第44章 A Master-Stroke of the Trap-Door Lover (1)

Raoul and Christine ran, eager to escape from the roof and the blazing eyes that showed only in the dark; and they did not stop before they came to the eighth floor on the way down.

There was no performance at the Opera that night and the passages were empty.Suddenly, a queer-looking form stood before them and blocked the road:

"No, not this way!"

And the form pointed to another passage by which they were to reach the wings.Raoul wanted to stop and ask for an explanation.

But the form, which wore a sort of long frock-coat and a pointed cap, said:

"Quick! Go away quickly!"

Christine was already dragging Raoul, compelling him to start running again.

"But who is he? Who is that man?" he asked.

Christine replied: "It's the Persian."

"What's he doing here?"

"Nobody knows.He is always in the Opera.""You are making me run away, for the first time in my life.

If we really saw Erik, what I ought to have done was to nail him to Apollo's lyre, just as we nail the owls to the walls of our Breton farms; and there would have been no more question of him.""My dear Raoul, you would first have had to climb up to Apollo's lyre:

that is no easy matter."

"The blazing eyes were there!"

"Oh, you are getting like me now, seeing him everywhere!

What I took for blazing eyes was probably a couple of stars shining through the strings of the lyre."And Christine went down another floor, with Raoul following her.

"As you have quite made up your mind to go, Christine, I assure you it would be better to go at once.Why wait for to-morrow? He may have heard us to-night.""No, no, he is working, I tell you, at his Don Juan Triumphant and not thinking of us.""You're so sure of that you keep on looking behind you!""Come to my dressing-room."

"Hadn't we better meet outside the Opera?""Never, till we go away for good! It would bring us bad luck, if I did not keep my word.I promised him to see you only here.""It's a good thing for me that he allowed you even that.Do you know,"said Raoul bitterly, "that it was very plucky of you to let us play at being engaged?""Why, my dear, he knows all about it! He said, `I trust you, Christine.M.de Chagny is in love with you and is going abroad.

Before he goes, I want him to be as happy as I am.' Are people so unhappy when they love?""Yes, Christine, when they love and are not sure of being loved."They came to Christine's dressing-room.

"Why do you think that you are safer in this room than on the stage?"asked Raoul."You heard him through the walls here, therefore he can certainly hear us.""No.He gave me his word not to be behind the walls of my dressing-room again and I believe Erik's word.This room and my bedroom on the lake are for me, exclusively, and not to be approached by him.""How can you have gone from this room into that dark passage, Christine? Suppose we try to repeat your movements; shall we?""It is dangerous, dear, for the glass might carry me off again;and, instead of running away, I should be obliged to go to the end of the secret passage to the lake and there call Erik.""Would he hear you?"

"Erik will hear me wherever I call him.He told me so.He is a very curious genius.You must not think, Raoul, that he is simply a man who amuses himself by living underground.He does things that no other man could do; he knows things which nobody in the world knows.""Take care, Christine, you are making a ghost of him again!""No, he is not a ghost; he is a man of Heaven and earth, that is all.""A man of Heaven and earth...that is al!...A nice way to speak of him!

...And are you still resolved to run away from him?""Yes, to-morrow."

"To-morrow, you will have no resolve left!""Then, Raoul, you must run away with me in spite of myself;is that understood?"

"I shall be here at twelve to-morrow night; I shall keep my promise, whatever happens.You say that, after listening to the performance, he is to wait for you in the dining-room on the lake?""Yes."

"And how are you to reach him, if you don't know how to go out by the glass?""Why, by going straight to the edge of the lake."Christine opened a box, took out an enormous key and showed it to Raoul.

"What's that?" he asked.

"The key of the gate to the underground passage in the Rue Scribe.""I understand, Christine.It leads straight to the lake.

Give it to me, Christine, will you?"

"Never!" she said."That would bet reacherous!"Suddenly Christine changed color.A mortal pallor overspread her features.

"Oh heavens!" she cried."Erik! Erik! Have pity on me!""Hold your tongue!" said Raoul."You told me he could hear you!"But the singer's attitude became more and more inexplicable.

She wrung her fingers, repeating, with a distraught air;"Oh, Heaven! Oh, Heaven!"

"But what is it? What is it?" Raoul implored.

"The ring...the gold ring he gave me."

"Oh, so Erik gave you that ring!"

"You know he did, Raoul! But what you don't know is that, when he gave it to me, he said, `I give you back your liberty, Christine, on condition that this ring is always on your finger.

As long as you keep it, you will be protected against all danger and Erik will remain your friend.But woe to you if you ever part with it, for Erik will have his revenge!'...My dear, my dear, the ring is gone!...Woe to us both!"They both looked for the ring, but could not find it.

Christine refused to be pacified.

"It was while I gave you that kiss, up above, under Apollo's lyre,"she said."The ring must have slipped from my finger and dropped into the street! We can never find it.And what misfortunes are in store for us now! Oh, to run away!""Let us run away at once," Raoul insisted, once more.

She hesitated.He thought that she was going to say yes.

...Then her bright pupils became dimmed and she said:

"No! To-morrow!"

And she left him hurriedly, still wringing and rubbing her fingers, as though she hoped to bring the ring back like that.

Raoul went home, greatly perturbed at all that he had heard.

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