usin. Yolanda herself once told me--I believe she has also
told you--that she has the honor to resemble the princess."

I did not wish to lie to Max, and you will note that I did not say the
princess was not Yolanda. Still, I wished him to remain ignorant upon
the important question until Yolanda should see fit to enlighten him. I
was not sure of her motive in maintaining the alias, though I was
certain it was more than a mere whim. How great it was I could not know.
Should she persist in it I would help her up to the point of telling Max
a downright falsehood. There I would stop.

We spent two evenings at Castleman's, but did not see Yolanda. On the
first evening, after an hour of listlessness, Max hesitatingly asked:--

"Where is Yo--that is, the princess has not been here this evening."

"The princess!" exclaimed Frau Kate. "No, she has not been here this
evening--nor the duke, nor the king of France. No titled person, Sir
Count, save yourself, has honored us to-day. Our poor roof shelters
few such."

"I mean Yolanda," said Max. Good-natured Frau Kate laughed softly, and
Twonette said, with smiling serenity:--

"Yolanda's head will surely be turned, Sir Count, when she hears you
have called her the princess. So much greatness thrust upon her will
make it impossible for us to live with her."

"She rules us all as it is, sweet soul," said Castleman.

"Yolanda is ill upstairs, Sir Count," said Frau Kate. "She wanted to
come down this evening, but I commanded otherwise. Twonette, go to her.
She will be lonely."

Twonette rose, courtesied, and departed. This splendid bit of acting
almost made me doubt that Yolanda was the princess, and it shook Max's
conviction to its very foundation.

I wish to warn you that the deception practised upon Max by Yolanda will
seem almost impossible, except on the hypothesis that Max was a very
simple fellow. But the elaborate scheme designed and executed by this
girl, with the help of the Castlemans and myself,--all of whom Max had
no reason to distrust,--would have deceived any man. Max, though simple
and confiding where he trusted,--judging others' good faith by his
own,--was shrewd for his years, and this plan of Yolanda's had to be
faultless, as it really was, to mislead him.

On the morning of the fourth day after the trial by combat, Yolanda made
her appearance at Castleman's, looking pale and large-eyed. Max and I
had walked down to the House under the Wall before going t