The story of the ghost is all humbug, isn't it? ...
Well, still between ourselves, ... it has lasted long enough."
Mme. Giry looked at the managers as though they were talking Chinese.
She walked up to Richard's table and asked, rather anxiously:
"What do you mean?
I don't understand."
"Oh, you, understand quite well.
In any case, you've got to understand...
And, first of all, tell us his name."
"Whose name?"
"The name of the man whose accomplice you are, Mme. Giry!"
"I am the ghost's accomplice? I? ...
His accomplice in what, pray?"
"You do all he wants."
"Oh!
He's not very troublesome, you know."
"And does he still tip you?"
"I mustn't complain."
"How much does he give you for bringing him that envelope?"
"Ten francs."
"You poor thing!
That's not much, is it?
"Why?"
"I'll tell you that presently, Mme. Giry.
Just now we should like to know for what extraordinary reason you have given yourself body and soul, to this ghost ...
Mme. Giry's friendship and devotion are not to be bought for five francs or ten francs."
"That's true enough ...
And I can tell you the reason, sir.
There's no disgrace about it... on the contrary."
"We're quite sure of that, Mme. Giry!"
"Well, it's like this ... only the ghost doesn't like me to talk about his business."
"Indeed?" sneered Richard.
"But this is a matter that concerns myself alone ...
Well, it was in Box Five one evening, I found a letter addressed to myself, a sort of note written in red ink.
I needn't read the letter to you sir; I know it by heart, and I shall never forget it if I live to be a hundred!"
And Mme. Giry, drawing herself up, recited the letter with touching eloquence:
MADAM: 1825. Mlle. Menetrier, leader of the ballet, became Marquise de Cussy.
1832. Mlle. Marie Taglioni, a dancer, became Comtesse Gilbert des Voisins.
1846. La Sota, a dancer, married a brother of the King of Spain.
1847. Lola Montes, a dancer, became the morganatic wife of King Louis of Bavaria and was created Countess of Landsfeld.
1848. Mlle. Maria, a dancer, became Baronne d'Herneville.
1870. Theresa Hessier, a dancer, married Dom Fernando, brother to the King of Portugal. Richard and Moncharmin listened to the old woman, who, as she proceeded with the enumeration of these glorious nuptials, swelled out, took courage and, at last, in a voice bursting with pride, flung out the last sentence of the prophetic letter:
1885. Meg Giry, Empress!
Exhausted by this supreme effort, the box-keeper fell into a chair, saying:
"Gentlemen, the letter was signed,
'Opera Ghost.'
I had heard much of the ghost, but only half believed in him.
From the day when he declared that my little Meg, the flesh of my flesh, the fruit of my womb, would be empress, I believed in him altogether."
And really it was not necessary to make a long study of Mme. Giry's excited features to understand what could be got out of that fine intellect with the two words "ghost" and "empress."
But who pulled the strings of that extraordinary puppet?