“So you have come!” he said. “I am such a sceptic that at this last moment I doubted whether you would!” She looked at him steadfastly, but answered nothing. “You are brave--you are magnificent!” he went on, his voice sinking to a lower tone--“But, Diana--I want you to say one thing before I enter on this final task--and that is--‘I forgive you!’” “I will say it if you like,” she answered. “But why should I? I have nothing to forgive!” “Ah, you will not see,--you cannot understand----” “I see and understand perfectly!” she said, quickly. “But, if I live, my life remains my own--if I die, it will be your affair--but there can be no cause for grudge either way!” “Diana,” he repeated, earnestly--“Say just this--‘Féodor, I forgive you!’” She smiled--a strange little smile of pity and pride commingled, and stretched out both hands to him. To her surprise he knelt before her and kissed them. “Féodor, I forgive you!” she said, very sweetly, in the penetrating accents which were so exclusively her own.--“Now, Magician, get to your work quickly! Apollonius of Tyana and Paracelsus were only children playing on the shores of science compared to you! When _you_ are ready, _I_ am!” He sprang up from his kneeling attitude, and for a moment looked about him as one half afraid and uncertain. His amazing piece of mechanism, the great Wheel, was revolving slowly and ever more slowly, for outside in the heavens the sun had sunk, and the massed light within the laboratory’s crystal dome was becoming less and less dazzling. Astonishing reflections of prismatic colour were gathered in the dark water below the Wheel, as though millions of broken rainbows had been mixed with its mysterious blackness. Quietly Diana waited, her white-robed figure contrasting singularly with all the fire-glow which enveloped her in its burning lustre,--and her heart beat scarcely one pulse the quicker when Dimitrius approached her, holding with extreme care a small but massive crystal cup. It was he who trembled, not she, as she looked at him inquiringly. He spoke, striving to steady his voice to its usual even tone of composure.