"Yes, yes, quite right, quite right. And now let's wait for the
commissary."
The stage-manager walked away, shrugging his shoulders, fuming,
muttering insults at those milksops who remained quietly squatting in a
corner while the whole theater was topsyturvy{sic}.
Gabriel and Mercier were not so quiet as all that. Only they had
received an order that paralyzed them. The managers were not to be
disturbed on any account. Remy had violated that order and met with no
success.
At that moment he returned from his new expedition, wearing a curiously
startled air.
"Well, have you seen them?" asked Mercier.
"Moncharmin opened the door at last. His eyes were starting out of his
head. I thought he meant to strike me. I could not get a word in; and
what do you think he shouted at me? 'Have you a safety-pin?' 'No!'
'Well, then, clear out!' I tried to tell him that an unheard-of thing
had happened on the stage, but he roared, 'A safety-pin! Give me a
safety-pin at once!' A boy heard him--he was bellowing like a
bull--ran up with a safety-pin and gave it to him; whereupon Moncharmin
slammed the door in my face, and there you are!"
"And couldn't you have said, 'Christine Daae.'"
"I should like to have seen you in my place. He was foaming at the
mouth. He thought of nothing but his safety-pin. I believe, if they
hadn't brought him one on the spot, he would have fallen down in a fit!
... Oh, all this isn't natural; and our managers are going mad! ...
Besides, it can't go on like this! I'm not used to being treated in
that fashion!"
Suddenly Gabriel whispered: "It's another trick of O. G.'s."
Rimy gave a grin, Mercier a sigh and seemed about to speak ... but,
meeting Gabriel's eye, said nothing.
However, Mercier felt his responsibility increased as the minutes
passed without the managers' appearing; and, at last, he could stand it
no longer.
"Look here, I'll go and hunt them out myself!"
Gabriel, turning very gloomy and serious, stopped him.
"Be careful what you're doing, Mercier! If they're staying in their
office, it's probably because they have to! O. G. has more than one
trick in his bag!"
But Mercier shook his head.
"That's their lookout! I'm going! If people had listened to me, the
police would have known everything long ago!"
And he went.
"What's everything?" asked Remy. "What was there to tell the police?
Why don't you answer, Gabriel? ... Ah, so you know something! Well,
you would do better to tell me, too, if you don't want me to shout out
that you are all going mad! ... Yes, that's what you are: mad!"
Gabriel put on a stupid look and pretended not to understand the
private secretary's unseemly outburst.