Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/67

Rh "But, Maria-Teresa, be reasonable. They are dead... . You yourself saw them dug up.... Surely you cannot believe in ghosts... "

"Those I saw were not ghosts. They were living."

Thinking to reassure her, he began to laugh heartily.

"Don't, Dick, don't! .. I did see them ... they were exactly like those in the grave ... the sugar-loaf, the cap, and the valise.... Exactly the same!... But what did they come here for?"

Don Christobal, drawn from the smoking-room by the noise, jeered at his daughter's fears. Uncle Francis, too, appeared in a night-cap, which started everybody laughing except Maria-Teresa. To quieten her, the major-domo was sent round the house and explored the grounds. He returned to report that he had found nothing.

"You are worried by what you saw this afternoon, my child," said the Marquis.

But Maria-Teresa would not reenter the room, and ordered another on the opposite side of the villa to be prepared for her. Dick, using every argument he could think of, finally convinced her that she had been the victim of a hallucination. Half ashamed of herself, she made him go out to the first-floor balcony with