I have, I know, been told that this correspondence may have been forged

from first to last by a man whose imagination had certainly been fed on

the most seductive tales; but fortunately I discovered some of

Christine's writing outside the famous bundle of letters and, on a

comparison between the two, all my doubts were removed. I also went

into the past history of the Persian and found that he was an upright

man, incapable of inventing a story that might have defeated the ends

of justice.

This, moreover, was the opinion of the more serious people who, at one

time or other, were mixed up in the Chagny case, who were friends of

the Chagny family, to whom I showed all my documents and set forth all

my inferences. In this connection, I should like to print a few lines

which I received from General D----: SIR: I can not urge you too strongly to publish the results of your inquiry.

I remember perfectly that, a few weeks before the disappearance of that

great singer, Christine Daae, and the tragedy which threw the whole of

the Faubourg Saint-Germain into mourning, there was a great deal of

talk, in the foyer of the ballet, on the subject of the "ghost;" and I

believe that it only ceased to be discussed in consequence of the later

affair that excited us all so greatly. But, if it be possible--as,

after hearing you, I believe--to explain the tragedy through the ghost,

then I beg you sir, to talk to us about the ghost again.

Mysterious though the ghost may at first appear, he will always be more

easily explained than the dismal story in which malevolent people have

tried to picture two brothers killing each other who had worshiped each

other all their lives.

Believe me, etc.

Lastly, with my bundle of papers in hand, I once more went over the

ghost's vast domain, the huge building which he had made his kingdom.

All that my eyes saw, all that my mind perceived, corroborated the

Persian's documents precisely; and a wonderful discovery crowned my

labors in a very definite fashion. It will be remembered that, later,

when digging in the substructure of the Opera, before burying the

phonographic records of the artist's voice, the workmen laid bare a

corpse. Well, I was at once able to prove that this corpse was that of

the Opera ghost. I made the acting-manager put this proof to the test

with his own hand; and it is now a matter of supreme indifference to me

if the papers pretend that the body was that of a victim of the Commune.




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