"Diana—are you there—my Diana?"
Silence, and a sudden, sickening dread, a growing fear, insomuch that I made shift to climb the ladder and, lifting heavy hand, rapped upon the trap door:
"Diana—O Diana—are you there?"
An inarticulate cry, and next moment the trap door was lifted, revealing a square of vivid light, and in this radiant glory—Diana's face.
"Diana," said I, wiping the blood from my eyes the better to behold her loveliness, "Diana—when will you—marry me?"
"O Peregrine—oh, my beloved!"
And down to me she reached her strong and gentle arms to draw me up from the darkness into the glory of her presence.
CHAPTER IV
I WAIT FOR A CONFESSION
"O Peregrine! My dear—how they have hurt you!"