The very next afternoon she moved into Wolf's house. Sister Hyacinthe
was obliged to return to her convent, so no one accompanied her except
Frau Lamperi. She had become attached to Barbara, and therefore remained
in her service instead of returning to the Queen of Hungary. True, she
had not determined to do so until her mistress had promised to remain
only a few weeks in Ratisbon at the utmost, and then move to Brussels,
where she longed to be.

Ratisbon was no home for the Emperor's former favourite. Life in her
native city would have been one long chain of humiliations, now that she
had nothing to offer her fellow-citizens except the satisfaction of a
curiosity which was not always benevolent.

But where should she go, if not to the country where her child's father
lived, where, she had reason enough to believe, the infant would be
concealed, and where she might hope to see again and again at a distance
the man to whom hate united her no less firmly than love?

This prospect offered her the greatest attraction, and yet she desired
nothing, nothing more from him except to be permitted to watch his
destiny. It promised to be no happy one, but this fact robbed the wish
of no charm.

Besides, the desire for a richer life again began to stir within her
soul, and what sustenance for the eye and ear Gombert, Frau Traut, and
now also Lamperi promised her in Brussels!

Her means would enable her to go there with the maid and live in a quiet
way. If her father forgave her and would join her in the city, she would
rejoice. But he was bound to Ratisbon by so many ties, and had so many