Page 49 - Phantom of the Opera

week, Raoul stopped playing and said, "I will not go to the hole. Suddenly, the trap door closed, and so quickly that they did
North Pole!"
not see the hand that closed it. They stared in silence.
Christine suddenly discovered the danger of the game and "Maybe he was there," Raoul said, at last.
disappeared for two days. When she returned, she had good "No, no, it was the trap door shutters. They must do
news. Carlotta had not been able to appear on the stage since that something, you know, so they open and close the doors for no
night of the terrible "Co-ack!" and now Christine had been reason."
offered her place.
"But suppose it was he, Christine!"
Raoul went to listen to her. It was a new triumph for "No, no, he has shut himself up; he's working."
Christine, but for Raoul it was hell. A voice whispered in his ear, "What is he working at?"
"She is wearing the ring again tonight; and you did not give it to "Oh, something terrible! But it's better for us .. when he's
.
her. She gave her soul again tonight, and did not give it to you. If working at that, he sees nothing; he does not eat, drink, or
she will not tell you what she has been doing the past two breathe for many days and nights .. he has no time to amuse
.
days... you must go and ask Erik!"
himself with trap doors."
He ran backstage after the performance and threw himself "Are you afraid of him?" Raoul asked.
on his knees in front of her. He swore to her that he would go
"No, no, of course not," she said. But for some days after that,
to the North Pole, but that she must never again take from him
she avoided the trap doors.
one hour of the happiness she had promised. She cried. They
One afternoon she arrived late, her face desperately pale and
kissed.
her eyes desperately red.
Suddenly, she moved away from him and listened at the door.
"I will remove you from his power, Christine, I swear it. And
Then, in a low voice, she whispered, "Be happy, Raoul. I sang for
you will not think of him again."
you tonight!"
"Is it possible?" she asked, allowing herself this doubt, this
Their time together over the next weeks was spent going for
encouragement, as she dragged the young man up to the top
walks — not outdoors in the fresh air, but inside the Opera with
floor of the theater — far, very far, from the trap doors.
its seventeen floors. Once, when they were passing a trap door,
"Higher!" she kept saying.
Raoul stopped over the dark hole and said, "You have shown me
They were soon under the roof. And despite the care that she
all over the upper part of your opera house, Christine, but there
took to look behind her at every moment, she failed to see a
are strange stories about the lower part. Shall we go down?"
shadow which followed her like her own shadow. It stopped
In a trembling voice she whispered, "Never! .. I will not let
.
when she stopped, started when she started. Raoul saw nothing
you go there! Besides, it's not mine. Everything that is underground
belongs to him!" either because when he had Christine in front of him, nothing
interested him that happened behind.
"So he lives down there, does he?" Raoul said angrily.
They reached the roof. It was a beautiful spring evening.
"I never said so. Come away!"
"Soon we will go farther and faster than the clouds, to the end
She tried to pull him away, but he was attracted to the dark
of the world, and then you will leave me, Raoul. But if, when the
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