This seemed to her like a sign from heaven, and, before knocking at Frau
Lerch's door, she glided into the sanctuary, threw herself upon her knees
before the image of the saint, and besought her to bestow the most
melting sweetness and the deepest influence upon her voice while singing
before his Majesty.

Then it seemed as though the face of the kindly saint smiled assent, and
in hurried words Barbara added that the great monarch was also the most
thorough connoisseur, and the altar here should lack neither candles nor
flowers if she would bestow upon her the power to win his approval.
While speaking, she raised her clasped hands toward the Virgin's image,
and concluded her fervent prayer with the passionate exclamation: "Oh,
hear me, hear me, thou inexhaustible fountain of mercy, for if I do not
fulfil what he expected when he entreated me to sing before him, and I
see that he lets me go disappointed, the peace of this heart will be
destroyed! Hear, oh, hear me, august Queen of Heaven!"

Relieved and strengthened, she at last sprang up, and a few minutes after
Frau Lerch, with loud exclamations of admiration, was combing her long,
thick, waving locks of fair hair.

Overflowing with delight at such beauty, the thin little woman then
helped her "darling Wawerl," her "wonderfully sweet nightingale," to
change her dress.

Wolf's gift, the velvet robe with the marten border, would have been too
heavy and oppressive for singing, and, besides, was not yet finished.
Barbara, she declared, had done right to choose the white one, which was
intended for the next dance at the New Scales. Nothing could be more
becoming to her enchanting little princess, and Barbara yielded herself