Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/307

Rh He hardly dared breathe, fearing that the vision would vanish at the sound of his voice.… He advanced cautiously, stealthily, like a child stalking a butterfly.

"Dick!"

"Maria-Teresa!"

They are in each other's arms. The cry which has come from those pale lips is a living one. They clung to each other, trembling, laughing, crying, and would have fallen in their weakness had not other shadows come to their aid.

Aunt Agnes and her duenna, Irene, held up Maria-Teresa, while Don Christobal, running out into the street, caught the young engineer under the arm, and led him slowly in.

Little Christobal, dancing at the door of the office, shouted with glee and clapped his hands together.

"I told you so, Maria-Teresa! I told you he wasn't dead!… Now you'll get better, Maria-Teresa!"

Maria-Teresa, in Dick's arms again, was sobbing.

"I knew you would come back here if you were still alive…. But is it really you, Dick?… Really you?"

"Maria-Teresa has been awfully ill," explained the child, while the two old ladies cried. "But we cured her by telling her you were not