Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

"Madam," said the queen to Josiana, "he is cleverer than we."
For a man like Barkilphedro to approach the queen was to obtain a hold
on her. He could say, "I hold her." Now, he wanted a means of taking
advantage of his power for his own benefit. He had his foothold in the
court. To be settled there was a fine thing. No chance could now escape
him. More than once he had made the queen smile maliciously. This was
having a licence to shoot. But was there any preserved game? Did this
licence to shoot permit him to break the wing or the leg of one like the
sister of her Majesty? The first point to make clear was, did the queen
love her sister? One false step would lose all. Barkilphedro watched.
Before he plays the player looks at the cards. What trumps has he?
Barkilphedro began by examining the age of the two women. Josiana,
twenty-three; Anne, forty-one. So far so good. He held trumps. The
moment that a woman ceases to count by springs, and begins to count by
winters, she becomes cross. A dull rancour possesses her against the
time of which she carries the proofs. Fresh-blown beauties, perfumes for
others, are to such a one but thorns. Of the roses she feels but the
prick. It seems as if all the freshness is stolen from her, and that
beauty decreases in her because it increases in others.
To profit by this secret ill-humour, to dive into the wrinkle on the
face of this woman of forty, who was a queen, seemed a good game for
Barkilphedro.
Envy excels in exciting jealousy, as a rat draws the crocodile from its
hole.
Barkilphedro fixed his wise gaze on Anne. He saw into the queen as one
sees into a stagnant pool. The marsh has its transparency. In dirty
water we see vices, in muddy water we see stupidity; Anne was muddy
water.
Embryos of sentiments and larvæ of ideas moved in her thick brain. They
were not distinct; they had scarcely any outline. But they were
realities, however shapeless. The queen thought this; the queen desired
that. To decide what was the difficulty. The confused transformations
which work in stagnant water are difficult to study. The queen,
habitually obscure, sometimes made sudden and stupid revelations. It was
on these that it was necessary to seize. He must take advantage of them
on the moment. How did the queen feel towards the Duchess Josiana? Did
she wish her good or evil?
Here was the problem. Barkilphedro set himself to solve it. This problem
solved, he might go further.
Divers chances served Barkilphedro--his tenacity at the watch above all.
Anne was, on her husband's side, slightly related to the new Queen of
Prussia, wife of the king with the hundred chamberlains. She had her
portrait painted on enamel, after the process of Turquet of Mayerne.
This Queen of Prussia had also a younger illegitimate sister, the
Baroness Drika.
One day, in the presence of Barkilphedro, Anne asked the Russian