ht disturb her; she
wished to think only of the worthy execution of her task, and the shorter
time she kept the Emperor waiting the less she need fear having an
ill-humoured listener.

So she hurriedly ejaculated a few words of gratitude to the old attendant
and seized the kerchief for her head, which she had taken to Prufening
with her; but the dressmaker wound around her hair a costly lace veil
which she had ready for a customer.

"The valuable article may be lost," she thought. "But if, sooner or
later, something happens which my lambkin, who thinks only of her sweet
babble, does not dream, it will return to me with interest. Besides, she
must see what maternal affection I feel for her." Then, with tender
caution, she kissed the girl's glowing cheeks, and the blessing with
which she at last dismissed her sounded devout and loving enough.

Wolf had not waited long; it was just striking eleven when Barbara met
him at the door talking with Herr Lerch, the owner of the house.

Before leaving the Grieb, she again glanced into the chapel in the
courtyard dedicated to Saint Dorothea, and uttered a swift though silent
prayer for good success, and that her singing might have a deep influence
upon the august hearer.

Meanwhile she scarcely heeded what her friend was saying, and, while
walking at his side the short distance through a part of Red Cock Street
and across the Haidplatz, he had no words from her lips except the
request that he would tell her father of the great honour awaiting her.

Wolf, too, had imposed silence upon himself; it was necessary for the
singer, on the eve of this important performance, to refrain from talking
in the night air.

CHAPTER XV.

Baron Malfalconnet possessed the gift of lending Time wings and using the
simplest incident as the foundation for an entertaining story.

He knew that his Majesty did not like waiting, and the quarter of an hour
which Barbara had mentioned might easily become a longer period. So he
adorned the description of his ride as an envoy most generously with many
partially invented details. Wolf, Herr Peter Schlumperger, Frau
Kastenmayr, his estimable sister, and the party of Ratisbon
excursionists, upon whom he had scarcely bestowed a passing glance, all
played a large and by no means enviable part.

But he gained his object, for the impatient monarch listened gladly, and
all the more willingly in proportion to the more brilliant eloquence with
which the