He was still far from any solution of that problem when a sound of voices recalled him to more immediate things. Two figures mounting the steps of the terrace had to him the appearance of two black human silhouettes that were being slowly pushed up out of the ground. Their outline defined them for women, even before he made out their voices to be feminine. He wondered would one of them be the gracious and beautiful lady who had given him sanctuary, a lady whose like hitherto he had seen only painted on canvas above altars and in mural frescoes, the existence of whose living earthly counterparts had been to him a matter of some subconscious doubt. At the height of the bridge, so tremulously reflected in silver on the black water below, the ladies paused, speaking the while in subdued voices. Then they came down the nearer steps and vanished into the temple, whence presently one of them emerged upon that narrow, shallow promontory, calling softly, and very vaguely: 'Olà! Olà! Messer! Messer!' He recognised the voice, and recognising it realised that its quality was individual and unforgettable. To the Lady Valeria as she stood there, it seemed that a part of the promontory's clay at her feet heaved itself up amorphously, writhed into human shape, and so resolved itself into the man she sought. She checked a startled outcry, as she understood the nature of this materialisation. 'You will be very wet, sir, and cold.' Her voice was gentle and solicitous, very different from that in which she had addressed her brother's companions and the captain. Bellarion was quite frank. 'As wet as a drowned man, and very nearly as cold.' And he added: 'I would I could be sure I shall not yet be hung up to dry.' The lady laughed softly at his rueful humour. 'Nay, now, we have brought the means to make you dry more comfortably. But it was very rash of you to have entered here without first making sure that you were not observed.' 'I was not observed, madonna. Else be sure I should not have entered.' He caught in the gloom the sound of her breath indrawn with the hiss of sudden apprehension. 'You were not observed? And yet ... Oh, it is just as I was fearing.' And then, more briskly, and before he could reply, 'But come,' she urged him. 'We have brought fresh clothes for you. When you are dry you shall tell me all.'