Page:The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French (1910).djvu/70

Blue Beard 'Alas!' sobbed Fatima, 'they will never see me alive in this world!'

'But what has happened?' asked her sister, amazed.

'He—Blue Beard—has returned.… Yes, and in a few minutes he has promised to kill me. But ah! ask me no questions—there is so little time left. Dear sister, if you love me, run upstairs and still up to the top of the tower, look if my brothers are not coming, and if you see them, give them a signal to make haste!'

Her sister Anne left her and ran up, up, to the roof of the tower; and from time to time as the minutes sped, the unhappy Fatima cried up to her:—

Anne, Sister Anne, do you see any one coming?

And Sister Anne answered her:—

I see nothing but the noon dust a-blowing, and the green grass a-growing.'

By and by Blue Beard who had pulled out his huge sabre, and was trying its edge on the short turf of the terrace, shouted to her:—

'Wife, your time is up. Come down, and at once!' 42