i ran round my little apartment, looking for a way of escape which icould not find.i upbraided myself for my absurd superstition, which had caused me to fall into the trap.i felt inclined to laugh and to cry at the game time.
"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 ihad 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 ishould 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.