Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant,
opera ghost.

O. G. - There is no excuse for R. and M. We told them and left your memorandum-book in their hands. Kind regards.

`They are keeping up the joke,' said M. Richard, `but I don't call it funny.'

`What does it all mean?' asked M. Moncharmin. `Do they imagine that, because they have been managers of the Opera, we are going to let them have a box for an indefinite period?'

`I am not in the mood to let myself be laughed at long,' said Firmin Richard.

`It's harmless enough,' observed Armand Moncharmin. `What is it they really want? A box for to-night?'

M. Firmin Richard told his secretary to send Box Five on the grand tier to Mm. Debienne and Poligny, if it was not sold. It was not. It was sent off to them. Debienne lived at the corner of the Rue Scribe and the Boulevard des Capucines; Poligny, in the Rue Auber. O. Ghost's two letters had been posted at the Boulevard des Capucines post-office, as Moncharmin remarked after examining the envelopes.

`You see!' said Richard.

They shrugged their shoulders and regretted that two men of that age should amuse themselves with such childish tricks.

`They might have been civil, for all that!' said Moncharmin. `Did you notice how they treat us with regard to Carlotta, Sorelli and Little Jammes?'

`Why, my dear fellow, these two are mad with jealousy! To think that they went to the expense of, an advertisement in the Revue Théâtrale! Have they nothing better to do?'

`By the way,' said Moncharmin, `they seem to be greatly interested in that little Christine Daaé!'

`You know as well as I do that she has the reputation of being quite good,' said Richard.

`Reputations are easily obtained,' replied Moncharmin. `Haven't I a reputation for knowing all about music? And I don't know one key from another.'

`Don't be afraid: you never had that reputation,' Richard declared.

Thereupon he ordered the artists to be shown in, who, for the last two hours, had been walking up and down outside the door behind which fame and fortune - or dismissal - awaited them.

The whole day was spent in discussing, negotiating, signing or cancelling contracts; and the two overworked managers went to bed early, without so much as casting a glance at Box Five to see whether M. Debienne and M. Poligny were enjoying the performance.

Next morning, the managers received a card of thanks from the ghost:

Dear Mr. Manager:

Thanks. Charming evening. Daaé exquisite. Choruses want waking up. Carlotta a splendid commonplace instrument. Will write you soon for the 240,000 francs, or 233,424 fr. 70 c., to be correct. Mm. Debienne and Poligny have sent me the 6,575 fr. 30 c. representing the first ten days of my allowance for the current year; their privileges finished on the evening of the tenth inst.