Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-03


Deaths mask suddenly coming to life
in order to express, with the four
black holes Of it's eyes, its nose, and
its mouth, the extreme anger, the
mighty fury of a demon; and not a
ray of light from the sockets, for, as
I learned later. you cannot see his
blazing eyes except in the dark.
81 fell back against the wall and he
came up to me, grinding his teeth,
and, as I fell upon my knees, he
Kissed mad, incoherent words and
curses at me. Leaning over me, he
cried: Look You want to see! See!
Feast your eyes, glut your soul on
my cursed ugliness; Look at Erik's
face! Now you know the face Of the
voice, You were not content to hear
me. Ell? You wanted to know what
looked like! Oh, you women are so
inquisitive, Well, are you satisfied?
I'm a very good-looking fellow. chr
When a woman has seen me.
as you have, she belongs to me. She
loves me for ever. 1 am a kind or
Don Juan, you know! And. drawing
himself up to his full height, with
his hand on his hip. wagging the
hideous thing that was his head on
his shoulders, he roared, Look at me!
1 am Don Juan triumphant And,
when | turned away my head and
: begged for mercy, he drew it 20 him,
/ brutally, twisting his dead fingers into
my hair"
Enough, Enough" cried Raoul.
"I will kill him. In heavens name,
Christine, tell me where the dining
room on the lake isl l must kill
him!"
"Oh, be quiet, Raoul, if you want to
know"
Yes, want to know how and, why
you went back; / must know! :.
But in any case, will kill him!"
"Oh, Raoul, listen, listen!
He dragged me by my hair and then
and then Oh, 1t is
too horrible!"
well, what? Out with it," ex-
claimed Raoul fiercely. Out with 1t.
quickl"
Then he Kissed at me. 'Ah, I
brighten you, do I? 1 dare
say! Perhaps you think that
have another mask, eh, and that
this this my head is
mask? Well he roared. tear it on
as you did the other! Come! Come
, along. I insist! Your hands! Your
J hands! Give me your hsndsi' And
| he seized my hands and dug them in
to his awful face. He tore his flesh
t with my nails, tore his terrible dead
| flesh with my nails! Know
/ he shouted, while his throat throbbed
, and painted like a furnace, know that
t l am built up of death from head to
3 foot, and that 1t is corpse that loves
< you and adores you and will never.
t never leave you! Look, am
u not laughing now, am crying, crying
C for you, Christine, who have torn on
8 my mask and who therefore can
! never leave me again! AS
C long as you thought me handsome you
y could have come back, l know you
u would have come back but,
IS now that you know my hideousness,
s. you would run away for good. .
Is So l shall keep you here!
It Why did you want to see me? Oh,
mad Christine, who wanted to see me!
When my own father never
70 saw me and when my mother, so as
uOL W see Lle, uldO0 Iuo d pIcSOuI Vi
d my first maskl'
S. HE had let go of me at last and
a was dragging himself about on the
ID floor, uttering terrible sobs. And then
D. he crawled away like a snake, went
1t into his room, closed the door and left
d, me alone to my reflections. Presently
g 1 heard the sound of the organ; and
10 then | began to understand Erik's con
IT temptuous phrase when he spoke
I. about opera music. What | now
h heard was utterly different from what
e / had heard up to then. His Don
1t Juan Triumphant (for l had not a
Il, doubt but that he had rushed to his
lie masterpiece to forget the horror OF
the momenD seemed to me at first
Of one long, awful, magnificent sob. But
le little by little, it expressed every emo
ID ton, every suffering of which man
e kind is capable. 1t intoxicated me;
and l opened the door that separated
l.. US. Erik rose, as I entered, but dared
not turn in my direction. Erik
n cried, show me your face without
lie fear! l swear that you are the most
e. unhappy and sublime of men; and, i
ever again | SILVER when l look a
n, you, it will be because | am thinking
re of the splendor of your genius!' Their
as Erik turned round, for he believed
me, and l also had faith in myself
Il, He fell at my feet, with words O
OF love with words Of love IL
his dead mouth and the mu
DIS sic had ceased .. He kissed the
n hem of my dress and did not see tina
/ closed my eyes.
What more can I tell you, dear
an You now know the tragedy. 1t wen
IT. on for a fortnight-a fortnight during
p- which l lied to him. My lies were a
hideous as the monster who inspires
them: but they were the price OF NJ.
liberty. l burned his mask; and
managed so well that, even when b
was not singing, he tried 10 catch M
eye, like dog sitting by its master
He was my faithful slave and paid IN
endless little attentions. Gradually,
gave him such confidence that he yer
tured to take me walking on tn
banks OF the lake and to row me /