prophesied he would receive the cross of the Legion of honor, but not
until the day when, as Leclercq's successor, he should take his seat
on the benches of the Left Centre.

Guerbet, the collector, a man of parts, a heavy, fat, individual with
a buttery face, a toupet on his bald spot, gold earrings, which were
always in difficulty with his shirt-collar, had the hobby of pomology.
Proud of possessing the finest fruit-garden in the arrondissement, he
gathered his first crops a month later than those of Paris; his
hot-beds supplied him with pine-apples, nectarines, and peas, out of
season. He brought bunches of strawberries to Madame Soudry with pride
when the fruit could be bought for ten sous a basket in Paris.

Soulanges possessed a pharmaceutist named Vermut, a chemist, who was
more of a chemist than Sarcus was a statesman, or Lupin a singer, or
Gourdon the elder a scientist, or his brother a poet. Nevertheless,
the leading society of Soulanges did not take much notice of Vermut,
and the second-class society took none at all. The instinct of the
first may have led them to perceive the real superiority of this
thinker, who said little but smiled at their absurdities so
satirically that they first doubted his capacity and then whispered
tales against it; as for the other class they took no notice of him
one way or the other.

Vermut was the butt of Madame Soudry's salon. No society is complete
without a victim,--without an object to pity, ridicule, despise, and
protect. Vermut, full of his scientific problems, often came with his
cravat untied, his waistcoat unbuttoned, and his little green surtout
spotted.