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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 Monchar the whole of the affair

of the Opera ghost, in order to revenge himself for a few jokes

I asked the Persian to tell host 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 ation on the spot, I

should certainly find the solution to the riddle in thethat Erik had not been nickna I promised the Persian to do so as soon as I had

time, and I may as well tell the reader at once that the results of ation were perfectly satisfactory; and I hardly believed that I

should ever discover so many undeniable proofs of the authenticity of

the feats ascribed to the ghost

The Persian's manuscript, Christine Daae's papers, the statements made

to me by the people who used to work under MM Richard and Monchar herself (the worthy Madame Giry, I am sorry to say, is no

in retire to the existence of the ghost, which I

propose to deposit in the archives of the Opera, have been checked and