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"I do not know. I am happy."
"
Oh," replied Gwynplaine, "we are happy."
Ursus raised his voice severely,--
"Oh, you are happy, are you? That's a crime. I have warned you already.
You are happy! Then take care you aren't seen. Take up as little room as
you can. Happiness ought to stuff itself into a hole. Make yourselves
still less than you are, if that can be. God measures the greatness of
happiness by the littleness of the happy. The happy should conceal
themselves like malefactors. Oh, only shine out like the wretched
glowworms that you are, and you'll be trodden on; and quite right too!
What do you mean by all that love-making nonsense? I'm no duenna, whose
business it is to watch lovers billing and cooing. I'm tired of it all,
I tell you; and you may both go to the devil."
And feeling that his harsh tones were melting into tenderness, he
drowned his emotion in a loud grumble.
"Father," said Dea, "how roughly you scold!"
"It's because I don't like to see people too happy."
Here Homo re-echoed Ursus. His growl was heard from beneath the lovers'
feet.
570
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