At that moment he returned from his new expedition, wearing a curiously startled air.
"Well, have you seen them?" asked Mercier.
"Moncharmin opened the door at last. His eyes were starting out of his head. I thought he meant to strike me. I could not get a word in; and what do you think he shouted at me? 'Have you a safety–pin?' 'No!' 'Well, then, clear out!' I tried to tell him that an unheard–of thing had happened on the stage, but he roared, 'A safety–pin! Give me a safety–pin at once!' A boy heard him—he was bellowing like a bull—ran up with a safety–pin and gave it to him; whereupon Moncharmin slammed the door in my face, and there you are!"
"And couldn’t you have said, 'Christine Daae.'"
"I should like to have seen you in my place. He was foaming at the mouth. He thought of nothing but his safety–pin. I believe, if they hadn’t brought him one on the spot, he would have fallen down in a fit! … Oh, all this isn’t natural; and our managers are going mad!… Besides, it can’t go on like this! I’m not used to being treated in that fashion!"
Suddenly Gabriel whispered:
"It’s another trick of O. G.'s."
Rimy gave a grin, Mercier a sigh and seemed about to speak… but, meeting Gabriel’s eye, said nothing.
However, Mercier felt his responsibility increased as the minutes passed without the managers' appearing; and, at last, he could stand it no longer.
"Look here, I’ll go and hunt them out myself!"
Gabriel, turning very gloomy and serious, stopped him.
"Be careful what you’re doing, Mercier! If they’re staying in their office, it’s probably because they have to! O. G. has more than one trick in his bag!"
But Mercier shook his head.
"That’s their lookout! I’m going! If people had listened to me, the police would have known everything long ago!"
And he went.
"What’s everything?" asked Remy. "What was there to tell the police? Why don’t you answer, Gabriel?… Ah, so you know something! Well, you would do better to tell me, too, if you don’t want me to shout out that you are all going mad!… Yes, that’s what you are: mad!"
Gabriel put on a stupid look and pretended not to understand the private secretary’s unseemly outburst.
"What 'something' am I supposed to know?" he said. "I don’t know what you mean."
Remy began to lose his temper.
"This evening, Richard and Moncharmin were behaving like lunatics, here, between the acts."
"I never noticed it," growled Gabriel, very much annoyed.
"Then you’re the only one!… Do you think that I didn’t see them?… And that M. Parabise, the manager of the Credit Central, noticed nothing?… And that M. de La Borderie, the ambassador, has no eyes to see with?… Why, all the subscribers were pointing at our managers!"
"But what were our managers doing?" asked Gabriel, putting on his most innocent air.
"What were they doing? You know better than any one what they were doing!… You were there!… And you were watching them, you and Mercier!… And you were the only two who didn’t laugh."
"I don’t understand!"
Gabriel raised his arms and dropped them to his sides again, which gesture was meant to convey that the question did not interest him in the least. Remy continued:
"What is the sense of this new mania of theirs? WHY WON’T THEY HAVE ANY ONE COME NEAR THEM NOW?"
"What? WON’T THEY HAVE ANY ONE COME NEAR THEM?"
"AND THEY WON’T LET ANY ONE TOUCH THEM!"
"Really? Have you noticed THAT THEY WON’T LET ANY ONE TOUCH THEM? That is certainly odd!"
"Oh, so you admit it! And high time, too! And THEN, THEY WALK BACKWARD!"
"BACKWARD! You have seen our managers WALK BACKWARD? Why, I thought that only crabs walked backward!"
"Don’t laugh, Gabriel; don’t laugh!"
"I’m not laughing," protested Gabriel, looking as solemn as a judge.
