boy's sake, to hold secret.

The valet saw that she would keep her word and, to prevent greater
mischief, he informed her that the violinist Massi was commissioned to
take her son to Spain to rear him in his wife's native place until his
Majesty should alter his plans concerning him.

This news produced a great change in the tortured mother. With
affectionate, repentant courtesy, she thanked the Dubois couple and,
when Frau Traut saw that she was trying to rearrange her hair and dress,
she helped her, and in doing so one woman confessed to the other what she
had lost in the child.

Adrian's yielding had pleased Barbara. Besides, during the years of her
intercourse with Massi she had heard many things about his residence--
nay, every member of his household--and therefore she could now form a
picture of his future life.

So she had grown quieter, though by no means perfectly calm.

Her husband, who must have already returned from his journey, and had not
found her at home, would scarcely receive her pleasantly, but she cared
little for that if only he had not been anxious about her, and in his joy
at seeing her again did not clasp her tenderly in his arms. That would
have been unbearable to-day. She would have liked it best if Massi would
really have taken her with him as her child's nurse to Leganes, his
residence. Thereby she would have reached the place where she thought
she belonged--by the side of the child, in whom she beheld everything
that still rendered her life worth living.