claimed his entire time and strength so rigidly and urgently that he
would have been compelled to refuse Barbara's demands upon his love or
neglect serious duties.

Besides, a meeting between Barbara and his nephew and young nieces could
scarcely have been avoided, and this would have cast a shadow upon
the unbounded reverence and admiration paid him by the wholly
inexperienced, childlike young archduchesses, which afforded him sincere
pleasure. The confessor had taken care to bring this vividly before his
mind. While speaking of Barbara with sympathizing compassion, he
represented her illness as a fresh token of the divine favour which
Heaven so often showed to the Emperor Charles, and laid special stress
upon the disadvantages which the longer duration of this love affair--
though in itself, pardonable, nay, even beneficial--would have entailed.

Queen Mary's boy choir was to remain in Ratisbon some time longer, and
whenever the monarch attended their performances--which was almost daily-
the longing for Barbara awoke with fresh strength. Even in the midst of
the most arduous labour he considered the question how it might be
possible to keep her near him--not, it is true, as his favourite, but as
a singer, and his inventive brain hit upon a successful expedient.

By raising her father to a higher rank, he might probably have had her
received by his sister Mary among her ladies in waiting, but then there
would always have been an unwelcome temptation existing. If, on the
other hand, Barbara would decide to take the veil, an arrangement could
easily be made for him to hear her often, and her singing might then
marvellously beautify the old age, so full of suffering and destitute of
pleasure, that awaited him. He realized more and more distinctly that it
was less her rare beauty than the spell of her voice and of her art which