For the key was
enchanted.
[Illustration: _Painted by Jennie Harbour_
BLUEBEARD]
That same evening Bluebeard returned saying he had met the man whom
he was wanting to see, and so the long journey was unnecessary, and he
was rejoiced to be at home again.
Next morning he called for the keys; his wife brought them to him,
but not the little one; that she left behind. Bluebeard noticed this
directly and sent her to fetch it. Trembling, and white as a sheet,
she was forced to give it into his hand.
"Ha! what is this?" he cried, "what is this stain that I see!"
His poor wife trembled still more, and could not speak.
"Wretched woman!" shouted Bluebeard, "you have used this key, you have
unlocked the door of that room at the end of the passage. You shall
die!!!"
In vain did his wife plead with him to spare her, kneeling before him
with tears streaming from her eyes. "You shall die!" he cried again,
more savagely than before.
"Let me have a few moments alone, to prepare for death,"
"Half a quarter of an hour, but not a moment longer," he replied, and
left her.
The poor young woman hastened to a room at the foot of the turret
stairs where was her Sister Anne, and called to her.
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