Interlude I
"All my father used to say at this point was, 'What with one thing and another, three years passed'...
Would you believe that in the original Morgenstern this is the longest single chapter in the book?
...from a narrative point of view, in 105 pages nothing happens. Except this: 'What with one thing and another, three years passed.'"
- William Goldman, The Princess Bride
The sound of pages flipping.
"What with one thing and another, three years passed. 'Chapter Seve–'"
"Arrêtez, arrêtez! Hold a minute! Are you really just going to gloss over three whole years like that, after everything that happened to them?"
"Well – why not?"
A small fist banged against a chair's arm.
"What about Gisèle and Michel? Did Christine become friends with them? What was going on with Carlotta? Did Jules ever get caught by the police? Why is Christine so suspicious of the mayor? What about the –"
"One at a time, one at a time!"
A remorseful, yet anticipating, silence.
"Yes, Christine did become good friends with the André children. She soon discovered that Michel had indeed been born with a speech impediment – as she had half-suspected – that caused him to stutter on the making of certain consonants. She also later found that, because M. André was more often out of work than in, her new friends' family was very poor, almost as poor as when Christine and her family had first entered Rouen. Yet, despite the fact that most of Rouen's citizens had thought these reasons to ridicule and look down upon the Andrés, these endeared the family even more to Christine – and eventually to Meg as well – and she, Gisèle, Michel, and Raoul did become 'the best of friends'.
"There is nothing 'going on' with Carlotta. She was simply one of those unfortunate human beings who are too caught up in their own selfishness to see – or care – how unhappy they are, or how unhappy they cause others to feel. She did learn to put a curb on her innate nastiness as she grew older, as it was not becoming in a young woman, especially one who had a talent for and wished to pursue a career in singing, as Christine later found out with much dismay. But, even though she was outwardly polite to everyone, there was still a cruel edge to the way she spoke to those she believed were beneath her – Christine Daaé and her poorer friends being the chief among these.
"No, the Girys were never 'caught'. When Mme. Giry had first spoken with M. de Chagny the day they all had arrived in Rouen, she gave him an abbreviated account of their misfortune and asked that they be kept safe from any unfriendly persons seeking them out, to which he readily agreed. It proved invaluable; several investigators arrived in that first year asking for Jules Giry, and – despite their eminence in the legal world – were each turned away with the same lie, until they stopped coming altogether.
"Despite being thrown together more often than usual because of his landlord-ship over her family and her close friendship with his younger brother, Christine did not discover in those three years why she felt so suspicious of Philippe de Chagny. She never felt like she quite knew him; despite his outward civility, he was something of a quiet man who preferred to keep his personal affairs and thoughts private. She respected this – everyone did; he was, after all, the mayor – but she still could not reconcile her uneasy emotions either. She had to learn to push them aside, as it were, and despite her feelings, she began to genuinely enjoy his company.
"Besides all this, those three years passed in rather predictable peace and quiet. The Girys learnt to be content with their simple yet relatively successful life in Rouen, Christine found a place for herself where she had expected to find none, and they all grew a little older and a little wiser as they adapted to their new lives. Do you have any more questions, or may I continue?"
A speculative look.
"Christine isn't going to marry Raoul, is she?"
Merry laughter.
"Now you know that I can't tell you about what will or won't happen in the story! We have to read it in order to find out!"
"This isn't a lovey-dovey book, is it?"
A short silence as words were weighed.
"It is a book about love, but it's not as you put it: 'a lovey-dovey book'. Now, shall I continue, or would you rather that I stopped?"
"No, no; keep reading! I want to know what happens next!"