But inasmuch as I already have a creepy feeling I might
as well finish the story."
She opened the book again and read further: "This old portrait itself,
the original of which plays such a role in Hohenzollern history, has
likewise a significance as a picture in the special history of the
Hermitage. No doubt, one circumstance that has something to do with
this is the fact that the picture hangs on a papered door, which is
invisible to the stranger and behind which there is a stairway leading
down into the cellar. It is said that when Napoleon spent the night
here the 'Lady in white' stepped out of the frame and walked up to his
bed. The Emperor, starting with fright, the story continues, called
for his adjutant, and to the end of his life always spoke with
exasperation of this 'cursed palace.'"
"I must give up trying to calm myself by reading," said Effi. "If I
read further, I shall certainly come to a vaulted cellar that the
devil once rode out of on a wine cask. There are several of these in
Germany, I believe, and in a tourist's handbook all such things have
to be collected; that goes without saying. So I will close my eyes,
rather, and recall my wedding-eve celebration as well as I can,--how
the twins could not get any farther because of their tears, and how,
when everybody looked at everybody else with embarrassment, Cousin von
Briest declared that such tears opened the gate to Paradise. He was
truly charming and always in such exuberant spirits.
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