ks?'

"M. Durand reflected a second.

"'I came near being an engineer,' he replied, 'I believe that I could be
able to render great service to the country in this new ministry.'

"And after having been Minister of the Finances from noon to half-past
one, he was Minister of Public Works from half-past one to three.

"At two o'clock, M. Peytral sent a _petit bleu_ [telegram, so called
from the color of the official paper] to Durand (of the Loir) to invite
him to call for the third time.

"'I have just perceived, my dear colleague,' he said to him, 'that my
combination is not workable. It is not the Public Works that you
require, nor the Finances, it is the Marine.'

"And Durand accepted the Marine, which he preserved up to half-past
five, the hour at which the political necessities threw him upon the
Public Instruction and Religion.

[Illustration: TYPE OF THE GARDE MUNICIPALE. MILITARY OF THE CITY OF
PARIS. After a drawing by L. Marchetti.]

"But rivalries suddenly sprang up. It was necessary to make new
arrangements in order to appease the Isambert group. Durand left the
Public Instruction.

"He was, during twenty minutes, Minister of War; he had the Post-Office
and Telegraphs three-quarters of an hour; he was Minister of Foreign
Affairs at a quarter to seven.

"Finally, at seven o'clock, M. Peytral convoked him once again and said
to him:

"'My dear colleague, I appeal in this moment to all your republican
energy and to your patriotic disinterestedness. My cabinet is
constituted. You are no longer a member of it.'

"'Good,' replied Durand, coldly. 'I hereby give notice of my intention
to interpellate the government.'"

The second of these contemporary documents professes to relate actual
facts. "We announced, the other day, that the ex-deputy Faberot, not
re-elected at the late elections, had philosophically resumed his former
occupation of journeyman hatter.

"Another victim of universal suffrage, the barber Chauvin, has also
returned to his dear razors. Is it quite certain, moreover, that he ever
left them, even in the Chamber of Deputies?

"However this may be, he has just reopened his shop. Only, M. Chauvin
has abandoned his former quarter of the Rue des Archives, and has
established himself in Passage Tivoli, near the Gare Saint-Lazare,
where, in the most democratic fashion, he will shave you for twenty
centimes and cut your hair for six sous.

"This melancholy return to former surroundings ha