Is it possible that we have in our friend a new Tissot ?" The young man at the table giggled.

"I did not know Tissot!" Claude replied sharply and with a burning face--they were certainly laughing at him.

"And therefore I cannot say." "Mercury, which completes the amalgam," the stout man muttered absently and as if to himself, "when heated sublimes over!" Then turning after a moment's silence to the girl, "What says our Quintessential Stone to this ?" he continued.

"Her Tissot gone will she still work her wonders?
Still of base Grios and the weak alloys red bridegrooms make?
Still--kind Anne, your hand!" Silence! Silence again.

What were they doing?
Claude, full of suspicion, turned to see what it meant; turned to learn what it was on which the greedy eyes of his table-fellow were fixed so intently.