The stairway explained to me all the strange occurrences relating to Yolanda’s appearances and disappearances at Castleman’s house, and it will do the same for you.

After we had climbed until I felt that surely we must be among the clouds, I said:—­

“Yolanda, you must be leading me to heaven.”

“I should like to do that, Sir Karl,” she responded, laughing softly.

“I would gladly give my life to lead you and Max to heaven,” said I.

“Ah, Sir Karl,” she answered gently, pressing my hand and caressingly placing her cheek against my arm.  “I dare not even think on that.  If he could and would take me, believing me to be a burgher girl, he would truly lead me to heaven.”

After a pause, while we rested to take a breath, I said:  “What is it you want me to do, Yolanda?  I am unarmed.”

“I shall not ask you to do murder, Sir Karl,” she said, laughing nervously.  I fancied I could see a sparkle of mirth in her eyes as she continued:  “It is not so bad as that.  Neither is there a dragon for you to overthrow.  But I shall soon enlighten you—­here we are at the top of the steps.”

At the moment she spoke I collided with a heavy oak partition, in which Yolanda quickly found a moving panel, and we entered a dimly lighted room.  I noticed among the furniture a gorgeously tapestried bed.  A rich rug, the like of which I had seen in Damascus, covered the floor.  The stone walls were draped with silk tapestry, and a jewelled lamp was pendant from the vaulted ceiling.  This was Yolanda’s bedroom, and truly it was a resting-place worthy of the richest princess in Christendom.  I felt that I was in the holy of holies.  I found difficulty in believing that the childlike Yolanda could be so important a personage in the politics of Europe.  She seemed almost to belong to me, so much at that time did she lean on my strength.

Out of her sleeping apartment she led me to another and a larger room, lighted by broad windows cut through the inner wall of the castle, which at that point was not more than three or four feet thick.  This was Yolanda’s parlor.  The floor, like that of the bedroom, was covered with a Damascus rug.  The windows were closed by glass of crystal purity, and the furniture was richer than any I had seen in the emperor’s palace.

Yolanda led me to a table, pointed to a chair for me, and drew up one for herself.  At that moment a lady entered, whom Yolanda ran to meet.  The princess took the lady’s hand and led her to me:—­

“Sir Karl, this is my mother.  As you already know, she is my stepmother, but I forget that in the love I bear her, and in the sweet love she gives to me.”

I bent my knee before the duchess, who gave me her hand to kiss, saying:—­

“The princess has often spoken to me of you, Sir Karl.  I see she has crept into your heart.  She wins all who know her.”

“My devotion to Her Highness is self-evident and needs no avowal,” I answered, “but I take pleasure in declaring it.  I am ready to aid her at whatever cost.”