Призрак оперы / The Phantom of the Opera

“I swore not to tell!” gasped Meg.

But they promised to keep the secret, until Meg, wanting to say all she knew, began, with her eyes fixed on the door:

“Well, it’s because of the private box[19 - the private box – частная ложа].”

“What private box?”

“The ghost’s box!”

“Has the ghost a box? Oh, do tell us, do tell us!”

“Not so loud!” said Meg. “It’s Box Five, you know, the box on the grand tier[20 - the box on the grand tier – ложа первого яруса], next to the stage-box, on the left.

“Oh, nonsense!”

“I tell you it is. But you swear you won’t say a word?”

“Of course, of course.”

“Well, that’s the ghost’s box. No one has had it for over a month, except the ghost, and orders have been given at the box-office that it must never be sold.”

“And does the ghost really come there?”

“Yes.”

“Then somebody does come?”

“Why, no! The ghost comes, but there is nobody there.

The little ballet-girls exchanged glances. If the ghost came to the box, he must be seen, because he wore a dress-coat and a death’s head. But Meg replied:

“That’s just it! The ghost is not seen. And he has no dress-coat and no head! All that talk about his death’s head and his head of fire is nonsense! There’s nothing in it. You only hear him when he is in the box. Mother has never seen him, but she has heard him.

Sorelli interfered.

“My dear, you’re laughing at us!”

Meg began to cry.

“I ought to have held my tongue—if mother ever came to know! But I was quite right, Joseph Buquet had no business to talk of things that don’t concern him—it will bring him bad luck—mother was saying so last night.”

There was a sound of hurried and heavy footsteps in the passage and a voice cried:

“My dear! Are you there?”

“It’s mother’s voice,” said Jammes.

She opened the door. A respectable lady burst into the dressing-room and dropped into an arm-chair. Her eyes rolled madly.

“How awful!” she said. “How awful!”

“What? What?”

“Joseph Buquet!”

“What about him?”

“Joseph Buquet is dead!”

The room became filled with exclamations.