Armand Moncharmin,
in the same gay tone. "The performance has only begun and you know
that the ghost does not usually come until the middle of the first act."
The first act passed without incident, which did not surprise
Carlotta's friends, because Margarita does not sing in this act.
As for the managers, they looked at each other, when the curtain fell.
"That's one!" said Moncharmin.
"Yes, the ghost is late," said Firmin Richard.
"It's not a bad house," said Moncharmin, "for `a house with a curse
on it.'"
M. Richard smiled and pointed to a fat, rather vulgar woman,
dressed in black, sitting in a stall in the middle of the auditorium
with a man in a broadcloth frock-coat on either side of her.
"Who on earth are `those?'" asked Moncharmin.
"`Those,' my dear fellow, are my concierge, her husband and her brother."
"Did you give them their tickets?"
"I did. .. My concierge had never been to the Opera--this is,
the first time--and, as she is now going to come every night,
I wanted her to have a good seat, before spending her time showing
other people to theirs."
Moncharmin asked what he meant and Richard answered that he had
persuaded his concierge, in whom he had the greatest confidence,
to come and take Mme.
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