The Phantom of the Opera

"If that’s the ghost, he’s very ugly!"

MM. Debienne and Poligny, the managers of the Opera,

"Haven’t I a reputation for knowing all about music? And I don’t know one key from another."

He had heard A MAN’S VOICE in the dressing–room, saying, in a curiously masterful tone:

"Christine, you must love me!"

And Christine’s voice, infinitely sad and trembling, as though accompanied by tears, replied:

"How can you talk like that? WHEN I SING ONLY FOR YOU!"

So this is an event which M. Moncharmin thinks natural. A man hangs at the end of a rope; they go to cut him down; the rope has disappeared.

"It was just after the ballet; and leaders and dancing–girls lost no time in taking their precautions against the evil eye."

"A grievous accident spoiled the little party which MM. Debienne and Poligny gave to celebrate their retirement. I was in the manager’s office, when Mercier, the acting–manager, suddenly came darting in. He seemed half mad and told me that the body of a scene–shifter had been found hanging in the third cellar under the stage, between a farm–house and a scene from the Roi de Lahore. I shouted:"

"'Come and cut him down!'"

the girl with eyes black as sloes, hair black as ink, a swarthy complexion and a poor little skin stretched over poor little bones

"Have you seen him?"

"As plainly as I see you now!"

the girl with the tip–tilted nose, the forget–me–not eyes, the rose–red cheeks and the lily–white neck and shoulders