Gwynplaine rescues the infant Dea from beneath the snow after discovering her beside her dead mother. The encounter turns his solitary passage through the storm into an act of care: he gives the baby his warm pilot jacket and carries her onward, establishing the first bond between the two children whose lives will remain joined.

Circumstances and Discovery

Gwynplaine is crossing the snow-covered plains when he hears a human cry, at first indistinct and difficult to locate. He hesitates between fleeing and staying, then notices a low mound in the snow, shaped like a small grave. When another cry comes from beneath it, he crouches and begins clearing the snow with his hands. The sequence makes the sound a summons before the child can know who or what needs help.

The first person uncovered is a dead woman. Gwynplaine continues to clear the snow and then feels movement beneath his touch. The living infant is beside her mother, who had kept the girl close while they were caught in the storm. The rescue begins with a mistaken uncertainty about the cry’s source and turns, through successive discoveries, into recognition of a child who is still alive.

The Mother’s Last Journey

The narration explains that the woman was a beggar who had been nursing her infant and looking for shelter. She lost her way on the plains a few hours before Gwynplaine passed, succumbed to the cold, and was covered by falling snow. Until she could no longer do so, she held her daughter against her. This account supplies the circumstances behind the scene: the infant was not abandoned by her mother but remained with her through the mother’s final effort to protect her.

The baby had tried to find nourishment from her mother, but could not. The contrast between the woman’s death and the infant’s continued life makes the rescue urgent without making the child’s need depend on speech or understanding. A cry and a small movement are enough to draw Gwynplaine into action; the scene’s change is from apparent death and helplessness to the possibility of survival.

Gwynplaine’s Response

Gwynplaine takes the infant in his arms, and she stops crying. Their faces touch; the baby seeks his cheek and is soothed by its warmth. He recognizes that she is suffering from the cold and has a dry, warm pilot jacket. He briefly places her back beside her mother, removes the jacket, wraps the infant in it, and takes her up again.

The choice costs him the garment that had protected him. Once he has wrapped Dea, he continues through the storm almost naked, carrying her into the wind and falling snow. The passage thus makes the rescue an immediate, concrete exchange: Gwynplaine does not simply discover the child or call attention to her plight; he gives her his own protection and bears her onward himself.

Consequence and Narrative Significance

The baby settles against Gwynplaine and falls asleep, soothed by the warmth. Their first contact is not a conversation or a conscious agreement but a response between two vulnerable children: she quiets in his arms, and he persists in carrying her despite the exposure he has accepted. The scene therefore establishes their connection through physical care before either can articulate it.

The discovery also changes the direction of Gwynplaine’s passage. He had been moving alone across the plains; now he continues with Dea in his arms. The mother remains behind beneath the snow, while her effort to shelter her daughter is taken up by the boy who finds them. The rescue’s decisive consequence is the infant’s survival and the beginning of Gwynplaine and Dea’s lifelong bond.