with a new sound and, amid a crowd
of men in evening-dress, all talking and gesticulating together,
appeared a man who seemed very calm and displayed a pleasant face, all
pink and chubby-cheeked, crowned with curly hair and lit up by a pair
of wonderfully serene blue eyes. Mercier, the acting-manager, called
the Vicomte de Chagny's attention to him and said:

"This is the gentleman to whom you should put your question, monsieur.
Let me introduce Mifroid, the commissary of police."

"Ah, M. le Vicomte de Chagny! Delighted to meet you, monsieur," said
the commissary. "Would you mind coming with me? ... And now where are
the managers? ... Where are the managers?"

Mercier did not answer, and Remy, the secretary, volunteered the
information that the managers were locked up in their office and that
they knew nothing as yet of what had happened.

"You don't mean to say so! Let us go up to the office!"

And M. Mifroid, followed by an ever-increasing crowd, turned toward the
business side of the building. Mercier took advantage of the confusion
to slip a key into Gabriel's hand:

"This is all going very badly," he whispered. "You had better let
Mother Giry out."

And Gabriel moved away.

They soon came to the managers' door. Mercier stormed in vain: the
door remained closed.

"Open in the name of the law!" commanded M. Mifroid, in a loud and
rather anxious voice.

At last the door was opened. All rushed in to the office, on the
commissary's heels.

Raoul was the last to enter. As he was about to follow the rest into
the room, a hand was laid on his shoulder and he heard these words
spoken in his ear:

"ERIK'S SECRETS CONCERN NO ONE BUT HIMSELF!"

He turned around, with a stifled exclamation. The hand that was laid
on his shoulder was now placed on the lips of a person with an ebony
skin, with eyes of jade and with an astrakhan cap on his head: the
Persian! The stranger kept up the gesture that recommended discretion
and then, at the moment when the astonished viscount was about to ask
the reason of his mysterious intervention, bowed and disappeared.

Chapter XVI Mme. Giry's Astounding Revelations as to Her Personal
Relations with the Opera Ghost

Before following the commissary into the manager's office I must
describe certain extraordinary occurrences that took place in that
office which Remy and Mercier had vainly tried to enter and into which
MM. Richard and Moncharmin had locked themse