There was something else. This woman from France, rich, famous, talented and poised, was actually trembling. I sensed her fear but it was mixed with a dreadful fascination. As the later overheard conversation showed, she had met someone from her past, someone she had thought to be free from, someone who had once held her in a web … of what? Fear, yes, that I could feel in the air. Love? Perhaps, once, long ago. And awe. Whoever he was, whoever he had once been, she still stood in awe of his power and personality. Several times I could see her shivering and yet he offered her no threat that I could hear. But this is what they said:
HE Of course. Did you suspect another?
SHE After the monkey, no. To hear ‘Masquerade’ again … It has been so long.
HE Thirteen long years. Have you thought of me?
SHE Of course, my Master of Music. But I thought …
HE That I was dead? No, Christine my love, not me.
SHE My love? Do you still … ?
HE Always and for ever, until I die. In spirit you are still mine, Christine. I made the singing star but could not keep her.
SHE When you vanished I thought you had gone for ever. I married Raoul …
HE I know. I have followed every step, every move, every triumph.
SHE Has it been hard for you, Erik?
HE Hard enough. My road has always been harder than you will ever know.
SHE You brought me here? The opera, it is yours?
HE Yes. All mine, and more, much more. Wealth to buy half of France.
SHE Why, Erik, oh why did you do it? Could you not leave me be? What do you want of me?
HE Stay with me.
SHE I cannot.
HE Stay with me, Christine. Times have changed. I can offer you every opera house in the world. Everything you could ever ask for.
SHE I cannot. I love Raoul. Try to accept that. All you have ever done for me I remember and with gratitude. But my heart lies elsewhere and always will. Can you not understand that? Can you not accept.
At this point there was a long pause as if the suitor who had been turned down was trying to recover from his grief. When he resumed there was a tremor in the voice.
/> HE Very well. Accept I must. Why not, my heart has been broken so many times. But there is one more thing. Leave me my boy.
SHE Your … boy … ?
HE My son, our son, Pierre.
The woman, whom I could still see, indeed reflected a dozen times, went white as a sheet and threw both her hands to cover her face. She rocked for several seconds and I feared she would faint. I was about to cry out, but my call died in my throat. I was a mute and helpless witness of something I could not understand. Finally she removed her hands and spoke in a whisper.
SHE Who told you?
HE Mme Giry.
SHE Why, oh why did she do it?
HE She was dying. She wanted to share the secret of so many years.
SHE She lied.
HE No. She tended Raoul after the shooting in the alley.