"I waited for you so long—so long, Peter—and the supper is all spoiled—a rabbit, Peter—you liked rabbit, and—and oh, God! I want you—don't you hear me, Peter—I want you—want you!" and now her cheek was pressed to mine, and her lips were upon my hair, and upon my brow—her lips! Was this indeed Charmian, and was I Peter Vibart? Ah, if I could but know what it was her heart was trying to tell me, so quickly and passionately! And while I lay listening, listening, something hot splashed down upon my cheek, and then another, and another; her bosom heaved tumultuously, and instinctively, raising my arms, I clasped them about her. "Don't!" I said, and my voice was a whisper; "don't, Charmian!" For a moment her clasp tightened about me, she was all tenderness and clinging warmth; then I heard a sudden gasp, her arms loosened and fell away, and so I presently raised my head, and, supporting myself upon my hand, looked at her. And then I saw that her cheeks were burning. "Peter." "Yes, Charmian?" "Did you—" She paused, plucking nervously at the grass, and looking away from me. "Well, Charmian?" "Did you—hear—" Again she broke off, and still her head was averted. "I heard your voice calling to me from a great way off, and so—I came, Charmian." "Were you conscious when—when I—found you?" "No," I answered; "I was lying in a very deep, black, pit." Here she looked at me again. "I—I thought you—were—dead, Peter." "My soul was out of my body—until you recalled it." "You were lying upon your back, by the hedge here, and—oh, Peter! your face was white and shining in the moonlight—and there was—blood upon it, and you looked like one that is—dead!" and she shivered. "And you have brought me back to life," said I, rising; but, being upon my feet, I staggered giddily, to hide which, I laughed, and leaned against a tree. "Indeed," said I, "I am very much alive still, and monstrously hungry—you spoke of a rabbit, I think—" "A rabbit!" said Charmian in a whisper, and as I met her eye I would have given much to have recalled that thoughtless speech. "I—I think you did mention a rabbit," said I, floundering deeper. "So, then—you deceived me, you lay there and deceived me—with your eyes shut, and your ears open, taking advantage of my pity—" "No, no—indeed, no—I thought myself still dreaming; it—it all seemed so unreal, so—so beyond all belief and possibility and—" I stopped, aghast at my crass folly, for, with a cry, she sprang to her feet, and hid her face in her hands, while I stood dumbfounded, like the fool I was. When she looked up, her eyes seemed to, scorch me. "And I thought Mr. Vibart a man of honor—like a knight of his old-time romances, high and chivalrous—oh! I thought him a—gentleman!"