e ground. Picking it up, he introduced his suit, after a brief
explanation, by reading aloud the lines which he had composed in Brussels
to accompany his gifts to her.

It was an easy task, for he had painted rather than written his poetic
homage, with beautiful ornaments on the initial letters, and in the most
careful red and black Gothic characters, which looked like print. So,
with a vivacity of intonation which harmonized with the extravagance of
the poetry, he began:

"Queen of my heart wert thou in days of old,
Beloved maid, in childhood's garb so plain;
I bring thee velvet now, and silk and gold
Though I am but a poor and simple swain
That in robes worthy of thee may be seen
My sovereign, of all thy sex the queen."

Barbara nodded pleasantly to him, saying: "Very pretty. Perhaps you might
arrange your little verse in a duo, but how you must have taxed your
imagination, you poor fellow, to transform the flighty good-for-nothing
whom you left five years ago into a brilliant queen!"

"Because, even at that time," he ardently exclaimed. "I had placed you on
the throne of my heart, because the bud already promised--Yet no! In
those days I could not suspect that it would unfold into so marvellous a
rose. You stand before me now more glorious than I beheld you in the most
radiant of all my dreams, and therefore the longing to possess you, which
I could never relinquish, will make me appear almost insolently bold. But
it must be risked, and if you will fulfil the most ardent desire of a
faithful heart--"

"Gently, my little Wolf, gently," she interposed soothingly. "If I am
right, you mounted our narrow stairs to seek a wife and, when my father
returns, you will ask for my hand."

"That I will," the young knight declared with eager positiveness. "Your
'Yes' or 'No,' Wawerl, is to me the decree of Fate, to which even the
gods submit without opposition."

"Indeed?" she answered, uttering the word slowly, with downcast eyes.
Then suddenly drawing herself to her full height, she added with a graver
manner than he had ever seen her wear: "It is fortunate that I have
learned the stories of the gods which are so popular in the Netherlands.
If any one else should come to me with such pretences, I would scarcely
believe that he had honest intentions. You are in earnest, Wolf, and wish
to make me your wife. But 'Yes' and 'No' can not be spoken as quickly as
you probably imagi