hrough the open door which leads from his Majesty's
work-room into the garden, and what did the Virgin permit me to
behold?--Geronimo, who was alone with the Emperor, picked up a sheet of
paper that had fluttered to the ground and handed it to him. Then the
Emperor Charles suddenly raised his poor hands oh, how they are
disfigured by the gout!--laid them on the boy's temples, drew his head
nearer, and kissed his brow and eyes! Charles V, the fugitive from the
world, the man crushed by sorrow and disappointment, did that! This
kiss--Don Luis believes it also--sealed the son's acceptance into his
father's heart."

Here Frau Traut let the sheet fall. Her voice had failed during the last
sentences; now she exclaimed amid her tears, "The Emperor's kiss!" and
her husband, no less deeply stirred by emotion, cried, "The Emperor
Charles--no one knows as well as I what that means--the Emperor Charles,
whose heart compels him to kiss some one."

Here Barbara rose with flushed cheeks, panting for breath.

She felt as if she must cry aloud to these good people: "What do you know
about my lover's kiss? I, I alone, not you, you poor, good man, could
tell you. Insignificant and wretched as I may be, no woman on earth can
boast of prouder memories, and now that he has also kissed his child and
mine, everything is forgiven him."

Silently, with hurrying breath, she stood before the agitated couple, who
were waiting for some remark, some outburst of gratitude and delight; but
there was only a quivering of the lips, and her blue eyes flashed with a
fiery light.

What was the matter with her?

Frau Train turned anxiously to her husband to ask, in a whisper, whether
joy had turned the poor young mother's brain; but Barbara had already
recovered her composure, and, passing her hand quickly across her brow,
murmured softly, "It came over me too strongly."

Then she thanked them with earnest warmth; yet when Frau Traut praised
Dona Magdalena's heavenly goodness, she nodded assent, it is true; but
she soon took her leave--she felt paralyzed and dazzled.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Before learning to obey, he was permitted to command
Grief is grief, and this new sorrow does not change the old one
To the child death is only slumber

BARBARA BLOMBERG

By Georg Ebers

Volume 10.

CHAPTER XVI.

On the way home Barbara often pressed her left hand with her right to
assure herself that she was not dre