________________________________________________
_ The day after Christine had vanished before his eyes in a sort
of dazzlement that still made him doubt the evidence of his senses,
M. le Vicomte de Chagny called to inquire at Mamma Valerius'.
He came upon a charming picture. Christine herself was seated
by the bedside of the old lady, who was sitting up against
the pillows, knitting. The pink and white had returned to the young
girl's cheeks. The dark rings round her eyes had disappeared.
Raoul no longer recognized the tragic face of the day before.
If the veil of melancholy over those adorable features had not
still appeared to the young man as the last trace of the weird
drama in whose toils that mysterious child was struggling,
he could have believed that Christine was not its heroine at all.
She rose, without showing any emotion, and offered him her hand.
But Raoul's stupefaction was so great that he stood there dumfounded,
without a gesture, without a word.
"Well, M. de Chagny," exclaimed Mamma Valerius, "don't you know
our Christine? Her good genius has sent her back to us!"
"Mamma!" the girl broke in promptly, while a deep blush mantled to
her eyes. "I thought, mamma, that there was to be no more question
of that!...You know there is no such thing as the Angel of Music!"
"But, child, he gave you lessons for three months!"
"Mamma, I have promised to explain everything to you one of these days;
and I hope to do so but you have promised me, until that day,
to be silent and to ask me no more questions whatever!"
"Provided that you promised never to leave me again! But have you
promised that, Christine?"
"Mamma, all this can not interest M. de Chagny."
"On the contrary, mademoiselle," said the young man, in a voice
which he tried to make firm and brave, but which still trembled,
"anything that concerns you interests me to an extent which perhaps
you will one day understand. I do not deny that my surprise equals
my pleasure at finding you with your adopted mother and that,
after what happened between us yesterday, after what you said and
what I was able to guess, I hardly expected to see you here so soon.
I should be the first to delight at your return, if you were not
so bent on preserving a secrecy that may be fatal to you...and I
have been your friend too long not to be alarmed, with Mme. Valerius,
at a disastrous adventure which will remain dangerous so long as we
have not unraveled its threads and of which you will certainly end
by being the victim, Christine."
At these words, Mamma Valerius tossed about in her bed.
"What does this mean?" she cried. "Is Christine in danger?"
"Yes, madame," said Raoul courageously, notwithstanding the signs
which Christine made to him.
"My God!" exclaimed the good, simple old woman, gasping for breath.
"You must tell me everything, Christine! Why did you try to reassure me?
And what danger is it, M. de Chagny?"
"An impostor is abusing her good faith."
"Is the Angel of Music an impostor?"
"She told you herself that there is no Angel of Music."
"But then what is it, in Heaven's name? You will be the death
of me!"
"There is a terrible mystery around us, madame, around you,
around Christine, a mystery much more to be feared than any number
of ghosts or genii!"
Mamma Valerius turned a terrified face to Christine, who had already
run to her adopted mother and was holding her in her arms.
"Don't believe him, mummy, don't believe him," she repeated.
"Then tell me that you will never leave me again," implored the widow.
Christine was silent and Raoul resumed.
"That is what you must promise, Christine. It is the only thing
that can reassure your mother and me. We will undertake not to ask
you a single question about the past, if you promise us to remain
under our protection in future."
"That is an undertaking which I have not asked of you and a promise
which I refuse to make you!" said the young girl haughtily.
"I am mistress of my own actions, M. de Chagny: you have no right
to control them, and I will beg you to desist henceforth.
As to what I have done during the last fortnight, there is only one man
in the world who has the right to demand an account of me: my husband!
Well, I have no husband and I never mean to marry!"
She threw out her hands to emphasize her words and Raoul turned pale,
not only because of the words which he had heard, but because he
had caught sight of a plain gold ring on Christine's finger.
"You have no husband and yet you wear a wedding-ring."
He tried to seize her hand, but she swiftly drew it back.
"That's a present!" she said, blushing once more and vainly striving
to hide her embarrassment.
"Christine! As you have no husband, that ring can only have been
given by one who hopes to make you his wife! Why deceive us further?
Why torture me still more? That ring is a promise; and that promise
has been accepted!"
"That's what I said!" exclaimed the old lady.
"And what did she answer, madame?"
"What I chose," said Christine, driven to exasperation.
"Don't you think, monsieur, that this cross-examination has lasted
long enough? As far as I am concerned..."
Raoul was afraid to let her finish her speech. He interrupted her:
"I beg your pardon for speaking as I did, mademoiselle. You know
the good intentions that make me meddle, just now, in matters which,
you no doubt think, have nothing to do with me. But allow me to
tell you what I have seen--and I have seen more than you suspect,
Christine--or what I thought I saw, for, to tell you the truth,
I have sometimes been inclined to doubt the evidence of my eyes."
"Well, what did you see, sir, or think you saw?"
"I saw your ecstasy AT THE SOUND OF THE VOICE, Christine: the voice
that came from the wall or the next room to yours...yes,
YOUR ECSTASY! And that is what makes me alarmed on your behalf.
You are under a very dangerous spell. And yet it seems that you
are aware of the imposture, because you say to-day THAT THERE
IS NO ANGEL OF MUSIC! In that case, Christine, why did you follow
him that time? Why did you stand up, with radiant features,
as though you were really hearing angels?...Ah, it is a very
dangerous voice, Christine, for I myself, when I heard it, was so much
fascinated by it that you vanished before my eyes without my seeing
which way you passed! Christine, Christine, in the name of Heaven,
in the name of your father who is in Heaven now and who loved you
so dearly and who loved me too, Christine, tell us, tell your
benefactress and me, to whom does that voice belong? If you do,
we will save you in spite of yourself. Come, Christine, the name
of the man! The name of the man who had the audacity to put a ring
on your finger!"
"M. de Chagny," the girl declared coldly, "you shall never know!"
Thereupon, seeing the hostility with which her ward had addressed
the viscount, Mamma Valerius suddenly took Christine's part.
"And, if she does love that man, Monsieur le Vicomte, even then it
is no business of yours!"
"Alas, madame," Raoul humbly replied, unable to restrain his tears,
"alas, I believe that Christine really does love him!...But
it is not only that which drives me to despair; for what I am not
certain of, madame, is that the man whom Christine loves is worthy
of her love!"
"It is for me to be the judge of that, monsieur!" said Christine,
looking Raoul angrily in the face.
"When a man," continued Raoul, "adopts such romantic methods
to entice a young girl's affections. .."
"The man must be either a villain, or the girl a fool: is that it?"
"Christine!"
"Raoul, why do you condemn a man whom you have never seen,
whom no one knows and about whom you yourself know nothing?"
"Yes, Christine....Yes....I at least know the name
that you thought to keep from me for ever....The name
of your Angel of Music, mademoiselle, is Erik!"
Christine at once betrayed herself. She turned as white as a sheet
and stammered: "Who told you?"
"You yourself!"
"How do you mean?"
"By pitying him the other night, the night of the masked ball.
When you went to your dressing-room, did you not say, `Poor Erik?'
Well, Christine, there was a poor Raoul who overheard you."
"This is the second time that you have listened behind the door,
M. de Chagny!"
"I was not behind the door...I was in the dressing-room,
in the inner room, mademoiselle."
"Oh, unhappy man!" moaned the girl, showing every sign
of unspeakable terror. "Unhappy man! Do you want to be killed?"
"Perhaps."
Raoul uttered this "perhaps" with so much love and despair in his
voice that Christine could not keep back a sob. She took his hands
and looked at him with all the pure affection of which she was capable:
"Raoul," she said, "forget THE MAN'S VOICE and do not even remember
its name. .. You must never try to fathom the mystery of THE
MAN'S VOICE."
"Is the mystery so very terrible?"
"There is no more awful mystery on this earth. Swear to me that you
will make no attempt to find out," she insisted. "Swear to me
that you will never come to my dressing-room, unless I send for you."
"Then you promise to send for me sometimes, Christine?"
"I promise."
"When?"
"To-morrow."
"Then I swear to do as you ask."
He kissed her hands and went away, cursing Erik and resolving
to be patient. _
Read next: CHAPTER XI - ABOVE THE TRAP-DOORS
Read previous: CHAPTER IX - AT THE MASKED BALL
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