nly under the influence of strong,
deep feelings, distinctly betrayed how sincerely he lamented her
conduct.

Barbara noticed it, and instantly remembered what Wolf had told her
about him and his wife. She did not think of the influence which he
exercised upon the Emperor and the service which he might render her,
but all the more vividly of his steadfast, devoted loyalty, and what he
was and had accomplished for the man whom she loved, and, seized with
sincere repentance, obeying a powerful impulse, she held out her hand
with frank cordiality just as he was already bowing in farewell. Adrian
hesitated a moment.

What did this mean?

What accident was causing this new change of feeling in this April day
of a girl?

But when her sparkling blue eyes gazed at him so brightly and at the
same time so plainly showed that she knew she had wronged him, he
clasped the hand, and his face again wore a friendly expression.

Then Barbara laughed in her bewitching, bell-like tones and, like a
naughty child begging forgiveness for a trivial fault, asked him gaily
not to take offence at her foolish arrogance. All the new things here
had somewhat turned her silly brain. She knew how faithfully he served
her Charles, and for that reason she could not help liking him already.

"If you have any cause to find fault with me," she concluded merrily,
"out with it honestly." Then addressing Frau Lerch, not as though she
were speaking to a servant, but to an older friend, she asked her
to leave her alone with Herr Adrian a short time; but she insisted
positively on having her own way when the dressmaker remarked that she
did not know why, after the greatest secret of all had been forced upon
her, her discretion should be distrusted.

As soon as she had retired the valet entreated Barbara to beware of the
advice of this woman, whose designs he saw perfectly. He, Adrian,
would wish her to have a companion of nobler nature and more delicate
perceptions.

But this warning seemed scarcely endurable to Barbara. Although she did
not fly into a passion again, she asked in an irritated tone whether
Adrian had been granted the power of looking into another's soul. What
she perceived with absolute certainty in Frau Lerch, who, as her dead
mother's maid, had tended her as a child, was great faithfulness and
secrecy and the most skilful hands. Still, she promised to remember his
well-meant counsel.

Adrian's warning always to consider what a posi