Chapter 22: XXI

XXI Interesting and Instructive Vicissitudes of a Persian in the Cellars of the Opera The Persian’s Narrative It was the first time that I entered the house on the lake. I had often begged the “trapdoor lover,” as we used to call Erik in my country, to open its mysterious doors to me. He always refused. I made very many attempts, but in vain, to obtain admittance. Watch him as I might, after I first learned that he had taken up his permanent abode at the Opera, the darkness was alway…