CHAPTER VI.
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 placesthe woman underneath, the devil between, and the man at the top. Amatch--that is to say, a look--and behold, it is all on fire."
"A look is unnecessary," answered Gwynplaine, thinking of Dea.
And Ursus replied,--
"Booby! Do souls require mortal eyes to see each other?"
Ursus was a good fellow at times. Gwynplaine, sometimes madly in lovewith Dea, became melancholy, and made use of the presence of Ursus as aguard on himself. One day Ursus said to him,--
"Bah! do not put yourself out. When in love, the cock shows himself."
"But the eagle conceals himself," replied Gwynplaine.
At other times Ursus would say to himself, apart,--
"It is wise to put spokes in the wheels of the Cytherean car. They loveeach other too much. This may have its disadvantages. Let us avoid afire. Let us moderate these hearts."
Then Ursus had recourse to warnings of this nature, speaking toGwynplaine when Dea slept, and to Dea when Gwynplaine's back wasturned:--
"Dea, you must not be so fond of Gwynplaine. To live in the life ofanother is perilous. Egoism is a good root of happiness. Men escape fromwomen. And then Gwynplaine might end by becoming infatuated with you.His success is so great! You have no idea how great his success is!"
"Gwynplaine, disproportions are no good. So much ugliness on one sideand so much beauty on another ought to compel reflection. Temper yourardour, my boy. Do not become too enthusiastic about Dea. Do youseriously consider that you are made for her? Just think of yourdeformity and her perfection! See the distance between her and yourself.She has everything, this Dea. What a white skin! What hair! Lips likestrawberries! And her foot! her hand! Those shoulders, with theirexquisite curve! Her expression is sublime. She walks diffusing light;and in speaking, the grave tone of her voice is charming. But for allthis, to think that she is a woman! She would not be such a fool as tobe an angel. She is absolute beauty. Repeat all this to yourself, tocalm your ardour."
These speeches redoubled the love of Gwynplaine and Dea, and Ursus wasastonished at his want of success, just as one who should say, "It issingular that with all the oil I throw on fire I cannot extinguish it."
Did he, then, desire to extinguish their love, or to cool it even?
Certainly not. He would have been well punished had he succeeded. At thebottom of his heart this love, which was flame for them and warmth forhim, was his delight.
But it is natural to grate a little against that which charms us; mencall it wisdom.
Ursus had been, in his relations with Gwynplaine and Dea, almost afather and a mother. Grumbling all the while, he had brought them up;grumbling all the while, he had nourished them. His adoption of them hadmade the hut roll more heavily, and he had been oftener compelled toharness himself by Homo's side to help to draw it.
We may observe, however, that after the first few years, when Gwynplainewas nearly grown up, and Ursus had grown quite old, Gwynplaine had takenhis turn, and drawn Ursus.
Ursus, seeing that Gwynplaine was becoming a man, had cast the horoscopeof his deformity. "_It has made your fortune!_" he had told him.
This family of an old man and two children, with a wolf, had become, asthey wandered, a group more and more intimately united. There errantlife had not hindered education. "To wander is to grow," Ursus said.Gwynplaine was evidently made to exhibit at fairs. Ursus had cultivatedin him feats of dexterity, and had encrusted him as much as possiblewith all he himself possessed of science and wisdom.
Ursus, contemplating the perplexing mask of Gwynplaine's face, oftengrowled,--
"He has begun well." It was for this reason that he had perfected himwith every ornament of philosophy and wisdom.
He repeated constantly to Gwynplaine,--
"Be a philosopher. To be wise is to be invulnerable. You see what I am,I have never shed a tears. This is the result of my wisdom. Do you thinkthat occasion for tears has been wanting, had I felt disposed to weep?"
Ursus, in one of his monologues in the hearing of the wolf, said,--
"I have taught Gwynplaine everything, Latin included. I have taught Deanothing, music included."
He had taught them both to sing. He had himself a pretty talent forplaying on the oaten reed, a little flute of that period. He played onit agreeably, as also on the _chiffonie_, a sort of beggar'shurdy-gurdy, mentioned in the Chronicle of Bertrand Duguesclin as the"truant instrument," which started the symphony. These instrumentsattracted the crowd. Ursus would show them the chiffonie, and say, "Itis called organistrum in Latin."
He had taught Dea and Gwynplaine to sing, according to the method ofOrpheus and of Egide Binchois. Frequently he interrupted the lessonswith cries of enthusiasm, such as "Orpheus, musician of Greece!Binchois, musician of Picardy!"
These branches of careful culture did not occupy the children so as toprevent their adoring each other. They had mingled their hearts togetheras they grew up, as two saplings planted near mingle their branches asthey become trees.
"No matter," said Ursus. "I will marry them."
Then he grumbled to himself,--
"They are quite tiresome with their love."
The past--their little past, at least--had no existence for Dea andGwynplaine. They knew only what Ursus had told them of it. They calledUrsus father. The only remembrance which Gwynplaine had of his infancywas as of a passage of demons over his cradle. He had an impression ofhaving been trodden in the darkness under deformed feet. Was thisintentional or not? He was ignorant on this point. That which heremembered clearly and to the slightest detail were his tragicaladventures when deserted at Portland. The finding of Dea made thatdismal night a radiant date for him.
The memory of Dea, even more than that of Gwynplaine, was lost inclouds. In so young a child all remembrance melts away. She recollectedher mother as something cold. Had she ever seen the sun? Perhaps so. Shemade efforts to pierce into the blank which was her past life.
"The sun!--what was it?"
She had some vague memory of a thing luminous and warm, of whichGwynplaine had taken the place.
They spoke to each other in low tones. It is certain that cooing is themost important thing in the world. Dea often said to Gwynplaine,--
"Light means that you are speaking."
Once, no longer containing himself, as he saw through a muslin sleevethe arm of Dea, Gwynplaine brushed its transparency with his lips--idealkiss of a deformed mouth! Dea felt a deep delight; she blushed like arose. This kiss from a monster made Aurora gleam on that beautiful browfull of night. However, Gwynplaine sighed with a kind of terror, and asthe neckerchief of Dea gaped, he could not refrain from looking at thewhiteness visible through that glimpse of Paradise.
Dea pulled up her sleeve, and stretching towards Gwynplaine her nakedarm, said,--
"Again!"
Gwynplaine fled.
The next day the game was renewed, with variations.
It was a heavenly subsidence into that sweet abyss called love.
At such things heaven smiles philosophically.