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CHAPTER VIII.
SYMPTOMS OF POISONING.
The "apparition" did not return. It did not reappear in the theatre, but
it reappeared to the memory of Gwynplaine. Gwynplaine was, to a certain
degree, troubled. It seemed to him that for the first time in his life
he had seen a woman.
He made that first stumble, a strange dream. We should beware of the
nature of the reveries that fasten on us. Reverie has in it the mystery
and subtlety of an odour. It is to thought what perfume is to the
tuberose. It is at times the exudation of a venomous idea, and it
penetrates like a vapour. You may poison yourself with reveries, as with
flowers. An intoxicating suicide, exquisite and malignant. The suicide
of the soul is evil thought. In it is the poison. Reverie attracts,
cajoles, lures, entwines, and then makes you its accomplice. It makes
you bear your half in the trickeries which it plays on conscience. It
charms; then it corrupts you. We may say of reverie as of play, one
begins by being a dupe, and ends by being a cheat.
Gwynplaine dreamed.
He had never before seen Woman. He had seen the shadow in the women of
the populace, and he had seen the soul in Dea.
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