The Second Macabre MEGAPACK®. Эдит Несбит

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СКАЧАТЬ said Sir Paul at last, “it was for your own good that the whole truth has been thus concealed from you; but now, perhaps, the time has come when the truest kindness will be to reveal all. What do you say, Augustus?”

      “I—I agree with you,” I replied faintly; “she ought to be told.”

      “Precisely!” he said. “Break to her, then, the nature of the ordeal which lies before you.”

      It was the very thing which I wanted to be broken to me! I would have given the world to know all about it myself, and so I stared at his gloomy old face with eyes that must have betrayed my helpless dismay. At last I saved myself by suggesting that such a story would come less harshly from a parent’s lips.

      “Well, so be it,” he said. “Chlorine, compose yourself, dearest one; sit down there, and summon up all your fortitude to hear what I am about to tell you. You must know, then—I think you had better let your mother give you a cup of tea before I begin; it will steady your nerves.”

      During the delay which followed—for Sir Paul did not consider his daughter sufficiently fortified until she had taken at least three cups—I suffered tortures of suspense, which I dared not betray.

      They never thought of offering me any tea, though the merest observer might have noticed how very badly I wanted it.

      At last the baronet was satisfied, and not without a sort of gloomy enjoyment and a proud relish of the distinction implied in his exceptional affliction, he began his weird and almost incredible tale.

      “It is now,” said he, “some centuries since our ill-fated house was first afflicted with the family curse which still attends it. A certain Humfrey de Catafalque, by his acquaintance with the black art, as it was said, had procured the services of a species of familiar, a dread and supernatural being. For some reason he had conceived a bitter enmity towards his nearest relations, whom he hated with a virulence that not even death could soften. For, by a refinement of malice, he bequeathed this baleful thing to his descendants for ever, as an inalienable heirloom! And to this day it follows the title—and the head of the family for the time being is bound to provide it with a secret apartment under his own roof. But that is not the worst: as each member of our house succeeds to the ancestral rank and honours, he must seek an interview with ‘The Curse,’ as it has been styled for generations. And, in that interview, it is decided whether the spell is to be broken and the Curse depart from us for ever—or whether it is to continue its blighting influence, and hold yet another life in miserable thraldom.”

      “And are you one of its thralls then, papa?” faltered Chlorine.

      “I am, indeed,” he said. “I failed to quell it, as every Catafalque, however brave and resolute, has failed yet. It checks all my accounts, and woe to me if that cold, withering eye discovers the slightest error—even in the pence column! I could not describe the extent of my bondage to you, my daughter, or the humiliation of having to go and tremble monthly before that awful presence. Not even yet, old as I am, have I grown quite accustomed to it!”

      Never, in my wildest imaginings, had I anticipated anything one quarter so dreadful as this; but still I clung to the hope that it was impossible to bring me into the affair.

      “But, Sir Paul,” I said—“Sir Paul, you—you mustn’t stop there, or you’ll alarm Chlorine more than there’s any need to do. She—ha, ha!—don’t you see, she has got some idea into her head that I have to go through much the same sort of thing. Just explain that to her. I’m not a Catafalque, Chlorine, so it—it can’t interfere with me. That is so, isn’t it, Sir Paul? Good heavens, sir, don’t torture her like this!” I cried, as he was silent. “Speak out!”

      “You mean well, Augustus,” he said, “but the time for deceiving her has gone by; she must know the worst. Yes, my poor child,” he continued to Chlorine, whose eyes were wide with terror—though I fancy mine were even wider—“unhappily, though our beloved Augustus is not a Catafalque himself, he has of his own free will brought himself within the influence of the Curse, and he, too, at the appointed hour, must keep the awful assignation, and brave all that the most fiendish malevolence can do to shake his resolution.”

      I could not say a single word; the horror of the idea was altogether too much for me, and I fell back on my chair in a state of speechless collapse.

      “You see,” Sir Paul went on explaining, “it is not only all new baronets, but every one who would seek an alliance with the females of our race, who must, by the terms of that strange bequest, also undergo this trial. It may be in some degree owing to this necessity that, ever since Humfrey de Catafalque’s diabolical testament first took effect, every maiden of our House has died a spinster.” (Here Chlorine hid her face with a low wail.) “In 1770, it is true, one solitary suitor was emboldened by love and daring to face the ordeal. He went calmly and resolutely to the chamber where the Curse was then lodged, and the next morning they found him outside the door—a gibbering maniac!”

      I writhed on my chair. “Augustus!” cried Chlorine wildly, “promise me you will not permit the Curse to turn you into a gibbering maniac. I think if I saw you gibber I should die!”

      I was on the verge of gibbering then; I dared not trust myself to speak.

      “Nay, Chlorine,” said Sir Paul more cheerfully, “there is no cause for alarm; all has been made smooth for Augustus.” (I began to brighten a little at this.) “His Aunt Petronia had made a special study of the old-world science of incantation, and had undoubtedly succeeded at last in discovering the master-word which, employed according to her directions, would almost certainly break the unhallowed spell. In her compassionate attachment to us, she formed the design of persuading a youth of blameless life and antecedents to present himself as our champion, and the reports she had been given of our dear Augustus’ irreproachable character led her to select him as a likely instrument. And her confidence in his generosity and courage was indeed well-founded, for he responded at once to the appeal of his departed aunt, and, with her instructions for his safeguard, and the consciousness of his virtue as an additional protection, there is hope, my child, strong hope, that, though the struggle may be a long and bitter one, yet Augustus will emerge a victor!”

      I saw very little ground for expecting to emerge as anything of the kind, or for that matter to emerge at all, except in instalments—for the master-word which was to abash the demon was probably inside the packet of instructions, and that was certainly somewhere at the bottom of the sea, outside Melbourne, fathoms below the surface.

      I could bear no more. “It’s simply astonishing to me,” I said, “that in the nineteenth century, hardly six miles from Charing Cross, you can calmly allow this hideous “Curse,” or whatever you call it, to have things all its own way like this.”

      “What can I do, Augustus?” he asked helplessly.

      “Do? Anything!” I retorted wildly (for I scarcely knew what I said). “Take it out for an airing (it must want an airing by this time); take it out—and lose it! Or get both the archbishops to step in and lay it for you. Sell the house, and make the purchaser take it at a valuation, with the other fixtures. I certainly would not live under the same roof with it. And I want you to understand one thing—I was never told all this; I have been kept in the dark about it. Of course I knew there was some kind of a curse in the family—but I never dreamed of anything so bad as this, and I never had any intention of being boxed up alone with it either. I shall not go near the Grey Chamber!”

      “Not go near it!” they all cried aghast.

      “Not on any account,” I said, for I felt firmer and easier now that I had taken up this position. “If the Curse СКАЧАТЬ