spered warmly: "You are right. What we have to say
to each other requires a more fitting time and a different place, and we
will find them."

Then he stepped back, drew himself up to his full height, waved his
hand to her with gracious condescension, and in a loud, imperious tone
commanded Appenzelder to begin the Benedictio.

"It rests with the lovely artist yonder," he added, glancing kindly
at Barbara, "whether she will now ennoble with her wonderful voice the
singing of the boy choir. Later she will probably allow us to hear
the closing melody of the 'Ecce tu pulchra es', which, with such good
reason, delighted the Queen of Hungary, and myself no less."

He seated himself at the table as he spoke, and devoted himself to the
dishes offered him so eagerly that it was difficult to believe in the
deep, yearning emotion that ruled him. Only the marquise at his side and
Malfalconnet, who had joined the attendant nobles, perceived that he ate
more rapidly than usual, and paid no attention to the preparation of the
viands.

The aged eyes, of the Emperor's watchful companion, to whom up to
the close of the repast he addressed only a few scattered words, also
detected something else. Rarely, but nevertheless several times, the
Emperor glanced at the boy choir, and when, in doing so, his Majesty's
eyes met the singer's, it was done in a way which proved to the
marquise, who had acquired profound experience at the French court,
that an understanding existed between the sovereign and the artist which
could scarcely date from that day. This circumstance must be considered,
and behind the narrow, wrinkled brow of the old woman, whose cradle had
stood in a ducal palace, thronged a succession of thoughts and plans
precisely similar to those which had filled the mind of the dressmaker
and ex-maid ere she gave Barbara her farewell kiss.

What the marquise at first had merely conjectured and put together
from various signs, became, by constant assiduous observation, complete
certainty when the singer, after a tolerably long pause, joined in
Josquin's hymn to the Virgin.

In the Benedictio Mensae she remained silent, but at the first effective
passage joined in the singing of the boys.

Not until the 'Tu pulchra es' did she display the full power of her art.

From the commencement she took part in the execution of this magnificent
composition eagerly and with deep feeling, and when the closing bars
began and the magic of her si