gaged to me and that she did not
need to have two men engaged to her, which was true enough.

"As for you, you did not exist, you had ceased to exist, I tell you,
and you were going to die with the other! ... Only, mark me, daroga,
when you were yelling like the devil, because of the water, Christine
came to me with her beautiful blue eyes wide open, and swore to me, as
she hoped to be saved, that she consented to be MY LIVING WIFE! ...
Until then, in the depths of her eyes, daroga, I had always seen my
dead wife; it was the first time I saw MY LIVING WIFE there. She was
sincere, as she hoped to be saved. She would not kill herself. It was
a bargain ... Half a minute later, all the water was back in the lake;
and I had a hard job with you, daroga, for, upon my honor, I thought
you were done for! ... However! ... There you were! ... It was
understood that I was to take you both up to the surface of the earth.
When, at last, I cleared the Louis-Philippe room of you, I came back
alone ..."

"What have you done with the Vicomte de Chagny?" asked the Persian,
interrupting him.

"Ah, you see, daroga, I couldn't carry HIM up like that, at once. ...
He was a hostage ... But I could not keep him in the house on the
lake, either, because of Christine; so I locked him up comfortably, I
chained him up nicely--a whiff of the Mazenderan scent had left him as
limp as a rag--in the Communists' dungeon, which is in the most
deserted and remote part of the Opera, below the fifth cellar, where no
one ever comes, and where no one ever hears you. Then I came back to
Christine, she was waiting for me."

Erik here rose solemnly. Then he continued, but, as he spoke, he was
overcome by all his former emotion and began to tremble like a leaf:

"Yes, she was waiting for me ... waiting for me erect and alive, a
real, living bride ... as she hoped to be saved ... And, when I ...
came forward, more timid than ... a little child, she did not run away
... no, no ... she stayed ... she waited for me ... I even believe ...
daroga ... that she put out her forehead ... a little ... oh, not much
... just a little ... like a living bride ... And ... and ... I ...
kissed her! ... I! ... I! ... I! ... And she did not die! ... Oh, how
good it is, daroga, to kiss somebody on the forehead! ... You can't
tell! ... But I! I! ... My mother, daroga, my poor, unhappy mother
would never ... let me kiss her ... She used to run away ... and throw