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Celebrate Edward Gorey and his creative life! Purchase the anthology that contains this story, Amphigorey Again, online.
One day when she was five Angelica was in the gazebo, playing snap with her brothers.
Suddenly she caught sight of something rising from the ha-ha.
It was a spectral hippopotamus. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the bread pudding under the carpet.
She ran into the woods, and was not found by the servants until the sun was going down.
Seven years later she sneaked away from St. Torpid's to buy forbidden jujubes.
The hippopotamus attracted her attention from the back of a pantechnicon. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the novel with the yellow covers at the bottom of the laundry bag.
She jumped on a train, and was noticed only at closing time in a distant cinema.
Ten years came and went, and Angelica was being married for the first time.
The hippopotamus peered out at her from behind the altar. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the pack of letters up the chimney.
She pedaled off on a stolen bicycle; it was several weeks before she was recognized in a remote seaside lodging.
Another ten years passed; Angelica, at the height of her notoriety, attended a picnic in the Bois de Boulogne.
The hippopotamus showed himself on the top of a rock. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the emeralds in the cold cream.
She drove off in her host's Panhard-Levassor, and was not seen again until the season had begun in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
Seventeen years went by; on the Seppuku Maru in the Indian Ocean, Angelica had an assignation with a Eurasian stoker.
The hippopotamus clambered up the ladder from the second-class deck. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the screwdriver in the well.
She followed an inflatable raft overboard. It was thirty-eight days before she was picked up.
A quarter of a century afterwards, Angelica, now the Dowager Duchess of Paltry, was perambulating the grounds of Shambles.
The hippopotamus emerged from a grotto made of shells. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
She remembered the broiled champignons venueneux on toast.
She took the first down train fro Much Fidgeting; next morning she was apprehended in the aisles of Listless and Earshot.
In her eighty-sixth year Angelica was sinking rapidly.
The hippopotamus floated in at the window. "Fly at once!" he said. "All is discovered."
But she could not remember what it was he meant.
Her body fell lifeless on the bed.
Angelica rode away on the back of the hippopotamus.
Purchase the anthology that contains this story, Amphigorey Again, online.
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