“Ah, we are delighted.⁠ ⁠… Look here, Mme. Giry,” said Richard, in the tone of making an important confidence. “We may just as well tell you, among ourselves⁠ ⁠… you’re no fool!”

“Why, sir,” exclaimed the box-keeper, stopping the pleasant nodding of the black feathers in her dingy bonnet, “I assure you no one has ever doubted that!”

“We are quite agreed and we shall soon understand one another. The story of the ghost is all humbug, isn’t it?⁠ ⁠… Well, still between ourselves,⁠ ⁠… it has lasted long enough.”

Mme. Giry looked at the managers as though they were talking Chinese. She walked up to Richard’s table and asked, rather anxiously:

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”