Yet her blue eyes sparkled as brightly as if her soul no longer had room for pain or sorrow.

After Barbara had made various arrangements with the choir leader, it seemed to her as though the sunny, blissful spring, which her song had just celebrated so exquisitely, had also made its joyous entry into the narrow domain of her life.
On the way home she thanked the friend who accompanied her with the affectionate warmth of the days of her childhood, nay, even more eagerly and tenderly; and when, on reaching the second story of the cantor house, he took leave of her, she kissed his cheek, unasked, calling down the stairs as she ran up: "There is your reward! But, in return, you will accompany me first to the rehearsal with the singing boys, and then--if you had not arranged it yourself you would never believe it--go to the Golden Cross, to the Emperor Charles.".