Chapter IX

At the Masked Ball


The envelope was covered with mud and unstamped. It bore the words
"To be handed to M. le Vicomte Raoul de Chagny," with the address
in pencil. It must have been flung out in the hope that a passer-by
would pick up the note and deliver it, which was what happened.
The note had been picked up on the pavement of the Place de l'Opera.

Raoul read it over again with fevered eyes. No more was needed
to revive his hope. The somber picture which he had for a moment
imagined of a Christine forgetting her duty to herself made way
for his original conception of an unfortunate, innocent child,
the victim of imprudence and exaggerated sensibility. To what extent,
at this time, was she really a victim? Whose prisoner was she?
Into what whirlpool had she been dragged? He asked himself these
questions with a cruel anguish; but even this pain seemed endurable
beside the frenzy into which he was thrown at the thought of a lying
and deceitful Christine. What had happened? What influence had
she undergone? What monster had carried her off and by what means?
...

By what means indeed but that of music? He knew Christine's story.
After her father's death, she acquired a distaste of everything in life,
including her art. She went through the CONSERVATOIRE like a poor
soulless singing-machine. And, suddenly, she awoke as though through the
intervention of a god. The Angel of Music appeared upon the scene!
She sang Margarita in FAUST and triumphed!...

The Angel of Music!...For three months the Angel of Music had been
giving Christine lessons....Ah, he was a punctual singing-master!...
And now he was taking her for drives in the Bois!...

Raoul's fingers clutched at his flesh, above his jealous heart.
In his inexperience, he now asked himself with terror what game
the girl was playing? Up to what point could an opera-singer make
a fool of a good-natured young man, quite new to love? O misery!...

Thus did Raoul's thoughts fly from one extreme to the other.
He no longer knew whether to pity Christine or to curse her;
and he pitied and cursed her turn and turn about. At all events,
he bought a white domino.

The hour of the appointment came at last. With his face in a mask
trimmed with long, thick lace, looking like a pierrot in his white wrap,
the viscount thought himself very ridiculous. Men of the world
do not go to the Opera ball in fancy-dress! It was absurd.
One thought, however, consoled the viscount: he would certainly
never be recognized!

This ball was an exceptional affair, given some time before Shrovetide,
in honor of the anniversary of the birth of a famous draftsman;
and it was expected to be much gayer, noisier, more Bohemian than
the ordinary masked ball. Numbers of artists had arranged to go,
accompanied by a whole cohort of models and pupils, who, by midnight,
began to create a tremendous din. Raoul climbed the grand staircase
at five minutes to twelve, did not linger to look at the motley
dresses displayed all the way up the marble steps, one of the richest
settings in the world, allowed no facetious mask to draw him into
a war of wits, replied to no jests and shook off the bold familiarity
of a number of couples who had already become a trifle too gay.
Crossing the big crush-room and escaping from a mad whirl of dancers
in which he was caught for a moment, he at last entered the room
mentioned in Christine's letter. He found it crammed; for this
small space was the point where all those who were going to supper
in the Rotunda crossed those who were returning from taking a glass
of champagne. The fun, here, waxed fast and furious.

Raoul leaned against a door-post and waited. He did not wait long.
A black domino passed and gave a quick squeeze to the tips of
his fingers. He understood that it was she and followed her:

"Is that you, Christine?" he asked, between his teeth.

The black domino turned round promptly and raised her finger
to her lips, no doubt to warn him not to mention her name again.
Raoul continued to follow her in silence.

He was afraid of losing her, after meeting her again in such
strange circumstances. His grudge against her was gone. He no
longer doubted that she had "nothing to reproach herself with,"
however peculiar and inexplicable her conduct might seem. He was
ready to make any display of clemency, forgiveness or cowardice.
He was in love. And, no doubt, he would soon receive a very natural
explanation of her curious absence.

The black domino turned back from time to time to see if the white
domino was still following.

As Raoul once more passed through the great crush-room, this time
in the wake of his guide, he could not help noticing a group crowding
round a person whose disguise, eccentric air and gruesome appearance
were causing a sensation. It was a man dressed all in scarlet,
with a huge hat and feathers on the top of a wonderful death's head.
From his shoulders hung an immense red-velvet cloak, which trailed
along the floor like a king's train; and on this cloak was embroidered,
in gold letters, which every one read and repeated aloud,
"Don't touch me! I am Red Death stalking abroad!"

Then one, greatly daring, did try to touch him...but a skeleton
hand shot out of a crimson sleeve and violently seized the rash
one's wrist; and he, feeling the clutch of the knucklebones,
the furious grasp of Death, uttered a cry of pain and terror.
When Red Death released him at last, he ran away like a very madman,
pursued by the jeers of the bystanders.

It was at this moment that Raoul passed in front of the funereal
masquerader, who had just happened to turn in his direction.
And he nearly exclaimed:

"The death's head of Perros-Guirec!"

He had recognized him!...He wanted to dart forward, forgetting Christine;
but the black domino, who also seemed a prey to some strange excitement,
caught him by the arm and dragged him from the crush-room,
far from the mad crowd through which Red Death was stalking. ...

The black domino kept on turning back and, apparently, on two
occasions saw something that startled her, for she hurried
her pace and Raoul's as though they were being pursued.

They went up two floors. Here, the stairs and corridors
were almost deserted. The black domino opened the door of a
private box and beckoned to the white domino to follow her.
Then Christine, whom he recognized by the sound of her voice,
closed the door behind them and warned him, in a whisper,
to remain at the back of the box and on no account to show himself.
Raoul took off his mask. Christine kept hers on. And, when Raoul
was about to ask her to remove it, he was surprised to see her put
her ear to the partition and listen eagerly for a sound outside.
Then she opened the door ajar, looked out into the corridor and,
in a low voice, said:

"He must have gone up higher." Suddenly she exclaimed: "He is
coming down again!"

She tried to close the door, but Raoul prevented her; for he had seen,
on the top step of the staircase that led to the floor above,
A RED FOOT, followed by another...and slowly, majestically,
the whole scarlet dress of Red Death met his eyes. And he once
more saw the death's head of Perros-Guirec.

"It's he!" he exclaimed. "This time, he shall not escape me!..."

But Christian{sic} had slammed the door at the moment when Raoul
was on the point of rushing out. He tried to push her aside.

"Whom do you mean by `he'?" she asked, in a changed voice.
"Who shall not escape you?"

Raoul tried to overcome the girl's resistance by force, but she
repelled him with a strength which he would not have suspected in her.
He understood, or thought he understood, and at once lost his temper.

"Who?" he repeated angrily. "Why, he, the man who hides behind
that hideous mask of death!...The evil genius of the churchyard
at Perros!...Red Death!...In a word, madam, your friend...
your Angel of Music!...But I shall snatch off his mask,
as I shall snatch off my own; and, this time, we shall look each
other in the face, he and I, with no veil and no lies between us;
and I shall know whom you love and who loves you!"

He burst into a mad laugh, while Christine gave a disconsolate moan
behind her velvet mask. With a tragic gesture, she flung out her
two arms, which fixed a barrier of white flesh against the door.

"In the name of our love, Raoul, you shall not pass!..."

He stopped. What had she said?...In the name of their love?...
Never before had she confessed that she loved him. And yet she
had had opportunities enough....Pooh, her only object was to gain
a few seconds!...She wished to give the Red Death time to escape...
And, in accents of childish hatred, he said:

"You lie, madam, for you do not love me and you have never loved me!
What a poor fellow I must be to let you mock and flout me as you
have done! Why did you give me every reason for hope, at Perros...
for honest hope, madam, for I am an honest man and I believed you
to be an honest woman, when your only intention was to deceive me!
Alas, you have deceived us all! You have taken a shameful advantage
of the candid affection of your benefactress herself, who continues
to believe in your sincerity while you go about the Opera ball
with Red Death!...I despise you!..."

And he burst into tears. She allowed him to insult her.
She thought of but one thing, to keep him from leaving the box.

"You will beg my pardon, one day, for all those ugly words, Raoul,
and when you do I shall forgive you!"

He shook his head. "No, no, you have driven me mad! When I think
that I had only one object in life: to give my name to an opera wench!"

"Raoul!...How can you?"

"I shall die of shame!"

"No, dear, live!" said Christine's grave and changed voice.
"And...good-by. Good-by, Raoul..."

The boy stepped forward, staggering as he went. He risked one
more sarcasm:

"Oh, you must let me come and applaud you from time to time!"

"I shall never sing again, Raoul!...

"Really?" he replied, still more satirically. "So he is taking
you off the stage: I congratulate you!...But we shall meet
in the Bois, one of these evenings!"

"Not in the Bois nor anywhere, Raoul: you shall not see me again
..."

"May one ask at least to what darkness you are returning?...For
what hell are you leaving, mysterious lady...or for what paradise?"

"I came to tell you, dear, but I can't tell you now...you would
not believe me! You have lost faith in me, Raoul; it is finished!"

She spoke in such a despairing voice that the lad began to feel
remorse for his cruelty.

"But look here!" he cried. "Can't you tell me what all this means!
... You are free, there is no one to interfere with you. ...
You go about Paris....You put on a domino to come to the ball.
... Why do you not go home?...What have you been doing this
past fortnight?...What is this tale about the Angel of Music,
which you have been telling Mamma Valerius? Some one may have taken
you in, played upon your innocence. I was a witness of it myself,
at Perros...but you know what to believe now! You seem to me
quite sensible, Christine. You know what you are doing....And
meanwhile Mamma Valerius lies waiting for you at home and appealing
to your `good genius!'...Explain yourself, Christine, I beg of you!
Any one might have been deceived as I was. What is this farce?"

Christine simply took off her mask and said: "Dear, it is a tragedy!"

Raoul now saw her face and could not restrain an exclamation of
surprise and terror. The fresh complexion of former days was gone.
A mortal pallor covered those features, which he had known so
charming and so gentle, and sorrow had furrowed them with pitiless
lines and traced dark and unspeakably sad shadows under her eyes.

"My dearest! My dearest!" he moaned, holding out his arms.
"You promised to forgive me..."

"Perhaps!...Some day, perhaps!" she said, resuming her mask;
and she went away, forbidding him, with a gesture, to follow her.

He tried to disobey her; but she turned round and repeated her gesture
of farewell with such authority that he dared not move a step.

He watched her till she was out of sight. Then he also went down among
the crowd, hardly knowing what he was doing, with throbbing temples
and an aching heart; and, as he crossed the dancing-floor, he asked
if anybody had seen Red Death. Yes, every one had seen Red Death;
but Raoul could not find him; and, at two o'clock in the morning,
he turned down the passage, behind the scenes, that led to
Christine Daae's dressing-room.

His footsteps took him to that room where he had first known suffering.
He tapped at the door. There was no answer. He entered, as he
had entered when he looked everywhere for "the man's voice."
The room was empty. A gas-jet was burning, turned down low.
He saw some writing-paper on a little desk. He thought of writing
to Christine, but he heard steps in the passage. He had only time
to hide in the inner room, which was separated from the dressing-room
by a curtain.

Christine entered, took off her mask with a weary movement and flung
it on the table. She sighed and let her pretty head fall into her
two hands. What was she thinking of? Of Raoul? No, for Raoul
heard her murmur: "Poor Erik!"

At first, he thought he must be mistaken. To begin with, he was
persuaded that, if any one was to be pitied, it was he, Raoul.
It would have been quite natural if she had said, "Poor Raoul,"
after what had happened between them. But, shaking her head,
she repeated: "Poor Erik!"

What had this Erik to do with Christine's sighs and why was she
pitying Erik when Raoul was so unhappy?

Christine began to write, deliberately, calmly and so placidly
that Raoul, who was still trembling from the effects of the tragedy
that separated them, was painfully impressed.

"What coolness!" he said to himself.

She wrote on, filling two, three, four sheets. Suddenly, she raised
her head and hid the sheets in her bodice....She seemed
to be listening... Raoul also listened... Whence came
that strange sound, that distant rhythm?...A faint singing
seemed to issue from the walls...yes, it was as though
the walls themselves were singing!...The song became plainer
...the words were now distinguishable...he heard a voice,
a very beautiful, very soft, very captivating voice...but,
for all its softness, it remained a male voice...The voice came
nearer and nearer...it came through the wall...it approached
...and now the voice was IN THE ROOM, in front of Christine.
Christine rose and addressed the voice, as though speaking to some one:

"Here I am, Erik," she said. "I am ready. But you are late."

Raoul, peeping from behind the curtain, could not believe his eyes,
which showed him nothing. Christine's face lit up. A smile
of happiness appeared upon her bloodless lips, a smile like that
of sick people when they receive the first hope of recovery.

The voice without a body went on singing; and certainly Raoul had
never in his life heard anything more absolutely and heroically sweet,
more gloriously insidious, more delicate, more powerful, in short,
more irresistibly triumphant. He listened to it in a fever and he
now began to understand how Christine Daae was able to appear
one evening, before the stupefied audience, with accents of a beauty
hitherto unknown, of a superhuman exaltation, while doubtless still
under the influence of the mysterious and invisible master.

The voice was singing the Wedding-night Song from Romeo and Juliet.
Raoul saw Christine stretch out her arms to the voice as she
had done, in Perros churchyard, to the invisible violin playing The
Resurrection of Lazarus. And nothing could describe the passion
with which the voice sang:

"Fate links thee to me for ever and a day!"

The strains went through Raoul's heart. Struggling against the charm
that seemed to deprive him of all his will and all his energy and
of almost all his lucidity at the moment when he needed them most,
he succeeded in drawing back the curtain that hid him and he walked to
where Christine stood. She herself was moving to the back of the room,
the whole wall of which was occupied by a great mirror that reflected her
image, but not his, for he was just behind her and entirely covered by her.

"Fate links thee to me for ever and a day!"

Christine walked toward her image in the glass and the image came
toward her. The two Christines--the real one and the reflection--
ended by touching; and Raoul put out his arms to clasp the two
in one embrace. But, by a sort of dazzling miracle that sent
him staggering, Raoul was suddenly flung back, while an icy blast swept
over his face; he saw, not two, but four, eight, twenty Christines
spinning round him, laughing at him and fleeing so swiftly that he
could not touch one of them. At last, everything stood still again;
and he saw himself in the glass. But Christine had disappeared.

He rushed up to the glass. He struck at the walls. Nobody!
And meanwhile the room still echoed with a distant passionate singing:

"Fate links thee to me for ever and a day!"

Which way, which way had Christine gone?...Which way would she
return?...

Would she return? Alas, had she not declared to him that everything
was finished? And was the voice not repeating:

"Fate links thee to me for ever and a day!"

To me? To whom?

Then, worn out, beaten, empty-brained, he sat down on the chair
which Christine had just left. Like her, he let his head fall into
his hands. When he raised it, the tears were streaming down his
young cheeks, real, heavy tears like those which jealous children shed,
tears that wept for a sorrow which was in no way fanciful, but which
is common to all the lovers on earth and which he expressed aloud:

"Who is this Erik?" he said.

****

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