After all, he had "_le bon soleil_." When it was cold--and it _can_ be cold in the Midi--he needed all his philosophy: to wait and wait for visitors who never came, to pass hours and days in the bitter wind, and to have time to think about life and what it must always be for him! Yes, there were moments, "_Mais que voulez-vous? C'est la vie._" One thing he was sure of: _la vie_ was always more or less like that _même pour les riches_ (Oh! deep-visioned Tartarin!).
He had not always lived at Tarascon. When he was a boy he had been full of ambition. He would make his fortune and have a merry time of it. He had wandered far and wide in his own country, seeking fortune and experience. And he had found experience but not fortune. Among other adventures, he joined a band of athletes and used to perform in the streets of Paris, in tights, with two other youths and a girl in spangles. She was the daughter of the employer, his first love, "_c'est à dire le premier amour sérieux. Ah! comme elle était belle!_" But he had no luck; she loved another, "_un animal de joueur sur le mandolin_." And she would not look at Tartarin when the gay rival was present.
The rejected one wandered farther afield for fresh adventures; engaged himself with a travelling theatrical company, first in the capacity of scene-shifter, but later he was offered a temporary post as walking-gentleman, and probably he would have gone far in the profession but for another amorous complication. The leading-lady had pleased his fancy and appeared to reciprocate his sentiments. But one day, in the side-scenes, he discovered her in a non-professional love episode with the permanent villain, and after a painful interview, during which he and the villain came to blows, Tartarin resolved to leave the perfidious one and the troupe, and throw up such chances as might there offer themselves. Dispirited and disillusioned, he returned to his native town, where he engaged himself to Bottin and earned his little crust of bread in peace, if not too gaily. He had given up all idea of marriage, not because he was indifferent to _les femmes_, "_au contraire_," but he did not care to ask a woman to share so poor a life. "_Je suis mieux seul._" As it was, he had not to reproach himself for bringing another into the struggle of life.