r to remain
behind, and also refused the service of the little Maltese, who--oh, how
gladly!--would have acted as a page and carried her train.

As the shipwrecked man on a plank amid the endless surges longs for land,
Barbara longed to get away, far away from the noise of the festival. Yet
she dreaded the solitude which she was approaching, for she now perceived
how foolishly she had acted, and with what sinful recklessness she had
perhaps forfeited the happiness of her life on this luckless evening.

But need she idly wait for the doom to which she was condemned? He whose
bright eyes could beam on her so radiantly had just wounded her with
angry glances, like a foe or a stern judge, and his indignation had not
been groundless.

What had life to offer her without his love? The wantonly bold venture
had been baffled. Yet no! All was not yet lost!

Suppose she should summon courage to steal back to him and on her knees
repentantly beseech him to forgive her?

But she cherished this desire only a few moments. Then the angry, wronged
heart rebelled against such humiliation. She had not so shame fully
offended the Emperor, but the lover, and it was his place to entreat her
not to withdraw the love which made him happy.

The young girl raised her head with fresh courage. What had happened more
than she had expected?

Because he loved her, he had become jealous, and made her feel his anger.
But if she should now persistently withdraw from him, and let him realize
how deeply he had offended her, she could not fail to win the game. In
spite of all his crowns and kingdoms, he was only a man, and must not
she, who in a few brief hours had forced a Maurice of Saxony to sue
yearningly for her love, succeed by the might of her art and her beauty
in transforming the wrath of the far older man, Charles, into his former
passion?

If the Italian novels with which she was familiar did not lie, not only
jealousy, but apparent indifference on the part of the beloved object,
fanned the heart of man to burst into fresh flames.

It was only necessary to hold her impetuous temper in check, and profit
by the jealousy which had now been aroused in Charles's mind. Hitherto
she had always obeyed hasty impulses. Why should not she, too, succeed in
accomplishing a well-considered plan? With the torturing emotions of
failure, mortification, desertion, remorse, and yearning for forgiveness,
now blended the hope of yet bringing to a successfu