The Testing of Baldos

For the first time since she came to the castle, she felt a sense of
loneliness, a certain unhappiness. She could not shake off the feeling
that she was, after all, alone in her belief in Baldos. Her heart told
her that the tall, straightforward fellow she had met in the hills was
as honest as the day. She was deceiving him, she realized, but he was
misleading no one. Off in a distant part of the castle ground she could
see the long square shadow that marked the location of the barracks and
messroom. There he was sleeping, confidently believing in her and her
power to save him from all harm. Something in her soul cried out to him
that she would be staunch and true, and that he might sleep without a
tremor of apprehensiveness.

Suddenly she smiled nervously and drew back into the shadow of the
pillar. It occurred to her that he might be looking across the moon-lit
park, looking directly at her through all that shadowy distance. She was
conscious of a strange glow in her cheeks and a quickening of the blood
as she pulled the folds of her gown across her bare throat.

"Not the moon, nor the stars, nor the light in St. Valentine's, but the
black thing away off there on the earth," said a soft voice behind her,
and Beverly started as if the supernatural had approached her. She
turned to face the princess, who stood almost at her side.

"Yetive! How did you get here?"