CHAPTER XII.
URSUS THE POET DRAGS ON URSUS THE PHILOSOPHER.
JUST then Dea entered. Gwynplaine looked at her, and saw her only. Such is love; one may be carried away for a moment by the importunity of some other idea, but the beloved one enters, and everything that does not pertain to her immediately fades away, without her dreaming perhaps that she is effacing all the rest of the world from one's mind. Let us mention a circumstance. In "Chaos Vanquished" the word monstro, addressed to Gwynplaine, displeased Dea. Sometimes, with the smattering of Spanish, which every one possessed at the period, she took it into her head to replace it by quiero, which signifies, "I wish it." Ursus tolerated, although not without considerable impatience, this alteration in his text. He might have said to Dea, as in our own day Moessard said to Vissot, "Tu manques de respect au repertoire." "The Laughing Man." This was the form Gwynplaine's celebrity had assumed. His name, Gwynplaine, but little known at any time, was hidden under this nickname, as his face was hidden under its ghastly grin. His popularity was like his visage,—a mask. His name, however, appeared on a large placard in front of the Green Box, which bore the following notice composed by Ursus:—
"Do not fail to see Gwynplaine, who was deserted at the age of ten, on the night of the 29th of January, 1690, by villainous Comprachicos, on the coast of Portland. The little boy has grown up, and is now known as
"THE LAUGHING MAN."
