"I speak but the fantasy that sometimes fills my mind. I verily believe even now, if thou wouldst hear reason and mate thyself with Roger, that Hugh might be brought back again as from the dead." "Thou dost believe he yet lives?" "Marry, how can I tell? I know no more than thyself. But men put not their heads within a noose for small cause. Were I in thy place, I would see if I could not save my lover, even though I might never wed him." "Thinkest thou that he would reckon life a boon had I been false to him?" spoke Linda, in very low tones. Lotta's hard laugh rang out mockingly. "Thou vain and foolish child! thinkest thou that there is a man upon earth who would not choose life rather than love? Thinkest thou that thou art the only maiden in the city worth the wooing? Go to for a veritable fool an thou dost! Let him but taste the sweets of liberty again, and I trow that he would console himself for thy desertion, and that right quickly;" and Lotta flashed a meaning glance at her own reflection in a small mirror of burnished brass that hung against the wall. Linda shivered again. She read her sister's meaning all too well. Yet what would she not be willing to do to win liberty for her lover, were he indeed alive? "If thou wouldst but tell me what thou dost know!" she said again. Lotta threw herself along the couch beside the window, and looked down into the street below. It was plain that she was excited and disquieted, but Linda had no clue to her thoughts. "I know naught," she repeated; "but I have my thoughts. That something is afoot I cannot doubt. Hast seen how strange Tito is of late--how little he is at home after dark--how he and Roger consort more and more together? Something is hatching between them; what its nature is I know not. But I have my thoughts--I have my suspicions. And is not Tito ever on at thee that thou shouldst forget Hugh and wed with Roger? And doth he not tell me to urge the same upon thee, and throw out strange hints that the sooner this be done the sooner some other good will follow? I verily believe that hadst thou the spirit or the heart of a mouse, thou couldst save him whom thou dost profess thou lovest. But if thou wilt not make sacrifice for him--well, such love is not worth the having! I would cast it from me with scorn!" Linda buried her face in her hands and sobbed. She was bewildered and distressed above measure by Lotta's words. If indeed Hugh were living, what would she not do to obtain his release from the power of the evil men who had captured him? but to pay the price asked of her for this! Oh, it was almost more than she could bear to think of! And yet might it not be her duty--that duty she owed to him whom she loved more than life? She was in a grievous state of doubt and dismay, and upon the first opportunity she sought counsel of her friend Joanna Seaton, who had been her confidante throughout.