When the archduchess had asked for the mother of the little chorister
with the heavenly voice, the choir-master had told her what touched her
much about the widowed Magdalis and her two children; and old Ursula
and the master between them contrived that Mother Magdalis should be at
the banquet, hidden behind the tapestry.

And when Gottlieb came close to the great lady, robed in white, with
blue feathery wings, to represent a little angel, and sang her the
Easter greeting, she bent down and folded him in her arms, and kissed
him.

And then once more she asked for his mother, and, to Gottlieb's
surprise and her own, the mother was led forward, and knelt before the
archduchess.

Then the beautiful lady beamed on the mother and the child, and, taking
a chain and jewel from her neck, she clasped it round the boy's neck,
and said, in musical German with a foreign accent:

"Remember, this is not so much a gift as a token and sign that I will
not forget thee and thy mother, and that I look to see thee and hear
thee again, and to be thy friend."

And as she smiled on him, the whole banqueting-hall--indeed, the whole
world--seemed illuminated to the child.

And he said to his mother as they went home:

"Mother, surely God has sent us an angel at last. But, even for the