ot stand too
far below him in aristocratic dignity.

She succeeded in this admirably during the conversation on music and
singing which she carried on with Erasmus.

When she at last desired to return home, Wolf accompanied her up the
stairs, informed her of his conversation with the confessor, and at the
same time warned her against incautious visits to the Hiltners so long as
the Emperor held his court in Ratisbon.

To have fallen under suspicion of heresy would have been the last thing
Barbara expected, and she called it foolish, nay, ridiculous. But, ere
she clasped Wolf's hand in farewell, she promised to show the almoner at
the first opportunity upon how false a trail he had come.

CHAPTER XXII.

When Wolf went back to Erasmus the latter assured his friend that he had
met no maiden in Ratisbon who, to rare gifts, united the dignity which he
had hitherto admired only in the ladies whom he had met at the court of
the Elector of Saxony. His sparkling eyes flashed more brightly as he
spoke, and, like a blushing girl, he confessed to his friend that
Jungfrau Blomberg's promise to sing one of his own compositions to him
made him a happy man.

Barbara's conduct had made the repressed fire of love blaze up anew in
Wolf.

Now, for the first time, the woman he loved fully and entirely fulfilled
the ideal which he had formed of the "queen" of his heart.

Was it the sad separation from him, the taking leave of her father, or
her new love, which was bestowed on a man whom he also esteemed, that
impressed upon her nature the stamp of a nobility which beseemed her as
well as it suited her aristocratic beauty?

Never had it appeared to him so utterly impossible that he could yield
her to another without resistance. Perhaps the man chosen by such a jewel
was more worthy than he, but no one's love could surpass his in strength
and fervour. She had tested it, and he need no longer call himself an
insignificant suitor; for, if he gained possession of the living which
Don Luis had ready for him, if he obtained a high position in
Valladolid--But his friend gave him no time to pursue such thoughts
further, for, while Barbara shortly after midnight stole down the stairs
like a criminal, and Quijada conducted her to her imperial lover, Erasmus
began to press him with demands which he was obliged to reject.

The Wittenberg master of arts, ever since his first meeting with his
friend, had been on the point of asking the qu