“I must,” she said, “have left it upstairs on my table.”
“Do not fail,” said Bluebeard, “to bring it to me presently.”
After putting it off several times she was forced to bring him the key. Bluebeard examined it closely, and then said to his wife, “How comes this stain upon the key?”
“I do not know,” cried the poor woman, turning paler than death.
“You do not know!” replied Bluebeard. “Well, I know very well. You wanted to go into the closet, did you? Very well, madam; you shall go in and take your place among the ladies you saw there.”
She threw herself weeping at her husband’s feet, and begged his pardon with all the signs of true repentance for her disobedience. She would have melted a stone, so beautiful and sorrowful was she; but Bluebeard had a heart harder than any stone.
“You must die, madam,” said he, “and that at once.”
[[75]]
“Since I must die,” she answered, looking up at him through her tears, “give me a little time to say my prayers.”