was well pleased. It was his best work. He had thrown his whole soul

into it. To give the sum of all one's talents in the production is the

greatest triumph that any one can achieve. The toad which produces a

toad achieves a grand success. You doubt it? Try, then, to do as much.

Ursus had carefully polished this interlude. This bear's cub was

entitled "Chaos Vanquished." Here it was:--A night scene. When the

curtain drew up, the crowd, massed around the Green Box, saw nothing but

blackness. In this blackness three confused forms moved in the reptile

state--wolf, a bear, and a man. The wolf acted the wolf; Ursus, the

bear; Gwynplaine, the man. The wolf and the bear represented the

ferocious forces of Nature--unreasoning hunger and savage ignorance.

Both rushed on Gwynplaine. It was chaos combating man. No face could be

distinguished. Gwynplaine fought infolded, in a winding-sheet, and his

face was covered by his thickly-falling locks. All else was shadow. The

bear growled, the wolf gnashed his teeth, the man cried out. The man was

down; the beasts overwhelmed him. He cried for aid and succour; he

hurled to the unknown an agonized appeal. He gave a death-rattle. To

witness this agony of the prostrate man, now scarcely distinguishable

from the brutes, was appalling. The crowd looked on breathless; in one

minute more the wild beasts would triumph, and chaos reabsorb man. A

struggle--cries--howlings; then, all at once, silence.

A song in the shadows. A breath had passed, and they heard a voice.

Mysterious music floated, accompanying this chant of the invisible; and

suddenly, none knowing whence or how, a white apparition arose. This

apparition was a light; this light was a woman; this woman was a spirit.

446

The Man Who Laughs