, and ambitious of living
on their incomes.

The young couple now had sole control of the business, and thought
that they had at last laid the foundation of their fortune. "You have
vanquished my ill-luck," Felicite would sometimes say to her husband.

One of the rare weaknesses of her energetic nature was to believe
herself stricken by misfortune. Hitherto, so she asserted, nothing had
been successful with either herself or her father, in spite of all their
efforts. Goaded by her southern superstition, she prepared to struggle
with fate as one struggles with somebody who is endeavouring to strangle
one. Circumstances soon justified her apprehensions in a singular
manner. Ill-luck returned inexorably. Every year some fresh disaster
shook Rougon's business. A bankruptcy resulted in the loss of a few
thousand francs; his estimates of crops proved incorrect, through
the most incredible circumstances; the safest speculations collapsed
miserably. It was a truceless, merciless combat.

"You see I was born under an unlucky star!" Felicite would bitterly
exclaim.

And yet she still struggled furiously, not understanding how it was that
she, who had shown such keen scent in a first speculation, could now
only give her husband the most deplorable advice.

Pierre, dejected and less tenacious than herself, would have gone
into liquidation a score of times had it not been for his wife's firm
obstinacy. She longed to be rich. She perceived that her ambition could
only be attained by fortune. As soon as they possessed a few hundred
thousand francs they would be masters of the town. She would get her
husband appointed to an important post, and she would govern. It was
not the attainment of honours which troubled her; she felt herself
marvellously well armed for such a combat. But she could do nothing to
get together the first few bags of money which were needed. Though the
ruling of men caused her no apprehensions, she felt a sort of impotent
rage at the thought of those inert, white, cold, five-franc pieces over
which her intriguing spirit had no power, and which obstinately resisted
her.

The battle lasted for more than thirty years. The death of Puech proved
another heavy blow. Felicite, who had counted upon an inheritance of
about forty thousand francs, found that the selfish old man, in order
to indulge himself in his old age, had sunk all his money in a life
annuity. The discovery made her quite ill. She was gradually beco