"Ah! But this grotto," he tried to speak as lightly as she, "we have found together!"
"Together!" she reflected, looking away from him. "It is a word we have not often had occasion to use,—you and I."
"Why might we not in the days to come?"
The words were on his lips; he held them back.
Ilaria waited, her hand pressed to her side, her look full of mingled tenderness and dread.
As he kept silence, she sighed, almost, it would seem, with relief.
"I wish to explore the cave," she said suddenly. "Come with me, if you like!"
And with quick steps she started into the darkness.
"Take care! Take care, Lariella!" cried Francesco, unconsciously using the familiar diminutive, forgotten so long ago.
She took no heed and he hurried after her, terror-stricken, he knew not why. She kept in advance, moving swiftly and lightly over the dark uneven ground. For a short distance the dusk deepened, then a sudden light, shining from a crack in the vaulting, revealed in startling contrast a great blackness by the side of which there gleamed something weird, ghost-like.