“No! Tomorrow!”

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.