“Monsieur Maurice Brun and Armand Armagnac crossed the sunlit Champs Elysees with a cheerful and respectable air. Both were short, lively and self-confident young men. Both wore black beards that seemed glued to their faces in the strange French fashion of making real hair appear artificial. Monsieur Brun wore a goatee that seemed stuck under his lower lip. Mr. Armagnac, for a change, acquired two beards, one from each corner of his prominent chin. Both of them were atheists with a sadly narrow outlook, but they knew how to show off themselves. Both were students of the great Dr. Hirsch - scientist, publicist and guardian of morality..."