“As for you, you did not exist, you had ceased to exist, I tell you, and you were going to die with the other!⁠ ⁠… Only, mark me, daroga, when you were yelling like the devil, because of the water, Christine came to me with her beautiful blue eyes wide open, and swore to me, as she hoped to be saved, that she consented to be my living wife !⁠ ⁠… Until then, in the depths of her eyes, daroga, I had always seen my dead wife; it was the first time I saw my living wife there. She was sincere, as she hoped to be saved. She would not kill herself. It was a bargain.⁠ ⁠… Half a minute later, all the water was back in the lake; and I had a hard job with you, daroga, for, upon my honor, I thought you were done for!⁠ ⁠… However!⁠ ⁠… There you were!⁠ ⁠… It was understood that I was to take you both up to the surface of the earth. When, at last, I cleared the Louis-Philippe room of you, I came back alone.⁠ ⁠…”

“What have you done with the Vicomte de Chagny?” asked the Persian, interrupting him.