a cloak of some coarse woollen stuff woven in black and white stripes.
His gray hair fell in curls behind his ears. This dress, the gray
horse with its short legs, the manner in which Violette sat him,
stomach projecting and shoulders thrown back, the big chapped hands
which held the shabby bridle, all depicted him plainly as the
grasping, ambitious peasant who desires to own land and buys it at any
price. His mouth, with its bluish lips parted as if a surgeon had
pried them open with a scalpel, and the innumerable wrinkles of his
face and forehead hindered the play of features which were expressive
only in their outlines. Those hard, fixed lines seemed menacing, in
spite of the humility which country-folks assume and beneath which
they conceal their emotions and schemes, as savages and Easterns hide
theirs behind an imperturbable gravity. First a mere laborer, then the
farmer of Grouage through a long course of persistent ill-doing, he
continued his evil practices after conquering a position which
surpassed his early hopes. He wished harm to all men and wished it
vehemently. When he could assist in doing harm he did it eagerly. He
was openly envious; but, no matter how malignant he might be, he kept
within the limits of the law,--neither beyond it nor behind it, like a
parliamentary opposition. He believed his prosperity depended on the
ruin of others, and that whoever was above him was an enemy against
whom all weapons were good. A character like this is very common among
the peasantry.

Violette's present business was to obtain from Malin an extension of
the lease of his farm, which had only six years longer to run. Jealous
of the bailiff's means, he watched him narrowly. The neighbors
reproached him for his intimacy with "Judas"; but the sly old farmer,
wishing to obtain a twelve years' lease, was really lying in wait for
an opportunity to serve either the government or Malin, who distrusted