however!...there you were!...it was understood that i was to take you both up to the surface of the earth.when, at last, i cleared the louis-philippe room of you, i came back alone....""what have you done with the vicomte de chagny?" asked the persian, interrupting him.
"ah, you see, daroga, i couldn't carry him up like that, at once.
...he was a hostage....but i could not keep him in the house on the lake, either, because of christine; so i locked him up comfortably, i chained him up nicely--a whiff of the mazenderan scent had left him as limp as a rag--in the communists' dungeon, which is in the most deserted and remote part of the opera, below the fifth cellar, where no one ever comes, and where no one ever hears you.
then i came back to christine, she was waiting for me.
erik here rose solemnly.then he continued, but, as he spoke, he was overcome by all his former emotion and began to tremble like a leaf:
"yes, she was waiting for me...waiting for me erect and alive, a real, living bride...as she hoped to be saved....and, when i...came forward, more timid than...a little child, she did not run away...no, no...she stayed...she waited for me....i even believe...daroga...that she put out her forehead...a little...oh, not much...just a little...
like a living bride....and...and...i...kissed her!...
i!...i!...i!...and she did not die!...oh, how good it is, daroga, to kiss somebody on the forehead!...you can't tell!...
but i! i!...my mother, daroga, my poor, unhappy mother would never...let me kiss her....she used to run away...and throw me my mask!