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from her with seeming indifference, and after glancing at them minutely, said, rather sternly, "How is this, Fatima? I do not see the key of the blue closet here! Go and bring it to me instantly."
The poor girl, feeling the crisis of her fate approaching, said, "I will go and search for it," and left the apartment in tears. She went straight to her sister's chamber, where they again tried every means, but in vain, to remove the blood from the key. She continued a few minutes agitated and irresolute, but the voice of Blue Beard calling for her, left no time for consideration, and she was forced to return to the apartment where she had left her husband, and reluctantly to give him the fatal key.
On receiving the key, Blue Beard, after examining it, burst into a terrible rage, and said with great harshness,—
"Pray, madam, how came this blood to be here?"
"I am sure I do not know," replied she trembling, and turning pale.
"What! do you not know?" Blue Beard, in a voice like thunder, which made poor Fatima start with fear; "But I know well! You have been in the forbidden blue closet! And
