Part 5 (2/2)
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.”
”Mind I have not blamed you. It is a great shame to give a girl an old lover like Peter Steinmarc, and ask her to marry him. I wouldn't have married Peter Steinmarc for all the uncles and all the aunts in creation; nor yet for father,--though father would never have thought of such a thing. I think a girl should choose a lover for herself, though how she is to do so if she is to be kept moping at home always, I cannot tell. If I were treated as you are I think I should ask somebody to jump over the river to me.”
”I have asked n.o.body. But, f.a.n.n.y, how did you know it?”
”A little bird saw him.”
”But, f.a.n.n.y, do tell me.”
”Max saw him get across the river with his own eyes.” Max Bogen was the happy man who on the morrow was to make f.a.n.n.y Heisse his wife.
”Heavens and earth!”
”But, Linda, you need not be afraid of Max. Of all men in the world he is the very last to tell tales.”
”f.a.n.n.y, if ever you whisper a word of this to any one, I will never speak to you again.”
”Of course, I shall not whisper it.”
”I cannot explain to you all about it,--how it would ruin me. I think I should kill myself outright if my aunt were to know it; and yet I did nothing wrong. I would not encourage a man to come to me in that way for all the world; but I could not help his coming. I got myself into the kitchen; but when I found that he was in the house I thought it would be better to open the door and speak to him.”
”Very much better. I would have slapped his face. A lover should know when to come and when to stay away.”
”I was ashamed to think that I did not dare to speak to him, and so I opened the door. I was very angry with him.”
”But still, perhaps, you like him,--just a little; is not that true, Linda?”
”I do not know; but this I know, I do not want ever to see him again.”
”Come, Linda; never is a long time.”
”Let it be ever so long, what I say is true.”
”The worst of Ludovic is that he is a ne'er-do-well. He spends more money than he earns, and he is one of those wild spirits who are always making up some plan of politics--who live with one foot inside the State prison, as it were. I like a lover to be gay, and all that; but it is not well to have one's young man carried off and locked up by the burgomasters. But, Linda, do not be unhappy. Be sure that I shall not tell; and as for Max Bogen, his tongue is not his own. I should like to hear him say a word about such a thing when I tell him to be silent.”
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