'I do not know at all,' replied the poor woman, paler than death.
'You do not know at all?' exclaimed Blue Beard; 'I know well enough. You wanted to enter the little room! Well, madam, enter it you shall—you shall go and take your place among the ladies you have seen there.'
She threw herself at her husband's feet, asking his pardon with tears, and with all the signs of a true repentance for her disobedience. She would have softened a rock, in her beauty and distress, but Blue Beard had a heart harder than any stone.
'You must die, madam,' he said; 'and at once.'
'Since I must die,' she replied, gazing at him with eyes that were wet with tears, 'give me a little time to say my prayers.'
'I give you one quarter of an hour,' replied Blue Beard, 'but not a moment longer.'
When the poor girl was alone, she called her sister to her and said:
'Sister Anne'—for that was her name—'go up, I implore you, to the top of the tower, and see if my brothers are not approaching. They promised that they would come and visit me to-day. If you see them, make signs to them to hasten.'
Sister Anne went up to the top of the tower, and the poor unhappy girl cried out to her from time to time:
'Anne, Sister Anne, do you see nothing coming?'