The Life of the Fly 



books and exercises, refusing to be daunted 

 by two reverses. 



It was not that he was allured by the beau- 

 ties of mathematics, far from it ; but the step 

 to which he aspired favoured his plans. He 

 hoped to have his own boarders and dispense 

 butter and vegetables to lucrative purpose. 

 The lover of study for its own sake and the 

 persistent trapper hunting a diploma as he 

 would something to put in his mouth were not 

 made to understand or to see much of each 

 other. Chance, however, brought us to- 

 gether. 



I had often surprised our friend sitting in 

 the evening, by the light of a candle, with his 

 elbows on the table and his head between his 

 hands, meditating at great length in front of 

 a big exercise-book crammed with cabalistic 

 signs. From time to time, when an idea came 

 to him, he would take his pen and hastily put 

 down a line of writing wherein letters, large 

 and small, were grouped without any gram- 

 matical sense. The letters x and y often re- 

 curred, intermingled with figures. Every row 

 ended with the sign of equality and a nought. 

 Next came more reflection, with closed eyes, 

 and a fresh row of letters arranged in a dif- 

 ferent order and likewise followed by a 

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