Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

"What a pity that he should not be a lord. He would make a famous
scoundrel."
Otherwise, although established in the tavern, the group in the Green
Box had in no way altered their manner of living, and held to their
isolated habits. Except a few words exchanged now and then with the
tavern-keeper, they held no communication with any of those who were
living, either permanently or temporarily, in the inn; and continued to
keep to themselves.
Since they had been at Southwark, Gwynplaine had made it his habit,
after the performance and the supper of both family and horses--when
Ursus and Dea had gone to bed in their respective compartments--to
breathe a little the fresh air of the bowling-green, between eleven
o'clock and midnight.
A certain vagrancy in our spirits impels us to take walks at night, and
to saunter under the stars. There is a mysterious expectation in youth.
Therefore it is that we are prone to wander out in the night, without an
object.
At that hour there was no one in the fair-ground, except, perhaps, some
reeling drunkard, making staggering shadows in dark corners. The empty
taverns were shut up, and the lower room in the Tadcaster Inn was dark,
except where, in some corner, a solitary candle lighted a last reveller.
An indistinct glow gleamed through the window-shutters of the
half-closed tavern, as Gwynplaine, pensive, content, and dreaming, happy
in a haze of divine joy, passed backwards and forwards in front of the
half-open door.
Of what was he thinking? Of Dea--of nothing--of everything--of the
depths.
He never wandered far from the Green Box, being held, as by a thread, to
Dea. A few steps away from it was far enough for him.
Then he returned, found the whole Green Box asleep, and went to bed
himself.
CHAPTER IV.
CONTRARIES FRATERNIZE IN HATE.
Success is hateful, especially to those whom it overthrows. It is rare
that the eaten adore the eaters.
The Laughing Man had decidedly made a hit. The mountebanks around were
indignant. A theatrical success is a syphon--it pumps in the crowd and
creates emptiness all round. The shop opposite is done for. The
increased receipts of the Green Box caused a corresponding decrease in
the receipts of the surrounding shows. Those entertainments, popular up
to that time, suddenly collapsed. It was like a low-water mark, showing