[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
entire meal of them. D.W.]





BARBARA BLOMBERG

By Georg Ebers

Volume 3.



CHAPTER XII.

During the singing in the chapel on the fast day Barbara had waited
vainly for a word of appreciation from the Emperor. The Queen of Hungary
had gone to the chase, and the monarch had remained in his apartments,
while she had done her best below. A few lords and ladies of the court,
several priests, knights, and pages had been the only listeners.

This had sorely irritated her easily wounded sensitiveness, but she had
appeared at the rehearsal in the New Scales on the following morning.
Again she reaped lavish praise, but several times she met Appenzelder's
well-founded criticisms with opposition.

The radiant cheerfulness which, the day before yesterday, had invested