,
which filled her with mingled anxiety and joy. If he were regent, every
service which she rendered the party would benefit him personally.

Yet it was not perfectly easy for her to accept Rassingham's invitation.

Nothing could be more desirable and flattering than to obtain admittance
to this house, from which all foreign and doubtful elements were
excluded with special care, but she would be obliged to remain there
until late at night, and this was difficult to reconcile with certain
duties she had undertaken.

Her old music teacher, Feys, to whom she was so much indebted, had been
attacked by slow fever, and she had received him in her house five days
ago, and provided with loving devotion for his nursing. The bachelor of
seventy had been so ill cared for in his lonely, uncomfortable home that
her kind heart had urged her to take charge of him.

She had left him only a few hours since he had been under her roof, and
if the banquet at the Rassinghams, after the deliberations, lasted until
a very late hour, she would, for the sake of her invalid guest, great as
was the sacrifice, attend only the former.

Yet she was pleased at the thought of sharing this festal assembly, and
she, her companion, and Lamperi all went into ecstasies over the dress
she intended to wear, which had just arrived from Brussels.

Maestro Feys passed a restless night, and Barbara watched beside his
couch for hours. In the morning she allowed herself a little sleep, but
she was obliged at noon to dress for the assembly, which was to begin
before sunset.

She had just sat down to have her hair arranged, which occupied a long
time, when one of the pages handed her a letter brought by a mounted
courier.

She opened it curiously, and while reading it her cheeks paled and
flushed as in the days of her youth. Then it dropped into her lap,
and for a moment she remained motionless, with closed eyes, as though
stupefied.

Then, rising quickly, she again read the violet-scented missive, written
on the finest parchment.

"Your son," ran the brief contents--"your son, who has so long been
separated from his mother, at last desires to look into her eyes. If the
woman who gave him birth wishes to make him feel new and deep gratitude,
let her hasten at once to Luxemburg, where he has been for several hours
in the deepest privacy. The weal and woe of his life are at stake."

The letter, written in the German language, was signed "John of
Austria.