|
[ti:] |
|
[ar:] |
|
[al:] |
| [00:35.53] |
CHAPTER 1 THE DANCERS |
| [00:39.74] |
'Quick!Quick!Close the door!It's him!' |
| [00:45.77] |
Annie Sorelli ran into the dressing-room, |
| [00:48.92] |
her face white. |
| [00:49.78] |
One of the girls ran and closed the door, |
| [00:54.69] |
and then they all turned to Annie Sorelli. |
| [00:58.23] |
'Who?Where?What's the matter?' they cried. |
| [01:03.92] |
'It's the ghost!'Annie said.'In the passage. |
| [01:09.26] |
I saw him.He came through the wall in front of me! And… |
| [01:15.64] |
and I saw his face!' |
| [01:19.45] |
Most of the girls were afraid, |
| [01:21.89] |
but one of them, |
| [01:23.09] |
a tall girl with black hair,laughed. |
| [01:26.09] |
'Pooh!'she said.' |
| [01:29.50] |
Everybody says they see the Opera ghost, |
| [01:32.65] |
but there isn't really a ghost. |
| [01:35.66] |
You saw a shadow on the wall.' |
| [01:39.02] |
But she did not open the door, |
| [01:42.34] |
or look into the passage. |
| [01:45.47] |
'Lots of people see him,' |
| [01:48.22] |
a second girl said.' |
| [01:50.21] |
Joseph Buquet saw him two days ago. |
| [01:53.30] |
Don't you remember?' |
| [01:56.00] |
Then all the girls began to talk at once. |
| [01:59.86] |
'Joseph says the ghost is tall |
| [02:02.57] |
and he wears a black evening coat.' |
| [02:06.45] |
'He has the head of a dead man, |
| [02:08.47] |
with a yellow face and no nose…' |
| [02:12.23] |
'…And no eyes-only black holes!' |
| [02:16.64] |
Then little Meg Giry spoke for the first time. |
| [02:21.89] |
'Don't talk about him. |
| [02:24.19] |
He doesn't like it.My mother told me.' |
| [02:28.76] |
'Your mother?' the girl with black hair said. |
| [02:33.19] |
'What does your mother know about the ghost?' |
| [02:38.11] |
'She says that Joseph Buquet is a fool. |
| [02:41.55] |
The ghost doesn't like people talking about him, |
| [02:45.03] |
and one day Joseph Buquet is going to be sorry, |
| [02:49.34] |
very sorry.' |
| [02:51.72] |
'But what does your mother know? |
| [02:54.42] |
Tell us,tell us!' all the girls cried. |
| [03:00.68] |
'Oh dear!'said Meg. |
| [03:04.05] |
'But please don't say a word to any one. |
| [03:08.26] |
You know my mother is the doorkeeper |
| [03:11.22] |
for some of the boxes in the Opera House. |
| [03:14.10] |
Well,Box 5 is the ghost's box! |
| [03:19.22] |
He watches the operas from that box, |
| [03:22.63] |
and sometimes he leaves flowers for my mother! |
| [03:27.50] |
'The ghost has a box! |
| [03:29.91] |
And leaves flowers in it!' |
| [03:33.53] |
'Oh, Meg,your mother's telling you stories! |
| [03:37.25] |
How can the ghost have a box?' |
| [03:40.16] |
'It's true, it's true,I tell you!' |
| [03:44.01] |
Meg said.'Nobody buys tickets for Box 5, |
| [03:48.46] |
but the ghost always comes to it on opera nights.' |
| [03:52.85] |
'So somebody does come there?' |
| [03:56.30] |
'Why,no!… The ghost comes, |
| [03:59.64] |
but there is nobody there.' |
| [04:03.56] |
The dancers looked at Meg. |
| [04:06.64] |
'But how does your mother know?' |
| [04:09.83] |
one of them asked. |
| [04:12.06] |
'There's no man in a black evening coat, |
| [04:15.30] |
with a yellow face.That's all wrong. |
| [04:20.10] |
My mother never sees the ghost in Box 5, |
| [04:23.75] |
but she hears him! He talks to her, |
| [04:28.79] |
but there is nobody there! |
| [04:31.33] |
And he doesn't like people talking about him!' |
| [04:36.89] |
But that evening the dancers |
| [04:39.52] |
could not stop talking about the Opera ghost. |
| [04:43.19] |
They talked before the opera, |
| [04:45.31] |
all through the opera, and after the opera. |
| [04:49.93] |
But they talked very quietly, |
| [04:52.82] |
and they looked behind them before they spoke. |
| [04:57.64] |
When the opera finished, |
| [05:00.28] |
the girls went back to their dressing-room. |
| [05:03.23] |
Suddenly,they heard somebody in the passage, |
| [05:06.93] |
and Madame Giry, Meg's mother, |
| [05:09.36] |
ran into the room. |
| [05:11.55] |
She was a fat,motherly woman, |
| [05:14.03] |
with a red,happy face. |
| [05:16.52] |
But tonight her face was white. |
| [05:20.43] |
'Oh girls,'she cried'. |
| [05:23.78] |
'Joseph Buquet is dead! |
| [05:27.33] |
You know he walks a long way down, |
| [05:29.87] |
on the fourth floor under the stage. |
| [05:32.99] |
The other stage workers found his dead body |
| [05:35.76] |
there an hour ago -with a rope around his neck!' |
| [05:41.18] |
'It's the ghost!'cried Meg Giry. |
| [05:44.80] |
'The ghost killed him!' |