But Inez herself had a far more difficult part to perform than her sister’s.  Dolores had gone out alone, and no one had watched her beyond the door, and Dolores had eyes, and could easily enough pretend that she could not see.  It was another matter to be blind and to play at seeing, with a clever woman like the Princess at one’s elbow, ready to detect the slightest hesitation.  Besides, though she had got out of the predicament in which it had been necessary to place her, it was quite impossible to foresee what might happen when the Princess discovered that she had been deceived, and that catastrophe must happen sooner or later, and might occur at any moment.  The Princess walked quickly, too, with a gliding, noiseless step that was hard to follow.  Fortunately Inez was expected to keep to the left of a superior like her companion, and was accustomed to taking that side when she went anywhere alone in the palace.  That made it easier, but trouble might come at one of the short flights of steps down and up which they would have to pass to reach the Princess’s apartments.  And then, once there, discovery must come, to a certainty, and then, she knew not what.

She had not run the risk for the sake of being shut up again.  She had got out by a trick in order to help her sister, if she could find her, and in order to be at liberty the first thing necessary was to elude her companion.  To go to the door of her apartments would be fatal, but she had not had time to think what she should do.  She thought now, with all the concentration of her ingenuity.  One chance presented itself to her mind at once.  They most pass the pillar behind which was the concealed entrance to the Moorish gallery above the throne room, and it was not at all likely that Dona Ana should know of its existence, for she never came to that part of the palace, and if Inez lagged a little way behind, before they reached the spot, she could slip noiselessly behind the pillar and disappear.  She could always trust herself not to attract attention when she had to open and shut a door.

The Princess spoke rarely, making little remarks now and then that hardly required an answer, but to which Inez answered in monosyllables, speaking in a low voice through the thick veil she had drawn over her mantle under her hood, on pretence of fearing the cold.  She thought it a little safer to speak aloud in that way, lest her companion should wonder at her total silence.

She knew exactly where she was, for she touched each corner as she passed, and counted her steps between one well-known point and the next, and she allowed the Princess to gain a little as they neared the last turning before reaching the place where she meant to make the attempt.  She hoped in this way, by walking quite noiselessly, and then stopping suddenly just before she reached the pillar, to gain half a dozen paces, and the Princess would take three more before she stopped also.  Inez had noticed that most people take at least three steps before they stop, if any one calls them suddenly when they are walking fast.  It seems to need as much to balance the body when its speed is checked.  She noticed everything that could be heard.