"Oh! and what was his mother's maiden name?" Linda continues her examination.
"She was a Countess Böhl."
"Why does he associate so little with people, and is so sad?--because of his past?"
Linda's eyes sparkle and shine, and capricious little dimples play about the corners of her mouth.
"What do you know of his past?" bursts out mamma.
"Oh, nothing; but I should so like to know something about it--it is not proper, eh?"
"He had at one time a liaison, hm--hm--was deceived"--murmurs Mrs. Harfink--"never got over it."
"Ah!--but it seems so--for--in a word, if all does not deceive me, he will come to-morrow to ask for my hand."
Without leaving her arm-chair, her little feet dance a merry polka of triumph on the floor.
"And do you love him?"