reak the silence to which she had bound herself if
she did not confess to her where Massi was taking her boy. She would
neither seek him nor strive to get possession of him, but if she could
not imagine where and with what people he was living, she would die of
longing. She would have allowed herself to be abused and trodden under
foot in silence, but she would not suffer herself to be deprived of the
last remnant of her maternal rights.

Here Adrian himself entered the room; but Barbara was by no means calmed
by his appearance, and with a fresh outburst of wrath shrieked to his
face that he might choose whether he would confide to her, the mother,
where his master was taking the child or see her rush from here to the
market place and call out to the people what she had promised, for the
boy's sake, to hold secret.

The valet saw that she would keep her word and, to prevent greater
mischief, he informed her that the violinist Massi was commissioned to
take her son to Spain to rear him in his wife's native place until his
Majesty should alter his plans concerning him.

This news produced a great change in the tortured mother. With
affectionate, repentant courtesy, she thanked the Dubois couple and, when
Frau Traut saw that she was trying to rearrange her hair and dress, she
helped her, and in doing so one woman confessed to the other what she had
lost in the child.

Adrian's yielding had pleased Barbara. Besides, during the years of her
intercourse with Massi she had heard many things about his
residence--nay, every member of his household--and therefore she could
now form a picture of his future life.

So she had grown quieter, though by no means perfectly calm.

Her husband, who must have already returned from his journey, and had not
found her at home, would scarcely receive her pleasantly, but she cared
little for that if only he had not been anxious about her, and in his joy
at seeing her again did not clasp her tenderly in his arms. That would
have been unbearable to-day. She would have liked it best if Massi would
really have taken her with him as her child's nurse to Leganes, his
residence. Thereby she would have reached the place where she thought she
belonged--by the side of the child, in whom she beheld everything that
still rendered her life worth living.

Nevertheless, on her way home she thought with maternal anxiety of her
two boys; but the nearer she approached the unassuming quarter of the
city w