the Nuremberg artist had thanked Barbara for the pleasure which he owed
her. In doing so, he had noticed the Emperor's first gift, the
magnificent star which she wore on her breast at the side of her
squarenecked dress. Examining it with the eye of an expert, he had
remarked that the central stone alone was worth an estate.

If she deprived herself of this superb ornament, the despairing old
mother would be consoled, and the lovely child saved from hunger and
disgrace.

With Barbara, thought, resolve, and action followed one another in rapid
succession.

"You shall have what you need to-morrow," she called to the marquise,
kissed--obeying a hasty impulse--her little namesake's picture, rejected
any expression of thanks from the astonished old dame, and went to rest.

Frau Lerch had never seen her so radiant with happiness, yet she was
irritated by the reserve of the girl for whom she thought she had
sacrificed so much, yet whose new garments had already brought her
more profit than the earnings of the three previous years.

The next morning Master Jamnitzer called the valuable star his own, and
pledged himself to keep the matter secret, and to obtain from the Fuggers
a bill of exchange upon Paris for ten thousand lire.

The honest man sent her through the Haller banking house a thousand
ducats, that he might not be open to the reproach of having defrauded
her.