Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/39



HE success of others is odious in the sight of those whom it injures. The eaten rarely adore the eaters.

The Laughing Man had made a decided hit. The mountebanks around were indignant. A theatrical success is a siphon,—it draws in the crowd and creates emptiness all round. The show opposite is ruined. The increased receipts of the Green Box caused a corresponding decrease in the receipts of the surrounding shows. These entertainments, which had been very popular up to that time, suddenly collapsed. It was like a low-water mark, showing inversely, but in perfect concordance, the rise here, the fall there. Theatres experience the effect of the tides, which rise in one only on condition of falling in another.

The strolling players who exhibited their talents and musical accomplishments on the neighbouring platforms, seeing themselves ruined by the Laughing Man, were wild with despair, though dazzled. All the grimacers, all the clowns, all the merry-andrews envied Gwynplaine. How happy he must be with a snout like a wild beast! The buffoon mothers and dancers on the tight-rope, with pretty children, looked at them in anger, and pointing out Gwynplaine, would say, "What a pity you have not a face like that!" Some even beat their babies savagely for being pretty.