The Man Who Laughs, Book XI [pp. 361-367]

362APPLETONS' JO URNAL OF POPULAR [JUNE 19,
of' being. a cat, and of fondling. One of her eyes was blue;
the other was black.
Gwynplaine, like Ursus, looked attentively at this woman.
The Green-Box was something of a phantasmagoria, Chaos
Conquered was more a charm than a play, and they had been
wont to produce upon the public the effect of a vision. On
this occasion the, effect of a vision was produced in turn upon
them; the house gave back the surprise to the stage, and it
was their time to be startled. They experienced the ricochet
of fascination.
The woman looked at them, and they looked at her.
To them, in the distance where they were, and in that luminous mist which constitutes the adumbration of a theatre, details
were not distinguishable, and it was like an illusion. It was a
woman beyond a doubt; but was it not also a phantom? This
burst of light upon their darkness bewildered them. It was
like the appearance of a strange planet. She had come from
the realm of the blest. Her radiancy heightened the effect of
her person. She had around her the scintillations of the night,
like a Milky Way. Those jewels resembled the stars. That
diamond agrafe was perhaps a Pleiad. The glorious modelling
of her bosom was supernatural. Seeing this starry creature,
one experienced the thrilling sensation of being momentarily
about to enter the celestial regions. It was from the recesses of
a paradise, that this face of imperturbable repose had leaned
down upon the shabby Green-Box and its wretched patrons.
Curiosity of the highest rank, which satisfied itself, and gave
food for the curiosity of the rabble. The lofty suffered the low
to look at it.
Ursus, Gwynplaine, Vinos, Fibi, the crowd-all felt the
power of this dazzlement, save Dea, ignorant of it in her darkness.
There was, in this presence, something of the apparition;
but none of the ideas which the word ordinarily suggests
were realized in this figure; she had nothing transparent,
nothing indefinite, nothing floating, nothing vaporous; it was a
fresh and ruddy apparition, in sound health. Nevertheless,
under the optical conditions in which Ursus and Gwynplaine
were placed, it was like a vision. Those gross phantoms, that
we call vampires, do exist. The pretty queen, who herself
is a vision to the multitude, and who eats up thirty millions a
year, at the expense of her poor subjects, has just such health as
this.
Behind the woman, in shadow, might be seen her attendant
lad, el mdzo, a little babyish man, fair and pretty, with a serious
expression. A very young and very surly groom was the fashion of the period. The boy was dressed from top to toe in
flame-colored velvet, and wore a skull-cap trimmed with gold
lace, with a tuft of tailor-bird feathers, a mark of aristocratic
servitude, indicating the valet of a very great lady.
The lackey is a part of the lord, and it was impossible not
to remark, in the shadow of this woman, this train-bearing
page. The mind often makes notes without our knowledge;
and, though Gwynplaine was not aware of it, the round cheeks,
the grave look, the gold-laced cap, and the tuft of tailor-bird
feathers of this lady's boy, left some impression on him. Beyond this, the groom did nothing to cause himself to be observed. To attract attention is to forfeit respect; and he
remained standing and passive at the end of the box, as far
withdrawn as the closed door would admit.
Although the manikin trainbearer was there, the woman
was none the less alone in the compartment, seeing that a valet
does not count.
Powerful as had been the sensation created by this person,
who produced the effect of a grand personage, the closing scene
of Chaos Conquered was more powerful still. The effect was,
as usual, irresistible. There had been in the hall, perhaps by
reason of this radiant looker-on-since sometimes the spectator
enhances the spectacle-an excess of electric excitement. The
contagion of Gwynplaine's laugh was more triumphant than
ever. The whole audience went into fits in an indescribable
epilepsy of exhilaration, wherein you might distinguish the
leading, ringing laugh of Tom-Jim-Jack.
Only the young stranger, who looked on the spectacle with
the immobility of a statue and the eyes of a phantom, did not
laugh.
A spectre, but a solar light.
The exhibition over, the panel put up, the privacy of the
interior of the Green-Box reestablished, Ursus opened and
emptied on the supper-table the bag of twopenny pieces,
among which rolled out suddenly an ounce of Spanish gold.
- From her! cried Ursus.
This ounce of gold in the midst of the verdigrised pennies
was, in effect, this woman in the midst of the people.
-She has paid a doubloon for her place! repeated Ursus,
enthusiastically.
At this moment the innkeeper entered the Green-Box,
passed his arm through the window-frame, opened in the wall
against which the Green-Box leaned a sliding pane, of which
we have spoken, which afforded a sight of the fair-ground, and
which was at the same height as the window, and made a sign
to UIrsus to look out. A carriage, set off with plumed lackeys
bearing torches, and drawn by a magnificent team, was moving
off at a fast trot.
Ursus respectfully took the doubloon between his thumb
and forefinger, showed it to Nicless, and said:
- She is a goddess.
Then his eyes fell on the carriage just turning the corner of
the ground, and on its top, where the torches of the valets
lighted up a coronet of gold with eight fleurons, and he cried
out:
- She is more. She is a duchess.
The carriage disappeared. The sound of the wheels died
away.
Ursus remained for some minutes in an ecstatic state, elevating the doubloon between his two fingers, converted into a
monstrance, such as they use for the elevation of the host.
Then he laid it on the table, and looking at it began to speak
of "the lady." The innkeeper made reply. It was a duchess.
Yes. They knew her title. But her name? This they did not
know. Master Nicless had seen close at hand her carriage all
emblazoned, and her lackeys all gold-laced. The coachman
wore a wig that would make you think him the lord-chancellor.
The carriage was of that unfrequent pattern known in Spain as
the cochetumbon, a splendid variety, with a top like a tomb,
which was a famous support for a coronet. The boy-valet was
a sample of humanity so small, that he could seat himself on
the step of the carriage outside the door. They employ these
pretty little fellows to carry the ladies' trains; they also carry
their messages. And did you remark the boy's tuft of tailorbird feathers? Here's grandeur. Whoever wears these tailorbird feathers, without the right, pays a heavy fine. Master
Nicless had also seen the lady, quite close at hand. A sort
of queen. So much do riches lend to beauty. The skin is
whiter, the eye more flashing, the bearing more noble, the
beauty more insolent. Nothing can equal the impertinent elegance of hands that do not work. Master Nicless recounted
this magnificence of the fair skin with the blue veins, that neck,
those shoulders, those arms, that rouge everywhere, those pearldrops, that head-dress of powdered gold, that profusion of precious stones, those rubies, those diamonds.
— Less brilliant than the eyes, muttered Ursus.
Gwynplaine was silent.
Dea listened.
- And do you know, said the innkeeper, what is most astonishing?
- What? demanded Ursus.
— It is that I saw her get into her carriage.
- What of that?
-She did not get in alone.
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362
[JUNE 19,