Fantôme de l'Opéra. English

  Chapter XI Above the Trap-Doors

  The next day, he saw her at the Opera. She was still wearing the plaingold ring. She was gentle and kind to him. She talked to him of theplans which he was forming, of his future, of his career.

  He told her that the date of the Polar expedition had been put forwardand that he would leave France in three weeks, or a month at latest.She suggested, almost gaily, that he must look upon the voyage withdelight, as a stage toward his coming fame. And when he replied thatfame without love was no attraction in his eyes, she treated him as achild whose sorrows were only short-lived.

  "How can you speak so lightly of such serious things?" he asked."Perhaps we shall never see each other again! I may die during thatexpedition."

  "Or I," she said simply.

  She no longer smiled or jested. She seemed to be thinking of some newthing that had entered her mind for the first time. Her eyes were allaglow with it.

  "What are you thinking of, Christine?"

  "I am thinking that we shall not see each other again ..."

  "And does that make you so radiant?"

  "And that, in a month, we shall have to say good-by for ever!"

  "Unless, Christine, we pledge our faith and wait for each other forever."

  She put her hand on his mouth.

  "Hush, Raoul! ... You know there is no question of that ... And weshall never be married: that is understood!"

  She seemed suddenly almost unable to contain an overpowering gaiety.She clapped her hands with childish glee. Raoul stared at her inamazement.

  "But ... but," she continued, holding out her two hands to Raoul, orrather giving them to him, as though she had suddenly resolved to makehim a present of them, "but if we can not be married, we can ... we canbe engaged! Nobody will know but ourselves, Raoul. There have beenplenty of secret marriages: why not a secret engagement? ... We areengaged, dear, for a month! In a month, you will go away, and I can behappy at the thought of that month all my life long!"

  She was enchanted with her inspiration. Then she became serious again.

  "This," she said, "IS A HAPPINESS THAT WILL HARM NO ONE."

  Raoul jumped at the idea. He bowed to Christine and said:

  "Mademoiselle, I have the honor to ask for your hand."

  "Why, you have both of them already, my dear betrothed! ... Oh, Raoul,how happy we shall be! ... We must play at being engaged all day long."

  It was the prettiest game in the world and they enjoyed it like thechildren that they were. Oh, the wonderful speeches they made to eachother and the eternal vows they exchanged! They played at hearts asother children might play at ball; only, as it was really their twohearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy tocatch them, each time, without hurting them.

  One day, about a week after the game began, Raoul's heart was badlyhurt and he stopped playing and uttered these wild words:

  "I shan't go to the North Pole!"

  Christine, who, in her innocence, had not dreamed of such apossibility, suddenly discovered the danger of the game and reproachedherself bitterly. She did not say a word in reply to Raoul's remarkand went straight home.

  This happened in the afternoon, in the singer's dressing-room, wherethey met every day and where they amused themselves by dining on threebiscuits, two glasses of port and a bunch of violets. In the evening,she did not sing; and he did not receive his usual letter, though theyhad arranged to write to each other daily during that month. The nextmorning, he ran off to Mamma Valerius, who told him that Christine hadgone away for two days. She had left at five o'clock the day before.

  Raoul was distracted. He hated Mamma Valerius for giving him such newsas that with such stupefying calmness. He tried to sound her, but theold lady obviously knew nothing.

  Christine returned on the following day. She returned in triumph. Sherenewed her extraordinary success of the gala performance. Since theadventure of the "toad," Carlotta had not been able to appear on thestage. The terror of a fresh "co-ack" filled her heart and deprivedher of all her power of singing; and the theater that had witnessed herincomprehensible disgrace had become odious to her. She contrived tocancel her contract. Daae was offered the vacant place for the time.She received thunders of applause in the Juive.

  The viscount, who, of course, was present, was the only one to sufferon hearing the thousand echoes of this fresh triumph; for Christinestill wore her plain gold ring. A distant voice whispered in the youngman's ear:

  "She is wearing the ring again to-night; and you did not give it toher. She gave her soul again tonight and did not give it to you... Ifshe will not tell you what she has been doing the past two days ... youmust go and ask Erik!"

  He ran behind the scenes and placed himself in her way. She saw himfor her eyes were looking for him. She said:

  "Quick! Quick! ... Come!"

  And she dragged him to her dressing-room.

  Raoul at once threw himself on his knees before her. He swore to herthat he would go and he entreated her never again to withhold a singlehour of the ideal happiness which she had promised him. She let hertears flow. They kissed like a despairing brother and sister who havebeen smitten with a common loss and who meet to mourn a dead parent.

  Suddenly, she snatched herself from the young man's soft and timidembrace, seemed to listen to something, and, with a quick gesture,pointed to the door. When he was on the threshold, she said, in so lowa voice that the viscount guessed rather than heard her words:

  "To-morrow, my dear betrothed! And be happy, Raoul: I sang for youto-night!"

  He returned the next day. But those two days of absence had broken thecharm of their delightful make-believe. They looked at each other, inthe dressing-room, with their sad eyes, without exchanging a word.Raoul had to restrain himself not to cry out:

  "I am jealous! I am jealous! I am jealous!"

  But she heard him all the same. Then she said:

  "Come for a walk, dear. The air will do you good."

  Raoul thought that she would propose a stroll in the country, far fromthat building which he detested as a prison whose jailer he could feelwalking within the walls ... the jailer Erik ... But she took him tothe stage and made him sit on the wooden curb of a well, in thedoubtful peace and coolness of a first scene set for the evening'sperformance.

  On another day, she wandered with him, hand in, hand, along thedeserted paths of a garden whose creepers had been cut out by adecorator's skilful hands. It was as though the real sky, the realflowers, the real earth were forbidden her for all time and shecondemned to breathe no other air than that of the theater. Anoccasional fireman passed, watching over their melancholy idyll fromafar. And she would drag him up above the clouds, in the magnificentdisorder of the grid, where she loved to make him giddy by running infront of him along the frail bridges, among the thousands of ropesfastened to the pulleys, the windlasses, the rollers, in the midst of aregular forest of yards and masts. If he hesitated, she said, with anadorable pout of her lips:

  "You, a sailor!"

  And then they returned to terra firma, that is to say, to some passagethat led them to the little girls' dancing-school, where brats betweensix and ten were practising their steps, in the hope of becoming greatdancers one day, "covered with diamonds ..." Meanwhile, Christine gavethem sweets instead.

  She took him to the wardrobe and property-rooms, took him all over herempire, which was artificial, but immense, covering seventeen storiesfrom the ground-floor to the roof and inhabited by an army of subjects.She moved among them like a popular queen, encouraging them in theirlabors, sitting down in the workshops, giving words of advice to theworkmen whose hands hesitated to cut into the rich stuffs that were toclothe heroes. There were inhabitants of that country who practisedevery trade. There were cobblers, there were goldsmiths. All hadlearned to know her and to love her, for she always interested herselfin all their troubles and all their little hobbies.

  She
knew unsuspected corners that were secretly occupied by little oldcouples. She knocked at their door and introduced Raoul to them as aPrince Charming who had asked for her hand; and the two of them,sitting on some worm-eaten "property," would listen to the legends ofthe Opera, even as, in their childhood, they had listened to the oldBreton tales. Those old people remembered nothing outside the Opera.They had lived there for years without number. Past managements hadforgotten them; palace revolutions had taken no notice of them; thehistory of France had run its course unknown to them; and nobodyrecollected their existence.

  The precious days sped in this way; and Raoul and Christine, byaffecting excessive interest in outside matters, strove awkwardly tohide from each other the one thought of their hearts. One fact wascertain, that Christine, who until then had shown herself the strongerof the two, became suddenly inexpressibly nervous. When on theirexpeditions, she would start running without reason or else suddenlystop; and her hand, turning ice-cold in a moment, would hold the youngman back. Sometimes her eyes seemed to pursue imaginary shadows. Shecried, "This way," and "This way," and "This way," laughing abreathless laugh that often ended in tears. Then Raoul tried to speak,to question her, in spite of his promises. But, even before he hadworded his question, she answered feverishly:

  "Nothing ... I swear it is nothing."

  Once, when they were passing before an open trapdoor on the stage,Raoul stopped over the dark cavity.

  "You have shown me over the upper part of your empire, Christine, butthere are strange stories told of the lower part. Shall we go down?"

  She caught him in her arms, as though she feared to see him disappeardown the black hole, and, in a trembling voice, whispered:

  "Never! ... I will not have you go there! ... Besides, it's not mine... EVERYTHING THAT IS UNDERGROUND BELONGS TO HIM!"

  Raoul looked her in the eyes and said roughly:

  "So he lives down there, does he?"

  "I never said so ... Who told you a thing like that? Come away! Isometimes wonder if you are quite sane, Raoul ... You always takethings in such an impossible way ... Come along! Come!"

  And she literally dragged him away, for he was obstinate and wanted toremain by the trap-door; that hole attracted him.

  Suddenly, the trap-door was closed and so quickly that they did noteven see the hand that worked it; and they remained quite dazed.

  "Perhaps HE was there," Raoul said, at last.

  She shrugged her shoulders, but did not seem easy.

  "No, no, it was the 'trap-door-shutters.' They must do something, youknow ... They open and shut the trap-doors without any particularreason ... It's like the 'door-shutters:' they must spend their timesomehow."

  "But suppose it were HE, Christine?"

  "No, no! He has shut himself up, he is working."

  "Oh, really! He's working, is he?"

  "Yes, he can't open and shut the trap-doors and work at the same time."She shivered.

  "What is he working at?"

  "Oh, something terrible! ... But it's all the better for us... Whenhe's working at that, he sees nothing; he does not eat, drink, orbreathe for days and nights at a time ... he becomes a living dead manand has no time to amuse himself with the trap-doors." She shiveredagain. She was still holding him in her arms. Then she sighed andsaid, in her turn:

  "Suppose it were HE!"

  "Are you afraid of him?"

  "No, no, of course not," she said.

  For all that, on the next day and the following days, Christine wascareful to avoid the trap-doors. Her agitation only increased as thehours passed. At last, one afternoon, she arrived very late, with herface so desperately pale and her eyes so desperately red, that Raoulresolved to go to all lengths, including that which he foreshadowedwhen he blurted out that he would not go on the North Pole expeditionunless she first told him the secret of the man's voice.

  "Hush! Hush, in Heaven's name! Suppose HE heard you, you unfortunateRaoul!"

  And Christine's eyes stared wildly at everything around her.

  "I will remove you from his power, Christine, I swear it. And youshall not think of him any more."

  "Is it possible?"

  She allowed herself this doubt, which was an encouragernent, whiledragging the young man up to the topmost floor of the theater, far,very far from the trap-doors.

  "I shall hide you in some unknown corner of the world, where HE can notcome to look for you. You will be safe; and then I shall go away ...as you have sworn never to marry."

  Christine seized Raoul's hands and squeezed them with incrediblerapture. But, suddenly becoming alarmed again, she turned away herhead.

  "Higher!" was all she said. "Higher still!"

  And she dragged him up toward the summit.

  He had a difficulty in following her. They were soon under the veryroof, in the maze of timber-work. They slipped through the buttresses,the rafters, the joists; they ran from beam to beam as they might haverun from tree to tree in a forest.

  And, despite the care which she took to look behind her at everymoment, she failed to see a shadow which followed her like her ownshadow, which stopped when she stopped, which started again when shedid and which made no more noise than a well-conducted shadow should.As for Raoul, he saw nothing either; for, when he had Christine infront of him, nothing interested him that happened behind.