mine his fate and to become as well the source 
of his misfortune as of all his happiness. 
The poor Fairies were extremely busy, for 
the crowd of clients was great, and their mid-
dle kingdom, placed as it was between man 
and God, is like us ruled by the terrible law of 
Time, and of its infinite posterity,—days, 
hours, minutes, and seconds. 
In good sooth they were flurried as are min-
isters on a reception day, or the assistants in 
the Government pawn-shop when a national 
festival allows redemptions without interest. I 
even believe that from time to time they 
watched the hand of the clock with as much 
impatience as human judges who, in session 
since the morning, cannot prevent themselves 
from thinking of dinner, of their families, and 
of their comfortable slippers. If in supernatural 
justice there is a little hastiness and luck, let 
us not be surprised that it should sometimes 
be the same with human justice, for in that 
case we ourselves should be unjust judges. 
Thus some blunders were committed on this 
day, which one might consider very strange if 
prudence rather than caprice were the distinc-
tive and necessary character of the fairy folk. 
Thus, the power of drawing fortune mag-
netically to himself was given to the sole heir 
of a very rich family, who, not being endowed