The hours were too few for John.  He served her as the crusader served his chosen lady.  The spirit of the old knights of chivalry that had descended upon him still held him in a spell that he did not wish to break.  Often she mocked at him and laughed at him, and then he liked her all the better.  No placid, submissive woman, shrinking before the dangers, would have pleased him.  In her light laughter and her banter, even at his expense, he read a noble courage and a lofty soul, and in their singular isolation it was given to him to see her spirit, so strong and yet so rarely sweet in a manner that the circumstances of ordinary life could never have brought forth.  And the faithful Suzanne, still in her double role of servant and guardian, served and guarded them both.

John at this time began to feel a more forgiving spirit toward Auersperg.  It might well be that this man of middle years, so thoroughly surrounded by old, dead things that he had never seen the world as it really was, had been bewitched.  A sort of moon madness had made him commit his extraordinary deed, and John could view it with increasing tolerance because he had been bewitched himself.

He made another and more extended survey of their stores and confirmed his first opinion that the lodge was furnished in full princely style.  They need not lack for any of the comforts, nor for many luxuries, no matter how long they remained.

On the morning of the third day the storm ceased and they looked out upon a white, shining world of snow, lofty and impressive, peaks and ridges outlined sharply against a steel-blue sky.  John had found a pair of powerful glasses in the lodge and with them he was now able to make out Zillenstein quite clearly.  Clothed in snow, a castle all in white, it was nevertheless more menacing than ever.

John believed that Muller would surely come, and many and many a time he thought over the problem how to deal with him.  But the new, windless day passed and there was no sign of the forester.  John himself went forth, breaking paths here and there through the snow, but he discovered nothing.  He began to believe that Muller had been forced to take shelter at the start of the storm and could not now return.  His hope that it was so strong that his mind turned it into a fact, and Muller disappeared from his thoughts.

The garage, besides the great automobile, contained a smaller one, but John kept the limousine in mind.  He intended when the time came to escape in it with the two women, if possible.  There might be a road leading down the other side of the mountain, and toward Italy.  If so, he would surely try to get through when the melting of the snow permitted.

Meanwhile he devoted himself with uncommon zest to household duties.  He cleared new paths about the lodge, moved in much of the wood where it would be more convenient for Suzanne, cleaned and polished the guns and revolvers in the little armory, inspected the limousine and put it in perfect order, and did everything else that he could think of to make their mountain castle luxurious and defensible.