unexpected causes, and nothing could be more unexpected than this

termination. Never was sensation comparable to that produced by the ray

of light striking on that mask, at once ludicrous and terrible. They

laughed all around his laugh. Everywhere--above, below, behind, before,

at the uttermost distance; men, women, old gray-heads, rosy-faced

children; the good, the wicked, the gay, the sad, everybody. And even in

the streets, the passers-by who could see nothing, hearing the laughter,

laughed also. The laughter ended in clapping of hands and stamping of

feet. The curtain dropped: Gwynplaine was recalled with frenzy. Hence an

immense success. Have you seen "Chaos Vanquished?" Gwynplaine was run

after. The listless came to laugh, the melancholy came to laugh, evil

consciences came to laugh--a laugh so irresistible that it seemed almost

an epidemic. But there is a pestilence from which men do not fly, and

that is the contagion of joy. The success, it must be admitted, did not

rise higher than the populace. A great crowd means a crowd of nobodies.

Chaos Vanquished" could be seen for a penny. Fashionable people never

go where the price of admission is a penny.

Ursus thought a good deal of his work, which he had brooded over for a

long time. "It is in the style of one Shakespeare," he said modestly.

The juxtaposition of Dea added to the indescribable effect produced by

Gwynplaine. Her white face by the side of the gnome represented what

might have been called divine astonishment. The audience regarded Dea

with a sort of mysterious anxiety. She had in her aspect the dignity of

a virgin and of a priestess, not knowing man and knowing God. They saw

that she was blind, and felt that she could see. She seemed to stand on

449

The Man Who Laughs