"This was the state of mind in which Erik found me. After giving three
taps on the wall, he walked in quietly through a door which I had not
noticed and which he left open. He had his arms full of boxes and
parcels and arranged them on the bed, in a leisurely fashion, while I
overwhelmed him with abuse and called upon him to take off his mask, if
it covered the face of an honest man. He replied serenely, 'You shall
never see Erik's face.' And he reproached me with not having finished
dressing at that time of day: he was good enough to tell me that it was
two o'clock in the afternoon. He said he would give me half an hour
and, while he spoke, wound up my watch and set it for me. After which,
he asked me to come to the dining-room, where a nice lunch was waiting
for us.
"I was very angry, slammed the door in his face and went to the
bath-room ... When I came out again, feeling greatly refreshed, Erik
said that he loved me, but that he would never tell me so except when I
allowed him and that the rest of the time would be devoted to music.
'What do you mean by the rest of the time?' I asked. 'Five days,' he
said, with decision. I asked him if I should then be free and he said,
'You will be free, Christine, for, when those five days are past, you
will have learned not to see me; and then, from time to time, you will
come to see your poor Erik!' He pointed to a chair opposite him, at a
small table, and I sat down, feeling greatly perturbed. However, I ate
a few prawns and the wing of a chicken and drank half a glass of tokay,
which he had himself, he told me, brought from the Konigsberg cellars.
Erik did not eat or drink. I asked him what his nationality was and if
that name of Erik did not point to his Scandinavian origin. He said
that he had no name and no country and that he had taken the name of
Erik by accident.
"After lunch, he rose and gave me the tips of his fingers, saying he
would like to show me over his flat; but I snatched away my hand and
gave a cry. What I had touched was cold and, at the same time, bony;
and I remembered that his hands smelt of death. 'Oh, forgive me!' he
moaned. And he opened a door before me. 'This is my bedroom, if you
care to see it. It is rather curious.' His manners, his words, his
attitude gave me confidence and I went in without hesitation. I felt
as if I were entering the room of a dead person. The walls were all
hung with black, but, instead of the white trimmings that usually set
off that funereal 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 I sleep,' said Erik.
'One has to get used to everything in life, even to eternity.' The
sight upset me so much that I turned away my head.