Meanwhile the ineffable blind look of Dea's eyes met those of Ursus. He started.
"Well!" he cried; "what are you about? Vinos! Fibi! Do you not hear your mistress? Are you deaf? Quick! the play is going to begin."
The two women looked at Ursus in stupefaction.
Ursus shouted,—
"Do you not hear the audience coming in?—Fibi, dress Dea.—Vinos, take your tambourine."
Fibi was obedient; Vinos, passive. Together, they personified submission. Their master, Ursus, had always been to them an enigma. Never to be understood is a reason for being always obeyed. They simply thought he had gone mad, and did as they were told. Fibi took down the costume, and Vinos the tambourine.
Fibi began to dress Dea. Ursus let down the door-curtain of the women's room, and from behind the curtain continued,—
"Look there, Gwynplaine! the court is already more than half full of people. They are in heaps in the passages. What a crowd! And you say that Fibi and Vinos look as if they did not see them. How stupid the gipsies are! What fools they are in Egypt! Don't lift the curtain from the door. Be decent. Dea is dressing."
He paused, and suddenly they heard an exclamation,—
"How beautiful Dea is!"