Passer le texte de l’article
I . The Ghost in Black On the evening when the two old managers of the Paris Opera were saying goodbye to their theatre , six young dancers suddenly ran into the dressing room of La Sorelli , the first dancer of the ballet . Some of them were laughing too loudly , and others were crying with fear . Sorelli had wanted to be alone for a few minutes , because she had to make a little speech to the managers later that night . She looked round angrily at the noisy crowd of girls . “ It’s the ghost ! ” cried little Jammes , a girl of fifteen with blue eyes and pink cheeks . Then she locked the door behind her . Sorelli was very superstitious , and she believed in ghosts more than anyone else in the building . She told Jammes not to be silly , but at once she asked for details . “ Have you seen him ? ” “ As clearly as I see you now ! ” said Jammes , and she fell into a chair because her legs were shaking . “ If that was the ghost , he is very ugly , ” added little Meg Giry , a thin girl with black eyes and black hair . For several months people at the Opera had talked about nothing else . A tall man in black evening clothes walked through the huge building from top to bottom like a shadow . He spoke to nobody , and nobody dared to speak to him . As soon as someone saw him , he disappeared , and nobody knew how or where . Like a real ghost , he made no noise when he walked . At first people had laughed at the story , but soon the girls of the ballet were frightened of every dark corner . If a dancer fell on the stairs , or lost her powder puff , it was always the fault of the ghost . The idea that the ghost was a skeleton in evening clothes came from Joseph Buquet , the chief scene - shifter . He was a serious , sober man who did not usually imagine things . He had met the ghost on the little staircase that led down to the cellars , and he had seen him for one second before the figure ran away . “ He is terribly thin , ” Buquet told everyone who wanted to listen . “ His coat hangs on him as if he were a skeleton . His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see them . You just see two big black holes , as in a dead man’s skull . His skin is stretched over his bones like the skin of a drum , and it is not white but a nasty yellow . He has almost no nose at all , and that is a horrible thing to look at . ” Soon other people said that they too had met a man with a dead man’s head . Then a fireman called Pampin , who was afraid of nothing , came up from the cellars white and shaking . He had seen a head of fire with no body under it , moving towards him at the height of a man’s face . After that , even the bravest people in the Opera walked faster in the dark passages .
Précédent Page 1 sur 29 Page 1 sur 29 Suivant Continuez à lire avec les traductions Créez un compte gratuit : 7 jours de Pro, puis 20 traductions de mots par jour ou une formule payante.
