Welcome to the 25th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 114 yeas ago.
In today’s installment, we have Part III of Chapter 10, “Au bal masqué” (“At the Masked Ball”).
This section was first printed on Monday, 1 November, 1909.
For anyone following along in David Coward’s translation (the link is to the Kindle edition on Amazon US), the text starts in Chapter 10 at, “In this fashion they climbed up two floors,” and goes to Christine’s line, “'Not a farce, Raoul: a tragedy!‘” in Chapter 10. Note, however, that a large part of this section in the Gaulois was cut in the 1st Edition. See below.
There are some differences between the standard 1st Edition text and the Gaulois text. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):
1) In the Gaulois text, this line reads:
… Christine (for it was certainly she; he had recognized her by her eyes, and he could further recognize her by her voice)*
* NOTE: The fact that Leroux states that Raoul could only see Christine’s eyes helps to clarify the design of her mask, which was a black domino mask with a piece of fabric hanging down from the bottom of the mask, covering her mouth. This piece of fabric was called a “barbe” (“beard”), similar to this historical mask below from a museum collection in Helsinki. The credit goes to @rjdaae for finding the historical documentation to support the design of this type of mask. In this scene, Christine’s black mask is meant to mirror Erik’s, whose black mask Leroux described as having a “barbe” that covered his mouth.
2) This section in the Gaulois text, which describes events that are discussed in the next chapter, “The Magic Envelope,” was removed from the 1st Edition along with “The Magic Envelope” chapter in order to maintain the consistency of Leroux’s narrative:
He could barely hear Christine’s whispered words, the young woman’s breath was so light.
“There is someone in the box next to ours … I hear him moving…”
He tried to speak, to tell her that it would be easy to go elsewhere to talk, but she silenced him with an emphatic “shush.”
Hunching over, she crept up to the front of the box and risked a glance outside; this seemed to be enough to apprise her, for she returned immediately and said: “I thought I had recognized his voice… He talks to himself…”
Raoul, who was beginning to grow puzzled by Christine’s behavior, asked her:
“It is a Capuchin monk!” she said, still in a whisper… “And I am sure that the other one will arrive soon.”
“What other one?” asked the Vicomte in the same tone of voice.
“The other Capuchin monk.”
“If you’re so afraid of being in the vicinity of Capuchin monks, we should go!”
But she seemed quite agitated.
“Oh! That could be highly unwise right now! It’s madness!… Why did he tell me that he had a rendezvous in the Box of the Blind, which is located above?”
Suddenly, she stood bold upright:
“But then he is also going to come himself!… Yes, yes, let’s go!… Let’s go!…”
She opened the door to the box and closed it almost immediately…
And visibly, she began to tremble.
“Put your mask back on, monsieur! Put it back on and do not remove it for any reason.”
And she leaned against the door, as if to prevent him from opening it. Christine was on the verge of fainting; Raoul tried to hold her up, but she pushed him away with her hand and pointed to the partition wall.
They then heard a voice which said:
“At last, monsieur, you are here! But do you not think it would be better to chat in your office? Here, monsieur, we must always be wary of eavesdroppers! Let us go to your office, monsieur…”*
And they heard nothing else but a door opening…
Christine let out a deep sigh. It seemed that at last it was permissible to breathe.
And she opened the door, saying:
“There is no more danger, Raoul!… But I was very afraid!…”
“Afraid of what? What has made you afraid? You must tell me, Christine!” implored the young man, who asked himself whether or not he would finally have an explanation for all of these bizarre comings and goings, all of these expressions of hope or fear. Christine did not reply. She continued to watch attentively through the gap between the door and the partition wall to see what was happening in the corridor.
Raoul watched behind her. At first, he saw two monks who looked like two friars and who were already descending the staircase leading to the second tier boxes.
The two hoods under which they were hiding were soon no more than two little shadows at the top of the stairs, and then they disappeared. In the same instant, Raoul, who was following Christine’s gaze, saw, on the highest step of the staircase which ascended to the tier above, a red foot place itself on the stair.
… And then, two red feet…
* NOTE: As is related in “The Magic Envelope,” this was Erik’s voice speaking to the Managers (who are the two figures dressed as Capuchin monks), telling them to go to the managerial office.
3) Minor differences in punctuation.
Click here to see the entire edition of Le Gaulois from 1 November, 1909. This link brings you to page 3 of the newspaper — Le Fantôme is at the bottom of the page in the feuilleton section. Click on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn the pages of the newspaper, and click on the Zoom button at the bottom left to magnify the text.
amandla
