of true dignity. "alas, i know that which i know. perhaps you will allow me to say a word in privacy to this unfortunate child."
but max bogen had not paid his wife a false compliment for cleverness. she perceived at once that the longer this interview between the aunt and her niece could be delayed,—the longer that it could be delayed, now that they were in each other's company,—the lighter would be the storm on linda's head when it did come. "after supper, madame staubach; linda wants her supper; don't you, my pet?" linda answered nothing. she could not even look up, so as to meet the glance of her aunt's eyes. but fanny bogen succeeded in arranging things after her own fashion. she would not leave the room, though in sooth her presence at the preparation of the supper might have been useful. it came to be understood that madame staubach was to sleep at the lawyer's house, and great changes were made in order that the aunt and niece might not be put in the same room. early in the morning they were to return together to nuremberg, and then linda's short hour of comfort would be over.
she had hardly as yet spoken a word to her aunt when fanny left them in the carriage together. "there were three or four others there," said fanny to her husband, "and she won't have much said to her before she gets home."
"but when she is at home!" fanny only shrugged her shoulders. "the truth is, you know," said max, "that it was not at all the proper sort of thing to do!"
"and who does the proper sort of thing?"
"you do, my dear."
"and wouldn't you have run away with me if father had wanted me to marry some nasty old fellow who cares for nothing but his pipe and his beer? if you hadn't, i'd never have spoken to you again."
"all the same," said max, "it won't do her any good."
the journey home to nuremberg was made almost in silence, and things had been so managed by fanny's craft that when the two women entered the red house hardly a word between them had been spoken as to the affairs of the previous day. tetchen, as she saw them enter, cast a guilty glance on her young mistress, but said not a word. linda herself, with a veil over her face which she had borrowed from her friend fanny, hurried up-stairs towards her own room. "go into my chamber, linda," said madame staubach, who followed her. linda did as she was bid, went in, and stood by the side of her aunt's bed. "kneel down with me, linda, and let us pray that the great gift of repentance may be given to us," said madame staubach. then linda knelt down, and hid her face upon the counterpane.
all her sins were recapitulated to her during that prayer. the whole heinousness of the thing which she had done was given in its full details, and the details were repeated more than once. it was acknowledged in that prayer that though god's grace might 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.
