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III . Box Five While these things were happening , the old managers were saying goodbye to their friends . At the end of a long supper they handed the master keys of the Opera to the new managers , Monsieur Firmin Richard and Monsieur Armand Moncharmin . Richard was a well - known composer with a quick temper . Moncharmin was a rich man who knew nothing about music but liked to be part of the theatre world . At the end of the table sat a strange guest whom nobody knew . His face was pale and thin , his eyes were deep black holes , and he neither ate nor drank . Each group of guests thought that he belonged to the other group . Suddenly he spoke . “ The girls of the ballet are right , ” he said quietly . “ The death of poor Buquet is perhaps not as natural as people think . ” The old managers jumped up , white as the tablecloth . They took Richard and Moncharmin into their office and closed the door . There , looking very serious , they told the new managers about the ghost of the Opera . They would never have mentioned him , they said , but the ghost himself had ordered them to do it . Then Monsieur Poligny opened the book of rules which every manager of the Opera had to obey . At the end of it , someone had added a few lines in red ink , in a strange , clumsy handwriting , like the writing of a child . The manager must pay the Opera ghost twenty thousand francs every month . And Box Five on the first tier must be kept for the ghost at every performance . Richard and Moncharmin laughed until they cried . They thought it was a clever joke which the old managers had prepared for their last night . “ And what happens if we don’t pay ? ” asked Richard . “ Try it , and you will see , ” said Poligny . “ We prefer to go away . ” A few days later , Richard found a letter on his desk , written in the same red ink . The ghost was very polite . He said that he was sorry to disturb such busy men , but he had been surprised to hear that his box had been sold . He asked them to let Christine Daaé sing again , and he finished with a warning : “ If you wish to live in peace , you must not begin by taking away my private box . ” The letter was signed “ Opera Ghost ” . The managers decided that the old managers were continuing their silly joke , and that evening they sold Box Five . The next morning they read a report from one of the inspectors . The people who had bought the box had laughed so loudly during the performance that a guard had to throw them out . When they first went into the box , they said , they had heard a voice telling them that the box was taken . But there was nobody in it , and there was nobody in the boxes on either side . Richard was furious , and he sent for the woman who looked after the box . She arrived in an old black dress and a faded hat with feathers . She was Madame Giry , the mother of little Meg , and she was very proud . “ The ghost was annoyed again , ” she said calmly . “ That’s what happened . ”
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