All language subtitles for Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu Chapter 6 A Very Strange Agony Read by Elise Bauman.eng.eng

hello and welcome back it's me again

reading chapter six

a very strange agony

when we got into the drawing room and

had sat down to our coffee and chocolate

although carmilla did not take any she

seemed quite herself again

madame and mademoiselle de la fontaine

joined us and made a little card party

in the course of which papa came in for

what he called his dish of tea

when the game was over he sat down

beside carmilla on the sofa and asked

her a little anxiously whether she had

heard from her mother since her arrival

she answered no he then asked whether

she knew

where a letter would reach her at

present i cannot tell

she answered ambiguously but i have been

thinking of leaving you

you have already been too hospitable and

too kind to me i have given you an

infinity of trouble and i should wish to

take a carriage tomorrow and post in

pursuit of her

i know where i shall ultimately find her

although i dare not tell you yet

but you must not dream of any such thing

exclaimed my father to my great relief

we can't afford to lose you so and i

won't consent to you leaving us

except under the care of your mother who

is so good is to consent to your

remaining with us till she should

herself return

i should be quite happy if i knew that

you had heard from her but this evening

the accounts of the progress of the

mysterious disease

that has invaded our neighborhood grow

even more alarming

that seems topical and my beautiful

guest i do feel the responsibility

unaided by advice from your mother very

much but i shall do my best

and one thing is certain that you must

not think of leaving us

without her distinct direction to that

effect we should suffer too much in

parting from use

to consent to it easily thank you sir a

thousand times for your hospitality she

answered

smiling bashfully you have all been too

kind to me i've seldom been so happy in

all my life before

is in your beautiful chateau under your

care and in the society of your dear

daughter

so he gallantly in his old fashioned way

kissed her hand

smiling and pleased at her little speech

i accompanied carmilla as usual to her

room

and sat and chatted with her while she

was preparing for bed do you think

i said at length that you will ever

fully confide in me

she turned around smiling but made no

answer only continued to smile

on me you won't answer that i asked

you can't answer pleasantly i ought not

to have asked you

you were quite right to ask me that or

anything you do not know how dear you

are to me

or you could not think any confidence

too great to look for

but i am under vows no none half so

awfully

and i dare not tell my story yet even to

you time is very near

when you shall know everything you will

think me cruel very selfish

but love is always selfish is it

more are the more selfish i agree to

disagree

how jealous i am that you cannot know

you must come with me

loving me to death or else hate me and

still come with me

and hating me through death and after

imagine if those were wedding vows gotta

hate me through death there is no such

word as indifference

in my apathetic nature now carmilla you

are going to talk your wild nonsense

again i said

hastily not i silly little fool as i am

and full of whims and fancies for your

sake i'll talk like a sage

were you ever at a ball no

how do you run on what is it like how

charming it must be

i almost forget it is years ago i

laughed

you are not so old your first ball can

hardly be forgotten

i remember everything about it with an

effort i see it all

as divers see what is going on above

them through medium

dense rippling but transparent there

occurred that night what has confused

the picture

made its colors faint i was all but

assassinated in my bed

wounded here she touched her breast and

never was the same

since were you near dying yes

very cruel love strange love that would

have taken my life

love will have its sacrifices

no sacrifice without blood let us go to

sleep now i feel so lazy

how can i get up just now and lock my

door she was lying with her tiny hands

buried in her rich wavy hair under her

cheek

her little head upon the pillow and her

glittering eyes followed me wherever i

moved with a kind of shy smile that i

could not decipher

i bid her good night and crept from the

room with an uncomfortable sensation

i often wondered whether our pretty

guest had ever said her prayers

i certainly had never seen her upon her

knees

only in your dreams in the morning she

never came down until long after our

family prayers were over and at night

she never left the drawing room to

attend our brief evening prayers in the

hall

if it had not been that it had casually

come out in one of our careless talks

that

she had been baptized i should have

doubted her being a christian

religion was a subject on which i had

never heard her spoke a word if i had

known the world better this particular

neglect or antipathy would not have so

much surprised me

the precautions of nervous people are

infectious and persons of a like

temperament are pretty sure

after a time to imitate them i had

adopted carmilla's habit of locking her

bedroom door

having taken into my head all her

whimsical alarms about midnight invaders

and prowling assassins

i had also adopted her precaution of

making a brief search through her room

to satisfy herself that no lurking

assassin

or robber was encompassed these wise

measures taken i got into my bed and

fell asleep

a light was burning in my room this was

an old habit a very early date

and which nothing could have tempted me

to dispense with thus fortified

i might take my rest in peace but dreams

come through stone walls

light up dark rooms or dark and light

ones and their persons make their exits

and their entrances as they please

and laugh at locksmiths i had a dream

that night that was beginning of a very

strange agony

i cannot call it a nightmare for i was

quite conscious of being asleep

but i was equally conscious of being in

my room and lying in bed precisely as i

actually was

i saw fancied i saw the room and its

furniture

just as i had seen it last except that

it was very dark

and i saw something moving around the

foot of my bed which at first i could

not accurately distinguish but i soon

saw that it was a sooty black animal

that resembled a monstrous cat it

appeared to me

about four or five feet long for it

measured fully the length of the hearth

rub that it had passed over

and it continued to throwing with the

live sinister restlessness of a beast in

the cage

i could not cry out although as you may

suppose i was terrified

its pace was growing faster and the room

rapidly darker and darker

and at length so dark that i could no

longer see anything of it but its eyes

i felt it spring lightly on the bed the

two broad eyes approached my face and

suddenly

i felt a stinging pain as if two large

needles darted

an inch or two apart deep into my breast

i waked with a scream

the room was lighted by the candle that

burnt there all throughout the night

and i saw a female figure standing at

the foot of the bed

a little at the right side it was in a

dark loose dress

and its hair was down and covered its

shoulders a block of stone could not

have been more still

there was not the slightest stir of

respiration as i stared at it

the figure appeared to have changed its

place and was now nearer the door

then close to it the door opened and it

passed out

i was now relieved and able to breathe

and move my first thought was that

carmilla had been playing a trick

that i had forgotten to secure my door i

hastened to it

and found it locked as usual on the

inside i was afraid to open it i was

horrified

i sprang into my bed and covered my head

up in my bed claws

and lay there more dead than alive till

morning

so you're a giant black cat huh

tune in again soon

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