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Raoul next saw Christine at the Opera House. She seemed happier and pleased that he had come. They talked about Raoul's plans for the future. He told her that he would leave Paris in a month. Suddenly Christine looked thoughtful.

'What's the matter?' he asked her.

'We'll say goodbye in a month's time,' she said sadly, 'and we'll never see each other again.'

'We could be true to each other,' Raoul said. 'We could promise to be loyal to each other, Christine!'

'I can never marry you, Raoul,' she told him suddenly.

There were tears in her eyes when she spoke. She thought for a moment, and then she clapped① her hands together happily. 'But we can be engaged!' she cried. 'That wouldn't harm anybody. No one would know except us, Raoul! Let's be engaged② for this month.'

Raoul smiled now. He agreed to play Christine's game for a month.

There now followed a time of great happiness for Raoul. He and Christine spent every day together at the Opera House. They talked and they were happy at last.

There were many exciting places to see inside the building. Christine knew all of them. One day they were walking over the main stage near a trapdoor③. Raoul stopped and looked down at the open trap-door.

'You've shown me some wonderful places,' Raoul told her one day. 'But we've never explored the underground places. Why don't we go there one day?'

Christine looked horrified④.

'We can't go down there,' she said. 'Everything down there belongs to him.'

'So Erik lives down there, does he?' Raoul asked her. 'Don't talk about it,' Christine said. 'Let's enjoy our time together! '

She led him away from the trap-door. As they walked away, Raoul heard a noise on the stage. He turned back, and saw that the trap-door was now closed.

'Do you think that was him?' he asked Christine.

Christine walked on without answering him. Raoul took hold of Christine.

'Listen to me,' he said quickly. 'I know you're afraid of him.

I can help you if you tell me everything. I can take you away from here, Christine. He'll never find you. Let me help you!'

Christine looked at Raoul with great hope.

'Do you think it's really possible?' she asked him softly.

Then she led him quickly up through the great building to the roof. They were above the whole of Paris, and they could see the whole city below them.

'We can talk safely here,' she said. 'I'll tell you everything, Raoul. I want you to understand.'

She paused for a moment, and then she went on.

'It began with the voice,' she told him. 'You know that I never had a really good voice, Raoul. It was impossible for me to be really successful as a singer— I just didn't have the voice. Then one night I heard that wonderful voice through the walls. I thought it was the Angel of Music that my father had told me about. One night I was listening to the voice, and I asked if he was the Angel of Music. "I am," he told me. We became great friends from then on. He began to teach me singing — he was a wonderful teacher, and my voice became wonderful too. I never saw him. And then, one evening, was singing on stage and I saw you in the audience, Raoul. I knew immediately that I was in love with you. When I told the voice about you, he was jealous. He said I had to choose between him and you. That's why I pretended not to know you when you came to me the first time. I was frightened of losing the Angel of Music, do you understand?'

Raoul nodded his head⑤.

'Go on,' he encouraged her. 'Tell me what happened next.'

Christine looked around quickly. She seemed to be afraid that someone was following them. Then she turned back to Raoul.

'You remember the terrible night that the chandelier fell onto the audience?' Christine asked. 'I was frightened like everyone else. I went to my dressing room, and a strange thing happened. The room seemed different somehow. I moved towards the mirror, and suddenly the mirror disappeared and I was in a strange place. I didn't know where I was! It was dark.'

Raoul remembered the evening he had seen Christine disappear in front of his eyes in the dressing room. He nodded again.

'A dark figure wearing a mask came out of the darkness and picked me up. I was terrified but I could not scream. The man lifted me onto a horse. I recognised Cesar who had disappeared from the Opera stables. The man climbed up behind me, and we rode through the darkness. We went down and down through the Opera cellars, and then we came to a lake. There was a boat on the edge⑥ of the lake. The man put me into the boat. He took the boat into the middle of the lake, where there was a house.

'Then he picked me up and carried me into the house. I could see him now, but I could not see his face because of his mask. He put me down on a sofa, then he told me not to be afraid.

'He knelt on the floor in front of me and spoke very quietly.

His voice sounded very strange behind the mask.

"'I lied to you before. I'm not the Angel of Music. I'm not a genius⑦; I'm not a ghost. I'm just Erik, and I love you. Stay with me, Christine; stay here with me for five days. Then I'll let you go, I promise — but you must never see my real face. Everything will be alright if you don't see my face!'"

Christine paused in her story.

'Then I did something stupid, Raoul,' she said. 'I took away his mask. He screamed in anger and tried to turn away from me —but I had seen his face. It was terrible— it's not a human face at all. It's a skull with terrible, burning eyes! He screamed, and then he shouted at me.

"'Look at me, Christine! I'm ugly, ugly, and you wanted to see me. Now I'll never let you leave this house. I know you'll never come back because you've seen my face now. No one can bear to look at me, I know that.'"

'What happened then?' Raoul asked.

'I was terrified of him,' Christine said, 'but at the same time I was sorry for him. He loves me so much, you see, and he's so sad. I decided to show him that I wasn't afraid of his face. I wanted my freedom. It was difficult, Raoul, but I succeeded. At last he trusted me. He let me go.'

'But you still went back to him, again,' Raoul said. 'Why did you go back?'

'I feel sorry for him,' the girl said simply.

Suddenly Raoul and Christine heard a noise on the roof. It was dark now, and they looked up to see a hideous⑧ shape coming towards them. They ran in terror.

旺

财

旺

福

Words

① clapped：拍掌。

② engaged：订婚。

③ trap-door：活板门。

④ horrified：惧怕的。

⑤ nodded his head：点头表示同意！

⑥ edge：边缘。

⑦ genius：天才。

⑧ hideous：极丑陋的。

“占坑式辩护”，侵犯了谁？

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