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The Phantom of the Opera Chapter XV - Christine! Christine! · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LaRue,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Alexander to Zara Dematus. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Chapter fifteen, Christine Christine. Raoul's first
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  Speaker 1: thought after Christine Day's fantastic disappearance was to accuse Eric.
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  Speaker 1: He no longer doubted the almost supernatural powers of the
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  Speaker 1: Angel of music in this domain of the opera in
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  Speaker 1: which he had set up his empire. And Raoul rushed
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  Speaker 1: on the stage in a mad fit of love and
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  Speaker 1: despair Christine Christine. He moaned, calling to her, as he
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  Speaker 1: felt that she must be calling to him from the
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  Speaker 1: depths of that dark pit to which the monster had
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  Speaker 1: carried her, Christine Christine, and he seemed to hear the
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  Speaker 1: girl's screams through the frail boards that separated him from her.
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  Speaker 1: He bent forward, he listened, He wandered over the stage
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  Speaker 1: like a madman, ah to descend, to descend into that
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  Speaker 1: pit of darkness, every entrance to which was closed to him,
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  Speaker 1: for the stairs that led below the stage were forbidden
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  Speaker 1: to one and all that night, Christine Christine. People pushed
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  Speaker 1: him aside, laughing. They made fun of him. They thought
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  Speaker 1: the poor lover's brain was gone. But what mad rode through?
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  Speaker 1: What passages of mystery and darkness known to him alone?
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  Speaker 1: Had Eric dragged that pure souled child to the awful
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  Speaker 1: haunt with the Louis Philippe room opening out on the lake? Christine? Christine,
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  Speaker 1: why don't you answer? Are you alive? Hideous thoughts flashed
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  Speaker 1: through Raoul's congested brain. Of course Eric must have discovered
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  Speaker 1: their secret, must have known that Christine had played him false.
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  Speaker 1: What a vengeance would be his? And Raoul thought again
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  Speaker 1: of the yellow stars that had come the night before
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  Speaker 1: and roamed over his balcony. Why had he not put
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  Speaker 1: them out for good? There were some men's eyes that
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  Speaker 1: dilated in the darkness and shone like stars, or like
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  Speaker 1: cat's eyes. Certainly Albino's, who seemed to have rabbits eized
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  Speaker 1: by day, had cat's eyes at night. Everybody knew that, yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: he had undoubtedly fired at Eric. Why had he not
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  Speaker 1: killed him? The monster had fled up the gutter's spout
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  Speaker 1: like a cat or a convict who everybody knew that
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  Speaker 1: also would scale the very skies with the help of
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  Speaker 1: a getter's spout. No doubt, Eric was at that time
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  Speaker 1: contemplating some decisive step against Raoul, but he had been
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  Speaker 1: wounded and had escaped to turn against poor Christine instead.
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  Speaker 1: Such were the cruel thoughts that haunted Raoul as he
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  Speaker 1: ran to the singer's dressing room Christine Christine. Bitter tears
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  Speaker 1: scorched the boy's eyelids as he saw scattered over the
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  Speaker 1: furniture the clothes which his beautiful bride was to have
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  Speaker 1: worn at the hour of their flight. Oh why had
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  Speaker 1: she refused to leave earlier? Why had she toyed with
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  Speaker 1: the threatening catastrophe, Why too, with the monster's heart. Why,
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  Speaker 1: in a final access of pity had she insisted on
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  Speaker 1: flinging as a last sop to that demon's soul her
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  Speaker 1: divine song, Holy Angel in Heaven, blessed my spirit longs
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  Speaker 1: with thee to rest. Raoul, his throat filled with sobs,
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  Speaker 1: oaths and insults, fumbled awkwardly at the great mirror that
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  Speaker 1: had opened one night before his eyes to let Christine
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  Speaker 1: pass to the murky dwelling below. He pushed, pressed, groped about,
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  Speaker 1: but the glass apparently obeyed no one but Eric. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: actions were not enough with a glass of the kind.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps he was expected to utter certain words. When he
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  Speaker 1: was a little boy, he had heard that there were
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  Speaker 1: things that obeyed the spoken word. Suddenly, Raoul remembered something
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  Speaker 1: about a gait opening into the rue scribe, an underground
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  Speaker 1: passage running straight to the roofe scribe from the lake. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: Christine had told him about that, And when he found
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  Speaker 1: that the key was no longer in the box, he
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  Speaker 1: nevertheless ran to the roofe scribe Outside in the street.
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  Speaker 1: He passed his trembling hands over the huge stones, felt
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  Speaker 1: for outlets, met with iron bars. Were those they? Or these?
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  Speaker 1: Or could it be that air hole? He plunged his
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  Speaker 1: useless eyes through the bars. How dark it was in there?
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  Speaker 1: He listened, all was silence. He went round the building
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  Speaker 1: and came to bigger bars, immense gates. It was the
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  Speaker 1: entrance to the core deluded administration. Raoul pushed into the
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  Speaker 1: door keeper's lodge. I beg your pardon, madam. Could you
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  Speaker 1: tell me where to find a gate or door made
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  Speaker 1: of bars, iron bars, opening into the roofe scribe and
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  Speaker 1: leading to the lake. You know the lake I mean, yes,
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  Speaker 1: the underground lake under the opera. Yes, sir, I know
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  Speaker 1: there is a lake under the opera. But I don't
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  Speaker 1: know its door leads to it. I have never been there.
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  Speaker 1: And the rue scribe, madam, the rouecribe, have you never
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  Speaker 1: been to the roofe gribe? The woman laughed, screamed with laughter.
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  Speaker 1: Raoul darted away, roaring with anger, ran upstairs, four stairs
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  Speaker 1: at a time, downstairs, rushed through the whole of the
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  Speaker 1: business side of the opera house, found himself once more
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  Speaker 1: in the light of the stage. He stopped with his
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  Speaker 1: heart thumping in his chest. Suppose Christine Day had been found.
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  Speaker 1: He saw a group of men and asked, I beg
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  Speaker 1: your pardon, gentlemen, could you tell me where Christine Days?
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  Speaker 1: And somebody laughed. At the same moment, the stage buzzed
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  Speaker 1: with a new sound, and amid a crowd of men
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  Speaker 1: in the evening dress, all talking and gesticulating together, appeared
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  Speaker 1: a man who seemed very calm and displayed a pleasant face,
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  Speaker 1: all pink and chubby cheeked, crowned with curly hair, and
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  Speaker 1: lit up by a pair of wonderfully serene blue eyes. Mercier,
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  Speaker 1: the acting manager, called the Vicomte de Changnie's attention to
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  Speaker 1: him and said, this is the gentleman to whom you
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  Speaker 1: should put your question. Monsieur, let me introduce me frou
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  Speaker 1: the commissary of police. Oh, monsieur le comte de Chonnie,
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  Speaker 1: delighted to meet you, Monsieur said the comone. Would you
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  Speaker 1: mind coming with me? And now where are the managers?
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  Speaker 1: Where are the managers? Mercier did not answer, and Remy
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  Speaker 1: the secretary, volunteered the information that the managers were locked
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  Speaker 1: up in their office and that they knew nothing as
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  Speaker 1: yet of what had happened. You don't mean to say so,
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  Speaker 1: let us go up to the office, and Monsieur m Fray,
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  Speaker 1: followed by an ever increasing crowd, turned toward the business
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  Speaker 1: side of the building. Mercier took advantage of the confusion
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  Speaker 1: to slip a key into Gabrielle's hand. This is all
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  Speaker 1: going very badly, he whispered. You had better let mother
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  Speaker 1: gerry out, and Gabrielle moved away. They soon came to
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  Speaker 1: the manager's door. Mercier stormed in vain. The door remained closed.
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  Speaker 1: Open in the name of the law, commanded Monsieur Miffroy
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  Speaker 1: in a loud and rather anxious voice. At last the
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  Speaker 1: door was opened. All rested into the office. On the
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  Speaker 1: Commissary's heels. Raoul was the last to enter. As he
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  Speaker 1: was about to follow the rest into the room, a
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  Speaker 1: hand was laid on his shoulder, and he heard these
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  Speaker 1: words spoken in his ear. Eric's secrets concerned no one
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  Speaker 1: but himself. He turned round with his stifled exclamation. The
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  Speaker 1: hand that was laid on his shoulder was now placed
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  Speaker 1: on the lips of a person with an ebony skin,
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  Speaker 1: with eyes of jade, and with an Astrakhan cap on
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  Speaker 1: his head. The Persian. The stranger kept up the gesture
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  Speaker 1: that recommended discretion, and then, at the moment when the
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  Speaker 1: astonished Viscount was about to ask the reason of his
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  Speaker 1: mysterious intervention, bowed and disappeared. End of Chapter fifteen.