Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/433

 least a hundred years. A deserted house is not, after all, a very astonishing thing; but in such a rich quarter, on land which might have yielded considerable revenue to the proprietor, there was certainly something in this to arouse the curiosity cf an idler, and I could no longer pass before the shed without making a thousand conjectures concerning it.

One fine day, at the time when the fashionables crowded each other like ants in a hill, I was reflecting, whilst leaning against a portico which faced the deserted house; a man whom I had not seen for a long time suddenly came to a stop near me, and drew me from my revery. It was count P, a day dreamer as singular at least as I was myself. He had reflected, like myself, enormously concerning the deserted house. His suppositions had exceeded my own, and he had succeeded in creating for himself thereupon so extravagant a story, that the boldest imagination could hardly admit the reality of it. But judge of the disappointment of the poor count, when, after having brought his story to a startling end, and in the most tragical fashion, he learned that the famous deserted house was simply the work-room of a fashionable confectioner, whose store was next to it. The windows of the basement had been walled-up to hide from the sight of the passers-by the furnaces and pans; and the windows of the first story had been stopped with paper, to preserve from the rays of the sun and the insects the manufactured sweet-meats which were stored there. This accursed information produced the effect of a cold douche bath upon me; it was no longer possible to dream about it, there was no longer any poetry in it! it was enough to make a sensible heart and a vivid imagination burst with rage. Nevertheless, in spite of the matter of fact explanation that I had received, I could not refrain from looking at the deserted house with an inexplicable dizziness that made me shudder. My astonished mind angrily rejected this idea of confections taking the place of the phantoms which had so powerfully occupied me; and I did not despair of seeing some day the fantastic world again