Besides, it will please the marquise's vanity."

His eyes sparkled with youthful fire as he gave these orders. When the
ambassadors were already on the threshold, he called after them:

"Wherever she may be, however late it may become, you will bring her.
And," he added eagerly, as the others with reverential bows were
retiring, "and don't forget, I do not command--I entreat her."

When he was alone, Charles drew a long breath, and, resting his head on
his hand, his thoughts returned to the past. Half-vanished pictures
unconsciously blended with the present, which had so unexpectedly assumed
a bright colouring.

"Barbara," he murmured, almost inaudibly. Then he continued in
soliloquy: "The beautiful Jungfrau Groen in Brussels was also called
Barbara, and she was the first. Another of this name, and perhaps the
last. How can this ardent yearning take root in my seared soul and grow
so vigorously?"

Meanwhile he fancied that the "Quia amore langueo" again greeted him
yearningly in the sweet melody of her voice.

"How powerfully the ear affects the heart!" he continued, pursuing the
same train of thought. "Slender, well-rounded, golden-haired. If she
should really resemble the Brussels Barbara! Malfalconnet is a
connoisseur. Perhaps, after these gloomy days and years, a semblance of
sunlight may return. It is long enough since politics and war have
granted me even the slightest refreshment of the heart. And yet,
methinks Heaven might feel under obligation to do something for the man