I turned to skirt the side of the chapel. A few steps more over the broken ground brought me within view of the Well, and of the high boulder or rock from the foot of which the waters gushed brightly in the light of the moon.
I recognized her figure as she stood leaning against the rock, with her hands crossed in front of her, lost in thought. I recognized her face as she looked up quickly, startled by the sound of my footsteps in the deep stillness of the night.
Was it the woman, or the apparition of the woman? I waited, looking at her in silence.
She spoke. The sound of her voice was not the mysterious sound that I had heard in the summer-house. It was the sound I had heard on the bridge when we first met in the dim evening light.
As those words passed her lips, she recognized me. "_You_ here!" she went on, advancing a step, in uncontrollable surprise. "What does this mean?"
"I am here," I answered, "to meet you, by your own appointment."
She stepped back again, leaning against the rock. The moonlight shone full upon her face. There was terror as well as astonishment in her eyes while they now looked at me.
"I don't understand you," she said. "I have not seen you since you spoke to me on the bridge."
"Pardon me," I replied. "I have seen you--or the appearance of you--since that time. I heard you speak. I saw you write."
She looked at me with the strangest expression of mingled resentment and curiosity. "What did I say?" she asked. "What did I write?"
"You said, 'Remember me. Come to me.' You wrote, 'When the full moon shines on Saint Anthony's Well.'"
"Where?" she cried. "Where did I do that?"
"In a summer-house which stands by a waterfall," I answered. "Do you know the place?"
Her head sunk back against the rock. A low cry of terror burst from her. Her arm, resting on the rock, dropped at her side. I hurriedly approached her, in the fear that she might fall on the stony ground.
She rallied her failing strength. "Don't touch me!" she exclaimed. "Stand back, sir. You frighten me."
I tried to soothe her. "Why do I frighten you? You know who I am. Can you doubt my interest in you, after I have been the means of saving your life?"
Her reserve vanished in an instant. She advanced without hesitation, and took me by the hand.