Человек, который смеется / The Man Who Laughs. Уровень 4

Gwynplaine had a thought – “What should I be without her?” Dea had a thought – “What should I be without him?” The exile of each made a country for both. They belonged to each other; they knew themselves. They were inexpressibly happy. In their hell they had created heaven. Such was your power, O Love! Dea heard Gwynplaine’s laugh; Gwynplaine saw Dea’s smile. Thus the mysterious problem of happiness was solved; and by whom? By two outcasts.

For Gwynplaine, Dea was splendour. For Dea, Gwynplaine was presence.

Gwynplaine was the religion of Dea. Sometimes, lost in her sense of love towards him, she knelt, like a beautiful priestess.

These happy creatures dwelt in the ideal world. They were spouses in it at distances as opposite as the spheres. Their kisses were the kisses of souls.

They had always lived a common life. They knew themselves only in each other’s society. The infancy of Dea had coincided with the youth of Gwynplaine. They had grown up side by side. For a long time they had slept in the same bed, for the hut was not a large bedchamber.

They lay on the chest, Ursus on the floor; that was the arrangement. One fine day, whilst Dea was still very little, Gwynplaine felt himself grown up. He said to Ursus,

“I will also sleep on the floor.”

And at night he stretched himself, with the old man, on the bear skin. Then Dea wept. She cried; but Gwynplaine, become restless because he had begun to love, decided to remain where he was. From that time he always slept by the side of Ursus on the planks.

In the summer, when the nights were fine, he slept outside with Homo.

Such was the idyll blooming in a tragedy. Ursus said to them, -

“Old brutes, adore each other!”

URSUS AS TUTOR, AND URSUS AS GUARDIAN

Ursus added, -

“Some of these days I will play them a nasty trick. I will marry them.”

Ursus taught Gwynplaine the theory of love. He said to him, -

“Do you know how the Almighty lights the fire called love? He places the woman underneath, the devil between, and the man at the top.

A match – that is to say, a look – is enough.”

“A look is unnecessary,” answered Gwynplaine, thinking of Dea.

And Ursus replied, -

“Fool! Do souls require mortal eyes to see each other?”

Ursus was a good fellow at times. Gwynplaine, sometimes madly in love with Dea, became melancholy. Ursus would say to himself, -

“They love each other too much.