Contents ‘The Bloody Chamber ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon The Tiger’s Bride Puss-in-Boots ‘The Exl-King ‘The Snow Child ‘The Lady of the House of Love ‘The Werewolf ‘The Company of Wolves, Wolf-Alice a st Cy on 3 108 110 ng‘he Bloody Chariber Thad the brief notion closed the ofice door and locked it, the means to my way. ind with the clatter of a dropped canteen of cutlery, he slick Yale lock, I contrived, somehow, to open up 50 that all the keys tumbled loose on the floor. And the very frst key I picked out of that pile was, it, the key to the room he had forbidden me, the room he for his own 50 that he could go there when he wished to The Bloody Chamber deluded by his apparent taste for me to think my disobedience might truly offend him. Took the forbidden key from the heap and left the others lying there Jate and the castle was adrift, asf ld go middle of the silent ocean w tht. And all silent, row, dusty litle passage at all; why had he lied to me? ty, for some reason, did not to the thickly carpeted floor, The heavy hangings on the wall muffled ry footsteps, even my breathing. For some reason, it grew very warm; the sweat sprang out in beads on my brow. F could no longer hear the sound of the sea. ‘Along, a winding corridor, as if T were in the viscera of the castle; and this corridor led to a door of worm-eaten cak, ow, round-topped, i subtly tainted innocence, I the key and the door ereaked slowly back, “There is a striking resemblance between ininistrations of a torturer,’ opined my hi had learned something of the nature of that Carter, Argela. 1919. The Bloody Chamber, Wew Yor: Renguio‘The Bloody Chamber bed. And now my also a great wheel, and, on three-legged ebony ‘burning which filled the ly asf they were items of almost persuaded myself he had filed my zed with a sombre Chinese struck a match to light those candles round her bed, it seemed a garment of that innocence of mine for which he had lusted fell candles flickered on her wk dead lips smiled, Beyond the catafalque, in the middle of the shadows, a white, nacreous glimmer; as my eyes accustomed themselves to the gathering darkness, Tat lst ob, horrors! ~ made out a skull; yes, a skull, 90 Carter, , Angela - 1499. The Bloody Chamber, New a” Hl IS ‘ ight. One filse step, ob, my poor, dear of his wives; one false step and stumbled. ime through the east a spool of inexorability. But, at fist, T could see no sign ‘of her, ‘Then, for some reason ~ perhaps some change of atmosphere ‘wrought by my presence ~ the metal shell ofthe Iron Maiden emitted 2 ination might have guessed its oocu- ‘though, even in the midst of my rising when T saw the ring for which I had sold myself to this fate, was, how to escape it. retained sufficient presence of mind to snuff out the candles round the bier with my fingers, to gather up my taper, to look around, al- though shuddering, to ensure T had left behind me no traces of my visit. 1 retrieved the key from the pool of blood, wrapped it in my hand