Every one spoke at once.

Every one tried to suggest an explanation of the extraordinary incident.
At last, the curtain rose slowly and Carolus Fonta stepped to the conductor's desk and, in a sad and serious voice, said: "Ladies and gentlemen, an unprecedented event has taken place and thrown us into a state of the greatest alarm.

Our sister-artist, Christine Daae, has disappeared before our eyes and nobody can tell us how!".