"By accident," she replied. "Sleeping or waking that violet wax has exercised a fascination over me. Yesterday, attracted by an indefinable impulse, I stole into the bedchamber. Conjecturing that the panel might be a movable one, I began to search for the spring. Fortune favored my endeavors; I discovered the hidden corridor, but did not venture within. To-day when I heard you relate the story of Ginevra, I thought it would be a piece of fun to hide behind the panel and get you to search for me. While standing there in concealment the impulse came upon me to go forward and explore. I ascended the two staircases, and entered the upper room by a panel which I found open. Till that moment curiosity had been my only feeling, but as soon as I entered the gray twilight of that room I found myself trembling; the place seemed like a haunted chamber. And yet frightened though I was I could not retreat. Some strange power drew me on to the centre of the apartment, and there I stood looking around for--I know not what. I could hear your far-off cries, but I hesitated to answer lest the sound of my voice should call forth something terrible from this silent chamber. "Then suddenly the sight of a lady's portrait hanging on the wall impelled me forward and almost made me forget my fears. The portrait was so like me that at first I thought it must be mine, but I know it cannot be." "Why not?" asked Paul. "Because I have never sat to an artist, and, moreover, the lady is wearing a dress such as I have never worn. She carries a sceptre in her hand and on her head is a diadem. Who ever saw me with sceptre and diadem? No; the portrait is not mine. Whose can it be? Do you know, Lambro?" The old Palicar shook his head, but Paul felt that little reliance could be placed on his denial. "In a distant corner," continued Barbara, "was another portrait, less easy to examine since it hung in the shadows. As I was moving forward a sudden gleam illumined the dusky chamber, bringing every line of the portrait into clear relief. I recognized the face of my enemy, Cardinal Ravenna; he seemed to be smiling at me with wicked satisfaction. Such fear and trembling took hold of me that I fainted." "And that is all you have seen?" said Lambro, with evident relief, a feeling in which Jacintha seemed to share. "What else was there to see, then?" asked Paul, fixing a significant look on the Palicar, who remained mute to the question. "And this place, you say, belongs to Cardinal Ravenna?" said Barbara. "I must leave to-morrow." "Oh! my lady, so soon?" cried Jacintha sorrowfully, for she had become very fond of Barbara. "If the cardinal should appear he will take me back to the convent." "By whose authority?" asked Paul, hotly. "He is my guardian." "That may be, but he shall not restore you to the convent against your will. You have not taken the vows of a nun?" "No. I was placed in the convent to be educated merely." "And you do not wish to return?"