..She was represented as the victim of a
rivalry between the two brothers; and nobody suspected what had
really happened, nobody understood that, as Raoul and Christine
had both disappeared, both had withdrawn far from the world to
enjoy a happiness which they would not have cared to make public
after the inexplicable death of Count Philippe....They took
the train one day from "the northern railway station of the world."
...Possibly, I too shall take the train at that station, one day,
and go and seek around thy lakes, O Norway, O silent Scandinavia,
for the perhaps still living traces of Raoul and Christine and also
of Mamma Valerius, who disappeared at the same time!...Possibly,
some day, I shall hear the lonely echoes of the North repeat
the singing of her who knew the Angel of Music!...
Long after the case was pigeonholed by the unintelligent care
of M. le Juge d'Instruction Faure, the newspapers made efforts,
at intervals, to fathom the mystery. One evening paper alone,
which knew all the gossip of the theaters, said:
"We recognize the touch of the Opera ghost."
And even that was written by way of irony.
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