id stringlengths 16 16 | text stringlengths 151 2.3k | word_count int64 30 60 | source stringclasses 1
value |
|---|---|---|---|
twg_000000035900 | your journey, you must part with her tonight, and nowhere could you do so with more honest assurances of care and tenderness than here. There was something in this ladys air and appearance so distinguished and even imposing, and in her manner so engaging, as to impress one, quite apart from the dignity of her equipage, with a conviction that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035901 | she was a person of consequence. By this time the carriage was replaced in its upright position, and the horses, quite tractable, in the traces again. The lady threw on her daughter a glance which I fancied was not quite so affectionate as one might have anticipated from the beginning of the scene; then she beckoned slightly to my father, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035902 | and withdrew two or three steps with him out of hearing; and talked to him with a fixed and stern countenance, not at all like that with which she had hitherto spoken. I was filled with wonder that my father did not seem to perceive the change, and also unspeakably curious to learn what it could be that she was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035903 | speaking, almost in his ear, with so much earnestness and rapidity. Two or three minutes at most I think she remained thus employed, then she turned, and a few steps brought her to where her daughter lay, supported by Madame Perrodon. She kneeled beside her for a moment and whispered, as Madame supposed, a little benediction in her ear; then | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035904 | hastily kissing her she stepped into her carriage, the door was closed, the footmen in stately liveries jumped up behind, the outriders spurred on, the postilions cracked their whips, the horses plunged and broke suddenly into a furious canter that threatened soon again to become a gallop, and the carriage whirled away, followed at the same rapid pace by the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035905 | two horsemen in the rear. III. We Compare Notes We followed the _cortege_ with our eyes until it was swiftly lost to sight in the misty wood; and the very sound of the hoofs and the wheels died away in the silent night air. Nothing remained to assure us that the adventure had not been an illusion of a moment | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035906 | but the young lady, who just at that moment opened her eyes. I could not see, for her face was turned from me, but she raised her head, evidently looking about her, and I heard a very sweet voice ask complainingly, Where is mamma? Our good Madame Perrodon answered tenderly, and added some comfortable assurances. I then heard her ask: | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035907 | Where am I? What is this place? and after that she said, I dont see the carriage; and Matska, where is she? Madame answered all her questions in so far as she understood them; and gradually the young lady remembered how the misadventure came about, and was glad to hear that no one in, or in attendance on, the carriage | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035908 | was hurt; and on learning that her mamma had left her here, till her return in about three months, she wept. I was going to add my consolations to those of Madame Perrodon when Mademoiselle De Lafontaine placed her hand upon my arm, saying: Dont approach, one at a time is as much as she can at present converse with; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035909 | a very little excitement would possibly overpower her now. As soon as she is comfortably in bed, I thought, I will run up to her room and see her. My father in the meantime had sent a servant on horseback for the physician, who lived about two leagues away; and a bedroom was being prepared for the young ladys reception. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035910 | The stranger now rose, and leaning on Madames arm, walked slowly over the drawbridge and into the castle gate. In the hall, servants waited to receive her, and she was conducted forthwith to her room. The room we usually sat in as our drawing room is long, having four windows, that looked over the moat and drawbridge, upon the forest | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035911 | scene I have just described. It is furnished in old carved oak, with large carved cabinets, and the chairs are cushioned with crimson Utrecht velvet. The walls are covered with tapestry, and surrounded with great gold frames, the figures being as large as life, in ancient and very curious costume, and the subjects represented are hunting, hawking, and generally festive. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035912 | It is not too stately to be extremely comfortable; and here we had our tea, for with his usual patriotic leanings he insisted that the national beverage should make its appearance regularly with our coffee and chocolate. We sat here this night, and with candles lighted, were talking over the adventure of the evening. Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035913 | were both of our party. The young stranger had hardly lain down in her bed when she sank into a deep sleep; and those ladies had left her in the care of a servant. How do you like our guest? I asked, as soon as Madame entered. Tell me all about her? I like her extremely, answered Madame, she is, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035914 | I almost think, the prettiest creature I ever saw; about your age, and so gentle and nice. She is absolutely beautiful, threw in Mademoiselle, who had peeped for a moment into the strangers room. And such a sweet voice! added Madame Perrodon. Did you remark a woman in the carriage, after it was set up again, who did not get | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035915 | out, inquired Mademoiselle, but only looked from the window? No, we had not seen her. Then she described a hideous black woman, with a sort of colored turban on her head, and who was gazing all the time from the carriage window, nodding and grinning derisively towards the ladies, with gleaming eyes and large white eyeballs, and her teeth set | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035916 | as if in fury. Did you remark what an ill-looking pack of men the servants were? asked Madame. Yes, said my father, who had just come in, ugly, hang-dog looking fellows as ever I beheld in my life. I hope they maynt rob the poor lady in the forest. They are clever rogues, however; they got everything to rights in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035917 | a minute. I dare say they are worn out with too long traveling, said Madame. Besides looking wicked, their faces were so strangely lean, and dark, and sullen. I am very curious, I own; but I dare say the young lady will tell you all about it tomorrow, if she is sufficiently recovered. I dont think she will, said my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035918 | father, with a mysterious smile, and a little nod of his head, as if he knew more about it than he cared to tell us. This made us all the more inquisitive as to what had passed between him and the lady in the black velvet, in the brief but earnest interview that had immediately preceded her departure. We were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035919 | scarcely alone, when I entreated him to tell me. He did not need much pressing. There is no particular reason why I should not tell you. She expressed a reluctance to trouble us with the care of her daughter, saying she was in delicate health, and nervous, but not subject to any kind of seizureshe volunteered thatnor to any illusion; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035920 | being, in fact, perfectly sane. How very odd to say all that! I interpolated. It was so unnecessary. At all events it _was_ said, he laughed, and as you wish to know all that passed, which was indeed very little, I tell you. She then said, I am making a long journey of _vital_ importanceshe emphasized the wordrapid and secret; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035921 | I shall return for my child in three months; in the meantime, she will be silent as to who we are, whence we come, and whither we are traveling. That is all she said. She spoke very pure French. When she said the word secret, she paused for a few seconds, looking sternly, her eyes fixed on mine. I fancy | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035922 | she makes a great point of that. You saw how quickly she was gone. I hope I have not done a very foolish thing, in taking charge of the young lady. For my part, I was delighted. I was longing to see and talk to her; and only waiting till the doctor should give me leave. You, who live in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035923 | towns, can have no idea how great an event the introduction of a new friend is, in such a solitude as surrounded us. The doctor did not arrive till nearly one oclock; but I could no more have gone to my bed and slept, than I could have overtaken, on foot, the carriage in which the princess in black velvet | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035924 | had driven away. When the physician came down to the drawing room, it was to report very favorably upon his patient. She was now sitting up, her pulse quite regular, apparently perfectly well. She had sustained no injury, and the little shock to her nerves had passed away quite harmlessly. There could be no harm certainly in my seeing her, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035925 | if we both wished it; and, with this permission I sent, forthwith, to know whether she would allow me to visit her for a few minutes in her room. The servant returned immediately to say that she desired nothing more. You may be sure I was not long in availing myself of this permission. Our visitor lay in one of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035926 | the handsomest rooms in the schloss. It was, perhaps, a little stately. There was a somber piece of tapestry opposite the foot of the bed, representing Cleopatra with the asps to her bosom; and other solemn classic scenes were displayed, a little faded, upon the other walls. But there was gold carving, and rich and varied color enough in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035927 | other decorations of the room, to more than redeem the gloom of the old tapestry. There were candles at the bedside. She was sitting up; her slender pretty figure enveloped in the soft silk dressing gown, embroidered with flowers, and lined with thick quilted silk, which her mother had thrown over her feet as she lay upon the ground. What | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035928 | was it that, as I reached the bedside and had just begun my little greeting, struck me dumb in a moment, and made me recoil a step or two from before her? I will tell you. I saw the very face which had visited me in my childhood at night, which remained so fixed in my memory, and on which | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035929 | I had for so many years so often ruminated with horror, when no one suspected of what I was thinking. It was pretty, even beautiful; and when I first beheld it, wore the same melancholy expression. But this almost instantly lighted into a strange fixed smile of recognition. There was a silence of fully a minute, and then at length | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035930 | she spoke; I could not. How wonderful! she exclaimed. Twelve years ago, I saw your face in a dream, and it has haunted me ever since. Wonderful indeed! I repeated, overcoming with an effort the horror that had for a time suspended my utterances. Twelve years ago, in vision or reality, I certainly saw you. I could not forget your | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035931 | face. It has remained before my eyes ever since. Her smile had softened. Whatever I had fancied strange in it, was gone, and it and her dimpling cheeks were now delightfully pretty and intelligent. I felt reassured, and continued more in the vein which hospitality indicated, to bid her welcome, and to tell her how much pleasure her accidental arrival | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035932 | had given us all, and especially what a happiness it was to me. I took her hand as I spoke. I was a little shy, as lonely people are, but the situation made me eloquent, and even bold. She pressed my hand, she laid hers upon it, and her eyes glowed, as, looking hastily into mine, she smiled again, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035933 | blushed. She answered my welcome very prettily. I sat down beside her, still wondering; and she said: I must tell you my vision about you; it is so very strange that you and I should have had, each of the other so vivid a dream, that each should have seen, I you and you me, looking as we do now, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035934 | when of course we both were mere children. I was a child, about six years old, and I awoke from a confused and troubled dream, and found myself in a room, unlike my nursery, wainscoted clumsily in some dark wood, and with cupboards and bedsteads, and chairs, and benches placed about it. The beds were, I thought, all empty, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035935 | the room itself without anyone but myself in it; and I, after looking about me for some time, and admiring especially an iron candlestick with two branches, which I should certainly know again, crept under one of the beds to reach the window; but as I got from under the bed, I heard someone crying; and looking up, while I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035936 | was still upon my knees, I saw youmost assuredly youas I see you now; a beautiful young lady, with golden hair and large blue eyes, and lipsyour lipsyou as you are here. Your looks won me; I climbed on the bed and put my arms about you, and I think we both fell asleep. I was aroused by a scream; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035937 | you were sitting up screaming. I was frightened, and slipped down upon the ground, and, it seemed to me, lost consciousness for a moment; and when I came to myself, I was again in my nursery at home. Your face I have never forgotten since. I could not be misled by mere resemblance. _You are_ the lady whom I saw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035938 | then. It was now my turn to relate my corresponding vision, which I did, to the undisguised wonder of my new acquaintance. I dont know which should be most afraid of the other, she said, again smilingIf you were less pretty I think I should be very much afraid of you, but being as you are, and you and I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035939 | both so young, I feel only that I have made your acquaintance twelve years ago, and have already a right to your intimacy; at all events it does seem as if we were destined, from our earliest childhood, to be friends. I wonder whether you feel as strangely drawn towards me as I do to you; I have never had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035940 | a friendshall I find one now? She sighed, and her fine dark eyes gazed passionately on me. Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, drawn towards her, but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035941 | me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging. I perceived now something of languor and exhaustion stealing over her, and hastened to bid her good night. The doctor thinks, I added, that you ought to have a maid to sit up with you tonight; one of ours is waiting, and you will find her a very useful and quiet | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035942 | creature. How kind of you, but I could not sleep, I never could with an attendant in the room. I shant require any assistanceand, shall I confess my weakness, I am haunted with a terror of robbers. Our house was robbed once, and two servants murdered, so I always lock my door. It has become a habitand you look so | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035943 | kind I know you will forgive me. I see there is a key in the lock. She held me close in her pretty arms for a moment and whispered in my ear, Good night, darling, it is very hard to part with you, but good night; tomorrow, but not early, I shall see you again. She sank back on the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035944 | pillow with a sigh, and her fine eyes followed me with a fond and melancholy gaze, and she murmured again Good night, dear friend. Young people like, and even love, on impulse. I was flattered by the evident, though as yet undeserved, fondness she showed me. I liked the confidence with which she at once received me. She was determined | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035945 | that we should be very near friends. Next day came and we met again. I was delighted with my companion; that is to say, in many respects. Her looks lost nothing in daylightshe was certainly the most beautiful creature I had ever seen, and the unpleasant remembrance of the face presented in my early dream, had lost the effect of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035946 | the first unexpected recognition. She confessed that she had experienced a similar shock on seeing me, and precisely the same faint antipathy that had mingled with my admiration of her. We now laughed together over our momentary horrors. IV. Her HabitsA Saunter I told you that I was charmed with her in most particulars. There were some that did not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035947 | please me so well. She was above the middle height of women. I shall begin by describing her. She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languidvery languidindeed, there was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid. Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her features were small and beautifully formed; her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035948 | her hair was quite wonderful, I never saw hair so magnificently thick and long when it was down about her shoulders; I have often placed my hands under it, and laughed with wonder at its weight. It was exquisitely fine and soft, and in color a rich very dark brown, with something of gold. I loved to let it down, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035949 | tumbling with its own weight, as, in her room, she lay back in her chair talking in her sweet low voice, I used to fold and braid it, and spread it out and play with it. Heavens! If I had but known all! I said there were particulars which did not please me. I have told you that her confidence | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035950 | won me the first night I saw her; but I found that she exercised with respect to herself, her mother, her history, everything in fact connected with her life, plans, and people, an ever wakeful reserve. I dare say I was unreasonable, perhaps I was wrong; I dare say I ought to have respected the solemn injunction laid upon my | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035951 | father by the stately lady in black velvet. But curiosity is a restless and unscrupulous passion, and no one girl can endure, with patience, that hers should be baffled by another. What harm could it do anyone to tell me what I so ardently desired to know? Had she no trust in my good sense or honor? Why would she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035952 | not believe me when I assured her, so solemnly, that I would not divulge one syllable of what she told me to any mortal breathing. There was a coldness, it seemed to me, beyond her years, in her smiling melancholy persistent refusal to afford me the least ray of light. I cannot say we quarreled upon this point, for she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035953 | would not quarrel upon any. It was, of course, very unfair of me to press her, very ill-bred, but I really could not help it; and I might just as well have let it alone. What she did tell me amounted, in my unconscionable estimationto nothing. It was all summed up in three very vague disclosures: FirstHer name was Carmilla. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035954 | SecondHer family was very ancient and noble. ThirdHer home lay in the direction of the west. She would not tell me the name of her family, nor their armorial bearings, nor the name of their estate, nor even that of the country they lived in. You are not to suppose that I worried her incessantly on these subjects. I watched | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035955 | opportunity, and rather insinuated than urged my inquiries. Once or twice, indeed, I did attack her more directly. But no matter what my tactics, utter failure was invariably the result. Reproaches and caresses were all lost upon her. But I must add this, that her evasion was conducted with so pretty a melancholy and deprecation, with so many, and even | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035956 | passionate declarations of her liking for me, and trust in my honor, and with so many promises that I should at last know all, that I could not find it in my heart long to be offended with her. She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035957 | with her lips near my ear, Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall diedie, sweetly dieinto mine. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035958 | cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me with all your loving spirit. And when she had spoken such a rhapsody, she would | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035959 | press me more closely in her trembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek. Her agitations and her language were unintelligible to me. From these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence, I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself; but my energies seemed to fail me. Her murmured words sounded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035960 | like a lullaby in my ear, and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her arms. In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035961 | thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling. I now write, after an interval of more than ten years, with a trembling hand, with a confused and horrible recollection of certain | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035962 | occurrences and situations, in the ordeal through which I was unconsciously passing; though with a vivid and very sharp remembrance of the main current of my story. But, I suspect, in all lives there are certain emotional scenes, those in which our passions have been most wildly and terribly roused, that are of all others the most vaguely and dimly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035963 | remembered. Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardor of a lover; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035964 | it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet over-powering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips traveled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, You are mine, you _shall_ be mine, you and I are one for ever. Then she had thrown herself back in her chair, with her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035965 | small hands over her eyes, leaving me trembling. Are we related, I used to ask; what can you mean by all this? I remind you perhaps of someone whom you love; but you must not, I hate it; I dont know youI dont know myself when you look so and talk so. She used to sigh at my vehemence, then | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035966 | turn away and drop my hand. Respecting these very extraordinary manifestations I strove in vain to form any satisfactory theoryI could not refer them to affectation or trick. It was unmistakably the momentary breaking out of suppressed instinct and emotion. Was she, notwithstanding her mothers volunteered denial, subject to brief visitations of insanity; or was there here a disguise and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035967 | a romance? I had read in old storybooks of such things. What if a boyish lover had found his way into the house, and sought to prosecute his suit in masquerade, with the assistance of a clever old adventuress. But there were many things against this hypothesis, highly interesting as it was to my vanity. I could boast of no | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035968 | little attentions such as masculine gallantry delights to offer. Between these passionate moments there were long intervals of commonplace, of gaiety, of brooding melancholy, during which, except that I detected her eyes so full of melancholy fire, following me, at times I might have been as nothing to her. Except in these brief periods of mysterious excitement her ways were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035969 | girlish; and there was always a languor about her, quite incompatible with a masculine system in a state of health. In some respects her habits were odd. Perhaps not so singular in the opinion of a town lady like you, as they appeared to us rustic people. She used to come down very late, generally not till one oclock, she | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035970 | would then take a cup of chocolate, but eat nothing; we then went out for a walk, which was a mere saunter, and she seemed, almost immediately, exhausted, and either returned to the schloss or sat on one of the benches that were placed, here and there, among the trees. This was a bodily languor in which her mind did | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035971 | not sympathize. She was always an animated talker, and very intelligent. She sometimes alluded for a moment to her own home, or mentioned an adventure or situation, or an early recollection, which indicated a people of strange manners, and described customs of which we knew nothing. I gathered from these chance hints that her native country was much more remote | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035972 | than I had at first fancied. As we sat thus one afternoon under the trees a funeral passed us by. It was that of a pretty young girl, whom I had often seen, the daughter of one of the rangers of the forest. The poor man was walking behind the coffin of his darling; she was his only child, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035973 | he looked quite heartbroken. Peasants walking two-and-two came behind, they were singing a funeral hymn. I rose to mark my respect as they passed, and joined in the hymn they were very sweetly singing. My companion shook me a little roughly, and I turned surprised. She said brusquely, Dont you perceive how discordant that is? I think it very sweet, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035974 | on the contrary, I answered, vexed at the interruption, and very uncomfortable, lest the people who composed the little procession should observe and resent what was passing. I resumed, therefore, instantly, and was again interrupted. You pierce my ears, said Carmilla, almost angrily, and stopping her ears with her tiny fingers. Besides, how can you tell that your religion and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035975 | mine are the same; your forms wound me, and I hate funerals. What a fuss! Why you must die_everyone_ must die; and all are happier when they do. Come home. My father has gone on with the clergyman to the churchyard. I thought you knew she was to be buried today. She? I dont trouble my head about peasants. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035976 | dont know who she is, answered Carmilla, with a flash from her fine eyes. She is the poor girl who fancied she saw a ghost a fortnight ago, and has been dying ever since, till yesterday, when she expired. Tell me nothing about ghosts. I shant sleep tonight if you do. I hope there is no plague or fever coming; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035977 | all this looks very like it, I continued. The swineherds young wife died only a week ago, and she thought something seized her by the throat as she lay in her bed, and nearly strangled her. Papa says such horrible fancies do accompany some forms of fever. She was quite well the day before. She sank afterwards, and died before | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035978 | a week. Well, _her_ funeral is over, I hope, and _her_ hymn sung; and our ears shant be tortured with that discord and jargon. It has made me nervous. Sit down here, beside me; sit close; hold my hand; press it hard-hard-harder. We had moved a little back, and had come to another seat. She sat down. Her face underwent | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035979 | a change that alarmed and even terrified me for a moment. It darkened, and became horribly livid; her teeth and hands were clenched, and she frowned and compressed her lips, while she stared down upon the ground at her feet, and trembled all over with a continued shudder as irrepressible as ague. All her energies seemed strained to suppress a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035980 | fit, with which she was then breathlessly tugging; and at length a low convulsive cry of suffering broke from her, and gradually the hysteria subsided. There! That comes of strangling people with hymns! she said at last. Hold me, hold me still. It is passing away. And so gradually it did; and perhaps to dissipate the somber impression which the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035981 | spectacle had left upon me, she became unusually animated and chatty; and so we got home. This was the first time I had seen her exhibit any definable symptoms of that delicacy of health which her mother had spoken of. It was the first time, also, I had seen her exhibit anything like temper. Both passed away like a summer | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035982 | cloud; and never but once afterwards did I witness on her part a momentary sign of anger. I will tell you how it happened. She and I were looking out of one of the long drawing room windows, when there entered the courtyard, over the drawbridge, a figure of a wanderer whom I knew very well. He used to visit | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035983 | the schloss generally twice a year. It was the figure of a hunchback, with the sharp lean features that generally accompany deformity. He wore a pointed black beard, and he was smiling from ear to ear, showing his white fangs. He was dressed in buff, black, and scarlet, and crossed with more straps and belts than I could count, from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035984 | which hung all manner of things. Behind, he carried a magic lantern, and two boxes, which I well knew, in one of which was a salamander, and in the other a mandrake. These monsters used to make my father laugh. They were compounded of parts of monkeys, parrots, squirrels, fish, and hedgehogs, dried and stitched together with great neatness and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035985 | startling effect. He had a fiddle, a box of conjuring apparatus, a pair of foils and masks attached to his belt, several other mysterious cases dangling about him, and a black staff with copper ferrules in his hand. His companion was a rough spare dog, that followed at his heels, but stopped short, suspiciously at the drawbridge, and in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035986 | little while began to howl dismally. In the meantime, the mountebank, standing in the midst of the courtyard, raised his grotesque hat, and made us a very ceremonious bow, paying his compliments very volubly in execrable French, and German not much better. Then, disengaging his fiddle, he began to scrape a lively air to which he sang with a merry | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035987 | discord, dancing with ludicrous airs and activity, that made me laugh, in spite of the dogs howling. Then he advanced to the window with many smiles and salutations, and his hat in his left hand, his fiddle under his arm, and with a fluency that never took breath, he gabbled a long advertisement of all his accomplishments, and the resources | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035988 | of the various arts which he placed at our service, and the curiosities and entertainments which it was in his power, at our bidding, to display. Will your ladyships be pleased to buy an amulet against the oupire, which is going like the wolf, I hear, through these woods, he said dropping his hat on the pavement. They are dying | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035989 | of it right and left and here is a charm that never fails; only pinned to the pillow, and you may laugh in his face. These charms consisted of oblong slips of vellum, with cabalistic ciphers and diagrams upon them. Carmilla instantly purchased one, and so did I. He was looking up, and we were smiling down upon him, amused; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035990 | at least, I can answer for myself. His piercing black eye, as he looked up in our faces, seemed to detect something that fixed for a moment his curiosity, In an instant he unrolled a leather case, full of all manner of odd little steel instruments. See here, my lady, he said, displaying it, and addressing me, I profess, among | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035991 | other things less useful, the art of dentistry. Plague take the dog! he interpolated. Silence, beast! He howls so that your ladyships can scarcely hear a word. Your noble friend, the young lady at your right, has the sharpest tooth,long, thin, pointed, like an awl, like a needle; ha, ha! With my sharp and long sight, as I look up, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035992 | I have seen it distinctly; now if it happens to hurt the young lady, and I think it must, here am I, here are my file, my punch, my nippers; I will make it round and blunt, if her ladyship pleases; no longer the tooth of a fish, but of a beautiful young lady as she is. Hey? Is the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035993 | young lady displeased? Have I been too bold? Have I offended her? The young lady, indeed, looked very angry as she drew back from the window. How dares that mountebank insult us so? Where is your father? I shall demand redress from him. My father would have had the wretch tied up to the pump, and flogged with a cart | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035994 | whip, and burnt to the bones with the cattle brand! She retired from the window a step or two, and sat down, and had hardly lost sight of the offender, when her wrath subsided as suddenly as it had risen, and she gradually recovered her usual tone, and seemed to forget the little hunchback and his follies. My father was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035995 | out of spirits that evening. On coming in he told us that there had been another case very similar to the two fatal ones which had lately occurred. The sister of a young peasant on his estate, only a mile away, was very ill, had been, as she described it, attacked very nearly in the same way, and was now | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035996 | slowly but steadily sinking. All this, said my father, is strictly referable to natural causes. These poor people infect one another with their superstitions, and so repeat in imagination the images of terror that have infested their neighbors. But that very circumstance frightens one horribly, said Carmilla. How so? inquired my father. I am so afraid of fancying I see | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035997 | such things; I think it would be as bad as reality. We are in Gods hands: nothing can happen without his permission, and all will end well for those who love him. He is our faithful creator; He has made us all, and will take care of us. Creator! _Nature!_ said the young lady in answer to my gentle father. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035998 | And this disease that invades the country is natural. Nature. All things proceed from Naturedont they? All things in the heaven, in the earth, and under the earth, act and live as Nature ordains? I think so. The doctor said he would come here today, said my father, after a silence. I want to know what he thinks about it, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000035999 | and what he thinks we had better do. Doctors never did me any good, said Carmilla. Then you have been ill? I asked. More ill than ever you were, she answered. Long ago? Yes, a long time. I suffered from this very illness; but I forget all but my pain and weakness, and they were not so bad as are | 60 | gutenberg |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.