The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five VolumesPoe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition: Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Indexes; Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849; Short stories
This event occurred about two years after the atrocity in the Rue
Morgue. Marie, whose Christian and family name will at once
arrest attention from their resemblance to those of the
unfortunate “cigar girl,” was the only daughter of the widow
Estelle Rogêt. The father had died during the child’s infancy,
and from the period of his death, until within eighteen months
before the assassination which forms the subject of our
narrative, the mother and daughter had dwelt together in the Rue
Pavée Saint Andrée; (*3) Madame there keeping a pension, assisted
by Marie. Affairs went on thus until the latter had attained her
twenty-second year, when her great beauty attracted the notice of
a perfumer, who occupied one of the shops in the basement of the
Palais Royal, and whose custom lay chiefly among the desperate
adventurers infesting that neighborhood. Monsieur Le Blanc (*4)
was not unaware of the advantages to be derived from the
attendance of the fair Marie in his perfumery; and his liberal
proposals were accepted eagerly by the girl, although with
somewhat more of hesitation by Madame.
The anticipations of the shopkeeper were realized, and his rooms
soon became notorious through the charms of the sprightly
grisette. She had been in his employ about a year, when her
admirers were thrown info confusion by her sudden disappearance
from the shop. Monsieur Le Blanc was unable to account for her
absence, and Madame Rogêt was distracted with anxiety and terror.
The public papers immediately took up the theme, and the police
were upon the point of making serious investigations, when, one
fine morning, after the lapse of a week, Marie, in good health,
but with a somewhat saddened air, made her re-appearance at her
usual counter in the perfumery. All inquiry, except that of a
private character, was of course immediately hushed. Monsieur Le
Blanc professed total ignorance, as before. Marie, with Madame,
replied to all questions, that the last week had been spent at
the house of a relation in the country. Thus the affair died
away, and was generally forgotten; for the girl, ostensibly to
relieve herself from the impertinence of curiosity, soon bade a
final adieu to the perfumer, and sought the shelter of her
mother’s residence in the Rue Pavée Saint Andrée.
It was about five months after this return home, that her friends
were alarmed by her sudden disappearance for the second time.
Three days elapsed, and nothing was heard of her. On the fourth
her corpse was found floating in the Seine, * near the shore
which is opposite the Quartier of the Rue Saint Andrée, and at a
point not very far distant from the secluded neighborhood of the
Barrière du Roule. (*6)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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