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!"