Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/68

54 her, trying, in her turn, to efface any unfavorable impression she might have made.

The balcony on which they were was almost directly over the sea, for on this side the beach reached right up to the walls of the villa. After a time, the immense peace of the night completed Dick's work, and the girl was perfectly quiet when she took off her bracelet.

"I think this is what has been worrying me," she said. " I never before imagined that I saw a ghost...." And she threw the bracelet into the sea.

"A very good place for it," agreed Dick. "A ring will do ever so much better. You do at all events know where that comes from."

Before long the whole house was at rest, and the remainder of the night passed by quietly. But at seven o'clock, when people were beginning to stir again, an agonized scream from Maria-Teresa's room sent the servants rushing to her aid. When they entered the room, they found their mistress sitting up in bed, staring at her wrist with horror-stricken eyes. The Golden Sun bracelet had returned during the night!