they said this so funnily that we began to laugh and to ask if there were thieves at the opera.they replied that there was something worse, which was the ghost.we began to laugh again, feeling sure that they were indulging in some joke that was intended to crown our little entertainment.then, at their request, we became `serious,'
resolving to humor them and to enter into the spirit of the game.
they told us that they never would have spoken to us of the ghost, if they had not received formal orders from the ghost himself to ask us to be pleasant to him and to grant any request that he might make.however, in their relief at leaving a domain where that tyrannical shade held sway, they had hesitated until the last moment to tell us this curious story, which our skeptical minds were certainly not prepared to entertain.but the announcement of the death of joseph buquet had served them as a brutal reminder that, whenever they had disregarded the ghost's wishes, some fantastic or disastrous event had brought them to a sense of their dependence.