om, baron, and, for ought I care, serve with all twenty
courses and a dessert. Old Marquise de Leria will remain here. She will
occupy Queen Mary's seat at my side. On account of the singer, I mean.
Besides, it will please the marquise's vanity."

His eyes sparkled with youthful fire as he gave these orders. When the
ambassadors were already on the threshold, he called after them:

"Wherever she may be, however late it may become, you will bring her.
And," he added eagerly, as the others with reverential bows were
retiring, "and don't forget, I do not command--I entreat her."

When he was alone, Charles drew a long breath, and, resting his head on
his hand, his thoughts returned to the past. Half-vanished pictures
unconsciously blended with the present, which had so unexpectedly assumed
a bright colouring.

"Barbara," he murmured, almost inaudibly. Then he continued in soliloquy:
"The beautiful Jungfrau Groen in Brussels was also called Barbara, and
she was the first. Another of this name, and perhaps the last. How can
this ardent yearning take root in my seared soul and grow so vigorously?"

Meanwhile he fancied that the "Quia amore langueo" again greeted him
yearningly in the sweet melody of her voice.

"How powerfully the ear affects the heart!" he continued, pursuing the
same train of thought. "Slender, well-rounded, golden-haired. If she
should really resemble the Brussels Barbara! Malfalconnet is a
connoisseur. Perhaps, after these gloomy days and years, a semblance of
sunlight may return. It is long enough since politics and war have
granted me even the slightest refreshment of the heart. And yet, methinks
Heaven might feel under obligation to do something for the man who has
made it his life-task to hold its enemies in check."

He rose quickly as he spoke, and, while moving forward to ring the little
bell whose peal summoned the valet, not the slightest trace of the gouty
pain in his foot was perceptible.

Adrian saw with joyful surprise that his master approached without a
crutch the door through which he had come, and the faithful servant
expressed his astonishment in terms as eager as his position permitted.

On reaching his sleeping-room, the Emperor interrupted him. He wished to
be dressed for dinner.

Master Adrian would not believe his own ears. He was to bring one of the
new reception robes, and yet to-day not even the Queen of Hungary was to
share his Majesty's repast. One of the costliest new