She asked him a few questions, performed her duties as hostess prettily, took up the tray again and left the room.

Then she ran into the garden and took refuge on a bench, a prey to feelings that stirred her young heart for the first time.

Raoul followed her and they talked till the evening, very shyly.
They were quite changed, cautious as two diplomatists, and told each other things that had nothing to do with their budding sentiments.
When they took leave of each other by the roadside, Raoul, pressing a kiss on Christine's trembling hand, said: "Mademoiselle, I shall never forget you!" And he went away regretting his words, for he knew that Christine could not be the wife of the Vicomte de Chagny.
As for Christine, she tried not to think of him and devoted herself wholly to her art.

She made wonderful progress and those who heard her prophesied that she would be the greatest singer in the world.
Meanwhile, the father died; and, suddenly, she seemed to have lost, with him, her voice, her soul and her genius.

She retained just, but only just, enough of this to enter the CONSERVATOIRE, where she did not distinguish herself at all, attending the classes without enthusiasm and taking a prize only to please old Mamma Valerius, with whom she continued to live.
The first time that Raoul saw Christine at the Opera, he was charmed by the girl's beauty and by the sweet images of the past which it evoked, but was rather surprised at the negative side of her art.