The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-05-09

| walls were all hung with black, but,
| instead of the white trimmings that
usually set off that funeral upholstery,
| there was an enormous stave Of music
with the notes OF the Dies Irae, many
| times repeated IN the middle of the
room was a canopy from which hung
| curtains Of red brocaded stuff. and,
under the canopy, an open coffin.
That is where / Sleep said Erik.
/ "One has to get used to everything
| in life, even to eternity The sight
upset me so much that turned away
| my head.
/ Then / saw the keyboard of an
| organ which filled one whole side OF
| the walls. On the desk was a music
| book covered with red notes. | asked
leave to look at 1t and read, Don
Juan Triumphant Yes he said, L
compose sometimes. | began that
work twenty years ago. When 1 have
| finished | shall take 1t away with fnv
In that coffin and never wake up
| again YOU must work at it as sell
| dom as you can,' | said He replied,
| / sometimes work at it for fourteen
| days and nights together, during which
l live on music only, and then l rest
| for years at a time Will you play
+, me something out of your Don Juan
! Triumphant | asked, thinking to
| please him. You must never ask me
| that he said, in a gloomy voice. L
will play you Mozart, if you like,
| which will only make you weep; but
| my Don Juan, Christine, burns; and
! yet he is not struck by fire from
| heaven ThereupOn We returned to
| the drawing-roOm / noticed that
| there was no mirror in the whole
! apartment. | was going to remark
| upon this, but Erik had already sat
| down to the piano. He said, You
| see, Christine, there is some music
| that is so terrible that it consumes
all those who approach 1t. Fortunate
] ly, you have not come to that music
| yet, for you would lose all your pretty
| coloring and nobody would know you
when you returned to Paris. Let us
| sing something from the opera, Chris
| tine Daae.' He spoke these last words
as though he were Ringing an insult
at me"
What did you dor
81 had no time to think about the
meaning he put into his words. We
at once began the duet in Othello and
already the catastrophe was upon US.
| sang Desdemona with a despair, q
terror which | had never displayed
C
dered forth his revengeful soul at
! every note. Love, jealousy, hatred,
burst out around us in narrowing
cries. Erik's black mask made me
think of the natural mask OF the Moor
Of Venice. He was OthellO himself.
Suddenly, | felt a need to see beneath
the mask. | wanted to know the face
of the voice, and, with a movement
which | was utterly unable to control,
swiftly my fingers tore away the
raask. Oh. horror. horror, horror!"
Christine stopped, at the thought OF
the vision that had scared her, while
the echoes of the night, which had
repeated the name of Erik now thrice
moaned the cry:
Horror. Horror! /.
Horror."
Raoul and Christine, clasping each
i>other closely, raised their eyes to the
stars that shone in clear and peace
full sky. Raoul said:
Strange, Christine, that this calm,
soft night should be so full of plaintive
sounds One would think that it was
sorrowing with u.s."
when you know the secret, Raoul,
your ears, like mine, will be full OF
lamentations.
She took RaouFs protecting hands
in hers and, with long shiver. con-
t1nued:
Yes, if | lived to be a hundred,
should always hear the superhuman
cry Of grief and rage which he ut
tered when the terrible sight ap-
peared before my eyes. Raoul,
you have seen deaths heads, when
they have been dried and withered by
the centuries, and, perhaps, il you
were not the victim of nightmare,
you saw his deaths head at Perros.
And then you saw Red Death stalk
ing about at the last masked BALL But
all those deaths heads were notion
less and their dumb horror was not
alive. But imagine, if you can, Red
| Deaths mask suddenly coming to life
in order to express, with the four
black holes of its eyes, its nose, and
! it's mouth, the extreme anger, the
mighty fury of a demon; and not a
ray of light from the sockets for, as
| | learned later, you cannot see his
blazing eyes except In the dark.
Il fell back against the wall and he
came up to me, grinding his teeth,
and, as | fell upon my knees, he
Kissed mad incoherent words and
curses at me. Leaning over me, he
cried: Look, You want to seeI See!
Feast your eyes, glut your soul on
my cursed ugliness! Look at Erik's
facet 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, Ell?
When a woman has seen me,
as you have. she belongs to me. She
| loves me for ever. | am a kind of
Don Juan, you know And. drawing
| himself up to his full height, with
| his hand on his hip, wagging the
' hot