It seemed to her as if the bright sun had suddenly burst in its full,
dazzling radiance from midnight darkness. Three swift steps took her to
Don John and, no longer able to control herself, she seized one of the
hands which he had extended to her to kiss it; but his chivalrous nature
forbade him to permit this, and at the same moment he had obeyed the
impulse to kiss the face upturned to his with such loving tenderness.

On the way she had pondered long over the question how she should address
him; but now she knew that she need not call him "Your Excellency," far
less "Your Highness." To impose so severe a constraint upon her poor,
poor heart was no longer required and, though interrupted by low sobbing,
she again cried with all the fervour of the most tender maternal love:
"My son! My dear, dear child!"

Then suddenly the words she had vainly sought came voluntarily, and in
fluent speech she told him how her heart had so long consumed itself with
yearning for him, and that she had now left everything behind to obey his
summons; and he thanked her with eager warmth by raising the hand which
clasped his to his lips.

What he desired of her would be hard for her to do, but now that he knew
her it was far harder to ask. Yet it must be done, because upon this
might perhaps depend the great hopes which he fixed upon the future, and
which would atone for what had so cruelly embittered and poisoned the
past.

Barbara gazed more intently into the noble face whose blooming youthful
beauty had just delighted her, and in doing so perceived far more
distinctly the sorrowful, anxious expression which she had formerly