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.
"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.
The eyes were still there, at the foot of the bed.
Were they between the bed and the window-pane or behind the pane, that is to say, on the balcony?
That was what Raoul wanted to know.
He also wanted to know if those eyes belonged to a human being...
He wanted to know everything.
Then, patiently, calmly, he seized his revolver and took aim.
He aimed a little above the two eyes.
Surely, if they were eyes and if above those two eyes there was a forehead and if Raoul was not too clumsy ... The shot made a terrible din amid the silence of the slumbering house.
And, while footsteps came hurrying along the passages, Raoul sat up with outstretched arm, ready to fire again, if need be.
This time, the two eyes had disappeared.
Servants appeared, carrying lights; Count Philippe, terribly anxious:
"What is it?"
"I think I have been dreaming," replied the young man.
"I fired at two stars that kept me from sleeping."
"You're raving!
Are you ill?
For God's sake, tell me, Raoul: what happened?"
And the count seized hold of the revolver.