Vital bowed.

"Would you kindly tell me why the shops of your trade in Paris remain
open late at night,--later than the cafes and the wineshops? That fact
puzzles me very much," said Gazonal.

"In the first place, our shops are much finer when lighted up than
they are in the daytime; next, where we sell ten hats in the daytime
we sell fifty at night."

"Everything is queer in Paris," said Leon.

"Thanks to my efforts and my successes," said Vital, returning to the
course of his self-laudation, "we are coming to hats with round
headpieces. It is to that I tend!"

"What obstacle is there?" asked Gazonal.

"Cheapness, monsieur. In the first place, very handsome silk hats can
be built for fifteen francs, which kills our business; for in Paris no
one ever has fifteen francs in his pocket to spend on a hat. If a
beaver hat costs thirty, it is still the same thing-- When I say
beaver, I ought to state that there are not ten pounds of beaver skins
left in France. That article is worth three hundred and fifty francs a
pound, and it takes an ounce for a hat. Besides, a beaver hat isn't
really worth anything; the skin takes a wretched dye; gets rusty in
ten minutes under the sun, and heat puts it out of shape as well. What
we call 'beaver' in the trade is neither more nor less than
hare's-skin. The best qualities are made from the back of the animal,