One thing's certain, this night has decided my fate.

All my old dreams of home life were absurd, not the real thing," he told himself.

" It's all ever so much simpler and better..." "How beautiful!" he thought, looking at the strange, as it were, mother-of-pearl shell of white fleecy cloudlets resting right over his head in the middle of the sky.

" How exquisite it all is in this exquisite night! And when was there time for that cloud-shell to form? Just now I looked at the sky, and there was nothing in it--only two white streaks.

Yes, and so imperceptibly too my views of life changed!" He went out of the meadow and walked along the highroad towards the village.