tercession with his Majesty. Her
hasty action made withdrawal impossible, but the humiliation which she
had experienced through her was so hard to conquer that she could
scarcely bring herself to feel grateful for a gift which, in itself, was
certainly worthy of appreciation.

In fact, from that time the marquise entirely changed her manner, and
instead of flattering her ward as before, she treated her with haughty
coldness, and sometimes remarked that poverty and hostility were often
easier to bear than intrusive kindness and humiliating gifts.

Hitherto Barbara had placed no one under obligation to be grateful, and
therefore the ugliness of ingratitude was unknown to her.

Now she was to become acquainted with it.

At first this disappointment wounded her, but soon the marquise's
intention of ridding herself, by this conduct, of a heavy debt became
apparent, and she opposed to the base cunning a gay defence, but was then
forced to encounter the marquise's condemnation of it as the outgrowth of
an ungenerous soul.

How unpleasant this was! Yet she kept what she had done for the old
aristocrat and the way in which she had requited it a secret, even from
Frau Lerch, especially as the Emperor soon alluded to his denial of her
entreaty, and gave a description of young Leria which filled her with
horror, and led to the conviction that the sacrifice which she had made
for him and his little daughter had been utterly futile.

Little Babette, she also heard, was cared for in the best possible
manner, having been withdrawn front her father's influence long before
and placed in charge of an estimable, wealthy, and aristocratic aunt, her
mother's sister, who filled the latter's place.

This act of charity had been utterly spoiled for the overhasty giver,
and, while the glad remembrance of the pure delight which she had felt
after her generous resolve faded more and more, she began to be uneasy
about her reckless transaction with the Nuremberg goldsmith, for the
Emperor during his very next visit had asked about the star, and in her
confusion she had again been forced into a falsehood, and tried to excuse
herself for so rarely wearing his beautiful present by the pretext that
the gold pin which fastened it was bent.

She could have inflicted various punishments upon herself for her
precipitate yielding to a hastily awakened sympathy, for it would surely
anger the Emperor if he learned how carelessly she had treated his fir