Blanka gazed in wonder at the mysterious apparition.

She thought she must be dreaming, and that this was but another creation of her own fancy.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the visitor, "an original way to pay a call, isn't it ?--without warning, right through the back wall of your fireplace, and in _neglige_, too! But as you wouldn't visit me, I had to come to you, and this is the readiest communication between our apartments.

You didn't know anything about it, did you?
The back of your fireplace is a secret door.

If you press on the green tile here at the left, the phoenix flies up the chimney, and then if you bear down hard on this one at the right, it returns to its place again.

Do you see ?" As she spoke the white lady stepped on the tile last designated, and straightway the phoenix descended and filled the opening through which she had just made her entrance.
"On the other side," she continued, "is a piece of mechanism which will only work when a secret lock has been opened, and to effect this the bird's eye must first be pushed aside to make room for the key.