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The Phantom of the Opera Chapter VIII - The Mysterious Brougham · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Alexander tizera Domatus. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter eight, The mysterious brephem That tragic
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  Speaker 1: evening was bad for everybody. Carlotta fell ill as for
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  Speaker 1: Christine Day she disappeared after the performance. A fortnight elapsed,
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  Speaker 1: during which she was seen neither at the opera nor outside. Raoul,
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  Speaker 1: of course, was the first to be astonished at the
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  Speaker 1: Prima donna's absence. He wrote her at Madame Valerius's flat
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  Speaker 1: and received no reply. His grief increased, and he ended
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  Speaker 1: by being seriously alarmed at never seeing her name on
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  Speaker 1: the program. Faust was played without her. One afternoon, he
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  Speaker 1: went to the manager's office to ask the reason of
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  Speaker 1: Christine's disappearance. He found them both looking extremely worried. Their
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  Speaker 1: own friends did not recognize them. They had lost all
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  Speaker 1: their gaiety and spirits. They were seen crossing the stage
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  Speaker 1: with hanging heads, careworn brows, pale cheeks, as though pursued
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  Speaker 1: by some abominable thought or a prey to some persistent
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  Speaker 1: support of fate. The fall of the chandelier had involved
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  Speaker 1: them in no little responsibility, but it was difficult to
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  Speaker 1: make them speak about it. The inquest had ended in
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  Speaker 1: a verdict of accidental death caused by the wear and
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  Speaker 1: tear of the chains by which the chandelier was hung
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  Speaker 1: from the ceiling. But it was the duty of both
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  Speaker 1: the old and the new managers to have discovered this
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  Speaker 1: wear and tear and to have remedied it in time.
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  Speaker 1: And I feel bound to say that Monsieurs Richard and
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  Speaker 1: Moncharmin at this time appeared so changed, so absent minded,
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  Speaker 1: so mysterious, so incomprehensible, that many of the subscribers thought
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  Speaker 1: that some event even more horrible than the fall of
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  Speaker 1: the chandelier must have affected their state of mind. In
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  Speaker 1: their daily intercourse, they showed themselves very impatient, except with
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  Speaker 1: Madame Jerie, who had been reinstated in her functions, and
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  Speaker 1: their reception of the Vicomte de Chonnie, when he came
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  Speaker 1: to ask about Christine was anything but cordial. They merely
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  Speaker 1: told him that she was taking a holiday. He asked
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  Speaker 1: how long the holiday was for, and they replied curtly
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  Speaker 1: that it was for an unlimited period, as Mademoiselle Day
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  Speaker 1: had requested leave of absence for reasons of health. Then
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  Speaker 1: she is ill, He cried, what is the matter with her?
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  Speaker 1: We don't know. Didn't you send the doctor of the
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  Speaker 1: opera to see her? No, she did not ask for him,
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  Speaker 1: and as we trust her, we took her word. Raoul
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  Speaker 1: left the building, a prey to the gloomiest thoughts. He resolved,
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  Speaker 1: come what might to go and inquire of Mamma Valerius.
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  Speaker 1: He remembered the strong phrases in Christine's letter forbidding him
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  Speaker 1: to make any attempt to see her. But what he
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  Speaker 1: had seen at Perros, what he had heard behind the
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  Speaker 1: dressing room door, his conversation with Christine at the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the moor, made him suspect some machination, which, devilish
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  Speaker 1: though it might be, was none the less human. The
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  Speaker 1: girl's highly strung imagination, her affectionate and credulous mind, the
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  Speaker 1: primitive education which had surrounded her childhood with a circle
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  Speaker 1: of legends, the constant brooding over her dead father, and
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  Speaker 1: above all, the state of sublime ecstasy into which music
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  Speaker 1: threw her from the moment that this art was made
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  Speaker 1: manifest to her. In certain exceptional conditions, as in the
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  Speaker 1: churchyard at Perils, all This seemed to him to constitute
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  Speaker 1: a moral ground only too favorable for the malevolent designs
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  Speaker 1: of some mysterious and unscrupulous person, of whom was Christine
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  Speaker 1: Day the victim. This was the very reasonable question which
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  Speaker 1: Raoul put to himself as he hurried off to Mamma Valerius.
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  Speaker 1: He trembled as he rang in a little flat in
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  Speaker 1: the Rue Notre Dame day Victory. The door was opened
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  Speaker 1: by the maid whom he had seen coming out of
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  Speaker 1: Christine's dressing room one evening. He asked if he could
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  Speaker 1: speak to Madame Valerius. He was told that she was
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  Speaker 1: ill in bed and was not receiving visitors. Take in
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  Speaker 1: my card, please, he said. The maid soon returned and
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  Speaker 1: showed him into a small and scantily furnished drawing room,
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  Speaker 1: in which portraits of Professor Valerius and Old Day hung
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  Speaker 1: on opposite walls. Madame beggs Monsieur le vicomte to excute her,
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  Speaker 1: said the servant. She can only see him in her
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  Speaker 1: bedroom because she can no longer stand on her poor legs.
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  Speaker 1: Five minutes later, Raoul was ushered into an ill lit room,
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  Speaker 1: where he at once recognized the good, kind face of
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  Speaker 1: Christine's benefactress. In the semi darkness of an alcove. Mamma
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  Speaker 1: Valerius's hair was now quite white, but her eyes had
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  Speaker 1: grown no older. Never, on the contrary, had their expression
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  Speaker 1: been so bright, so pure, so childlike. Monsieur de Chaynie,
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  Speaker 1: she cried gaily, putting out both her hands to her visitor. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: it's Heaven that sends you here. We can talk of her.
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  Speaker 1: This last sentence sounded very gloomily in the young man's ears.
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  Speaker 1: He at once asked, Madame, where is Christine, and the
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  Speaker 1: old lady replied calmly, she is with her good genius.
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  Speaker 1: What good genius? Exclaimed poor Raoul, Why the angel of music?
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  Speaker 1: The viscount dropped into a chair. Really, Christine was with
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  Speaker 1: the Angel of Music, and there lay Mamma Valerius in bed,
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  Speaker 1: smiling to him and putting her finger to her lips
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  Speaker 1: to warn him to be silent. And she added, you
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  Speaker 1: must not tell anybody. You can rely on me, said Raoul.
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  Speaker 1: He hardly knew what he was saying, for his ideas
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  Speaker 1: about Christine, already greatly confused, were becoming more and more entangled,
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  Speaker 1: and it seemed as if everything was beginning to turn
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  Speaker 1: round him, around the room, around that extraordinary good lady
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  Speaker 1: with the white hair, and forget me not eyes. I know,
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  Speaker 1: I know, I can, she said, with a happy laugh.
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  Speaker 1: But why don't you come near me as you used
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  Speaker 1: to do when you were a little boy, give me
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  Speaker 1: your hands, as when you brought me the story of
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  Speaker 1: Little Lotta, which Daddy Day had told you. I am
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  Speaker 1: very fond of you, monsieur Riole, you know, and so
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  Speaker 1: is Christine too. She is fond of me, sighed the
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  Speaker 1: young man. He found a difficulty in collecting his thoughts
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  Speaker 1: and bringing them to bear on Mamma Blarry's's good genius,
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  Speaker 1: on the Angel of Music, of whom Christine had spoken
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  Speaker 1: to him so strangely, on the death's head, which he
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  Speaker 1: had seen in a sort of nightmare, on the high
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  Speaker 1: altar at Paris, and also on the opera ghost whose
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  Speaker 1: fame had come to his ears. One evening, when he
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  Speaker 1: was standing behind the scenes, within hearing of a group
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  Speaker 1: of scene shifters who were repeating the ghastly description which
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  Speaker 1: the hanged man Joseph Bouquet had given of the ghost
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  Speaker 1: before his mysterious death, he asked, in a low voice,
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  Speaker 1: what makes you think that Christine is fond of me, madame?
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  Speaker 1: She used to speak of you every day? Really, and
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  Speaker 1: what did she tell you? She told me that you
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  Speaker 1: had made her a proposal? And the good old lady
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  Speaker 1: began laughing wholeheartedly. Raoul sprang from his chair, flushing to
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  Speaker 1: the temple, suffering agonies, what's this? Where are you going
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  Speaker 1: sit down again? At once? Will you do you think
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  Speaker 1: I will let you go like that? If you are
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  Speaker 1: angry with me for laughing, I beg your pardon. After all,
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  Speaker 1: what has happened isn't your fault? Didn't you know? Did
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  Speaker 1: you think that Christine was free? Is Christine engaged to
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  Speaker 1: be married? The wretched Raoul asked, in a choking voice.
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  Speaker 1: Why no, You know as well as I do that
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  Speaker 1: Christine couldn't marry even if she wanted to. But I
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  Speaker 1: don't know anything about it. And why can't Christine marry
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  Speaker 1: because of the Angel of Music? Of course I don't follow. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he forbids her too. He forbids her. The Angel of
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  Speaker 1: Music forbids her to marry. Oh, he forbids her without
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  Speaker 1: forbidding her. It's like this. He tells her that if
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  Speaker 1: she got married, she would never hear him again, that's all,
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  Speaker 1: and that he would go away forever. So you understand
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  Speaker 1: she can't let the angel of music go. It's quite natural. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: echoed Raoul submissively. It's quite natural. Besides, I thought Christine
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  Speaker 1: had told you all that when she met you at Perros,
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  Speaker 1: where she went with her good genius. Oh, she went
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  Speaker 1: to Peros with her good genius, did she? That is
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  Speaker 1: to say, he arranged to meet her down there in
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  Speaker 1: Paris churchyard, at Day's grave. He promised to play her
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  Speaker 1: The Resurrection of Lazarus on her father's violin. Raoul de
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  Speaker 1: Chenni rose, and, with a very authoritative air, pronounced these
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  Speaker 1: peremptory words, Madame, you will have the goodness to tell
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  Speaker 1: me where that genius lives. The old lady did not
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  Speaker 1: seem surprised at this indiscreet command. She raised her eyes
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  Speaker 1: and said, in heaven. Such simplicity baffled him. He did
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  Speaker 1: not know what to say in the presence of this
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  Speaker 1: candid and perfect faith in a genius who came down
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  Speaker 1: nightly from heaven to haunt the dressing rooms at the opera.
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  Speaker 1: He now realized the possible state of mind of a
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  Speaker 1: girl brought up between a superstitious fiddler and a visionary
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  Speaker 1: old lady, and he shuddered when he thought of the
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  Speaker 1: consequences of it all. Is Christine still a good girl?
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  Speaker 1: He asked suddenly in spite of himself. I swear it,
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  Speaker 1: as I hope to be saved, exclaimed the old woman,
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  Speaker 1: who this time seemed to be incense. And if you
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  Speaker 1: doubt it, sir, I don't know what you are here for,
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  Speaker 1: Raoul tore at his gloves. How long has she known
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  Speaker 1: this genius? About three months? Yes, it's quite three months
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  Speaker 1: since he began to give her lessons. The Viscount threw
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  Speaker 1: up his arms with a gesture of despair. The genius
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  Speaker 1: gives her lessons. And where pray now that she has
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  Speaker 1: gone away with him? I can't say, but up to
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  Speaker 1: a fortnight ago it was in Christine's dressing room. It
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  Speaker 1: would be impossible in this little flat the whole house
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  Speaker 1: would hear them, whereas at the opera at eight o'clock
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  Speaker 1: in the morning there is no one about. Do you see, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I see, cried the Viscount, and he hurriedly took leave
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  Speaker 1: of Madame Valerius, who asked herself if the young nobleman
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  Speaker 1: was not a little off his head. He walked home
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  Speaker 1: to his brother's house in a pitiful state. He could
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  Speaker 1: have struck himself, banged his head against the walls, to
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  Speaker 1: think that he had believed in her innocence, in her purity.
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  Speaker 1: The Angel of Music. He knew him now he saw him.
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  Speaker 1: It was beyond a doubt, some unspeakable tenor a good
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  Speaker 1: looking jackannops who mouthed and simpered as he sang. He
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  Speaker 1: thought himself as absurd and as wretched as he could be. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: what a miserable, little, insignificant, silly young man was, Monsieur
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  Speaker 1: le Vicomte de Chagni, thought Raoul furiously. And she what
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  Speaker 1: a bold and damnable sly creature. His brother was waiting
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  Speaker 1: for him, and Raoul fell into his arms like a child.
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  Speaker 1: The Count consoled him without asking for explanations, and Raoul
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  Speaker 1: would certainly have long hesitated before telling him the story
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  Speaker 1: of the Angel of Music. His brother suggested taking him
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  Speaker 1: out to dinner. Overcome as he was with despair, Raoul
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  Speaker 1: would probably have refused any invitation that evening if the
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  Speaker 1: Count had not, as an inducement, told him that the
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  Speaker 1: lady of his thoughts had been seen the night before
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  Speaker 1: in company of the other sex in the bois. At
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  Speaker 1: first the Viscount refused to believe, but he received such
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  Speaker 1: exact details that he ceased protesting. She had been seen,
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  Speaker 1: it appeared, driving in a brufam with the window down.
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  Speaker 1: She seemed to be slowly taking in the icy night air.
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  Speaker 1: There was a glorious moon shining. She was recognized beyond
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  Speaker 1: the doubt. As for her companion, only his shadowy outline
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  Speaker 1: was distinguished. Leaning back in the dark. The carriage was
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  Speaker 1: going at a walking pace in a lonely drive behind
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  Speaker 1: the grand stand at Long Hump. Raoul, dressed in frantic haste,
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  Speaker 1: prepared to forget his distress by flinging himself, as people say,
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  Speaker 1: into the vortex of pleasure. Alas he was a very
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  Speaker 1: sorry guest, and leaving his brother early, found himself by
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  Speaker 1: ten o'clock in the evening in a cab behind the
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  Speaker 1: Long Hump race course. It was bitterly cold, the road
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  Speaker 1: seemed deserted and very bright under the moonlight. He told
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  Speaker 1: the driver to wait for impatiently at the corner of
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  Speaker 1: a near turning, and hiding himself as well as he
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  Speaker 1: could stood stamping his feet to keep warm. He had
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  Speaker 1: been indulging in this healthy exercise for half an hour
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  Speaker 1: or so when a carriage turned the corner of the
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  Speaker 1: road and came quietly in his direction at a walking pace.
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  Speaker 1: As it approached, he saw that a woman was leaning
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  Speaker 1: her head from the window, and suddenly the moon shed
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  Speaker 1: a pale gleam over her features. Christine, the sacred name
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  Speaker 1: of his love, had sprung from his heart and his lips.
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  Speaker 1: He could not keep it back. He would have given
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  Speaker 1: anything to withdraw it, for that name proclaimed in the
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  Speaker 1: stillness of the night had acted as though it were
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  Speaker 1: the preconcerted signal for a furious rush on the part
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  Speaker 1: of the whole turnout, which dashed past him. Before he
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  Speaker 1: could put into execution his plan of leaping at the
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  Speaker 1: horses heads, the carriage window had been closed, and the
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  Speaker 1: girl's face had disappeared, and the bruham behind which he
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  Speaker 1: was now running was no more than a black spot
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  Speaker 1: on the white road. He called out again, Christine. No reply,
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  Speaker 1: and he stopped in the midst of the silence. With
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  Speaker 1: a lackluster eye, he stared down that cold, desolate road
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  Speaker 1: and into the pale, dead night. Nothing was colder than
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  Speaker 1: his heart, Nothing half so dead. He had loved an angel,
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  Speaker 1: and now he despised a woman. Raoul, how that little
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  Speaker 1: fairy of the north is trifled with you? Was it really?
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  Speaker 1: Was it really necessary to have so fresh and young
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  Speaker 1: a face, a forehead so shy and always ready to
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  Speaker 1: cover itself with the pink blush of modesty in order
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  Speaker 1: to pass in the lonely night, in a carriage and
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  Speaker 1: pair accompanied by a mysterious lover. Surely there should be
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  Speaker 1: some limit to hypocrisy and lying. She had passed without
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  Speaker 1: answering his cry, and he was thinking of dying, and
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  Speaker 1: he was twenty years old. His valet found him in
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  Speaker 1: the morning, sitting on his bed. He had not undressed,
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  Speaker 1: and the servant feared at the sight of his face
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  Speaker 1: that some disaster had occurred. Raoul snatched his letters from
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  Speaker 1: the man's hands. He had recognized Christine's paper and handwriting.
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  Speaker 1: She said, dear, go to the masked ball at the
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  Speaker 1: opera on the night after tomorrow at twelve o'clock. Be
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  Speaker 1: in the little room behind the chimney place of the
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  Speaker 1: big crush room. Stand near the door that leads to
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  Speaker 1: the rotunda. Don't mention this appointment to anyone On Earth,
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  Speaker 1: Wear a white domino, and be carefully masked. As you
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  Speaker 1: love me, do not let yourself be recognized. Christine, end
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  Speaker 1: of chapter eight