‘I shall go straight to Mouraki to-morrow morning,’ said I, ‘and tell him you have agreed to be my wife; that you will come with me under the care of Kortes and his sister, and that we shall be married on the first opportunity.’
‘But he knows about—about the lady you love.’
‘It won’t surprise Mouraki to hear that I am going to break my faith with—the lady I love,’ said I.
‘No,’ said Phroso, refusing resolutely to look at me again. ‘It won’t surprise Mouraki.’
‘Perhaps it wouldn’t surprise any one.’
Phroso made no comment on this; and the moment I had said it I heard a voice below, a voice I knew very well.
‘What’s the ladder here for, my friend?’ it asked.
‘It enables one to ascend or descend, my lord,’ answered Kortes’s grave voice, without the least touch of irony.
‘It’s Mouraki,’ whispered Phroso; at the time of danger her frightened eyes came back to mine, and she drew nearer to me. ‘It’s Mouraki, my lord.’
‘I know it is,’ said I; ‘so much the better.’