In spite of the pipes of tobacco, Linda was beginning to hope that she might even yet escape from her double peril, and, perhaps, was beginning to have hope even beyond that, when she was suddenly shaken in her security by words which were spoken to her by Fanny Heisse. "Linda," said Fanny, running over to the gate of Madame Staubach's house, very early on one bright summer morning, "Linda, it is to be to-morrow! And will you not come?" "No, dear; we never go out here: we are so sad and solemn that we know nothing of gaiety." "You need not be solemn unless you like it." "I don't know but what I do like it, Fanny; I have become so used to it that I am as grave as an owl." "That comes of having an old lover, Linda." "I have not got an old lover," said Linda, petulantly. "You have got a young one, at any rate." "What do you mean, Fanny?" "What do I mean? Just what I say. You know very well what I mean. Who was it jumped over the river that Sunday morning, my dear? I know all about it." Then there came across Linda's face a look of extreme pain,--a look of anguish; and Fanny Heisse could see that her friend was greatly moved by what she had said. "You don't suppose that I shall tell any one," she added. "I should not mind anything being told if all could be told," said Linda. "But he did come,--did he not?" Linda merely nodded her head. "Yes; I knew that he came when your aunt was at church, and Tetchen was out, and Herr Steinmarc was out. Is it not a pity that he should be such a ne'er-do-well?" "Do you think that I am a ne'er-do-well, Fanny?" "No indeed; but, Linda, I will tell you what I have always thought about young men. They are very nice, and all that; and when old croaking hunkses have told me that I should have nothing to say to them, I have always answered that I meant to have as much to say to them as possible; but it is like eating good things;--everybody likes eating good things, but one feels ashamed of doing it in secret." This was a terrible blow to poor Linda. "But I don't like doing it," she answered. "It wasn't my fault. I did not bid him come." "One never does bid them to come; I mean not till one has taken up with a fellow as a lover outright. Then you bid them, and sometimes they won't come for your bidding." "I would have given anything in the world to have prevented his doing what he did. I never mean to speak to him again,--if I can help it." "Oh, Linda!" "I suppose you think I expected him, because I stayed at home alone?" "Well,--I did think that possibly you expected something." "I would have gone to church with my aunt though my head was splitting had I thought that Herr Valcarm would have come here while she was away."