wear velvet coats are atheists. He probably overstated the amount of
intellectual and spiritual audacity to be expected from him who, setting
the picturesque before the conventional, dons a coat of velvet. But it
really does require some originality even to wear a white hat and a white
waistcoat in a London July. The heat is never so great but that the
majority of males endure black coats and black shiny hats. The others
are in a minority. The voice of public opinion is not on their side.
"Who stole the moke, Anna?" asked suspicion; and the answer came, "The
man in the _chapeau blanc_." There is something daring, something
distinctive in a white hat; and it may be doubted whether the amount of
comfort obtained by the revolutionary wearer is in a due ratio to the
conspicuousness which his action entails on him. Members of Parliament
are singularly emancipated from these fears of the brave; but members of
Parliament cannot supply the whole contingent of white-hatted men now to
be seen in the streets of the metropolis. Their presence proves that it
is very hot indeed. One swallow does not make a summer, but half a dozen
pairs of "ducks" beheld in public places would mark a summer of unusually
high temperature.

There are, of course, alleviations. Nature compensates all who can
afford to purchase the compensations. Strawberries, long waited for,
shy, retiring fruit, have now nearly approached the popular price of
sixpence a basket. A divine of a past generation declared that in his
opinion the joys of Paradise would consist of eating strawberries to the
sound of a trumpet. For a poor sixpence half of this transcendental
pastime may be partaken of, and probably the brass band which is usually
round the corner could supply the sound of the trumpet at a small extra
charge.

Unluckily, doctors have decided that many of us must not eat