garcia and commit the education of
Geronimo to his wife, that he may find him what he expects and desires."

Here he paused, and Barbara inquired uneasily, "And did he say nothing
of Geronimo's mother--of me?"

Wolf shook his head with silent compassion, and then reluctantly
admitted: "I ventured to mention you, but, with one of those looks which
no one can resist--you know them--he ordered me to be silent."

Barbara's cheeks flamed with resentment and shame, but she only said,
smiling bitterly: "Grief is grief, and this new sorrow does not change
the old one. He knows best that I am something more than the poor
officer's wife in the Saint-Gory quarter; but I look down, with just
pride, on all the others who believe me to be nothing else. Now
and always, even long after I am dead, the world will be obliged to
recognise the claim which elevates me far above the throng: I am the
mother of an Emperor's son!"

She had uttered these words with uplifted head; but Wolf gazed in
wondering admiration into the beautiful face, radiant with proud
self-satisfaction.

He wished to leave her with this image before his soul, and therefore
hurriedly extended his hand and said farewell, after promising to fulfil
her entreaty never to come to Brussels without showing by a visit that
he remembered her.

CHAPTER XIV.

Pyramus Kogel, on his return, saw nothing of the deep impression
which Wolf's visit had made upon Barbara. She merely mentioned it, and
carelessly said that the friend of her youth had been delighted with the
children.

The news that reached her ears about what was happening in the world
awakened her interest, it is true, but she took no trouble to ask for
tidings. When, the following year, her husband informed her that the
Emperor's only son was about to conclude a second marriage, with Mary
Tudor, of England, and Charles was to commit to Philip the sovereignty
of the Netherlands, Spain, Naples, and Milan, she received it as if she
had already known it.

What she learned through the neighbours of the increasing number of
executions of obdurate heretics she deemed the wise measures of a devout
and conscientious government.

To the children Barbara was a careful mother. She rarely went to visit
the Dubois couple. Frau Traut either could not or was not allowed to
tell her anything about her child, except that he was thriving under the
maternal care of Dona Magdalena, to whom he had been confided.

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