The first words of the commissary of police, on entering the managers'
office, were to ask after the missing prima donna.
"Is Christine Daae here?"
"Christine Daae here?" echoed Richard. "No. Why?"
As for Moncharmin, he had not the strength left to utter a word.
Richard repeated, for the commissary and the compact crowd which had
followed him into the office observed an impressive silence.
"Why do you ask if Christine Daae is here, M. LE COMMISSAIRE?"
"Because she has to be found," declared the commissary of police
solemnly.
"What do you mean, she has to be found? Has she disappeared?"
"In the middle of the performance!"
"In the middle of the performance? This is extraordinary!"
"Isn't it? And what is quite as extraordinary is that you should first
learn it from me!"
"Yes," said Richard, taking his head in his hands and muttering. "What
is this new business? Oh, it's enough to make a man send in his
resignation!"
And he pulled a few hairs out of his mustache without even knowing what
he was doing.
"So she ... so she disappeared in the middle of the performance?" he
repeated.
"Yes, she was carried off in the Prison Act, at the moment when she was
invoking the aid of the angels; but I doubt if she was carried off by
an angel."
"And I am sure that she was!"
Everybody looked round. A young man, pale and trembling with
excitement, repeated: "I am sure of it!"
"Sure of what?" asked Mifroid.
"That Christine Daae was carried off by an angel, M. LE COMMISSAIRE and
I can tell you his name."
"Aha, M. le Vicomte de Chagny! So you maintain that Christine Daae was
carried off by an angel: an angel of the Opera, no doubt?"
"Yes, monsieur, by an angel of the Opera; and I will tell you where he
lives ... when we are alone."
"You are right, monsieur."
And the commissary of police, inviting Raoul to take a chair, cleared
the room of all the rest, excepting the managers.
Then Raoul spoke: "M. le Commissaire, the angel is called Erik, he lives in the Opera and
he is the Angel of Music!"
"The Angel of Music! Really! That is very curious! ... The Angel of
Music!" And, turning to the managers, M. Mifroid asked, "Have you an
Angel of Music on the premises, gentlemen?"
Richard and Moncharmin shook their heads, without even speaking.
"Oh," said the viscount, "those gentlemen have heard of the Opera
ghost. Well, I am in a position to state that the Opera ghost and the
Angel of Music are one and the same person; and his real name is Erik."
M. Mifroid rose and looked at Raoul attentively.
"I beg your pardon, monsieur but is it your intention to make fun of
the law? And, if not, what is all this about the Opera ghost?"