The next afternoon Raoul visited Christine in her dressing room. She offered him tea and cookies, and asked him about his plans. Raoul was relieved that Christine was kind to him, although he was distressed that she was still wearing the gold ring.
Raoul took her hand in his. "I wish you wouldn't wear this ring."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because I'd like to give you a wedding ring myself one day."
"Hush!" Christine pulled her hand away. "You know there's no chance of that happening. Your brother would disapprove—"
"I don't care what my brother thinks, but you obviously are still attached to this Angel of Music fellow!" Raoul said. "I don't understand the hold he has over you."
Although Christine did not respond, her distress was obvious. She gathered up her things and announced she was going home.
"Christine!" Raoul called after her, but she didn't turn back.
The next morning he headed straight for Mama Valerius' apartment to see Christine.
"Oh, she left last evening and said she would be gone for two days," Mama Valerius said, sitting up straight in bed.
Raoul was shocked. "So, she won't be back until tomorrow when she's scheduled to sing?"
"That's correct."
Raoul asked more questions about Christine's whereabouts, but Mama Valerius obviously knew nothing. He would have to wait until the next evening to see Christine at the opera.
Carlotta had not performed since the infamous night when she croaked like a frog and the chandelier plunged into the audience. She'd canceled her contract, and Christine was temporarily offered her roles. When Raoul went to the opera the next night, he sat in his brother's box as usual. At the end of the final act, Christine received a standing ovation.
Suddenly Raoul heard a man's voice whispering in his ear. "She's wearing the ring tonight, a ring that's not from you. She gave her soul again tonight, and she didn't give it to you!"
Startled, Raoul searched the box but found no one. "I was seeing and hearing things when Christine disappeared into the mirror," he thought, "and now I must be hearing things again." He ran backstage and waited for Christine to come offstage.
"Hurry up! Come with me!" Christine dragged Raoul to her dressing room and shut the door.
Raoul threw himself on his knees before her. "Christine, I cannot spend another hour without you. I don't care what my brother—or anyone else—thinks about a viscount marrying an opera singer. Please marry me."
Christine cried. "Oh, yes!"
The couple kissed, but Christine soon tore herself away. She seemed to be listening to something, and with a quick gesture, motioned for Raoul to leave. He frowned. "Leave, why? We should celebrate our engagement." At the door she said softly, "Until tomorrow, my dear betrothed! Be happy, Raoul, because I sang for you tonight!"
Raoul nodded. Those words made up for her sending him away.
The next afternoon the couple met again in Christine's dressing room.
"Let's go for a walk, dear." Christine linked her arm through Raoul's.
Raoul thought they would go outside, far away from the building where he constantly sensed Erik's presence. But Christine took him onstage and made him sit on a bench in the peaceful coolness of the first act's scene for that night's performance. Another day they wandered along the deserted paths of a garden whose flowers had been made in a backstage workshop. Then they cautiously walked along the catwalks high above the stage. It was as if the real world had been forbidden to Christine, and she were condemned to live in the artificial world of the theater.
Like a benevolent queen, Christine took Raoul throughout her empire, which covered 17 floors, from ground to roof. Her subjects included seamstresses, carpenters, and cobblers. Raoul discovered that all of them loved her because she took an interest in their troubles and daily lives.
And so the couple's time together sped by until one day when Christine became inexplicably nervous. That afternoon she started running through the opera house for no reason and just as suddenly stopped.
"This way! This way!" Christine said with a breathless laugh as she dragged Raoul along. Her eyes were wild, and she seemed on the verge of tears.
"Stop, Christine! What's wrong?" he asked. "What's made you so nervous?"
"Nothing, I swear it's nothing."
But Raoul was certain that something was upsetting her.
Once, when they passed an open trapdoor, Raoul made her stop running and pointed at it. "You've shown me the upper part of the opera house, but there are strange stories of what goes on below the stage and in all the cellars. Shall we go down there?"
"Never!" Christine clutched Raoul tightly, as if she feared he'd disappear into the black hole. "Besides, it's not my world. Everything underground belongs to him."
"So Erik lives down there, does he?"
"No, no, I never said that." Christine started to walk away. "Come along, Raoul! Come away from that trapdoor."
Much to their surprise, the trapdoor slammed shut.
"Perhaps he was there listening to us!" Raoul said as he embraced Christine protectively.
Christine shrugged. "No, he's too busy working."
"Oh, he's working, is he?" Raoul was surprised that she knew so much about Erik's schedule. "What's he working on?"
"A big project. But that's good for us because when he's working, he doesn't take a break for days. He doesn't eat or drink or have time to amuse himself with trapdoors."
Raoul was still holding Christine in his arms when she seemed to lose her nerve. "Suppose it was him?" she asked.
"Are you afraid of him?" Raoul asked.
"Of course not! Let's go!" Christine took off running again.
Despite protesting that she wasn't afraid, Christine was careful to avoid the trapdoors, and her agitation only increased with each passing day. One afternoon she arrived late for their meeting with such a desperate look on her face that Raoul had to speak.
"I will remove you from Erik's power, Christine. And you won't be haunted by him anymore!"
"Hush!" Christine looked around fearfully. "Suppose he heard you?" She pulled Raoul along to a top floor of the theater, far away from any trapdoors. Then she leaned in, but before she could kiss him, she became alarmed again.
"Higher! We must go higher!"
Raoul had trouble following her because they were soon under the roof in a maze of rafters and beams. Although Christine kept stopping to look behind them, she failed to see a shadow that stopped when she stopped and started up again when she did.