Ashes by H. P. Lovecraft

Author:H. P. Lovecraft [Ismeretlen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“When I returned I missed Marjorie. I looked for her hat and coat, and they were gone. The Professor had not shown himself since the experiment upon the rabbit, and was locked in his workshop.

“I asked the servants, but none of them had seen her leave the house, nor h,d she left any message for me.

“As the afternoon wore on I grew frantic. Evening came, and still no sign of my dear little girl.

“All thought of work was forgotten. I paced the floor of my room like a caged lion. Every jangle of the `phone or ring at the door bolstered up my faltering hopes of some word from her, but each time I was doomed to disappointment. Each minute seemed an hour; each hour an eternity!

“Good God, Prague! You can’t imagine how I suffered! From the heights of sublime love I mentally plunged to the darkest depths of despair. I conjured visions of all sorts of terrible fates overtaking her. Still, not a word did I hear.

“It seemed to me that I had lived a lifetime, but my watch told me it was only half-past seven when the butler told me that Van Allister wanted me in the laboratory.

“I was in no mood for experiments, but while I was under his roof he was my master, and it was for me to obey.

“The Professor was in his workshop, the door slightly ajar. He called to me to close the door of the laboratory and join him in the little room.

“In my present state of mind my brain photographed every minute detail of the scene which met my eyes. In the center of the room, on a marble-top table, was a glass case about the shape and size of a coffin. It was filled almost to the brim with that same colorless liquid which the small bottle had contained, two days before.

“At the left, on a glass-top tabourette, was a newly labeled glass jar. I could not repress an involuntary shudder as I realized that it was filled with soft, white ashes. Then I saw something that almost made my heart stop beating!

“On a chair, in a far corner of the workshop, was the hat and coat of the girl who had pledged her life to mine - the girl whom I had vowed to cherish and protect while life should last!

“My senses were numbed, my soul surcharged with horror, as realization flashed over me. There could be but one explanation. The ashes in that jar were the ashes of Marjorie Purdy!

“The world stood still for one long, terrible moment, and then I went mad-stark, staring mad!

“The next I can remember, the Professor and I were locked in a desperate struggle. Old as he was, he still possessed a strength nearly equal to mine, and he had the added advantage of calm self-possession.

“Closer and closer he forced me to the glass coffin. A few moments more and my ashes would join those of the girl I had loved. I stumbled against the tabourette, and my fingers closed over the jar of ashes.

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