is not with the
others?"

"I must have left it," she replied, "upstairs on my table."

"Fail not," said Blue Beard, "to give it me presently."

After several excuses, she was obliged to go and fetch the key. Blue
Beard having examined it, said to his wife, "Why is there blood on this
key?" "I don't know," answered the poor wife, paler than death.

"You don't know!" rejoined Blue Beard; "I know well enough. You must
needs go into the closet. Well, madam, you shall go in again, and take
your place among the ladies you saw there."

She flung herself at her husband's feet, weeping and begging his pardon,
with all the signs of a true repentance at having disobeyed him. Her
beauty and sorrow might have melted a rock, but Blue Beard had a heart
harder than rock.

"You must die, madam," said he, "and at once."

"If I must die," she replied, looking at him with streaming eyes, "give
me a little time to say my prayers."

"I give you half a quarter of an hour," answered Blue Beard, "not a
minute more."

As soon as she found herself alone, she called her sister, and said to
her, "Sister Anne"--for so she was named--"go up, I pray you, to the top
of the tower, and see if my brothers are not in sight. They promised
they would come to visit me to-day, and if you see them, sign to them to
make haste."

Sister Anne mounted to the top of the tower, and the poor unhappy wife
called to her from time to time, "Anne! Sister Anne! do you not see
anything coming?" and Sister Anne answered her, "I see nothing but the
dust turning gold in the sun, and the grass growing green."

Meanwhile, Blue Beard, with a large cutlass in his hand, called out with
all his might to his wife, "Come down quickly, or I shall come up
there." "One minute more, if you please," replied his wife; and then
said quickly in a low voice, "Anne! Sister Anne! do you not see anything
coming?" And Sister Anne answered, "I see nothing but the dust turning
gold in the sun, and the grass growing green."

"Come down quickly," roared Blue Beard, "or I shall come up there."

"I am coming," answered his wife; and then called "Anne! Sister Anne! do
you not see anything coming?"

"I see a great cloud of dust moving this way," said Sister Anne.

"Is it my brothers?"

"Alas! no, sister, only a flock of sheep."

"Will you not come down?" shouted Blue Beard.

"One minute more," replied his wife; and then she cried, "Anne! Sister
Anne! do you not see anything coming?