Latest / The Gaston Leroux Library / The Phantom of the Opera Chapter I - Is it a Ghost?

Transcript

The Phantom of the Opera Chapter I - Is it a Ghost? · The Gaston Leroux Library

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LaRue,
0:05
Speaker 1: translated by Alexander to Zara demottofs. This LibriVox recording is
0:11
Speaker 1: in the public domain. Chapter one is it the Ghost?
0:16
Speaker 1: It was the evening on which Messieurs de Bienne and Polignier,
0:20
Speaker 1: the managers of the opera, were giving a last gala
0:23
Speaker 1: performance to mark their retirement. Suddenly the dressing room of
0:27
Speaker 1: los Soirelli, one of the principal dancers, was invaded by
0:31
Speaker 1: half a dozen young ladies of the ballet who had
0:33
Speaker 1: come up from the stage after dancing polyete. They rushed
0:37
Speaker 1: in amid great confusion, some giving vent a forced and
0:41
Speaker 1: unnatural laughter, others to cries of terror. Cirelli, who wished
0:46
Speaker 1: to be alone for a moment to run through the
0:48
Speaker 1: speech which she was to make to the resigning managers,
0:51
Speaker 1: looked around angrily at the mad and tumultuous crowd. It
0:55
Speaker 1: was little Jama, the girl with the tip tilted nose
0:58
Speaker 1: to forget me, not of eyes, the rose red cheeks
1:01
Speaker 1: and the lily white neck and shoulders, who gave the
1:04
Speaker 1: explanation in a trembling voice, It's the ghost, and she
1:09
Speaker 1: locked the door Sorelli's dressing room was fitted up with
1:12
Speaker 1: official commonplace elegance. A peer glass, a sofa, a dressing table,
1:18
Speaker 1: and a cupboard door two provided the necessary furniture. On
1:22
Speaker 1: the walls hung a few engravings, relics of the mother
1:25
Speaker 1: who had known the glories of the old opera in
1:28
Speaker 1: the rue lapellitier, portraits of Vestry Gordell du Pont Begottenini.
1:35
Speaker 1: But the room seemed a palace to the brats of
1:37
Speaker 1: the Corps de Ballet, who were lodged in common dressing rooms,
1:41
Speaker 1: where they spent their time singing, quarreling, smacking the dressers
1:45
Speaker 1: and hair dressers, and buying one another glasses of cassis,
1:49
Speaker 1: beer or even rum until the callboy's bell rang. Cirelli
1:54
Speaker 1: was very superstitious. She shuddered when she heard Little Jama
1:58
Speaker 1: speak of the ghost, call her a silly little fool,
2:01
Speaker 1: And then, as she was the first to believe in
2:03
Speaker 1: ghosts in general and the opera ghost in particular, at
2:07
Speaker 1: once asked for details. Have you seen him as plainly
2:11
Speaker 1: as I see you now, said little Jama, whose legs
2:14
Speaker 1: were giving way beneath her, and she dropped with a
2:17
Speaker 1: moan into a chair thereupon little Jerrie, the girl with
2:22
Speaker 1: eyes black as sloes, hair black as ink, a swarthy complexion,
2:26
Speaker 1: and a poor little skin stretched over poor little bones.
2:30
Speaker 1: Little Gerrie added, if that's the ghost, he's very ugly.
2:34
Speaker 1: Oh yes, oh yes, cried the chorus of ballet girls,
2:38
Speaker 1: and they all began to talk together. The ghost had
2:41
Speaker 1: appeared to them in the shape of a gentleman in
2:44
Speaker 1: dress clothes, who had suddenly stood before them in the passage,
2:47
Speaker 1: without their gnawing where he came from. He seemed to
2:50
Speaker 1: have come straight through the wall. Pooh, said one of them,
2:54
Speaker 1: who had more or less kept her head. You see
2:57
Speaker 1: the ghost everywhere, and was true. For several months, there
3:02
Speaker 1: had been nothing discussed at the opera but this ghost
3:05
Speaker 1: in dress clothes, who stalked about the building from top
3:08
Speaker 1: to bottom, like a shadow, who spoke to nobody to
3:11
Speaker 1: whom nobody dared speak, and who vanished as soon as
3:14
Speaker 1: he was seen, no one knowing how or where as
3:18
Speaker 1: became a real ghost. He made no noise in walking.
3:22
Speaker 1: People began by laughing and making fun of this specter,
3:26
Speaker 1: dressed like a man of fashion or an undertaker. But
3:29
Speaker 1: the ghost legend soon swelled to enormous proportions among the
3:34
Speaker 1: Corps de ballet. All the girls pretended to have met
3:37
Speaker 1: this supernatural being more or less often, and those who
3:41
Speaker 1: laughed the loudest were not the most at ease. When
3:44
Speaker 1: he did not show himself, he betrayed his presence or
3:47
Speaker 1: his passing by accident comic or serious, for which the
3:51
Speaker 1: general superstition held him responsible. Had any one met with
3:55
Speaker 1: a fall, or suffered a practical joke at the hands
3:58
Speaker 1: of one of the other girls, or lost a powder puff,
4:01
Speaker 1: it was at once the fault of the ghost of
4:04
Speaker 1: the opera ghost. After all, who had seen him? You
4:08
Speaker 1: meet so many men in dress clothes at the opera
4:11
Speaker 1: who are not ghosts. But this dress suit had a
4:14
Speaker 1: peculiarity of its own. It covered a skeleton, at least,
4:19
Speaker 1: so the ballet girls said, and of course it had
4:23
Speaker 1: a death's head. Was all this serious? The truth is
4:27
Speaker 1: that the idea of the skeleton came from the description
4:30
Speaker 1: of the ghost given by Joseph Bouquet, the chief scene shifter,
4:34
Speaker 1: who had really seen the ghost. He had run up
4:37
Speaker 1: against the ghost on the little staircase by the footlights,
4:40
Speaker 1: which leads to the cellars. He had seen him for
4:43
Speaker 1: a second, for the ghost had fled, And to any
4:46
Speaker 1: one who cared to listen to him, he said. He
4:49
Speaker 1: is extraordinarily thin, and his dress coat hangs on a
4:53
Speaker 1: skeleton frame. His eyes are so deep that you can
4:57
Speaker 1: hardly see the fixed pupils. You see two big black holes,
5:02
Speaker 1: as in a dead man's skull. His skin, which is
5:06
Speaker 1: stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white,
5:10
Speaker 1: but a nasty yellow. His nose is so little worth
5:14
Speaker 1: talking about that you can't see its side face, and
5:17
Speaker 1: the absence of that nose is a horrible thing to
5:20
Speaker 1: look at. All. The hair he has is three or
5:24
Speaker 1: four long dark locks on his forehead and behind his ears.
5:30
Speaker 1: This chief scene shifter was a serious, sober, steady man,
5:35
Speaker 1: very slow at imagining things. His words were received with
5:40
Speaker 1: interest and amazement, and soon there were other people to
5:43
Speaker 1: say that they too had met a man in dress
5:45
Speaker 1: clothes with a death's head on his shoulders. Sensible men
5:50
Speaker 1: who had wind of the story began by saying that
5:52
Speaker 1: Joseph Bouquet had been the victim of a joke played
5:56
Speaker 1: by one of his assistants, And then one after the other,
6:00
Speaker 1: there came a series of incidents so curious, and so
6:03
Speaker 1: inexplicable that the very shrewdest people began to feel uneasy.
6:08
Speaker 1: For instance, a fireman is a brave fellow. He fears nothing,
6:13
Speaker 1: least of all fire. Well, the fireman in question, who
6:17
Speaker 1: had gone to make a round of inspection in the cellars,
6:20
Speaker 1: and who it seems, had ventured a little farther than usual,
6:24
Speaker 1: suddenly reappeared on the stage, pale, scared, trembling, with his
6:29
Speaker 1: eyes starting out of his head, and practically fainted in
6:32
Speaker 1: the arms of the proud mother of little Jama. And
6:36
Speaker 1: why because he had seen coming toward him at the
6:39
Speaker 1: level of his head, but without a body attached to it,
6:43
Speaker 1: a head of fire. And as I said, a fireman
6:46
Speaker 1: is not afraid of fire. The fireman's name was pampened,
6:52
Speaker 1: the Corps de Ballet was flung into consternation. At first sight.
6:56
Speaker 1: This fiery head in no way corresponded with Joseph Bouquet's
7:00
Speaker 1: description of the ghost. But the young ladies soon persuaded
7:04
Speaker 1: themselves that the ghost had several heads, which he changed
7:08
Speaker 1: about as he pleased, And of course they at once
7:11
Speaker 1: imagined that they were in the greatest danger. Once a
7:15
Speaker 1: fireman did not hesitate to faint leaders, and front row
7:19
Speaker 1: and back row girls alike had plenty of excuses for
7:22
Speaker 1: the fright that made them quicken their pace when passing
7:26
Speaker 1: some dark corner or ill lighted corridor. So Rellie herself
7:30
Speaker 1: on the day after the Adventure of the Fireman, placed
7:33
Speaker 1: a horse shoe on the table in front of the
7:35
Speaker 1: stage door keeper's box, which every one who entered the
7:39
Speaker 1: opera otherwise than as a spectator, must touch before setting
7:43
Speaker 1: foot on the first tread of the staircase. This horseshoe
7:48
Speaker 1: was not invented by me any more than any other
7:51
Speaker 1: part of this story alas, and may still be seen
7:55
Speaker 1: on the table in the passage outside the stage door
7:58
Speaker 1: keeper's box when you enter the opera through the court
8:01
Speaker 1: known as the Courte la Administration. To return to the
8:06
Speaker 1: evening in question, it's the ghost little Jama had cried,
8:10
Speaker 1: and agonizing silence now reigned in the dressing room. Nothing
8:15
Speaker 1: was heard but the hard breathing of the girls. At last, Jama,
8:18
Speaker 1: flinging herself upon the farthest corner of the wall, with
8:21
Speaker 1: every mark of real terror on her face, whispered listen.
8:26
Speaker 1: Everybody seemed to hear a rustling outside the door. There
8:30
Speaker 1: was no sound of footsteps. It was like light silk
8:34
Speaker 1: sliding over the panel. Then it stopped. So Ellie tried
8:39
Speaker 1: to show more pluck than the others. She went up
8:42
Speaker 1: to the door and in a quavering voice asked who's there?
8:46
Speaker 1: But nobody answered. Then, feeling all eyes upon her watching
8:50
Speaker 1: her last movement, she made an effort to show courage
8:53
Speaker 1: and said, very loudly, is there any one behind the door? Oh? Yes, yes,
8:58
Speaker 1: of course there is that little dried plum of a Megjurie,
9:02
Speaker 1: heroically holding Sirrelli back by her gauze skirt. Whatever you do,
9:07
Speaker 1: don't open the door, Oh Lord, don't open the door.
9:11
Speaker 1: But Sirrellie, armed with a dagger that never left her,
9:14
Speaker 1: turned the key and drew back the door, while the
9:17
Speaker 1: ballet girls retreated to the inner dressing room and Megjurie
9:21
Speaker 1: sighed mother, Mother. Sir Ellie looked into the passage bravely.
9:27
Speaker 1: It was empty. A gas flame in its glass prison
9:31
Speaker 1: cast a red and suspicious light into the surrounding darkness
9:35
Speaker 1: without succeeding in dispelling it, and the dancer slammed the
9:39
Speaker 1: door again with a deep sigh. No, she said, there
9:43
Speaker 1: is no one there still we saw him, Jama declared,
9:47
Speaker 1: returning with timid little steps to her place beside Sir Ellie.
9:52
Speaker 1: He must be somewhere prowling about. I shan't go back
9:55
Speaker 1: to dress. We had better all go down to the
9:58
Speaker 1: foyer together at once for the speech, and we will
10:01
Speaker 1: come up again together. And the child reverently touched the
10:05
Speaker 1: little coral finger ring, which she wore as a charm
10:08
Speaker 1: against bad luck, while Sir Ellie stealthily, with the tip
10:12
Speaker 1: of her pink right thumb nail made of Saint Andrew's
10:14
Speaker 1: cross on the wooden ring which adorned the fourth finger
10:18
Speaker 1: of her left hand, she said to the little ballet girls, come, children,
10:22
Speaker 1: pull yourselves together. I dare say, no one has ever
10:26
Speaker 1: seen the ghost. Yes, yes, we saw him. We saw
10:30
Speaker 1: him just now, cried the girls. He had his death
10:33
Speaker 1: head and his dress coat, just as when he appeared
10:36
Speaker 1: to Joseph Bouquet. And Gabriel saw him too, said Yama,
10:40
Speaker 1: only yesterday, yesterday afternoon, in broad daylight. Gabriel, the chorus master,
10:47
Speaker 1: Why yes, yes, didn't you know? And he was wearing
10:51
Speaker 1: his dress clothes in broad daylight? Who, Gabriel, why no?
10:55
Speaker 1: The ghost certainly Gabriel told me so himself. That's what
11:00
Speaker 1: he knew him by. Gabriel was in the stage manager's office.
11:04
Speaker 1: Suddenly the door opened and the Persian entered. You know
11:07
Speaker 1: the Persian has the evil eye. Oh yes, answered the
11:11
Speaker 1: little ballet girls in chorus, warding off ill luck by
11:15
Speaker 1: pointing their forefinger and little finger at the absent Persian,
11:18
Speaker 1: while their second and third fingers were bent on the
11:21
Speaker 1: palm and held down by the thumb. And you know
11:24
Speaker 1: how superstitious Gabriel is, continued Jama. However, he is always
11:30
Speaker 1: polite when he meets the Persian. He just puts his
11:32
Speaker 1: hand in his pocket and touches his keys well. The
11:36
Speaker 1: moment the Persian appeared in the doorway, Gabriel gave one
11:39
Speaker 1: jump from his chair to the lock of the cupboard
11:42
Speaker 1: so as to touch iron. In doing so, he tore
11:45
Speaker 1: a whole skirt of his overcoat on a nail. Hurrying
11:49
Speaker 1: to get out of the room, he banged his forehead
11:51
Speaker 1: against a hat peg and gave himself a huge bump. Then, suddenly,
11:55
Speaker 1: stepping back, he skinned his arm on the screen near
11:58
Speaker 1: the piano. He tried to lean on the piano, but
12:01
Speaker 1: the lid fell on his hands and crushed his fingers.
12:05
Speaker 1: He rested out of the office like a madman, slipped
12:07
Speaker 1: on the staircase and came down the whole of the
12:10
Speaker 1: first flight on his back. I was just passing with mother.
12:14
Speaker 1: We picked him up. He was covered with bruises and
12:17
Speaker 1: his face was all over blood. We were frightened out
12:20
Speaker 1: of our lives, but all at once he began to
12:23
Speaker 1: thank Providence that he had got off so cheaply. Then
12:26
Speaker 1: he told us what had frightened him. He had seen
12:29
Speaker 1: the ghost behind the persian, the ghost with the death's head,
12:33
Speaker 1: just like Joseph Bouquet's description. Jama told her story ever
12:38
Speaker 1: so quickly, as though the ghost were at her heels,
12:41
Speaker 1: and was quite out of breath at the finish. As
12:45
Speaker 1: silence followed, while Sorelli polished her nails in great excitement,
12:49
Speaker 1: it was broken by little Jimmy, who said Joseph Bouquet
12:53
Speaker 1: would do better to hold his tongue. Why should he
12:56
Speaker 1: hold his tongue, asked somebody, that's mother's of opinion, replied Meg,
13:01
Speaker 1: lowering her voice and looking all about her, as though
13:04
Speaker 1: fearing less other ears than those present might overhear. And
13:07
Speaker 1: why is it your mother's opinion. Hush, mother says, the
13:11
Speaker 1: ghost doesn't like being talked about. And why does your
13:14
Speaker 1: mother say so? Because because nothing. This reticence exasperated the
13:21
Speaker 1: curiosity of the young ladies who crowded round little Jerie,
13:25
Speaker 1: begging her to explain herself. They were there, side by side,
13:28
Speaker 1: leaning forward simultaneously in one movement of entreaty and fear,
13:33
Speaker 1: communicating their terror to one another, taking a keen pleasure
13:36
Speaker 1: in feeling their blood freeze in their veins. I swear
13:40
Speaker 1: not to tell, gasped Meg. But they left her no
13:44
Speaker 1: peace and promised to keep the secret until Meg, burning
13:47
Speaker 1: to say all she knew, began with her eyes fixed
13:50
Speaker 1: on the door. Well it's because of the private box.
13:54
Speaker 1: What private box? The ghost box? As the ghost a box?
13:59
Speaker 1: Or do tell us? Do tell us? Not so loud,
14:03
Speaker 1: said Meg. It's box five, you know, the box on
14:07
Speaker 1: the grand tier, next to the stage box on the left.
14:11
Speaker 1: Oh nonsense, I tell you it is. Mother has charge
14:14
Speaker 1: of it. But you swear you won't say a word.
14:17
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, Well that's the ghost box. No
14:22
Speaker 1: one has had it for over a month except the ghost,
14:25
Speaker 1: and orders have been given at the box office that
14:28
Speaker 1: it must never be sold. And does the ghost really
14:31
Speaker 1: come there? Yes, then somebody does come. Why, no, the
14:36
Speaker 1: ghost comes, but there is nobody there. The little ballet
14:40
Speaker 1: girls exchanged glances. If the ghost came to the box,
14:44
Speaker 1: he must be seen because he wore a dress coat
14:46
Speaker 1: and a death's head. This was what they tried to
14:49
Speaker 1: make Meg understand. But she replied, that's just it. The
14:53
Speaker 1: ghost is not seen, and he has no dress coat
14:57
Speaker 1: and no head. All that talk about his death head
15:00
Speaker 1: and his head of fire is nonsense. There's nothing in it.
15:04
Speaker 1: You only hear him when he is in the box.
15:07
Speaker 1: Mother has never seen him, but she has heard him.
15:10
Speaker 1: Mother knows because she gives him his program. So Ellie interfered, Chi, child,
15:16
Speaker 1: you're getting at us. Thereupon little Jerie began to cry.
15:22
Speaker 1: I ought to have helped my tongue if mother ever
15:24
Speaker 1: came to know. But I was quite right. Joseph Bouquet
15:28
Speaker 1: had no business to talk of things that didn't concern him.
15:31
Speaker 1: It will bring him bad luck, mother was saying. So
15:34
Speaker 1: last night there was a sound of hurried and heavy
15:37
Speaker 1: footsteps in the passage. At a breathless voice cried, cecil, cecil,
15:42
Speaker 1: are you there? It's mother's voice said, Jama, what's the matter.
15:47
Speaker 1: She opened the door. A respectable lady built on the
15:50
Speaker 1: lines of a Pomeranium grenadier, burst into the dressing room
15:54
Speaker 1: and dropped, groaning into a vacant arm chair. Her eyes
15:57
Speaker 1: rolled madly and her brick dust colored face. How awful,
16:01
Speaker 1: she said, Oh awful? What what Joseph Bouquet, What about him?
16:08
Speaker 1: Joseph Bouquet is dead. The room became filled with exclamations,
16:13
Speaker 1: with astonished outcries, with scared requests for explanations. Yes, he
16:19
Speaker 1: was found hanging in the third floor cellar. It's the ghost,
16:23
Speaker 1: little Jerry blurted out, as though in spite of herself.
16:27
Speaker 1: But she at once corrected herself with her hands pressed
16:30
Speaker 1: to her mouth. No, No, I didn't say it. I
16:33
Speaker 1: didn't say it. All around her, her panic stricken companions
16:37
Speaker 1: repeated under their breaths, Yes, it must be the ghost.
16:41
Speaker 1: So Ellie was very pale. I shall never be able
16:45
Speaker 1: to recite my speech, she said. Ma Jama gave her
16:49
Speaker 1: opinion while she emptied a glass of liquor that happened
16:52
Speaker 1: to be standing on a table. The ghost must have
16:55
Speaker 1: something to do with it. The truth is that no
16:59
Speaker 1: one ever knew how Joseph bou came at his death.
17:02
Speaker 1: The verdict at the inquest was natural suicide. In his
17:07
Speaker 1: Memoirs of Manager, Monsieur Beauchamman, one of the joint managers
17:11
Speaker 1: who succeeded Monsieurs Debian and Polignier, describes the incident as follows.
17:17
Speaker 1: A grievous accident spoiled the little party which Monsieurs Debian
17:21
Speaker 1: and Polignier gave to celebrate their retirement. I was in
17:25
Speaker 1: the manager's office when Mercier, the acting manager, suddenly came
17:29
Speaker 1: darting in. He seemed half mad and told me that
17:32
Speaker 1: the body of a scene shifter had been found hanging
17:35
Speaker 1: in the third cellar, under the stage between a farm
17:37
Speaker 1: house and a scene from the Roy de Lahore. I shouted,
17:41
Speaker 1: come and cut him down. By the time I had
17:44
Speaker 1: rushed down the staircase and the Jacob's ladder, the man
17:47
Speaker 1: was no longer hanging from his rope. So this is
17:50
Speaker 1: an event that Moucharmin thinks natural. A man hangs at
17:54
Speaker 1: the end of a rope, they go to cut him down,
17:57
Speaker 1: the rope has disappeared. Oh, Messieurs mon Charman found a
18:01
Speaker 1: very simple explanation. Listen to him. It was just after
18:05
Speaker 1: the ballet and leaders and dancing girls lost no time
18:09
Speaker 1: in taking their precautions against the evil eye. There you
18:13
Speaker 1: are picture the Corps de ballets cuttling down the Jacob's
18:17
Speaker 1: ladder and dividing the suicide's rope among themselves in less
18:20
Speaker 1: time than it takes to write. When. On the other hand,
18:23
Speaker 1: I think of the exact spot where the body was discovered,
18:27
Speaker 1: the third cellar underneath the stage. Imagine that somebody must
18:31
Speaker 1: have been interested in seeing that rope disappear after it
18:34
Speaker 1: had effected its purpose, and time will show if I
18:37
Speaker 1: am wrong. The horrid news soon spread all over the opera,
18:41
Speaker 1: where Joseph Bouquet was very popular. The dressing rooms emptied,
18:45
Speaker 1: and the ballet girls, crowding around Sorelli, like timid sheep
18:48
Speaker 1: around their shepherdess, made for the foyer through the ill
18:51
Speaker 1: lit passages and staircases, trotting as fast as their little
18:55
Speaker 1: pink legs could carry them. End of Chapter one