always carried the keys of his apartment about with him. On New-Year's
day he went round and left his own cards on all the clerks of the
division. Bixiou took it into his head on one of the hottest of
dog-days to put a layer of lard under the lining of a certain old hat
which Poiret junior (he was, by the bye, fifty-two years old) had worn
for the last nine years. Bixiou, who had never seen any other hat on
Poiret's head, dreamed of it and declared he tasted it in his food; he
therefore resolved, in the interests of his digestion, to relieve the
bureau of the sight of that amorphous old hat. Poiret junior left the
office regularly at four o'clock. As he walked along, the sun's rays
reflected from the pavements and walls produced a tropical heat; he
felt that his head was inundated,--he, who never perspired! Feeling
that he was ill, or on the point of being so, instead of going as
usual to the Sucking Calf he went home, drew out from his desk the
journal of his life, and recorded the fact in the following manner:--

"To-day, July 3, 1823, overtaken by extraordinary perspiration, a
sign, perhaps, of the sweating-sickness, a malady which prevails
in Champagne. I am about to consult Doctor Haudry. The disease
first appeared as I reached the highest part of the quai des
Ecoles."

Suddenly, having taken off his hat, he became aware 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