Latest / The Gaston Leroux Library / The Phantom of the Opera Chapter XII - Apollo's Lyre
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston LaRue,
- 0:06Speaker 1: translated by Alexander Tizera Domatos. This LibriVox recording is in
- 0:11Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter twelve Apollo's lyre. On this way
- 0:18Speaker 1: they reached the roof. Christine tripped over it as lightly
- 0:21Speaker 1: as a swallow. Their eyes swept the empty space between
- 0:24Speaker 1: the three domes and the triangular pediment. She breathed freely
- 0:28Speaker 1: over peris, the whole valley of which was seen at
- 0:31Speaker 1: work below. She called Raoul to come quite close to her,
- 0:35Speaker 1: and they walked side by side along the zinc streets.
- 0:38Speaker 1: In the leaden avenues. They looked at their twin shapes
- 0:41Speaker 1: in the huge tanks full of stagnant water, where, in
- 0:45Speaker 1: the hot weather the little boys of the ballet a
- 0:47Speaker 1: score or so learned to swim and dive. The shadow
- 0:51Speaker 1: had followed behind them, clinging to their steps, and the
- 0:54Speaker 1: two children little suspected its presence when they at last
- 0:58Speaker 1: sat down trustingly under the may protection of Apollo, who,
- 1:01Speaker 1: with a great bronze gesture, lifted his huge lyre to
- 1:05Speaker 1: the heart of a crimson sky. It was a gorgeous
- 1:09Speaker 1: spring evening clouds which had just received their gossamer robe
- 1:12Speaker 1: of gold and purple. From the setting sun drifted slowly by,
- 1:17Speaker 1: and Christine said to Raoul. Soon we shall go farther
- 1:20Speaker 1: and faster than the clouds, to the end of the world,
- 1:23Speaker 1: and then you will leave me, Raoul. But if when
- 1:26Speaker 1: the moment comes for you to take me away, I
- 1:28Speaker 1: refuse to go with you, well you must carry me
- 1:31Speaker 1: off by force. Are you afraid that you will change
- 1:34Speaker 1: your mind? Christine? I don't know, she said, shaking her
- 1:38Speaker 1: head in an odd fashion. He is a demon, and
- 1:41Speaker 1: she shivered and nestled in his arms with a moan.
- 1:45Speaker 1: I am afraid now of going back to live with
- 1:47Speaker 1: him in the ground. What compels you to go back, Christine?
- 1:52Speaker 1: If I do not go back to him, terrible misfortunes
- 1:55Speaker 1: may happen. But I can't do it. I can't do it.
- 1:59Speaker 1: I know one ought be sorry for people who live
- 2:01Speaker 1: under ground, but he is too horrible. And yet the
- 2:04Speaker 1: time is at hand. I have only a day left,
- 2:07Speaker 1: and if I do not go, he will come and
- 2:09Speaker 1: fetch me with his voice, and he will drag me
- 2:12Speaker 1: with him under ground, and go on his knees before
- 2:15Speaker 1: me with his death's head, and he will tell me
- 2:18Speaker 1: that he loves me, and he will cry. Oh, those tears, raouled,
- 2:22Speaker 1: those tears in the two black eye sockets of the
- 2:25Speaker 1: death's head. I cannot see those tears flow again. She
- 2:29Speaker 1: wrung her hands in anguish, while Raoul pressed her to
- 2:32Speaker 1: his heart. No, no, you shall never again hear him
- 2:35Speaker 1: tell you that he loves you. You shall not see
- 2:38Speaker 1: his tears. Let us fly, Christine, Let us fly at once.
- 2:42Speaker 1: And he tried to drag her away then and there,
- 2:45Speaker 1: but she stopped him. No, no, she said, shaking her
- 2:49Speaker 1: head sadly. Not now, it would be too cruel. Let
- 2:53Speaker 1: him hear me sing tomorrow evening, and then we will
- 2:56Speaker 1: go away. You must come and fetch me in my
- 2:59Speaker 1: dressing room at midnight exactly. He will then be waiting
- 3:03Speaker 1: for me in the dining room by the lake. We
- 3:05Speaker 1: shall be free, and you shall take me away. You
- 3:08Speaker 1: must promise me that, Raoul, even if I refuse, for
- 3:12Speaker 1: I feel that if I go back this time, I
- 3:14Speaker 1: shall perhaps never return. And she gave a sigh, to
- 3:18Speaker 1: which it seemed to her that another sigh behind her replied,
- 3:22Speaker 1: didn't you hear her teeth chattered? No, said Raoul, I
- 3:27Speaker 1: heard nothing it is too terrible, she confessed to be
- 3:31Speaker 1: always trembling like this, And yet we run no danger here.
- 3:35Speaker 1: We are at home, in the sky, in open air,
- 3:38Speaker 1: in the light. The sun is flaming. The night birds
- 3:42Speaker 1: cannot bear to look at the sun. I have never
- 3:45Speaker 1: seen him by daylight. It must be awful. Oh, the
- 3:48Speaker 1: first time I sig him, I thought that he was
- 3:51Speaker 1: going to die, why, asked Raoul, really frightened at the
- 3:55Speaker 1: aspect which this strange confidence was taking, because I had
- 4:00Speaker 1: seen him this time. Raoul and Christine turned round at
- 4:03Speaker 1: the same time. There is some one in pain, said Raoul,
- 4:07Speaker 1: Perhaps some one has been hurt. Did you hear I
- 4:11Speaker 1: can't say, Christine confessed, even when he is not there.
- 4:15Speaker 1: My ears are full of his size. Still, if you heard.
- 4:19Speaker 1: They stood up and looked round them. They were quite
- 4:22Speaker 1: alone on the immense lad roof. They sat down again,
- 4:26Speaker 1: and Raoul said, tell me how you saw him first.
- 4:29Speaker 1: I had heard him for three months without seeing him.
- 4:32Speaker 1: The first time I heard it, I thought, as you did,
- 4:35Speaker 1: that that adorable voice was singing in another room. I
- 4:39Speaker 1: went out and looked everywhere. But as you know, Raoul,
- 4:42Speaker 1: my dressing room is very much by itself, and I
- 4:45Speaker 1: could not find the voice outside my room, whereas it
- 4:47Speaker 1: went on steadily inside. And it not only sang, but
- 4:51Speaker 1: it spoke to me and answered my questions like a
- 4:54Speaker 1: real man's voice, with this difference that it was as
- 4:57Speaker 1: beautiful as the voice of an angel. I had never
- 5:01Speaker 1: got the angel of music, whom my poor father had
- 5:04Speaker 1: promised to send me as soon as he was dead.
- 5:06Speaker 1: I really think that Mamma Valarius was a little bit
- 5:09Speaker 1: to blame. I told her about it, and she at
- 5:12Speaker 1: once said, it must be the angel. At any rate,
- 5:15Speaker 1: you can do no harm by asking him. I did so,
- 5:18Speaker 1: and the man's voice replied that yes, it was the
- 5:21Speaker 1: angel's voice, the voice which I was expecting and which
- 5:25Speaker 1: my father had promised me. From that time onward, the
- 5:28Speaker 1: voice and I became great friends. It asked leave to
- 5:32Speaker 1: give me lessons every day. I agreed, and never failed
- 5:36Speaker 1: to keep the appointment which it gave me in my
- 5:38Speaker 1: dressing room. You have no idea, though you have heard
- 5:41Speaker 1: the voice of what those lessons were like. No, I
- 5:45Speaker 1: have no idea, said Raoul. What was your accompaniment? We
- 5:50Speaker 1: were accompanied by a music which I do not know.
- 5:53Speaker 1: It was behind the wall and wonderfully accurate. The boy
- 5:57Speaker 1: seemed to understand mine exactly, to know precisely where my
- 6:01Speaker 1: father had left off teaching me in a few weeks time.
- 6:05Speaker 1: I hardly knew myself when I sang, I was even frightened.
- 6:09Speaker 1: I seemed to dread a sort of witchcraft behind it.
- 6:12Speaker 1: But Mamma Valarius reassured me. She said that she knew
- 6:15Speaker 1: I was much too simple a girl to give the
- 6:17Speaker 1: devil a hold on me. My progress, by the voice's
- 6:20Speaker 1: own order, was kept a secret between the voice, Mamma Valarius,
- 6:24Speaker 1: and myself. It was a curious thing. But outside the
- 6:28Speaker 1: dressing room I sang with my ordinary, every day voice,
- 6:31Speaker 1: and nobody noticed anything. I did all that the voice asked.
- 6:36Speaker 1: It said, wait and see, we shall astonish Paris. And
- 6:41Speaker 1: I waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream.
- 6:45Speaker 1: It was then that I saw you for the first
- 6:47Speaker 1: time one evening in the house. I was so glad
- 6:50Speaker 1: that I never thought of concealing my delight When I
- 6:53Speaker 1: reached my dressing room, unfortunately, the voice was there before me,
- 6:57Speaker 1: and soon noticed by my air that soump thing had happened.
- 7:01Speaker 1: It asked, what was the matter, and I saw no
- 7:04Speaker 1: reason for keeping our story secret, or concealing the place
- 7:07Speaker 1: which you filled in my heart. Then the voice was silent.
- 7:11Speaker 1: I called to it, but it did not reply. I
- 7:14Speaker 1: begged and entreated, but in vain. I was terrified lest
- 7:19Speaker 1: it had gone for good. I wish to Heaven it
- 7:21Speaker 1: had dear. That night I went home in a desperate condition.
- 7:26Speaker 1: I told Mamma Valerius, who said, why, of course the
- 7:29Speaker 1: voice is jealous, and that dear first revealed to me
- 7:33Speaker 1: that I loved you. Christine stopped and laid her head
- 7:37Speaker 1: on Raoul's shoulder. They sat like that for a moment,
- 7:40Speaker 1: in silence, and they did not see, did not perceive
- 7:44Speaker 1: the movement at a few steps from them, of the
- 7:46Speaker 1: creeping shadow of two great black wings, a shadow that
- 7:51Speaker 1: came along the roof so near, so near them, that
- 7:54Speaker 1: it could have stifled them by closing over them. The
- 7:57Speaker 1: next day, Christine continued with a I went back to
- 8:01Speaker 1: my dressing room in a very pensive frame of mind.
- 8:04Speaker 1: The voice was there, spoke to me with great sadness,
- 8:08Speaker 1: and told me plainly that if I must bestow my
- 8:10Speaker 1: heart on earth, there was nothing for the Voice to
- 8:13Speaker 1: do but to go back to Heaven and It said
- 8:16Speaker 1: this with such an accent of human sorrow that I
- 8:19Speaker 1: ought then and there to have suspected, and begun to believe,
- 8:22Speaker 1: that I was the victim of my deluded senses. But
- 8:26Speaker 1: my faith in the voice, with which the memory of
- 8:28Speaker 1: my father was so closely intermingled, remained undisturbed. I feared
- 8:33Speaker 1: nothing so much as that I might never hear it again.
- 8:37Speaker 1: I had thought about my love for you, and realized
- 8:39Speaker 1: all the useless danger of it. And I did not
- 8:42Speaker 1: even know if you remembered me. Whatever happened your position
- 8:47Speaker 1: in society forbade me to contemplate the possibility of ever
- 8:51Speaker 1: marrying you. And I swore to the Voice that you
- 8:54Speaker 1: were no more than a brother to me, nor ever
- 8:56Speaker 1: would be, and that my heart was incapable of any
- 8:59Speaker 1: earthly love. And that, dear, was why I refused to
- 9:03Speaker 1: recognize or see you when I met you on the
- 9:06Speaker 1: stage or in the passages. Meanwhile, the hours during which
- 9:10Speaker 1: the Voice taught me were spent in a divine frenzy,
- 9:13Speaker 1: until at last the Voice said to me, you can, now,
- 9:17Speaker 1: Christine day, give to men a little of the music
- 9:20Speaker 1: of heaven. I don't know how it was that Carlotta
- 9:23Speaker 1: did not come to the theater that night, nor why
- 9:26Speaker 1: I was called upon to sing in her stead. But
- 9:28Speaker 1: I sang with a rapture I had never known before,
- 9:32Speaker 1: and I felt for a moment as if my soul
- 9:34Speaker 1: were leaving my body, O Christine, said, Raoul. My heart
- 9:40Speaker 1: quivered that night at every accent of your voice. I
- 9:44Speaker 1: saw the tears stream down your cheeks, and I wept
- 9:46Speaker 1: with you. How could you sing? Sing like that? While crying?
- 9:51Speaker 1: I felt myself fainting, said Christine. I closed my eyes.
- 9:56Speaker 1: When I opened them, you were by my side, But
- 9:59Speaker 1: the voice was there also, Raoul. I was afraid for
- 10:02Speaker 1: your sake, and again I would not recognize you, and
- 10:05Speaker 1: began to laugh when you reminded me that you had
- 10:08Speaker 1: picked up my scarf in the sea. Alas there is
- 10:11Speaker 1: no deceiving the voice. The voice recognized you, and the
- 10:15Speaker 1: voice was jealous. It said that if I did not
- 10:17Speaker 1: love you, I would not avoid you, but treat you
- 10:20Speaker 1: like any other old friend. It made me seen up
- 10:23Speaker 1: unseen at last, I said to the voice, that will
- 10:27Speaker 1: do I am going to Peris tomorrow to prey on
- 10:30Speaker 1: my father's grave, and I shall ask Monsieur Raoul de
- 10:33Speaker 1: Chennie to go with me. Do as you please, replied
- 10:37Speaker 1: the voice. But I shall be at Paros too, for
- 10:41Speaker 1: I am wherever you are, Christine, And if you are
- 10:46Speaker 1: still worthy of me, if you have not lied to me,
- 10:51Speaker 1: I will play you the Resurrection of Lazarus on the
- 10:55Speaker 1: stroke of midnight, on your father's tomb, and on your
- 10:59Speaker 1: father viled in that dear, was how I came to
- 11:03Speaker 1: write you the letter that brought you to Paris. How
- 11:06Speaker 1: could I have been so beguiled? How was it when
- 11:09Speaker 1: I saw the personal, the selfish point of view of
- 11:12Speaker 1: the voice, that I did not suspect some impostor, alas
- 11:16Speaker 1: I was no longer mistress of myself, I had become
- 11:20Speaker 1: his thing. But after all, cried Raoul, you soon came
- 11:25Speaker 1: to know the truth. Why did you not at once
- 11:28Speaker 1: rid yourself of that abominable nightmare? Know the truth? Raoul,
- 11:33Speaker 1: rid myself of that nightmare? But my poor boy, I
- 11:37Speaker 1: was not caught in the nightmare until the day when
- 11:39Speaker 1: I learned the truth. Pity me, Raoul, Pity me. You
- 11:44Speaker 1: remember the terrible evening when Carlotta thought that she had
- 11:47Speaker 1: been turned into a toad on the stage, and when
- 11:50Speaker 1: the house was suddenly plunged in darkness through the chandelier,
- 11:53Speaker 1: crashing to the floor. There were killed and wounded that night,
- 11:58Speaker 1: and the whole theater rang with trified screams. My first
- 12:02Speaker 1: thought was for you and the voice. I was at
- 12:05Speaker 1: once easy where you were concerned, for I had seen
- 12:07Speaker 1: you in your brother's box, and I knew that you
- 12:10Speaker 1: were not in danger. But the voice had told me
- 12:12Speaker 1: that it would be at the performance, and I was
- 12:15Speaker 1: really afraid for it, just as if it had been
- 12:18Speaker 1: an ordinary person who was capable of dying. I thought
- 12:21Speaker 1: to myself, the chandelier may have come down upon the voice.
- 12:25Speaker 1: I was then on the stage and was nearly running
- 12:28Speaker 1: into the house to look for the voice among the
- 12:30Speaker 1: killed and wounded, when I thought that if the voice
- 12:33Speaker 1: was safe, it would be sure to be in my
- 12:35Speaker 1: dressing room, and I rushed to my room. The voice
- 12:39Speaker 1: was not there. I locked my door, and with tears
- 12:42Speaker 1: in my eyes, besought it, if it were still alive,
- 12:45Speaker 1: to manifest itself to me. The voice did not reply,
- 12:49Speaker 1: but suddenly I heard a long, beautiful wail, which I
- 12:52Speaker 1: knew well it is the plaintive Lazarus. When at the
- 12:55Speaker 1: sound of the Redeemer's voice, he begins to open his
- 12:58Speaker 1: eyes and see the light of day. It was the
- 13:02Speaker 1: music which you and I Raoul heard at Perils, and
- 13:05Speaker 1: then the voice began to sing the leading phrase, come
- 13:09Speaker 1: and believe in me. Whoso believes in me shall live walk.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Whoso hath believed in me shall never die. I cannot
- 13:19Speaker 1: tell you the effect which that music had upon me.
- 13:22Speaker 1: It seemed to command me personally to come to stand
- 13:25Speaker 1: up and come to it. It retreated, and I followed,
- 13:29Speaker 1: Come and believe in me. I believed in it. I came,
- 13:34Speaker 1: I came, and this was the extraordinary thing. My dressing room,
- 13:38Speaker 1: as I moved, seemed to lengthen out, to lengthen out.
- 13:42Speaker 1: Evidently it must have been an effect of mirrors, for
- 13:45Speaker 1: I had the mirror in front of me, and suddenly
- 13:48Speaker 1: I was outside the room, without knowing how, what, without
- 13:52Speaker 1: knowing how, Christine, Christine, you must really stop dreaming. I
- 13:59Speaker 1: was not dreaming, dear, I was outside my room without
- 14:02Speaker 1: knowing how. You, who saw me disappear from my room
- 14:05Speaker 1: one evening, may be able to explain it, but I cannot.
- 14:09Speaker 1: I can only tell you that suddenly there was no
- 14:11Speaker 1: mirror before me, and no dressing room. I was in
- 14:14Speaker 1: a dark passage. I was frightened, and I cried out.
- 14:18Speaker 1: It was quite dark but for a faint red glimmer
- 14:21Speaker 1: at a distant corner of the wall. I cried out.
- 14:25Speaker 1: My voice was the only sound for the singing, and
- 14:28Speaker 1: the violin had stopped. And suddenly a hand was laid
- 14:31Speaker 1: on mine, or rather a stone cold, bony thing that
- 14:35Speaker 1: seized my wrist and did not let go. I cried
- 14:39Speaker 1: out again. An arm took me round the waist and
- 14:41Speaker 1: supported me. I struggled for a little while, and then
- 14:45Speaker 1: gave up the attempt. I was dragged toward the little
- 14:48Speaker 1: red light, and then I saw that I was in
- 14:50Speaker 1: the hands of a man, wrapped in a large cloak
- 14:53Speaker 1: and wearing a mask that hid his whole face. I
- 14:56Speaker 1: made one last effort. My limbs stiffened, my mouth opened
- 15:00Speaker 1: to scream, but a hand closed it, a hand which
- 15:04Speaker 1: I felt on my lips, on my skin, a hand
- 15:08Speaker 1: that smelt of death. Then I fainted away. When I
- 15:12Speaker 1: opened my eyes, we were still surrounded by darkness. A
- 15:16Speaker 1: lantern standing on the ground showed a bubbling well. The
- 15:19Speaker 1: water splashing from the well disappeared almost at once under
- 15:23Speaker 1: the floor on which I was lying with my head
- 15:26Speaker 1: on the knee of the man in the black cloak
- 15:28Speaker 1: and the black mask. He was bathing my temples, and
- 15:32Speaker 1: his hands smelt of death. I tried to push them
- 15:35Speaker 1: away and asked, who are you? Where is the voice?
- 15:39Speaker 1: His only answer was a sigh. Suddenly, a hot breath
- 15:42Speaker 1: passed over my face, and I perceived a white shape
- 15:46Speaker 1: beside the man's black shape in the darkness. The black
- 15:49Speaker 1: shape lifted me on to the white shape. A glad
- 15:53Speaker 1: nighing greeted my astounded ears, and I murmured, cizar. The
- 15:58Speaker 1: animal quivered rose ul. I was lying half back on
- 16:01Speaker 1: his saddle, and I had recognized the white horse out
- 16:05Speaker 1: of the profetta, which I had so often fed with
- 16:07Speaker 1: sugar and sweets. I remembered that one evening there was
- 16:11Speaker 1: a rumor in the theater that the horse had disappeared,
- 16:14Speaker 1: and that it had been stolen by the opera ghost.
- 16:17Speaker 1: I believed in the voice, but had never believed in
- 16:20Speaker 1: the ghost. Now, however, I began to wonder with a
- 16:24Speaker 1: shiver whether I was the ghost's prisoner. I called upon
- 16:27Speaker 1: the voice to help me, for I should never have
- 16:29Speaker 1: imagined that the voice and the ghost were won you
- 16:33Speaker 1: have heard about the opera ghost, have you not, Raoul, Yes,
- 16:37Speaker 1: But tell me what happened when you were on the
- 16:39Speaker 1: white horse of the Profetta. I made no movement and
- 16:42Speaker 1: let myself go. The black shape held me up, and
- 16:46Speaker 1: I made no effort to escape. A curious feeling of
- 16:49Speaker 1: peacefulness came over me, and I thought that I must
- 16:52Speaker 1: be under the influence of some cordial I had the
- 16:55Speaker 1: full command of my senses, and my eyes became used
- 16:58Speaker 1: to the darkness which was lit here and there by
- 17:01Speaker 1: fitful gleams. I calculated that we were in a narrow,
- 17:04Speaker 1: circular gallery, probably running all round the opera, which is
- 17:08Speaker 1: immense underground. I had once been down into those cellars,
- 17:13Speaker 1: but had stopped at the third floor, though there were
- 17:15Speaker 1: two lower still large enough to hold a town. But
- 17:19Speaker 1: the figures of which I caught sight had made me
- 17:22Speaker 1: run away. There are demons down there, quite black, standing
- 17:27Speaker 1: in front of boilers, and they wheeled shovels and pitchforks,
- 17:30Speaker 1: and poke up fires and stir up flames. And if
- 17:33Speaker 1: you come to near them, they frighten you by suddenly
- 17:36Speaker 1: opening the red mouths of their furnaces. Well, whilst Cesar
- 17:40Speaker 1: was quietly carrying me on his back. I saw those
- 17:43Speaker 1: black demons in the distance, looking quite small in front
- 17:47Speaker 1: of the red fires of their furnaces. They came into sight, disappeared,
- 17:51Speaker 1: and came into sight again as we went on our
- 17:54Speaker 1: winding way. At last they disappeared altogether. The shape was
- 17:58Speaker 1: still holding me up, and seas walked on unled and
- 18:02Speaker 1: sure footed. I could not tell you even approximately how
- 18:05Speaker 1: long this ride lasted. I only know that we seemed
- 18:09Speaker 1: to turn and turn, and often went down a spiral
- 18:12Speaker 1: stair into the very heart of the earth. Even then,
- 18:15Speaker 1: it may be that my head was turning, but I
- 18:17Speaker 1: don't think so. No, my mind was quite clear. At last,
- 18:21Speaker 1: c Czar raised his nostrils, sniffed the air, and quickened
- 18:25Speaker 1: his pace a little. I felt a moistness in the air,
- 18:28Speaker 1: and Cesar stopped. The darkness had lifted. A sort of
- 18:32Speaker 1: bluey light surrounded us. We were on the edge of
- 18:35Speaker 1: a lake whose leaden waters stretched into the distance, into
- 18:39Speaker 1: the darkness. But the blue light lit up the bank,
- 18:42Speaker 1: and I saw a little boat fastened to an iron
- 18:44Speaker 1: ring on the wharf. A boat, yes, But I knew
- 18:49Speaker 1: all that existed, and that there was nothing supernatural about
- 18:53Speaker 1: that underground lake and boat. But think of the exceptional
- 18:56Speaker 1: conditions in which I arrived upon that shore. I don't
- 19:00Speaker 1: know whether the effects of the cordial had worn off
- 19:03Speaker 1: when the man's shape lifted me into the boat, but
- 19:06Speaker 1: my terror began all over again. My gruesome escort must
- 19:10Speaker 1: have noticed it, for he sent Cizar back, and I
- 19:12Speaker 1: heard his hoofs trampling up a staircase, while the man
- 19:16Speaker 1: jumped into the boat, untied the rope that held it,
- 19:18Speaker 1: and seized the oars. He rowed with a quick, powerful stroke,
- 19:23Speaker 1: and his eyes under the mask never left me. We
- 19:26Speaker 1: slipped across the noiseless water in the bluey light which
- 19:29Speaker 1: I told you of. Then we were in the dark again,
- 19:32Speaker 1: and we touched shore, and I was once more taken
- 19:35Speaker 1: up in the man's arms. I cried aloud, and then
- 19:39Speaker 1: suddenly I was silent, dazed by the light, yes, a
- 19:43Speaker 1: dazzling light, in the midst of which I had been
- 19:45Speaker 1: put down. I sprang to my feet. I was in
- 19:48Speaker 1: the middle of a drawing room that seemed to me
- 19:50Speaker 1: to be decorated, adorned, and furnished with nothing but flowers.
- 19:55Speaker 1: Flowers both magnificent and stupid. Because of the silk ribbons
- 20:00Speaker 1: that tied them to baskets, like those which they sell
- 20:03Speaker 1: in the shops on the boulevards. They were much too civilized,
- 20:07Speaker 1: flowers like those which I used to find in my
- 20:10Speaker 1: dressing room after a first night. And in the midst
- 20:12Speaker 1: of all these flowers stood the black shape of the
- 20:15Speaker 1: man in the mask, with arms crossed, and he said,
- 20:19Speaker 1: don't be afraid, Christine, you are in no danger. It
- 20:23Speaker 1: was the voice. My anger equaled my amazement. I rushed
- 20:28Speaker 1: at the mask and tried to snatch it away so
- 20:31Speaker 1: as to see the face of the voice. The man said,
- 20:35Speaker 1: you are in no danger, so long as you do
- 20:38Speaker 1: not touch the mask, and taking me gently by the wrists,
- 20:41Speaker 1: he forced me into a chair, and then went down
- 20:44Speaker 1: on his knees before me and said nothing more. His
- 20:48Speaker 1: humility gave me back some of my courage, and the
- 20:51Speaker 1: light restored me to the realities of life, however extraordinary
- 20:56Speaker 1: the adventure might be. I was now surrounded by mortar,
- 21:00Speaker 1: visible and tangible things, the furniture, the hangings, the candles,
- 21:05Speaker 1: the vases, and the very flowers in their baskets, of
- 21:08Speaker 1: which I could almost have told whence they came, and
- 21:11Speaker 1: what they caused, were bound to confine my imagination to
- 21:14Speaker 1: the limits of a drawing room, quite as commonplace as
- 21:17Speaker 1: any that at least had the excuse of not being
- 21:21Speaker 1: in the cellars of the opera. I had no doubt
- 21:24Speaker 1: to do with a terrible eccentric person who, in some
- 21:27Speaker 1: mysterious fashion had succeeded in taking up his abode there
- 21:32Speaker 1: under the opera house, five stories below the level of
- 21:35Speaker 1: the ground. And the voice, the voice which I had
- 21:38Speaker 1: recognized under the mask, was on its knees before me
- 21:42Speaker 1: was a man, and I began to cry. The man,
- 21:45Speaker 1: still kneeling, must have understood the cause of my tears,
- 21:48Speaker 1: for he said, it is true, Christine, I am not
- 21:52Speaker 1: an angel, nor a genius, nor a ghost. I am Eric.
- 21:58Speaker 1: Christine's narrative was again interrupted. An echo behind them seemed
- 22:03Speaker 1: to repeat the word after her, eirik what acho. They
- 22:07Speaker 1: both turned round and saw that night had fallen. Raoul
- 22:11Speaker 1: made a movement as though to rise, but Christine kept
- 22:14Speaker 1: him beside her. Don't go, she said, I want you
- 22:17Speaker 1: to know everything here. But why here, Christine, I am
- 22:22Speaker 1: afraid of your catching cold. We have nothing to fear
- 22:25Speaker 1: except the trap doors, dear, and here we are miles
- 22:29Speaker 1: away from the trap doors, and I am not allowed
- 22:31Speaker 1: to see you outside the theater. This is not the
- 22:34Speaker 1: time to annoy him. We must not arouse his suspicion, Christine, Christine,
- 22:40Speaker 1: something tells me that we are wrong to wait till
- 22:43Speaker 1: to morrow evening, and that we ought to fly at once.
- 22:47Speaker 1: I tell you that if he does not hear me
- 22:49Speaker 1: sing tomorrow, it will cause him infinite pain. It is
- 22:54Speaker 1: difficult not to cause him pain and yet to escape
- 22:57Speaker 1: from him for good. You are right in that, Raoul,
- 23:01Speaker 1: For certainly he will die of my flight, and she
- 23:04Speaker 1: added in a dull voice. But then it counts both ways,
- 23:09Speaker 1: for we risk his killing us. Does he love you
- 23:13Speaker 1: so much he would commit murder for me? But one
- 23:17Speaker 1: can find out where he lives. One can go in
- 23:19Speaker 1: search of him. Now that we know that Erik is
- 23:22Speaker 1: not a ghost, one can speak to him and force
- 23:25Speaker 1: him to answer. Christine shook her head. No, No, there
- 23:29Speaker 1: is nothing to be done with Eric except to run away.
- 23:33Speaker 1: Then why when you were able to run away, did
- 23:36Speaker 1: you go back to him? Because I had to. And
- 23:39Speaker 1: you will understand that when I tell you how I
- 23:42Speaker 1: left him. Oh I hate him, cried Raoul, and you, Christine,
- 23:47Speaker 1: tell me, do you hate him too? No, said Christine,
- 23:51Speaker 1: simply no, of course, not why you love him. Your fear,
- 23:57Speaker 1: your terror, all of that is just love, and love
- 24:00Speaker 1: of the most exquisite kind, the kind which people do
- 24:03Speaker 1: not admit even to themselves, said Raoul bitterly, the kind
- 24:08Speaker 1: that gives you a thrill when you think of it.
- 24:10Speaker 1: Picture it a man who lives in a palace under ground,
- 24:15Speaker 1: and he gave a deer. Then you want me to
- 24:18Speaker 1: go back there, said the young girl, cruelly. Take care, Raoul,
- 24:22Speaker 1: I have told you I should never return. There was
- 24:27Speaker 1: an appalling silence between the three of them, the two
- 24:30Speaker 1: who spoke and the shadow that listened behind them. Before
- 24:35Speaker 1: answering that, said Raoul, at last, speaking very slowly, I
- 24:40Speaker 1: should like to know with what feeling he inspires you.
- 24:44Speaker 1: Since you do not hate him with horror, she said.
- 24:49Speaker 1: That is the terrible thing about it. He fills me
- 24:52Speaker 1: with horror, and I do not hate him. How can
- 24:56Speaker 1: I hate him? Raoul, think of earic at my feet
- 24:59Speaker 1: in the house on the lake underground. He accuses himself,
- 25:03Speaker 1: he curses himself, he implores my forgiveness, He confesses his cheat.
- 25:09Speaker 1: He loves me, He lays at my feet an immense
- 25:13Speaker 1: and tragic love. He has carried me off for love.
- 25:16Speaker 1: He has imprisoned me with him underground for love. But
- 25:20Speaker 1: he respects me. He crawls, he moans, he weeps. And
- 25:24Speaker 1: when I stood up Raoul and told him that I
- 25:26Speaker 1: could only despise him if he did not then and
- 25:29Speaker 1: there give me my liberty, he offered it. He offered
- 25:33Speaker 1: to show me the mysterious road. Only only he rose too,
- 25:38Speaker 1: and I was made to remember that though he was
- 25:40Speaker 1: not an angel, nor a ghost, nor a genius, he
- 25:44Speaker 1: remained the voice. For He sang, and I listened and stayed.
- 25:49Speaker 1: That night, we did not exchange another word. He sang
- 25:53Speaker 1: me to sleep. When I woke up, I was alone,
- 25:56Speaker 1: lying on a sofa in a simply furnished little bedroom
- 26:00Speaker 1: with an ordinary mahogany bedstead, lit by a lamp. Standing
- 26:04Speaker 1: on the marble top of an old Louis Philippe chest
- 26:07Speaker 1: of drawers. I soon discovered that I was a prisoner,
- 26:11Speaker 1: and that the only outlet from my room led to
- 26:13Speaker 1: a very comfortable bath room. On returning to the bedroom,
- 26:17Speaker 1: I saw on the chest of drawers a note in
- 26:20Speaker 1: red ink which said my dear Christine, you need have
- 26:24Speaker 1: no concern as to your fate. You have no better
- 26:28Speaker 1: nor more respectful friend in the world than myself. You
- 26:32Speaker 1: are alone at present in this home which is yours.
- 26:35Speaker 1: I am going out shopping to fetch you all the
- 26:38Speaker 1: things that you can need. I felt sure that I
- 26:42Speaker 1: had fallen into the hands of a madman. I ran
- 26:45Speaker 1: round my little apartment looking for a way of escape,
- 26:48Speaker 1: which I could not find. I upbraided myself for my
- 26:51Speaker 1: absurd superstition which had caused me to fall into the trap.
- 26:56Speaker 1: I felt inclined to laugh and to cry at the
- 26:59Speaker 1: same time. This was the state of mind in which
- 27:02Speaker 1: Eric found me. After giving three taps on the wall,
- 27:06Speaker 1: he walked in quietly through a door which I had
- 27:08Speaker 1: not noticed, and which he left open. He had his
- 27:11Speaker 1: arms full of boxes and parcels and arranged them on
- 27:14Speaker 1: the bed in a leisurely fashion. While I overwhelmed him
- 27:18Speaker 1: with abuse and called upon him to take off his
- 27:20Speaker 1: mask if it covered the face of an honest man.
- 27:23Speaker 1: He replied serenely, you shall never see Eric's face. And
- 27:28Speaker 1: he reproached me with not having finished dressing at that
- 27:31Speaker 1: time of day. He was good enough to tell me
- 27:34Speaker 1: that it was two o'clock in the afternoon. He said
- 27:36Speaker 1: he would give me half an hour, and while he spoke,
- 27:39Speaker 1: wound up my watch and set it for me, after
- 27:42Speaker 1: which he asked me to come to the dining room,
- 27:44Speaker 1: where a nice lunch was waiting for us. I was
- 27:48Speaker 1: very angry, slammed the door in his face, and went
- 27:52Speaker 1: to the bathroom. When I came out again, feeling greatly refreshed,
- 27:56Speaker 1: Eric said that he loved me, but that he would
- 27:58Speaker 1: never tell me so except when I allowed him, and
- 28:01Speaker 1: that the rest of the time would be devoted to music.
- 28:04Speaker 1: What do you mean by the rest of the time,
- 28:07Speaker 1: I asked, five days, he said with decision. I asked
- 28:12Speaker 1: him if I should then be free, and he said,
- 28:15Speaker 1: you will be free, Christine, for when those five days
- 28:18Speaker 1: are past, you will have learned not to see me,
- 28:21Speaker 1: and then from time to time you will come to
- 28:24Speaker 1: see your poor eirik. He pointed to a chair opposite
- 28:28Speaker 1: him at a small table, and I sat down. Feeling
- 28:31Speaker 1: greatly perturbed. However, I ate a few prawns and the
- 28:35Speaker 1: wing of a chicken, and drank half a glass of toquet,
- 28:38Speaker 1: which he had himself. He told me brought from the
- 28:41Speaker 1: Konnisberd cellars. Eric did not eat or drink. I asked
- 28:45Speaker 1: him what his nationality was, and if that name of
- 28:49Speaker 1: Eric did not point to his Scandinavian origin. He said
- 28:52Speaker 1: that he had no name and no country, and that
- 28:55Speaker 1: he had taken the name of Eric by accident. After lunch,
- 28:59Speaker 1: he rose and gave me the tips of his fingers,
- 29:03Speaker 1: saying he would like to show me over his flat.
- 29:05Speaker 1: But I snatched away my hand and gave a cry.
- 29:08Speaker 1: What I had touched was cold and at the same
- 29:11Speaker 1: time bony, and I remembered that his hands smelt of death.
- 29:15Speaker 1: Oh forgive me, he moaned, and he opened a door
- 29:19Speaker 1: before me. This is my bedroom. If you care to
- 29:22Speaker 1: see it, it is rather curious. His manners, his words,
- 29:27Speaker 1: his attitude gave me confidence, and I went in without hesitation.
- 29:31Speaker 1: I felt as if I were entering the room of
- 29:33Speaker 1: a dead person. The walls were all hung with black,
- 29:36Speaker 1: but instead of the white trimmings that usually set off
- 29:40Speaker 1: that funereal upholstery, there was an enormoust have of music,
- 29:44Speaker 1: with the notes of the d'aseirae many times repeated. In
- 29:49Speaker 1: the middle of the room was a canopy from which
- 29:52Speaker 1: hung curtains of red brocaded stuff, and under the canopy
- 29:56Speaker 1: an open coffin. That is where I sleep, said Eric.
- 30:01Speaker 1: One has to get used to everything in life, even
- 30:04Speaker 1: to eternity. The sight upset me so much that I
- 30:08Speaker 1: turned away my head. Then I saw the keyboard of
- 30:12Speaker 1: an organ, which filled one whole side of the walls.
- 30:15Speaker 1: On the desk was a music book covered with red notes.
- 30:19Speaker 1: I asked, leave to look at it and read Don
- 30:22Speaker 1: Juan Triumphant. Yes, he said, I compose sometimes. I began
- 30:29Speaker 1: that work twenty years ago. When I have finished, I
- 30:32Speaker 1: shall take it away with me in that coffin and
- 30:35Speaker 1: never wake up again. You must work at it as
- 30:39Speaker 1: seldom as you can, I said. He replied, I sometimes
- 30:43Speaker 1: work at it for fourteen days and nights together, during
- 30:48Speaker 1: which I live on music only, and then I rest
- 30:51Speaker 1: for years at a time. Will you play me something
- 30:55Speaker 1: out of your don Juan Triumphant, I asked, thinking to
- 30:58Speaker 1: please him. You mustn't never ask me that, he said,
- 31:03Speaker 1: in a gloomy voice. I will play you Mozart if
- 31:06Speaker 1: you like, which will only make you weep. But my
- 31:09Speaker 1: Don Juan Christine burns, and yet he is not struck
- 31:14Speaker 1: by fire, from heaven. Thereupon we returned to the drawing room.
- 31:19Speaker 1: I noticed that there was no mirror in the entire apartment.
- 31:23Speaker 1: I was going to remark upon this, but Eric had
- 31:26Speaker 1: already sat down to the piano. He said, you see, Christine,
- 31:31Speaker 1: there is some music that is so terrible that it
- 31:34Speaker 1: consumes all those who approach it. Fortunately you have not
- 31:38Speaker 1: come to that music yet, for you would lose all
- 31:42Speaker 1: your pretty coloring, and nobody would know you when you
- 31:45Speaker 1: returned to Paris. Let us sing something from the opera
- 31:49Speaker 1: Christine Day. He spoke these last words as though he
- 31:53Speaker 1: were flinging an insult at me. What did you do?
- 31:57Speaker 1: I had no time to think about the meaning he
- 32:00Speaker 1: put into his words. We at once began the duet
- 32:03Speaker 1: in Othello, and already the catastrophe was upon us. I
- 32:07Speaker 1: sang Asdemona with a despair, a terror which I had
- 32:10Speaker 1: never displayed before. As for him, his voice thundered forth,
- 32:16Speaker 1: his revengeful soul at every note. Loved, jealousy, hatred burst
- 32:22Speaker 1: out around us in harrowing cries. Eric's black mask made
- 32:27Speaker 1: me think of the natural mask of the moor of Venice.
- 32:30Speaker 1: He was Othello himself. Suddenly I felt in need to
- 32:34Speaker 1: see beneath the mask. I wanted to know the face
- 32:37Speaker 1: of the voice. And with a movement which I was
- 32:40Speaker 1: utterly unable to control, swiftly my fingers tore away the mask. Oh, horror, horror, horror.
- 32:49Speaker 1: Christine stopped at the thought of the vision that had
- 32:52Speaker 1: scared her, while the echoes of the night, which had
- 32:55Speaker 1: repeated the name of Eric now thrice, moaned the cry horror, horror, horror.
- 33:04Speaker 1: Raoul and Christine, clasping each other closely, raised their eyes
- 33:08Speaker 1: to the stars that shone in a clear and peaceful sky.
- 33:12Speaker 1: Raoul said strange Christine, that this calm, soft night should
- 33:17Speaker 1: be so full of plaintive sounds, one would think that
- 33:21Speaker 1: it was sorrowing with us. When you know the secret, Raoul,
- 33:25Speaker 1: your ears, like mine, will be full of lamentations. She
- 33:30Speaker 1: took Raoul's protecting hands in hers, and with a long shiver, continued, Yes,
- 33:36Speaker 1: if I live to be a hundred, I should always
- 33:39Speaker 1: hear the superhuman cry of grief and rage, which he
- 33:42Speaker 1: uttered when the terrible sight appeared before my eyes. Raoul,
- 33:47Speaker 1: you have seen death's heads when they have been dried
- 33:50Speaker 1: and withered by the centuries, And perhaps if you were
- 33:53Speaker 1: not the victim of a nightmare. You saw his death's
- 33:56Speaker 1: head at perils, and then you saw Red Death stalking
- 33:59Speaker 1: about at the last masked ball. But all those Death's
- 34:03Speaker 1: heads were motionless, and their dumb horror was not alive.
- 34:07Speaker 1: But imagine, if you can, Red Death's mask suddenly coming
- 34:12Speaker 1: to life in order to express with the four black
- 34:15Speaker 1: holes of its eyes, its nose, and its mouth, the
- 34:18Speaker 1: extreme anger, the mighty fury of a demon. And not
- 34:22Speaker 1: a ray of light from the sockets, for, as I
- 34:25Speaker 1: learn later, you cannot see his blazing eyes except in
- 34:30Speaker 1: the dark. I fell back against the wall, and he
- 34:33Speaker 1: came up to me, grinding his teeth, And as I
- 34:36Speaker 1: fell upon my knees, he hissed mad incoherent words, and
- 34:40Speaker 1: curses at me. Leaning over me, he cried, luk, you
- 34:45Speaker 1: want to see see feast your eyes, glut your soul
- 34:51Speaker 1: on my cursed ugliness. Look at Eric's face, now you
- 34:55Speaker 1: know the face of the voise. You were not con
- 35:00Speaker 1: tent to hear me. Ah, you wanted to know what
- 35:03Speaker 1: I look like. Oh, you women are so inquisitive. Well
- 35:09Speaker 1: are you satisfied I'm a very good looking fellow. Eh,
- 35:13Speaker 1: when a woman has seen me as you have. She
- 35:16Speaker 1: belongs to me. She loves me forever. I am a
- 35:19Speaker 1: kind of don Juan, you know. And drawing himself up
- 35:23Speaker 1: to his full height with his hand on his hip,
- 35:27Speaker 1: wagging the hideous thing that was his head on his shoulders,
- 35:31Speaker 1: he roared, luk at me, I am don Juan, triumphant.
- 35:37Speaker 1: And when I turned away my head and begged for mercy,
- 35:41Speaker 1: he drew it to him, brutally, twisting his dead fingers
- 35:44Speaker 1: into my hair. Enough enough, cried Raoul, I will kill
- 35:50Speaker 1: him in Heaven's name, Christine. Tell me where the dining
- 35:54Speaker 1: room on the lake is. I must kill him. Oh,
- 35:58Speaker 1: be quiet, Raoul. If you want to know, yes, I
- 36:03Speaker 1: want to know how and why you went back. I
- 36:06Speaker 1: must know. But in any case I will kill him. Oh, Raoul, listen, listen.
- 36:14Speaker 1: He dragged me by my hair, and then and then
- 36:18Speaker 1: oh it is too horrible. Well what out with it?
- 36:23Speaker 1: Exclaimed Raoul, fiercely, Out with it? Quick? Then he hissed
- 36:28Speaker 1: at me, Ah, I frighten you to I. I dare say,
- 36:33Speaker 1: perhaps you think that I have another mask, eh, and
- 36:36Speaker 1: that this this my head is a mask. Well tear
- 36:40Speaker 1: it off as you did the other. Come come along
- 36:43Speaker 1: I insist your hands, your hands, give me your hands,
- 36:49Speaker 1: and he seized my hands and dug them into his
- 36:52Speaker 1: awful face. He tore his flesh with my nails, tore
- 36:56Speaker 1: his terrible dead flesh with my nails. No, oh, he shouted,
- 37:01Speaker 1: while his throat throbbed and panted like a furnace. Know
- 37:05Speaker 1: that I am built up of death from head to foot,
- 37:08Speaker 1: and that it is a corpse that loves you and
- 37:11Speaker 1: adores you, and will never never leave you. Luck I
- 37:15Speaker 1: am not laughing now. I am crying, crying for you, Christine,
- 37:21Speaker 1: who have torn off my mask, and who therefore can
- 37:24Speaker 1: never leave me again. As long as you thought me handsome,
- 37:29Speaker 1: you could have come back. I know you would have
- 37:33Speaker 1: come back, But now that you know my hideousness, you
- 37:37Speaker 1: would run away for good. So I shall keep you here.
- 37:41Speaker 1: Why did you want to see me, oh, mad Christine,
- 37:45Speaker 1: who wanted to see me when my own father never
- 37:48Speaker 1: saw me, and when my mother, so as not to
- 37:51Speaker 1: see me, made me a present of my first mask.
- 37:55Speaker 1: He had let go of me at last, and was
- 37:57Speaker 1: dragging himself about on the floor, uttering terrible sobs, And
- 38:02Speaker 1: then he crawled away like a snake, went into his room,
- 38:06Speaker 1: closed the door and left me alone to my reflections.
- 38:10Speaker 1: Presently I heard the sound of the organ, and then
- 38:13Speaker 1: I began to understand Eric's contemptuous phrase when he spoke
- 38:17Speaker 1: about opera music. What I now heard was utterly different
- 38:21Speaker 1: from what I had heard up to them. His Donjuan triumphant,
- 38:25Speaker 1: for I had not a doubt but that he had
- 38:28Speaker 1: rushed to his masterpiece to forget the horror of the
- 38:30Speaker 1: moment seemed to me at first one long, awful, magnificent sob.
- 38:37Speaker 1: But as little by little it expressed every emotion, every
- 38:41Speaker 1: suffering of which mankind is capable, it intoxicated me, and
- 38:46Speaker 1: I opened the door that separated us. Eric rose as
- 38:50Speaker 1: I entered, but dared not turn in my direction. Eric,
- 38:54Speaker 1: I cried, show me your face without fear. I swear
- 38:59Speaker 1: that you are the most unhappy and sublime of men.
- 39:03Speaker 1: And if ever again I shiver when I look at you,
- 39:06Speaker 1: it will be because I am thinking of the splendor
- 39:09Speaker 1: of your genius. Then Erik turned round, for he believed me,
- 39:13Speaker 1: and I also had faith in myself. He fell at
- 39:16Speaker 1: my feet with words of love, with words of love
- 39:20Speaker 1: in his dead mouth, and the music had ceased, he
- 39:25Speaker 1: kissed the hem of my dress, and did not see
- 39:28Speaker 1: that I closed my eyes. What more can I tell you, dear,
- 39:33Speaker 1: You now know the tragedy. It went on for a fortnight,
- 39:37Speaker 1: a fortnight during which I lied to him. My lies
- 39:40Speaker 1: were as hideous as the monster who inspired them, but
- 39:44Speaker 1: they were the price of my liberty. I burned his mask,
- 39:48Speaker 1: and I managed so well that even when he was
- 39:51Speaker 1: not singing, he tried to catch my eye, like a
- 39:54Speaker 1: dog sitting by its master. He was my faithful slave
- 39:58Speaker 1: and paid me endless little attentions. Gradually I gave him
- 40:02Speaker 1: such confidence that he ventured to take me walking on
- 40:05Speaker 1: the banks of the lake, and to row me in
- 40:07Speaker 1: the boat on its leaden waters. Toward the end of
- 40:10Speaker 1: my captivity, he let me out through the gates that
- 40:13Speaker 1: closed the underground passages in the Ruse gribe. Here a
- 40:17Speaker 1: carriage awaited us and took us to the bois. The
- 40:20Speaker 1: night when we met you was nearly fatal to me,
- 40:23Speaker 1: for he is terribly jealous of you, and I had
- 40:26Speaker 1: to tell him that you were soon going away. Then,
- 40:29Speaker 1: at last, after a fortnight of that horrible captivity, during
- 40:33Speaker 1: which I was filled with pity, enthusiasm, despair, and horror,
- 40:37Speaker 1: by turns. He believed me when I said I will
- 40:41Speaker 1: come back, and you went back. Christine groaned, Raoul, Yes, dear,
- 40:48Speaker 1: and I must tell you that it was not his
- 40:50Speaker 1: frightful threats when setting me free that helped me to
- 40:53Speaker 1: keep my word, but the harrowing sob which he gave
- 40:57Speaker 1: on the threshold of the tomb. That's ab attached me
- 41:01Speaker 1: to the unfortunate man more than I myself suspected. When
- 41:05Speaker 1: saying good bye to him, Poor Eric, Poor Eric, Christine said, Raoul, rising,
- 41:13Speaker 1: you tell me that you love me, but you had
- 41:16Speaker 1: recovered your liberty hardly a few hours before you returned
- 41:19Speaker 1: to Eric. Remember the masked ball? Yes? And do you
- 41:24Speaker 1: remember those hours I passed with you, Raoul, to the
- 41:28Speaker 1: great danger of both of us. I doubted your love
- 41:31Speaker 1: for me during those hours. Do you doubt it still? Raoul? Then?
- 41:36Speaker 1: Know that each of my visits to Erik increased my
- 41:39Speaker 1: horror of him. For each of those visits, instead of
- 41:42Speaker 1: calming him as I hoped, made him mad with love.
- 41:45Speaker 1: And I am so frightened, so frightened, you are frightened.
- 41:50Speaker 1: But do you love me? If Eric were good looking,
- 41:54Speaker 1: would you love me? Christine? She rose in her turn
- 41:58Speaker 1: put her too trembling arms round the young man's neck,
- 42:01Speaker 1: and said, all my betrothed, of a day, if I
- 42:04Speaker 1: did not love you, I would not give you my lips.
- 42:08Speaker 1: Take them for the first time and the last. He
- 42:12Speaker 1: kissed her lips. But the night that surrounded them was
- 42:15Speaker 1: rent asunder. They fled as at the approach of a storm,
- 42:19Speaker 1: and their eyes filled with dread of Eric showed them
- 42:23Speaker 1: before they disappeared. High up above them an immense night
- 42:26Speaker 1: bird that stared at them with its blazing eyes and
- 42:30Speaker 1: seemed to cling to the string of Apollo's lyre. End
- 42:35Speaker 1: of Chapter twelve.