The Power of Darkness | Page 7

fitted in round him very
closely.
* * *
'What was it exactly that sent poor Vincent mad--you've never told
me?' Rose asked the question. She and Edward were looking out over
the pines and tamarisks across the blue Mediterranean. They were very
happy, because it was their honeymoon.
He told her about the Musée Grévin and the wager, but he did not state
the terms of it.
'But why did he think you would be afraid?'
He told her why.
'And then what happened?'
'Why, I suppose he thought there was no time like the present-- for his
five pounds, you know--and he hid among the waxworks. And I missed
my train, and, I thought, there was no time like the present. In fact, dear,
I thought if I waited I should have time to make certain of funking it.
So I hid there, too. And I put on my big black capuchon, and sat down
right in one of the waxwork groups-- they couldn't see me from the

gallery where you walk. And after they put the lights out I simply went
to sleep. And I woke up--and there was a light, and I heard someone
say:
"They're only wax," and it was Vincent. He thought I was one of the
wax people till I looked at him; and I expect he thought I was one of
them even then, poor chap. And his match went out, and while I was
trying to find my railway reading lamp that I'd got near me he began to
scream. And the night-watchman came running. And now he thinks
everyone in the asylum is made of wax, and he screams if they come
near him. They have to put his food near him while he's asleep. It's
horrible. I can't help feeling as if it were my fault somehow.'
'Of course it's not,' said Rose. 'Poor Vincent! Do you know, I never
really liked him.'
There was a pause. Then she said:
'But how was it you weren't frightened?'
'I was,' he said, 'horribly frightened. It--it--sounds idiotic, but I was
really. And yet I had to go through with it. And then I got among the
figures of the people in the Catacombs, the people who died for--for
things, don't you know, died in such horrible ways. And there they
were, so calm--and believing it was all right. So I thought about what
they'd gone through. It sounds awful rot, I know, dear, but I expect I
was sleepy. Those wax people, they sort of seemed as if they were alive,
and were telling me there wasn't anything to be frightened about. I felt
as if I was one of them--and they were all my friends, and they'd wake
me if anything went wrong. So I just went to sleep.'
'I think I understand,' she said. But she didn't.
'And the odd thing is,' he went on, 'I've never been afraid of the dark
since. Perhaps his calling me a coward had something to do with it.'
'I don't think so,' said she. And she was right. But she would never have
understood how, nor why.

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