make love to each other. The flirtations of the deformed! It was to that

we had come. The toad and the mole; quite an idyl! That was what went on

in my household. All which was sure to end by going before the justice.

The toad talked politics! But now I am free of him. When the wapentake

came I was at first a fool; one always doubts one's own good luck. I

believed that I did not see what I did see; that it was impossible, that

it was a nightmare, that a day-dream was playing me a trick. But no!

Nothing could be truer. It is all clear. Gwynplaine is really in

prison. It is a stroke of Providence. Praise be to it! He was the

monster who, with the row he made, drew attention to my establishment

and denounced my poor wolf. Be off, Gwynplaine; and, see, I am rid of

both! Two birds killed with one stone. Because Dea will die, now that

she can no longer see Gwynplaine. For she sees him, the idiot! She will

have no object in life. She will say, 'What am I to do in the world?'

Good-bye! To the devil with both of them. I always hated the creatures!

Die, Dea! Oh, I am quite comfortable!"

682

The Man Who Laughs