"Oh, so Erik gave you that ring!"
"You know he did, Raoul! But what you don't know is that, when he gave
it to me, he said, 'I give you back your liberty, Christine, on
condition that this ring is always on your finger. As long as you keep
it, you will be protected against all danger and Erik will remain your
friend. But woe to you if you ever part with it, for Erik will have
his revenge!' ... My dear, my dear, the ring is gone! ... Woe to us
both!"
They both looked for the ring, but could not find it. Christine
refused to be pacified.
"It was while I gave you that kiss, up above, under Apollo's lyre," she
said. "The ring must have slipped from my finger and dropped into the
street! We can never find it. And what misfortunes are in store for
us now! Oh, to run away!"
"Let us run away at once," Raoul insisted, once more.
She hesitated. He thought that she was going to say yes... Then her
bright pupils became dimmed and she said: "No! To-morrow!"
And she left him hurriedly, still wringing and rubbing her fingers, as
though she hoped to bring the ring back like that.
Raoul went home, greatly perturbed at all that he had heard.
[Illustration: They Sat Like that for a Moment in Silence] "If I don't save her from the hands of that humbug," he said, aloud, as
he went to bed, "she is lost. But I shall save her."
He put out his lamp and felt a need to insult Erik in the dark. Thrice
over, he shouted: "Humbug! ... Humbug! ... Humbug!"
But, suddenly, he raised himself on his elbow. A cold sweat poured
from his temples. Two eyes, like blazing coals, had appeared at the
foot of his bed. They stared at him fixedly, terribly, in the darkness
of the night.
Raoul was no coward; and yet he trembled. He put out a groping,
hesitating hand toward the table by his bedside. He found the matches
and lit his candle. The eyes disappeared.
Still uneasy in his mind, he thought to himself: "She told me that HIS eyes only showed in the dark. His eyes have
disappeared in the light, but HE may be there still."
And he rose, hunted about, went round the room. He looked under his
bed, like a child. Then he thought himself absurd, got into bed again
and blew out the candle. The eyes reappeared.
He sat up and stared back at them with all the courage he possessed.
Then he cried: "Is that you, Erik? Man, genius, or ghost, is it you?"
He reflected: "If it's he, he's on the balcony!"
Then he ran to the chest of drawers and groped for his revolver. He
opened the balcony window, looked out, saw nothing and closed the
window again. He went back to bed, shivering, for the night was cold,
and put the revolver on the table within his reach.