Diana raised to her mother her large blue eyes, in which profound amazement could be read.
"It is true," she murmured.
"Your sorrow began at the moment when the strangers, who so nobly aided us, took their leave?"
"Yes," the girl said, in a low voice, with downcast eyes and blushing forehead.
Mrs. Black continued smilingly her interesting interrogatory.
"On seeing them depart, your heart was contracted, your cheeks turned pale, you shuddered involuntarily, and, if I had not held you—I who watched you carefully, poor darling—you would have fallen. Is not all this true?"
"It is true, mother," the girl said, with a more assured voice.
"Good; and the man from whom you regret being separated—he who causes your present sorrow and suffering, is—?"
"Mother!" she exclaimed, throwing herself into her arms, and hiding her shamed face in her bosom.
"It is—?" she continued.