At nine o'clock, a sort of traveling-barouche with the curtains of its
windows close-down, took its place in the rank on the Rotunda side. It
was drawn by two powerful horses driven by a coachman whose face was
almost concealed in the long folds of a muffler. In front of this
traveling-carriage were three broughams, belonging respectively to
Carlotta, who had suddenly returned to Paris, to Sorelli and, at the
head of the rank, to Comte Philippe de Chagny. No one left the
barouche. The coachman remained on his box, and the three other
coachmen remained on theirs.
A shadow in a long black cloak and a soft black felt hat passed along
the pavement between the Rotunda and the carriages, examined the
barouche carefully, went up to the horses and the coachman and then
moved away without saying a word, The magistrate afterward believed
that this shadow was that of the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny; but I do not
agree, seeing that that evening, as every evening, the Vicomte de
Chagny was wearing a tall hat, which hat, besides, was subsequently
found. I am more inclined to think that the shadow was that of the
ghost, who knew all about the whole affair, as the reader will soon
perceive.
They were giving FAUST, as it happened, before a splendid house. The
Faubourg was magnificently represented; and the paragraph in that
morning's EPOQUE had already produced its effect, for all eyes were
turned to the box in which Count Philippe sat alone, apparently in a
very indifferent and careless frame of mind. The feminine element in
the brilliant audience seemed curiously puzzled; and the viscount's
absence gave rise to any amount of whispering behind the fans.
Christine Daae met with a rather cold reception. That special audience
could not forgive her for aiming so high.
The singer noticed this unfavorable attitude of a portion of the house
and was confused by it.
The regular frequenters of the Opera, who pretended to know the truth
about the viscount's love-story, exchanged significant smiles at
certain passages in Margarita's part; and they made a show of turning
and looking at Philippe de Chagny's box when Christine sang: "I wish I could but know who was he
That addressed me,
If he was noble, or, at least, what his name is."
The count sat with his chin on his hand and seemed to pay no attention
to these manifestations. He kept his eyes fixed on the stage; but his
thoughts appeared to be far away.
Christine lost her self-assurance more and more. She trembled. She
felt on the verge of a breakdown ... Carolus Fonta wondered if she was
ill, if she could keep the stage until the end of the Garden Act. In
the front of the house, people remembered the catastrophe that had
befallen Carlotta at the end of that act and the historic "co-ack"
which had momentarily interrupted her career in Paris.