Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1912-03-08
CHAPTER vii.
The my.ter,ou. erouoh.m,

| That tragic evening was bad for
! everybody. Carlotta fell Ill. AS for
| Christine Daae. she disappeared after
the performance A fortnight elapsed
! during which she was seen neither at
| the opera nor outside.
Raoul, of course, was the first to be
astonished at the prima donna's ab-
sence. He wrote to her at Nine.
Valerius' fiat and received no reply.
His grief increased and he ended by
being seriously alarmed at never see
ing her name on the program. Faust
was played without her.
One afternoon he went to the man.
ayers office to ask the reason OF
Christmas disappearance. He found
them both looking extremely worried.
Their own friends did not recognize
them: they had lost all their gaiety
and spirits. They We're seen crossing
the stage with hanging heads. care.
worn hrows, pale cheeks. as though
pursued by some abominable thought
or prey to some persistent sport OF
fate.
The fall of the chandelier had In.
volved them in no little responsible.
ity: but it was difficult to make them
speak about it. The inquest had end.
ed in verdict of accidental death.
caused by the wear and tear of the
chains by which the chandelier was
hung from the ceiling; but 1t was the
duty of both the old and the new man.
ayers to have discovered this wear
and tear and to have remedied 1t in
time And | feel hound to say that
NM. Richard and Moncharmin at this
time appeared so changed. so absent
minded. so mysterious, so incompre.
hensible that many of the subscribers
thought that some event even more
horrible than the fall of the chande.
lier must have affected their state OF
mind.
In their daily intercourse. they
showed themselves very impatient,
except with Nine. CRY. who had been
reinstated in her functions. And their
reception of the Vicomte de Chagny.
when he came to ask about Christine.
was anything but cordial. They mere.
~ told him that she was taking a
holiday. He asked how long the holi.
day was for, and they replied CURLY
that 1t was for an unlimited period,
as Mile. Daae had requested leave OF
absence for reasons of health.
''Then she is ILL" he cried. What
Is the matter with herr"
I'VE don't know
Didn't you send the doctor OF the
opera to see herr
mo, she did not ask for him: and,
as we trust her. we took her word"
Raoul left the building a prey to
the gloomiest thoughts. He resolved,
come what might, to go and inquire
Of Mamma Valerius. He remembered
the strong phrases in Christine's let
ter. forbidding him to make any at.
tempt to see her. But what he bad
seen at perros, what he had heard
behind the dressing room door, his
conversation with Christine at the
edge of the moor made him suspect
some machination which. devilisb
though it might be, was none the less
human. The girls highly strung i'm.
agination, her affectionate and credu.
lous mind, the primitive education
which had surrounded her childhood
with circle of legends. the constant
brooding over her dead father and,
above all, the state of sublime &C.
stasy into which music threw her
from the Ii moment that this art was
made manifest to her In certain eXcep.
tional conditions. as in the churchyard
at Perros; all this seemed to him to
constitute moral ground only too
favorable for the malevolent designs
of some mysterious and INSCRIPTIONS
person. Of whom was Christine Daae
the victim? This was the very rea-
sonable question which Raoul put to
himself as he hurried off to Mamma
Valerius.
He trembled as he rang at a little