He found, as he often told my sister, broken horse-shoes (a "bad sign"), met cross-eyed women, another "bad sign," was pursued apparently by the inimical number thirteen—and all these little straws depressed him horribly.
One day on coming back home he found one of his hats lying on his bed, accidentally put there by one of the children, and according to my sister, who was present at the time, he was all but petrified by the sight of it. To him it was the death-sign.
Explanation:
The two sentences listed above characterize Paul as a superstitious person. A superstitious person is a person who strongly believes in irrational things (for example, a belief in magic). Common superstitions include:
if you break a mirror, you will have bad luck for seven years
if a black cat crosses your path, bad luck awaits you
if you open an umbrella inside your house, you will have bad luck, etc.
Paul, in these sentences, is presented as someone who believes that broken-horse shoes, cross-eyed woman, number thirteen, or his hat on the bed announce that bad things will happen. All of these examples suggest that Paul is a superstitious person.
