Mifroid to tell him
the whole story, a few days after the disappearance of Christine Daae,
we found, on Richard's table, a large envelope, inscribed, in red ink,
"WITH O. G.'S COMPLIMENTS." It contained the large sum of money
which he had succeeded in playfully extracting, for the time being,
from the treasury. Richard was at once of the opinion that we must
be content with that and drop the business. I agreed with Richard.
All's well that ends well. What do you say, O. G.?"
Of course, Moncharmin, especially after the money had been restored,
continued to believe that he had, for a short while, been the butt
of Richard's sense of humor, whereas Richard, on his side,
was convinced that Moncharmin had amused himself by inventing
the whole of the affair of the Opera ghost, in order to revenge
himself for a few jokes.
I asked the Persian to tell me by what trick the ghost had taken
twenty-thousand francs from Richard's pocket in spite of the
safety-pin. He replied that he had not gone into this little detail,
but that, if I myself cared to make an investigation on the spot,
I should certainly find the solution to the riddle in the managers'
office by remembering that Erik had not been nicknamed the trap-door
lover for nothing.
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