She promised to obey all his orders exactly; and Bluebeard, after having embraced her, got into his coach and set out on his journey.
The neighbors and friends of the young wife did not wait to be sent for, so eager were they to see all the riches of her house; for they had not dared to come while her [[70]]husband was there because of his blue beard, which frightened them. As soon as they were inside the house they ran about from room to room, and even through all the closets and wardrobes, saying that each one seemed finer and richer than the last. They went up into the storerooms, where they could not say enough in admiration of the number and beauty of the tapestry, beds, couches, cabinets, stands, tables, and looking-glasses in which you might see yourself from head to foot.
Some of these mirrors were framed with glass, others with silver, plain and gilded; they were the most beautiful and most magnificent ever seen.
The visitors never stopped admiring and envying the happiness of their friend, who meanwhile was not at all entertained in looking at all these rich things because of her impatience to go and open the closet on the ground floor. She was so beside herself with curiosity that, without once thinking that it was rude to leave her guests, she [[71]]slipped away down a little back staircase with such excessive haste that two or three times she came near falling and breaking her neck. When she reached the closet door she stood still for some moments, thinking of her husband’s orders and considering how unhappiness might come upon her if she were disobedient; but the temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it. She took the little key and, trembling, opened the door.
At first she could not see anything because the windows were shut. After some moments she began to see that there was blood on the floor, and that the bodies of several dead women were lying there. (These were the wives whom Bluebeard had married and murdered one after another.) She thought she would surely die of fear, and the key, which she had pulled out of the lock, fell from her hand.
When she had recovered a little from the shock she picked up the key, locked the door, and went upstairs into her chamber to [[72]]compose herself; but she could not do it, for she was too much upset by her fright.
As she noticed that the key of the closet was stained with blood, she tried two or three times to wipe it off, but the stain remained. It did no good to wash it, or even to rub it with soap and sand. The stain was still there, for the key was a magic key, and she could never make it quite clean; when the stain was gone from one side, it came on the other.
Bluebeard returned from his journey that same evening, and said that he had received letters upon the road, which told him that the business on which he was called away had been settled to his advantage. His wife did all she could to convince him that she was overjoyed at his speedy return.
Next morning he asked her for the keys. She gave them to him, but with such a trembling hand that he easily guessed what had happened.
“How is it,” said he, “that the key of my closet is not here with the rest?” [[73]]