that the mysterious
sweat had some cause independent of his own person. He wiped his face,
examined the hat, and could find nothing, for he did not venture to take
out the lining. All this he noted in his journal:--

"Carried my hat to the Sieur Tournan, hat-maker in the rue
Saint-Martin, for the reason that I suspect some unknown cause for
this perspiration, which, in that case, might not be perspiration,
but, possibly, the effect of something lately added, or formerly
done, to my hat."

Monsieur Tournan at once informed his customer of the presence of a
greasy substance, obtained by the trying-out of the fat of a pig or sow.
The next day Poiret appeared at the office with another hat, lent by
Monsieur Tournan while a new one was making; but he did not sleep that
night until he had added the following sentence to the preceding entries
in his journal: "It is asserted that my hat contained lard, the fat of a
pig."

This inexplicable fact occupied the intellect of Poiret junior for the
space of two weeks; and he never knew how the phenomenon was produced.
The clerks told him tales of showers of frogs, and other dog-day
wonders, also the startling fact that an imprint of the head of Napoleon
had been found in the root of a young elm, with other eccentricities
of natural history. Vimeux informed him that one day his hat--his,
Vimeux's--had stained his forehead black, and that hat-makers were in
the habit of using drugs. After that Poiret paid many visits to Monsieur
Tournan to inquire into his methods of manufacture.

In the Rabourdin bureau was a clerk who played the man of courage
and audacity, professed the opinions of the Left centre, and rebelled
against the tyrannies of Baudoyer as exercised upon what he called the
unhappy slaves of that office. His name was Fleury. He boldly subscribed
to an opposition newspaper, wore a gray hat with a broad brim, red bands
on his blue trousers, a blue waistcoat with gilt buttons, and a
surtout coat crossed over the breast like that of a quartermaster of
gendarmerie. Though unyielding in his opinions, he continued to be
employed in the service, all the while predicting a fatal end to a
government which persisted in upholding religion. He openly avowed his
sympathy for Napoleon, now that the death of that great man put an end
to the laws enacted against "the partisans of the usurper." Fleury,
ex-captain of a regiment of the line under the Emperor, a tall, dark,
handsome