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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 4 - In the Bosom of Wild Nature · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Mystery of the Yellow Room. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more free audio books or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Mystery of the Yellow
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  Speaker 1: Room by Gaston Leroux, chapter four in the Bosom of
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  Speaker 1: wild Nature. The Chateau du Glandiere is one of the
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  Speaker 1: oldest chateau in the Eil de France, where so many
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  Speaker 1: building remains of the feudal period are still standing. Built
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  Speaker 1: originally in the heart of the forest in the reign
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  Speaker 1: of Philippe le Belle, it now could be seen a
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  Speaker 1: few hundred yards from the road leading from the village
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  Speaker 1: of Saint Janvie to onnteris a mass of inharmonious structures.
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  Speaker 1: It is dominated by a donjehon. When the visitor has
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  Speaker 1: mounted the crumbling steps of this ancient donjeon, he reaches
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  Speaker 1: a little plateau where, in the seventeenth century George Vilbert
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  Speaker 1: de Saint Guigni, lord of the Glandier, Massonneve and other places,
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  Speaker 1: build the existing town and an abominably Rococo style of architecture.
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  Speaker 1: It was in this place, seemingly belonging entirely to the
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  Speaker 1: past that Professor Stangerson and his daughter installed themselves to
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  Speaker 1: lay the foundations for the science of the future. Its
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  Speaker 1: solitude in the depths of the woods was what, more
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  Speaker 1: than all had pleased them. They would have none to
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  Speaker 1: witness their labors and intrude on their hopes, but the
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  Speaker 1: aged stones and grand old oaks. The Glandier ancient Glandierum,
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  Speaker 1: was so called from the quantity of glands acorns which
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  Speaker 1: in all times had been gathered in that neighborhood. This
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  Speaker 1: land of present mournful interest had fallen back, owing to
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  Speaker 1: the negligence or abandonment of its owners, into the wild
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  Speaker 1: character of primitive nature. The buildings alone, which were hidden there,
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  Speaker 1: had preserved traces of their strange metamorphoses. Every age had
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  Speaker 1: left on them its imprint, a bit of architecture with
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  Speaker 1: which was bound up the remembrance of some terrible event,
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  Speaker 1: some bloody adventure, such was the chateau in which science
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  Speaker 1: had taken refuge, a place seemingly designed to be the
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  Speaker 1: theater of mysteries, terror and death. Having explained so far,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot refrain from making one further reflection. If I
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  Speaker 1: have lingered a little over this description of the Glandier.
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  Speaker 1: It is not because I have reached the right moment
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  Speaker 1: for creating the necessary atmosphere for the unfolding of the
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  Speaker 1: tragedy before the eyes of the reader. Indeed, in all
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  Speaker 1: this matter, my first care will be to be as
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  Speaker 1: simple as is possible. I have no ambition to be
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  Speaker 1: an author. An author is always something of a romancer,
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  Speaker 1: and God knows the mystery of the Yellow Room is
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  Speaker 1: quite full enough of real tragic horror to require no
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  Speaker 1: aid from literary effects. I am an only desire to
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  Speaker 1: be a faithful reporter. My duty is to report the event,
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  Speaker 1: and I place the event in its frame. That is all.
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  Speaker 1: It is only natural that you should know where the
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  Speaker 1: things happened. I returned to Monsieur Stangerson when he bought
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  Speaker 1: the estate, fifteen years before the tragedy with which we
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  Speaker 1: are engaged occurred. The Chateau de Glandier had for a
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  Speaker 1: long time been unoccupied. Another old chateau in the neighborhood,
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  Speaker 1: built in the fourteenth century by Jean de Belmont, was
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  Speaker 1: also abandoned, so that that part of the country was
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  Speaker 1: very little inhabited. Some small houses on the side of
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  Speaker 1: the road leading to corbet, an inn called the Aaubert
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  Speaker 1: de Do'njean, which offered passing hospitality to wagoners. These were
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  Speaker 1: about all to represent civilization in this out of the
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  Speaker 1: way part of the country, but a few leagues from
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  Speaker 1: the capital. But this deserted condition of the place had
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  Speaker 1: been the determining reason for the choice made by Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson and his daughter. Monsieur Stangerson was already celebrated. He
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  Speaker 1: had returned from America, where his works had made a
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  Speaker 1: great stir. The book which he had published at Philadelphia
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  Speaker 1: on the Dissociation of matter by electric action, had aroused
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  Speaker 1: opposition throughout the whole scientific world. Monsieur Stangerson was a
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  Speaker 1: friend benchman, but of American origin. Important matters relating to
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  Speaker 1: a legacy had kept him for several years in the
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  Speaker 1: United States, where he had continued the work begun by
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  Speaker 1: him in France, Whither he had returned in possession of
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  Speaker 1: a large fortune. This fortune was a great boon to him,
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  Speaker 1: for though he might have made millions of dollars by
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  Speaker 1: exploiting two or three of his chemical discoveries relative to
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  Speaker 1: new processes of dyeing, it was always repugnant to him
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  Speaker 1: to use for his own private gain. The wonderful gift
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  Speaker 1: of invention he had received from nature, he considered he
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  Speaker 1: owed it to mankind, and all that his genius brought
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  Speaker 1: into the world went by this philosophical view of his
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  Speaker 1: duty into the public lap. If he did not try
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  Speaker 1: to conceal his satisfaction at coming into possession of this fortune,
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  Speaker 1: which enabled him to give himself up to his passion
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  Speaker 1: for pure science, he had equally to rejoice, it seemed
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  Speaker 1: to him for another cause. Mademoiselle Stangerson was, at the
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  Speaker 1: time when her father returned from America and bought the
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  Speaker 1: Glandierre estate, twenty years of age. She was exceedingly pretty,
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  Speaker 1: having at once the Parisian grace of her mother, who
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  Speaker 1: had died in giving her birth, and all the splendor
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  Speaker 1: all the riches of the young American blood of her
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  Speaker 1: paternal grandfather, William Stangerson, a citizen of Philadelphia. William Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: had been obliged to become naturalized in obedience to family
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  Speaker 1: exigencies at the time of his marriage with a French lady,
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  Speaker 1: she who was to be the mother of the illustrious Stangerson.
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  Speaker 1: In that way, the professor's French nationality is accounted for
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  Speaker 1: twenty years of age. A charming blonde with blue eyes,
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  Speaker 1: milk white complexion, and radiant with divine health, Mattilde Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: was one of the most beautiful marriageable girls in either
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  Speaker 1: the old or the New world. It was her father's duty,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the inevitable pain which a separation from
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  Speaker 1: her would cause him to think of her marriage, and
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  Speaker 1: he was fully prepared for it. Nevertheless, he buried himself
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  Speaker 1: and his child at the Glandier. At the moment when
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  Speaker 1: his friends were expecting him to bring her out into society,
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  Speaker 1: some of them expressed their astonishment, and to their questions
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  Speaker 1: he answered, it is my daughter's wish. I can refuse
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  Speaker 1: her nothing. She has chosen. The Glandier interrogated. In her turn,
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  Speaker 1: the young girl replied, calmly, where could we work better
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  Speaker 1: than in this solitude. For Mademoiselle Stangerson had already begun
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  Speaker 1: to collaborate with her father in his work, it could
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  Speaker 1: not at the time be imagined that her passion for
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  Speaker 1: science would lead her so far as to refuse all
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  Speaker 1: the suitors who presented themselves to her. For over fifteen years,
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  Speaker 1: so secluded was the life led by the two father
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  Speaker 1: and daughter, that they showed themselves only at a few
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  Speaker 1: official receptions, and at certain times in the year in
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  Speaker 1: two or three friendly drawing rooms, where the fame of
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  Speaker 1: the professor and the beauty of Matilde made a sensation.
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  Speaker 1: The young girl's extreme reserve did not at first discourage suitors,
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  Speaker 1: but at the end of a few years they tired
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  Speaker 1: of their one alone, persisted with tender tenacity, and deserved
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  Speaker 1: the name of eternal fiancee, a name he accepted with
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  Speaker 1: melancholy resignation. That was Monsieur Robert Darzac. Mademoiselle Stangerson was
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  Speaker 1: now no longer young, and it seemed that, having found
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  Speaker 1: no reason for marrying at five and thirty, she would
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  Speaker 1: never find one. But such an argument evidently found no
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  Speaker 1: acceptance with Monsieur Robert Darzac. He continued to pay his
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  Speaker 1: court if the delicate and tender attention with which he
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  Speaker 1: ceaselessly surrounded this woman of five and thirty could be
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  Speaker 1: called courtship in face of her declared intention never to marry. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: some weeks before the events with which we are occupied,
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  Speaker 1: a report to which nobody attached any importance, so incredible
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  Speaker 1: that its sound was spread about Paris that Mademoiselle Stangerson
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  Speaker 1: had at last consented to crown the inexhaustible flame of
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Robert Darzac. It needed that Monsieur Robert Darzac himself
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  Speaker 1: should not deny this matrimonial rumor to give it an
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  Speaker 1: appearance of truth. So unlikely did it seem to be
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  Speaker 1: well founded. One day, however, Monsieur Stangerson, as he was
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  Speaker 1: leaving the Academy of Science, announced that the marriage of
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  Speaker 1: his daughter and Monsieur Robert Darzac would be celebrated in
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  Speaker 1: the privacy of the Chateau du Glandier. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: he and his daughter had put the finishing touches to
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  Speaker 1: their report summing up their labors on the disassociation of matter.
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  Speaker 1: The new household would install itself in the Glandier, and
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  Speaker 1: the son in law would lend his assistance in the
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  Speaker 1: work to which the father and daughter had dedicated their lives.
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  Speaker 1: The scientific world had barely had time to recover from
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  Speaker 1: the effect of this news when it learned of the
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  Speaker 1: attempted assassination of Mademoiselle. Under the extraordinary conditions which we
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  Speaker 1: have detailed and which our visit to the chateau was
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  Speaker 1: to enable us to ascertain with yet greater precision. I
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  Speaker 1: have not hesitated to furnish the reader with all these
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  Speaker 1: retrospective details known to me through my business relay with
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Robert Darzac. On crossing the threshold of the Yellow Room,
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  Speaker 1: he was as well posted as I was. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter four