THE RED DRAGON

times he began to think that only a miracle original: "prodige" would be capable of restoring his moral worth.

He had wanted to say a few sweet things to the young girls of the neighborhood, but they had laughed in his face; he had taken it into his head to conduct agricultural experiments, following the data from a specialized book, and not one of these experiments had succeeded.

In short, Claude was what one calls a man pursued by bad luck.

Upon reflecting carefully, one would have seen that this so-called bad luck came quite simply from the false direction impressed upon the young man's mind, from his intellectual sluggishness original: "mollesse," implying a lack of vigor or willpower and his great hesitation in all circumstances; but one does not always think of everything.

Whatever the case may be, Claude had come to persuade himself that he would always be unhappy, always weak, always mocked by some, beaten by others, and finally, that someone had cast a spell original: "jeté un sort" on him.

This belief was the natural result of the naivety of his mind.

Once it had entered his brain, he had no other desire than to combat this famous fate of which he was a victim; but to combat it, it required, in his opinion, much courage and much audacity, and Claude felt clearly that those two qualities were not part of his nature.

One will see, however, how he decided to revolt against all the disappointments with which he was incessantly drenched.

The evening was drawing to a close when the door of the farmhouse opened and gave passage to a little old man of strange appearance and bizarre attire.

This old man openly practiced the profession of a shepherd, but he was known in the countryside as a