Poligny, the daroga gave a faint smile and said:
"Poligny never knew how far that extraordinary blackguard of an Erik
humbugged him."--The Persian, by the way, spoke of Erik sometimes
as a demigod and sometimes as the lowest of the low--"Poligny
was superstitious and Erik knew it. Erik knew most things about
the public and private affairs of the Opera. When M. Poligny heard
a mysterious voice tell him, in Box Five, of the manner in which he
used to spend his time and abuse his partner's confidence, he did
not wait to hear any more. Thinking at first that it was a voice
from Heaven, he believed himself damned; and then, when the voice
began to ask for money, he saw that he was being victimized by a
shrewd blackmailer to whom Debienne himself had fallen a prey.
Both of them, already tired of management for various reasons,
went away without trying to investigate further into the personality
of that curious O. G., who had forced such a singular memorandum-book
upon them. They bequeathed the whole mystery to their successors
and heaved a sigh of relief when they were rid of a business
that had puzzled them without amusing them in the least.
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