`What dressing-room?' asked Raoul.

`Christine Daaé's.'

And the Persian, letting Raoul through the door which he had just opened, showed him the actress' room opposite. They were at the end of the passage the whole length of which Raoul had been accustomed to traverse before knocking at Christine's door.

`How well you know the Opera, sir!'

`Not so well as `he' does!' said the Persian modestly.

And he pushed the young man into Christine's dressing-room, which was as Raoul had left it a few minutes earlier.

Closing the door, the Persian went to a very thin partition that separated the dressing-room from a big lumber-room next to it. He listened and then coughed loudly.

There was a sound of some one stirring in the lumber-room; and, a few seconds later, a finger tapped at the door.

`Come in,' said the Persian.

A man entered, also wearing an astrakhan cap and dressed in a long overcoat. He bowed and took a richly carved case from under his coat, put it on the dressing-table, bowed once again and went to the door.

`Did no one see you come in, Darius?'

`No, master.'

`Let no one see you go out.'

The servant glanced down the passage and swiftly disappeared.

The Persian opened the case. It contained a pair of long pistols.

`When Christine Daaé was carried off, sir, I sent word to my servant to bring me these pistols. I have had them a long time and they can be relied upon.'

`Do you mean to fight a duel?' asked the young man.

`It will certainly be a duel which we shall have to fight,' said the other, examining the priming of his pistols. `And what a duel!' Handing one of the pistols to Raoul, he added, `In this duel, we shall be two to one; but you must be prepared for everything, for we shall be fighting the most terrible adversary that you can imagine. But you love Christine Daaé, do you not?'

`I worship the ground she stands on! But you, sir, who do not love her, tell me why I find you ready to risk your life for her! You must certainly hate Erik!'

`No, sir,' said the Persian sadly, `I do not hate him. If I hated him, he would long ago have ceased doing harm.'

`Has he done you harm?'

`I have forgiven him the harm which he has done me.'