"erik!"
what echo?...they both turned round and saw that night had fallen.
raoul made a movement as though to rise, but christine kept him beside her.
"don't go," she said."i want you to know everything here!""but why here, christine? i am afraid of your catching cold.""we have nothing to fear except the trap-doors, dear, and here we are miles away from the trap-doors...and i am not allowed to see you outside the theater.this is not the time to annoy him.
we must not arouse his suspicion."
"christine! christine! something tells me that we are wrong to wait till to-morrow evening and that we ought to fly at once.""i tell you that, if he does not hear me sing tomorrow, it will cause him infinite pain.""it is difficult not to cause him pain and yet to escape from him for good.""you are right in that, raoul, for certainly he will die of my flight."and she added in a dull voice, "but then it counts both ways...
for we risk his killing us."
"does he love you so much?"
"he would commit murder for me."
"but one can find out where he lives.one can go in search of him.
now that we know that erik is not a ghost, one can speak to him and force him to answer!"christine shook her head.
"no, no! there is nothing to be done with erik except to run away!""then why, when you were able to run away, did you go back to him?""because i had to.and you will understand that when i tell you how i left him.""oh, i hate him!" cried raoul."and you, christine, tell me, do you hate him too?""no," said christine simply.
"no, of course not....why, you love him! your fear, your terror, all of that is just love and love of the most exquisite kind, the kind which people do not admit even to themselves," said raoul bitterly.
"the kind that gives you a thrill, when you think of it.
...picture it: a man who lives in a palace underground!"and he gave a leer.
"then you want me to go back there?" said the young girl cruelly.
"take care, raoul; i have told you: i should never return!"there was an appalling silence between the three of them: