as the Emperor held his court in Ratisbon.

To have fallen under suspicion of heresy would have been the last thing
Barbara expected, and she called it foolish, nay, ridiculous. But, ere
she clasped Wolf's hand in farewell, she promised to show the almoner at
the first opportunity upon how false a trail he had come.




CHAPTER XXII.

When Wolf went back to Erasmus the latter assured his friend that he had
met no maiden in Ratisbon who, to rare gifts, united the dignity which
he had hitherto admired only in the ladies whom he had met at the court
of the Elector of Saxony. His sparkling eyes flashed more brightly as
he spoke, and, like a blushing girl, he confessed to his friend that
Jungfrau Blomberg's promise to sing one of his own compositions to
him made him a happy man.

Barbara's conduct had made the repressed fire of love blaze up anew in
Wolf.

Now, for the first time, the woman he loved fully and entirely fulfilled
the ideal which he had formed of the "queen" of his heart.

Was it the sad separation from him, the taking leave of her father, or
her new love, which was bestowed on a man whom he also esteemed, that
impressed upon her nature the stamp of a nobility which beseemed her as
well as it suited her aristocratic beauty?