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, salvation3 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 thither4. When a compassionate5 railway porter pressed her to say whither she would go, she could only totter6 to a seat against the wall, and there lay herself down and sob7. 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 sobs8. 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, marvelling9 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 assented10 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 murmur11 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, shuddering12.
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 standing13 in Fanny Bogen's parlour. "Oh, my child!" she said. "Oh, my child, may God in His mercy forgive my child!" Linda cowered14 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 expedient15, 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 blight16 which would make her otherwise to be a thing scorned, defamed, useless, and hideous17; but the truth was the truth, and even to save her child from infamy18 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 desolate19 half-withered soul.
"Done nothing wrong, Fanny Heisse!" said Madame Staubach, who, in spite of her great fatigue20, 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 determined21 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 loathes22, and hates, and detests23, and abominates24. 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. "Alas25, 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 lighter26 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 shrugged27 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 chamber28, 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 repentance29 may be given to us," said Madame Staubach. Then Linda knelt down, and hid her face upon the counterpane.
All her sins were recapitulated30 to her during that prayer. The whole heinousness31 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 specially32 asked so to make things clear to that poor sinful creature, that she might not be deluded33 into any idea that the thing which she had done could be justified34. She was told in that prayer that she was impure35, vile36, unclean, and infamous37. 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 allusion38 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.
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1
condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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2
shun
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| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
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3
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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4
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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6
totter
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| v.蹒跚， 摇摇欲坠；n.蹒跚的步子 | |
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7
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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8
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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9
marvelling
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 ) | |
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10
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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12
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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13
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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14
cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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15
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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16
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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17
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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18
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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19
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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20
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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21
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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22
loathes
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的第三人称单数 )；极不喜欢 | |
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23
detests
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24
abominates
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| v.憎恶，厌恶，不喜欢( abominate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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25
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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26
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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27
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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29
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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30
recapitulated
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| v.总结，扼要重述( recapitulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
heinousness
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32
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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33
deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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35
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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36
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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37
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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38
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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