"O-o-oh!" she murmured slowly. "The world seems wholly strange to me
after my long illness. I must first collect my thoughts, and that is now
utterly impossible. To-morrow, Wolf! Won't you come to-morrow? Then I
shall know better what is before me. Thanks, cordial thanks, and if
tomorrow I deny myself to every one else, I will admit you."

After Wolf had gone, Barbara gazed fixedly into vacancy. What did the
aspiring young musician seek with a nobleman's wife in a lonely Spanish
castle? Were his wings broken, too, and did he desire only seclusion and
quiet?

But the anxiety which dominated her mind prevented her pursuing the same
thought longer. Dr. Mathys had promised to tell her the result of his
conversation with the Emperor as soon as possible, and yet he had not
returned.

Fool that she was!

Even on a swift steed he could not have traversed the road back to the
castle if he had been detained only half an hour in the Golden Cross.
It was impatience which made the minutes become quarters of an hour.
She would have liked to go to the cool frigidarium again to watch for
the physician's litter; but she was warned, and had accustomed herself
to follow the doctor's directions as obediently as a dutiful child.
Besides, Sister Hyacinthe no longer left her alone out of doors, and
possessed a reliable representative, who had won Barbara's confidence and
affection, in Frau Lamperi, the garde-robiere, whom the Queen of Hungary
had not yet summoned.