LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 MRS. WILLIAM GLASSFORD
 
 CLAUDINE IN LA PALFERINE'S ATTIC 
 (A Prince of Bohemia.}
 
 SCENE 
 
 PARISIAN 
 
 HONORE DE BALZAC 
 
 EIGHTH VOLUME 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 GAUDISSART II 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 THE R1TTENHOUSE PRESS
 
 copyright 
 
 1893-6 
 
 G EORGE BARRIE-S
 
 SANTA 
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE
 
 TO THE COMTESSE SERAFINA SAN SEVERING, 
 NEE PORCIA 
 
 Being obliged to read everything in order to avoid 
 repetition, I have lately skimmed through three 
 hundred stories, all more or less humorous, of il 
 Bandello, a writer of the XVI. century, who is little 
 known in France. His entire works were last pub- 
 lished in Florence in the compact edition of Con- 
 teurs italiens; your name as well as that of the 
 Comte, brings you as vividly before me as though 
 you were here in reality; Madame, I was looking 
 over the original text of il Bandello for the first 
 time, and I found, not without surprise, that each 
 story, although it might be only five pages long, 
 was dedicated by a familiar letter to the kings, 
 queens, and most brilliant personages of the times, 
 among whom may be noted the nobles of Milan, of 
 Piedmont, which was the native land of // Bandello, 
 of Florence and of Genoa. This is to say the Dol- 
 cini of Mantua, the San Severini of Crema, the 
 Visconti of Milan, the Guidoboni of Tortona, the 
 Sforza, the Doria, the Fregose, the Dante Alighieri 
 one of whom is still living the Frascator, Queen 
 Marguerite of France, the Emperor of Germany, the 
 King of Bohemia, Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, 
 the Medici, the Sauli, Pallavicini, Bentivoglio of 
 
 (3)
 
 4 DEDICATION 
 
 Bologna, Soderini, Colonna, Scaliger, the Cardone 
 of Spain. In France, the Marigny, Anne de Po- 
 lignac, Princesse de Marsillac and Comtesse de 
 Rochefoucauld, Cardinal d'Armagnac, the Bishop 
 of Cahors, in fact all the great people of the times, 
 were happy and flattered by their correspondence 
 with the successor of Boccaccio. I also saw how 
 much nobility of character il Bandello possessed. 
 If he has adorned his work with these illustrious 
 names, he has not been forgetful of the interests of 
 his personal friends. After the Signora Gallerana, 
 Comtesse de Bergamo, comes the physician to whom 
 he dedicated his story of Romeo and Juliet, after 
 the Signora Molto Magnifica Hipolita Visconti ed 
 Atellana, comes the simple captain of light cavalry, 
 Livio Liviano, after the Due d'Orleans comes a 
 preacher; after a Riario, comes Messer Magnifico 
 Girolamo Ungaro, Mercante lucchese, a virtuous 
 man of whom he recounts how un gentiluomo 
 navarese sposa una che era sma sorella e figlinola, 
 non lo sapendo, a subject sent to him by the Queen 
 of Navarre. I thought that I could, like // Bandello, 
 place one of my tales under the patronage of una 
 virtuosa, gentillissima, illustrissima contessa, Sera- 
 fma San Severino, and tell her truths which might 
 be mistaken for flatteries. Why not acknowledge 
 how proud I am to testify here and elsewhere that 
 to-day as well as in the XVI. century, writers, irre- 
 spective of their contemporaries, are recompensed 
 for calumnies, injuries, and bitter criticisms by the 
 beautiful and noble friendships whose support help
 
 DEDICATION 5 
 
 to vanquish the ennuis of a literary career? Paris, 
 the brain of the world, has pleased you so much in 
 consequence of the continual fluctuation of its wit 
 It has been so well understood by the Venetian 
 delicacy of your intelligence; you have so well 
 loved the rich salon of Gerard which we have lost, 
 and where were to be seen, as in the work of il 
 Bandello, European illustrations of this quarter of the 
 century; then the brilliant ftes, the enchanted 
 inaugurations which this grand and dangerous siren 
 ordains have also greatly astonished you ; you have 
 expressed your opinions so naively that, without 
 doubt, you will take under your patronage the 
 description of a world which you could not know, 
 but which, nevertheless, does not lack originality. 
 I would have preferred having some beautiful poetry 
 to offer you, to you who have as much poetry in 
 your soul and in your heart as your person expresses, 
 but if a poor prose writer can only give what he 
 has, perhaps he will be able to redeem in your eyes 
 the mediocrity of the offering by the respectful 
 homage of, one of those profound and sincere admira- 
 tions which you inspire. 
 
 DE BALZAC.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 In Paris, where studious and thoughtful men bear 
 some resemblance to each other in consequence of 
 their living in the same environment, you have no 
 doubt met several persons resembling Monsieur 
 Rabourdin, whom this story introduces. He was at 
 this time head clerk in one of the most important 
 departments. He was a man forty years of age, his 
 hair was a pretty shade of gray, which women 
 really sometimes admire, and served to soften his 
 sad face. His eyes were blue and full of fire, his 
 complexion still clear, but red and disfigured by 
 several very angry blotches. He had a good fore- 
 head and a Louis XV. nose, a serious mouth, a tall 
 figure, thin or rather wasted like that of a man 
 recovering from an illness. In fact his appearance 
 was a cross between the laziness of a loiterer and 
 the thoughtful ness of a very busy man. If this 
 description gives an idea of his character, his dress 
 will perhaps contribute to bring it out in greater 
 relief. Rabourdin usually wore a blue coat, a 
 white cravat, a vest crossed a la Robespierre, black 
 trousers without straps, gray silk stockings and low 
 (7)
 
 8 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 shoes. After having been shaved, he partook of a 
 cup of coffee at eight every morning, and then went 
 out, regularly as a clock, and walked through the 
 same streets on his way to the department He 
 was so cleanly and neatly dressed that he could 
 have been very easily mistaken for an Englishman 
 on the way to his embassy. From these, his chief 
 characteristics, you would imagine him the father 
 of a family harassed by annoyances in the midst of 
 his household, or worried by the monotony of the 
 department, but at the same time enough of a phil- 
 osopher to take life as it is; an honest man loving 
 his country and serving it, without hiding from 
 himself the obstacles to be met with in wishing to 
 do well ; prudent because he understood men ; ex- 
 ceedingly polite to women, because he expected 
 nothing from them ; in fact a man of great acquire- 
 ments, affable to his inferiors, holding his equals at 
 a great distance, and carrying himself with great 
 dignity toward his superiors. At the time when 
 this story begins, you would have remarked that he 
 had the cold, resigned air of a man wno had buried 
 the illusions of youth, who had renounced his cher- 
 ished ambitions, you would have recognized a dis- 
 couraged man, yet one who had not lost his interest 
 in life, and one who still persevered in his original 
 plans, more in order to employ his mind than in the 
 hopes of a doubtful triumph. He had not even one 
 decoration, and he accused himself of weakness in 
 having worn that of the Fleur de Us during the 
 early days of the Restoration.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 9 
 
 The life of this man presented mysterious peculi- 
 arities. He had never known his father. His 
 mother was a woman devoted to luxury, always 
 stylishly dressed and always in holiday mood. She 
 had a rich equipage. Her beauty seemed marvel- 
 ous as he remembered her, although he rarely saw 
 her. She left him scarcely anything, but she gave 
 him that very trivial and incomplete education 
 which produces high ambition, but little ability. 
 At sixteen years of age, some days before his 
 mother's death, he was taken from the Lycee Napo- 
 leon to become a supernumerary in an office, in 
 which some unknown benefactor had obtained him 
 a footing. When twenty-two years of age Rabour- 
 din was first-assistant, and at twenty-five he be- 
 came the principal. Since that time the hand which 
 helped the boy on in the world only made itself felt 
 on one occasion ; this unseen hand led him, a poor 
 boy, to the house of Monsieur Leprince, an elderly 
 appraiser, a widower, who was said to be very rich 
 and to have an only daughter. Xavier Rabourdin 
 fell desperately in love with Miss Celestine Leprince, 
 who was at that time seventeen years of age, and 
 who had the expectation of having a marriage por- 
 tion of two hundred thousand francs. This young 
 woman, who was carefully brought up by her mother, 
 an artist, from whom she inherited all her talents, 
 was calculated to attract the attention of men in the 
 highest positions in life. She was large, beautiful 
 and exceedingly well-formed, spoke several lan- 
 guages and had a slight knowledge of science, a
 
 10 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 dangerous acquisition which requires skilful man- 
 agement on the part of a woman to avoid becoming 
 pedantic. The mother, blinded by misdirected ten- 
 derness, had given her daughter too great hopes for 
 her future. According to her, a duke, an ambassa- 
 dor, a marshal of France, or a secretary of state 
 alone could give her Celestine her proper place in 
 society. This young girl had also the manners, 
 the speech, the appearance of fashionable society. 
 Her toilet was richer and more costly than was 
 suitable for an unmarried woman. She had every- 
 thing, so that there was nothing left for a husband 
 to give her, but happiness. And yet her mother, 
 who died a year after the marriage of her daughter, 
 had petted her so that the lover had no easy task in 
 pleasing her. How much firmness would be needed 
 to control such a woman ! The bourgeois became 
 alarmed and retired. Xavier, orphan as he was, 
 without money except what he earned in his posi- 
 tion as head man in the office, was proposed by 
 Monsieur Leprince to Celestine as a suitor, but she 
 resisted for some time. Mademoiselle Leprince had 
 no objection to this suitor; he was young, very 
 'much in love with her, and quite fine looking, but 
 she hated the name of Madame Rabourdin. Her 
 father told her that he was of the stock of which 
 secretaries of state are made. To this Celestine 
 replied that a man with the name of Rabourdin could 
 never amount to anything under the government 
 of the Bourbons, etc., etc. Her father, finding him- 
 self hard pressed, made the great mistake of stating
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE II 
 
 to his daughter that her future husband would be 
 Rabourdin with a title, even before the age required 
 to enter the Chamber; that Xavier ought soon to 
 be maitre des requeues and secretary general of the 
 department in which he was engaged. By these 
 two stepping-stones this young man would attain to 
 the higher places of the administration. He would 
 become rich and possess a name transmitted to him 
 by a certain will, known to him. The marriage 
 was consummated. 
 
 Rabourdin and his wife dreamed of the mysterious 
 power and the promotion suggested by the old ap- 
 praiser. Carried away by the buoyant spirits and 
 carelessness in money matters, characteristic of 
 young married people who are greatly in love, Mon- 
 sieur and Madame Rabourdin spent during the 
 first five years of their married life nearly one 
 hundred thousand francs of their capital. Celes- 
 tine, naturally alarmed that her husband had not 
 been promoted, wished to take the hundred thousand 
 francs which remained of her marriage portion and 
 invest it in land. Such an investment would bring 
 but little income, but at some future day they would 
 feel recompensed for all their wise economies by 
 inheriting the estate of Monsieur Leprince. When 
 the elderly appraiser saw his son-in-law deprived 
 of his patron, he tried, out of love for his daughter, 
 to repair this loss, which they had endeavored to 
 conceal, by risking a part of his fortune in a spec- 
 ulation which offered very advantageous induce- 
 ments; but the poor man injured by the failure of
 
 12 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 the firm of Nucingen, died of grief, leaving only ten 
 beautiful pictures which ornamented his daughter's 
 salon, and some antique furniture that she put in 
 her garret. After eight years of waiting in vain 
 Madame Rabourdin was at last convinced that the 
 paternal protector of her husband must have died 
 suddenly, and that his will was either suppressed 
 or lost Two years before the death of Leprince the 
 place of head of division having become vacant, had 
 been given to a Monsieur de la Billardiere, a rela- 
 tive of an influential deputy of the Right, made min- 
 ister in 1823. This was enough to tempt him to 
 leave his position. But how could Rabourdin give 
 up eight thousand francs of salary voluntarily, 
 when he had been accustomed to spend that sum on 
 his household, and which formed three-quarters of 
 his income? Besides after a few more years of 
 patience, would he not have the right to a pension ? 
 What a fall for a woman whose great pretensions 
 in early life had some foundation, and who in addi- 
 tion was thought to be a superior woman ! 
 
 Madame Rabourdin fulfilled the expectation which 
 she gave as Mademoiselle Leprince. She possessed 
 elements of an apparent superiority which pleases 
 the world. She was so well educated that she could 
 address every one in his own language. She really 
 was talented, she showed a high and independent 
 spirit; her conversation was captivating in conse- 
 quence of the variety of subjects she could discuss, 
 as well as for her original ideas. These qualities, 
 useful and appropriate in a sovereign, or in the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 13 
 
 wife of an ambassador, were not very useful in 
 housekeeping, where everything is commonplace. 
 People who are gifted speakers need an audience, 
 their love of talking at great length often makes 
 them tiresome. In order to satisfy her love of 
 society Madame Rabourdin set apart one day in the 
 week as her day at home, and she went out in 
 society as much as possible, so that she might there 
 taste the enjoyments so pleasing to her vanity. 
 Those who are acquainted with Parisian life will 
 know how much a woman of this disposition must 
 suffer by having her ambition thwarted in her home 
 by the lack of means. Notwithstanding all the silly 
 speeches about money, it is always necessary, in 
 living in Paris, to curb ambition within one's 
 income, to render homage to accounts and to kiss 
 the cloven hoof of the golden calf. What a problem ! 
 An income of twelve thousand francs to defray the 
 expenses of a household composed of father, mother, 
 two children, an upstairs-girl and a cook, all living 
 on the second floor of a house in Rue Duphot, in an 
 apartment the rent of which was a hundred louis! 
 Before adding up all the expenses of the house let 
 us deduct the wardrobe and the equipage belonging 
 to Madame Rabourdin, for of all these items her 
 wardrobe was the most costly. Let us now see 
 what remained for the education of the children, a 
 girl of seven and a boy of nine, whose maintenance 
 notwithstanding that the schooling was entirely 
 free cost as much as two thousand francs ; you can 
 easily see that Madame Rabourdin could scarcely
 
 14 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 give thirty francs a month to her husband. Nearly 
 all Parisian husbands are in that situation unless 
 they pose as monsters. This woman who thought 
 herself calculated to shine in the world, in fact to 
 rule it, saw herself forced to use her thoughts and 
 her talents in an insignificant struggle which she 
 had not foreseen, in curbing her desires to corre- 
 spond with her account book. Even now, how 
 greatly did her self-conceit suffer! She had dis- 
 missed her man-servant upon the death of her 
 father. Most women would have become wearied 
 with this daily economy, they would have com- 
 plained, and at last yielded to their lot; but instead 
 of sinking under its weight, Celestine's ambition 
 thrived under difficulties, which unable to conquer, 
 she set herself to work to remove. In her eyes, 
 these impediments in her path were like the 
 Gordian knot which it was impossible to untie, 
 but which genius could cut. Far from reconciling 
 herself to a place in the middle classes, she fretted 
 at the hindrances in the way of her ambitions by 
 accusing fate of deceiving her. Celestine really 
 believed that she was a superior woman. Perhaps 
 she was right, perhaps she would have been great, 
 had great occasions presented themselves, perhaps 
 she was not in her right place. Let us acknowledge 
 that there are types of women as well as of men, 
 whom society fashions to suit its pleasures. Now in 
 social laws as in natural laws, there are more young 
 shoots than there are trees, more spawn than fully 
 developed fish. Many people of talent, like Athanase
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 15 
 
 Granson, are doomed to die withered like seeds 
 which fall on the bare rock. It is true that there 
 are women who devote themselves to housekeeping, 
 women whose chief talent lies in being agreeable, 
 women devoted to luxuries, women who are merely 
 wives, or mothers, or lovers, women purely spir- 
 itual or entirely worldly; the same as there are 
 artists, soldiers, artisans, mathematicians, poets, 
 merchants, also people who devote themselves to 
 finance, agriculture or the art of governing. More- 
 over the strangeness of events leads to contradic- 
 tions ; many called and few chosen is a law of the 
 city as well as of Heaven. Madame Rabourdin 
 imagined herself quite capable of guiding a states- 
 man, of inspiring the soul of an artist, of furthering 
 the interests of an inventor, and of helping him in 
 his struggles, of devoting herself to the wise finan- 
 ciering of a Nucingen, of doing honor to a large for- 
 tune. Perhaps she would in this way explain her 
 great dislike of going over the washing list, the 
 daily kitchen accounts, the petty calculations and 
 cares necessary in managing a small house. She 
 made herself superior only in doing those things 
 which gave her pleasure. In feeling so keenly the 
 thorns of a position which might be compared to 
 that of Saint Lawrence on his gridiron, must she utter 
 no murmur? Indeed, in the paroxysms of her 
 thwarted ambition, in the moments when her 
 wounded vanity caused her sharp pangs, Celestine 
 berated Xavier Rabourdin. Was it not her hus- 
 band's duty to place her in a suitable position? If
 
 16 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 she had only been a man, she would indeed have 
 had the energy to make a fortune quickly in order 
 to make a beloved wife happy! She reproached 
 him with being a too conscientious man. In the 
 mouth of some women this accusation is an accusa- 
 tion of imbecility. She drew for him superb plans, 
 in which she ignored all the obstacles which men 
 and circumstances bring to bear upon them; fur- 
 thermore, like all women stirred with violent 
 emotion, she became, in thought, more crafty than a 
 Gondreville, and more licentious than Maxime de 
 Trailles. Celestine's mind thought of everything, 
 and she gave full play to the expansion of her 
 ideas. On hearing these beautiful fancies, Rabour- 
 din, who knew the working of things, remained 
 unmoved. Celestine, saddened, thought her hus- 
 band narrow-minded, timid, of limited comprehen- 
 sion and so insensibly had a very false opinion of 
 her companion in life; at first she stunned him by 
 the brilliancy of her argument; then, by her ideas, 
 which came to her like flashes of lightning. She 
 stopped him short when he began to give an 
 explanation, so that she would not lose a particle of 
 her enthusiasm. From the earliest days of their 
 marriage, Celestine, feeling that she was loved and 
 admired by Rabourdin, was entirely unreserved 
 with her husband; she paid no attention to the 
 deference due to him nor to familiar politeness, in 
 demanding in the name of love, pardon for all 
 her little faults; and as she never corrected them, 
 she continued to rule over him. Under these
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 17 
 
 circumstances a man finds himself toward his wife 
 like a child before his teacher, when it never occurs 
 to him to think that the child whom he ruled over 
 when little may now have grown up. Like 
 Madame de Stae'l, who called out in a drawing-room 
 full of people to a plus "grand homme" than she: 
 "Do you know that you have just said something 
 very wise!" Madame Rabourdin said of her hus- 
 band: "He occasionally is somewhat clever." The 
 dependence in which she continued to hold Xavier 
 was shown by almost imperceptible movements of 
 her face. Her attitude and her manners expressed 
 her. lack of respect. Without knowing it she in- 
 jured her husband; for in all countries, before judg- 
 ing a man, the world listens to his wife's opinion 
 of him, and in this way asks what the inhabitants 
 of Geneva call, un preavis pronounced in the 
 language of that country priavisse. When Rabour- 
 din saw the faults which love led him to commit, 
 his decision was made, he suffered in silence. Like 
 some men in whom sentiment and intellect are 
 equally balanced, who possess at the same time a 
 noble soul, and a nicely balanced brain, he became 
 the advocate of his wife's ideas before the tribunal 
 of his own judgment. He said that nature had des- 
 tined her to play a role lost through his own fault 
 She was like an English thoroughbred horse, a racer 
 attached to a wagon full of stones, and she suffered 
 in consequence; thus he blamed himself. Besides, 
 by dint of repetition, his wife had imbued him with 
 the thought that she was infallible. Exchange of
 
 18 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 thoughts is contagious in the home-circle: the ninth 
 Therm idor is, like many great events, the result of 
 female influence. Thus pushed on by Celestine's 
 ambition, Rabourdin had for some time dreamed of 
 satisfying it, but these hopes he hid from his wife, 
 so that she would not be further grieved should he 
 fail. This well-meaning man resolved to force his 
 way up in the administration by a bold stroke. He 
 wished to bring about one of those revolutions 
 which place a man at the head of any political 
 party. But finding himself incapable of overturn- 
 ing things for his own advantage, he turned his 
 attention to useful thoughts and strove for a tri- 
 umph which he intended to obtain by honorable 
 means. There are few government officials who 
 have not conceived this brilliant and generous 
 idea, but with them as with artists many more of 
 their plans come to naught than materialize. As 
 Buffon says: "Genius consists in patience." 
 
 Placed in a position where he could study the 
 French Government and observe its mechanism, 
 Rabourdin laid his plans in the midst of the field of 
 labor in which chance had placed him, which, let 
 me emphasize, is the secret of much human accom- 
 plishment In his case it culminated in his invent- 
 ing a new system of government Knowing the 
 men with whom he had dealings, he respected this 
 machine which worked then, works now, and will 
 continue to work for a long time to come, for every- 
 one is frightened at the thought of reorganizing it; 
 but, according to Rabourdin's ideas, no one should
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 19 
 
 refuse to try to make it more simple in its construc- 
 tion. In his opinion the problem to be solved lay 
 in the better employment of the forces already in 
 use. The simplest solution of this plan would be 
 to revise the taxes in such a way that the state 
 would lose no revenue, and to obtain by a budget, 
 equal to the budget which now calls forth many 
 foolish discussions, results twice as great as the 
 present results. By long practice Rabourdin had 
 observed that in everything perfection is the result 
 of simple but sudden changes. To economize is to 
 simplify. To simplify is to do away with useless 
 machinery. There would then be vacancies in the 
 department. His system of government therefore 
 depended on abolishing the prevailing classification, 
 he would give a new nomenclature to his adminis- 
 tration. This perhaps is the reason that innovators 
 are so disliked. These removals necessary in per- 
 fecting the plan are at first not well understood, they 
 threaten those who do not lend themselves easily 
 to changed conditions. What really made Rabourdin 
 a great man was the fact that he restrained the en- 
 thusiasm which takes possession of all inventors, 
 and that he searched patiently for an expedient 
 adapted to every circumstance which would avoid 
 shocks, by leaving to time and experience the task 
 of demonstrating the value of every change. The 
 grandeur of the result would make the undertaking 
 seem impossible, if one lost sight of the central 
 thought in the rapid analysis of this system. It 
 is not then irrelevant to indicate, after these
 
 20 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 explanations, however incomplete they may be, the 
 point of view from which he set out to embrace the 
 administrative horizon. This tale, which is else- 
 where confined to the heart of the intrigue, will 
 perhaps explain some of the bad customs now preva- 
 lent 
 
 Deeply moved by the grievances which he recog- 
 nized in the life of the government employes, 
 Xavier asked himself why they were treated with 
 such increasing lack of consideration ; he searched 
 for the causes and found them to be those little 
 partial revolutions which were like the ruffled 
 waters during the tempest of 1789, and which his- 
 torians in treating of the great social events fail to 
 examine, although in fact they have formed our 
 manners, such as they are. 
 
 In olden days under the monarchy, the army of 
 government employes did not exist These clerks 
 were very few and they obeyed the orders of a 
 prime-minister, who was always in communication 
 with the sovereign, and they thus served the king 
 almost directly. The chiefs of these zealous public 
 servants were simply called premiers commis. In 
 those branches of government which the king could 
 not manage unaided, such, for instance, as the farm- 
 ing of taxes, the clerks bore to their chiefs the same 
 relation that the clerks of a commercial house bear 
 to their employer. They learn a science which 
 ought to assist them in making their fortune. Thus 
 the smallest point of the circumference was drawn 
 toward the centre and received life from it The
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 21 
 
 result was devotion and confidence. Since 1789 the 
 state, the country, if you prefer, has replaced the 
 prince. Instead of being promoted suddenly to the 
 rank of chief magistrate, clerks have notwith- 
 standing our fine ideas of our country become 
 simply the employes of the government, and the 
 heads of the departments are blown about at every 
 caprice of a power called the ministry, and do not 
 know at evening where they will be the next morn- 
 ing. The man who keeps up to the times should 
 always have his wits sharpened, he lords it over a 
 certain number of necessary clerks whom he dis- 
 misses at pleasure, while these employes try to keep 
 their positions. The bureaucracy, a gigantic power 
 manipulated by dwarfs, is thus created. If Napo- 
 leon was in this way by making everything and 
 all mankind subordinate to his will able to hold 
 back for a moment the influence of the bureaucracy, 
 that heavy curtain hung between the good to be 
 done and he who commands it, it was definitely 
 organized under the constitutional government, inev- 
 itably the friend of mediocrity, the great admirer 
 of well approved documents and accounts, in fine, 
 as meddlesome as a middle-class woman. Happy to 
 have seen the ministers of state in constant struggle 
 with four hundred smaller minds, with ten or 
 twelve ambitious and dishonest leaders, civil ser- 
 vice officials immediately become necessary by the 
 substitution for action of written decrees, and they 
 create a power of inertia called a report Let us 
 explain what a report is.
 
 22 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 When kings had ministers, which has only been 
 from the reign of Louis XV., they caused reports to 
 be made on important questions, instead of holding, 
 as in olden times, council with the chief men of the 
 state. Insensibly, ministers of state were led by 
 their administration to imitate the king. Being en- 
 gaged in defending themselves before the two Cham- 
 bers and before the court, they allowed themselves 
 to be in leading-strings to the report. Nothing 
 important took place in the administration, even 
 requiring most urgent action to which the minister 
 did not reply, "I have asked for a report." The 
 report then bore the same relation to business and 
 to the minister that the report of the Chamber of 
 Deputies did to the laws : one document where the 
 arguments pro and con are treated with more or less 
 partiality. The minister as well as the Chamber 
 finds everything laid down in the report Every 
 view of the subject is instantly taken. Whatever 
 happens, the time will come when the decision 
 must be made. The more arguments pro and con, 
 the less likely is the judgment to be unbiased. 
 The most beautiful things in France were accom- 
 plished in the days when there were no reports, 
 and when decisions were spontaneous. The law 
 which governs the statesman is to draw up precise 
 formulas in every case, after the manner of judges, 
 and physicians. Rabourdin said to himself, "One 
 gains the position of minister by his power of 
 decision, his knowledge of business and how to 
 transact it" He saw that the report has full sway
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 23 
 
 in France from the colonel to the marshal, the com- 
 missary of police to the king, from the prefects to 
 ministers of state, from the Chamber of Deputies 
 to the law. From the year 1808 everything was 
 discussed, was weighed, was balanced by speeches 
 and written arguments. Everything took some 
 literary form. France was going to ruin notwith- 
 standing these beautiful reports, for things were 
 discussed which instead required immediate action. 
 A million 'reports were then written in France 
 annually! In this fashion bureaucracy reigned! 
 Law documents, parchments, papers were the props 
 of the structure without which France would be 
 lost, the circular without which she could not 
 advance, grow, became more expansive and more 
 elaborate. The bureaucracy henceforth used for 
 its own profit the discrepancies between the receipts 
 and the expenses. The administrator was blamed 
 so that the administration might be exonerated. 
 At last Lilliputian threads were discovered which 
 drew France, as by a chain, to Paris as the 
 central power, as if France, from 1500 to 1800, had 
 undertaken nothing without thirty thousand clerks. 
 In attaching itself to public offices like a mistletoe 
 to a pear-tree, the clerk indemnified himself fully 
 and in the following manner: 
 
 The ministers of state, obliged to obey the 
 Princes or Chamber of Deputies, by whom they 
 are ordered to prepare certain portions of the 
 budget, and forced to maintain some workers, 
 cut down the salaries, and increased the offices,
 
 24 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 believing that the more people employed by the 
 government, the stronger would the government be. 
 The contrary is a written law of the universe. 
 There is no other energy apart from that of active 
 principles. The mistake of the excessive administra- 
 tion of the Restoration has been proved by events 
 which happened about July, 1830. In order to plant a 
 government in the heart of a nation, it is necessary 
 to attach to it interests and not men. The govern- 
 ment clerk despised the government which lessened 
 at the same time his importance and his salary, 
 and treated him in the same manner that a courtesan 
 treats an aged lover. It gave him work in return 
 for his salary; a state of affairs as intolerable for 
 the administration as for the clerk, if each had 
 dared to feel the other's -pulse, or had those drawing 
 large salaries not stifled the voices of those whose 
 salaries were small. The clerk occupied solely in 
 maintaining himself, in keeping his position and in 
 receiving his pension, believed himself justifiable 
 in obtaining this great result This state of things 
 encouraged the clerk to be servile, he concocted 
 perpetual intrigues in the various departments of 
 the government, when the poor clerks struggled 
 against a degenerate aristocracy who came to pas- 
 ture on the commons belonging to the middle 
 classes, by insisting on having places for their 
 ruined children. A superior man could with diffi- 
 culty walk along these tortuous paths, bow, cringe, 
 slide in the mire of these sinks of vice where 
 remarkable faces frighten every one. An ambitious
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 2$ 
 
 genius would grow old while trying to gain the 
 triple crown, he does not need to imitate Sixtus 
 Fifth in order to become chief of the department 
 Only the lazy, the incapable, or the intensely 
 stupid stay there long enough to arrive at that 
 distinction. Thus the mediocrity of the French ad- 
 ministration was slowly established. These 
 government officials being entirely composed of men 
 of small minds form an obstacle to the prosperity of 
 the country. For seven years they withheld the 
 plans for a canal which would have stimulated the 
 production of a province. Frightened at everything, 
 they postpone indefinitely, perpetuating those 
 abuses which perpetuate and consolidate its methods. 
 Bureaucracy holds every one, even the head of the 
 department, in leading-strings. It puts down men 
 of talent who are brave enough to try to do without 
 its aid or who endeavor to enlighten it in regard to 
 its faults. The pension book had just been pub- 
 lished. In it Rabourdin saw the name of an office- 
 boy put down for a sum larger than that given to 
 old colonels covered with wounds. In this can 
 be read the entire history of the administra- 
 tion. Another evil engendered by modern morals, 
 can be counted among the causes of this secret 
 demoralization. In the administration at Paris 
 there is in reality no subordination, complete 
 equality reigns between the head of an important 
 division and the humblest official: one is of as 
 much consequence as the other in an arena which 
 is only entered as a place from which to seek
 
 26 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 other positions, for these clerks are recruited from 
 the ranks of poet, artist, or merchant These em- 
 ployes criticise each other without reserve. 
 
 Does not education equally, liberally distributed 
 without measure among the masses now lead the 
 son of a door-keeper of the minister of state to 
 decide the fate of a man of merit or of large prop- 
 erty by whom his father was employed as door- 
 keeper ? The last comer can thus contend with the 
 oldest official. A rich supernumerary splashes his 
 chief, as he drives to Longchamps in his tilbury in 
 which is seated a beautiful woman, to whom he 
 says, "There is my chief," at the same time indi- 
 cating by a movement of his whip, the poor father 
 of a family going on foot. The Liberals call this 
 state of things PROGRESS. Rabourdin saw ANARCHY 
 at the heart of this power. As a result of this state 
 of things did he not see disturbing intrigues like 
 those which take place in the seraglio, between the 
 eunuchs, the women and the imbecile sultan, or the 
 little quarrels of nuns, full of secret vexations, or 
 college tyrannies, diplomatic schemes, fit to frighten 
 an ambassador undertaken for a fee or for an 
 increase of salary; it all resembles the jumping of 
 fleas harnessed to a pasteboard cart; the enmity of 
 a negro shown toward the minister of state himself; 
 then there are other men, who are really useful, the 
 workers, victims of these parasites; men devoted 
 to their country who stand prominently forth be- 
 yond the incapable throng, these are obliged to 
 succumb to ignoble and treasonable plots. All the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 27 
 
 high places are to be obtained by parliamentary 
 influence alone and no longer from royalty. The 
 clerks of departments find themselves sooner or 
 later in the condition of a wheel screwed on to a 
 machine; the only variation of their lot is to be 
 more or less oiled. This fatal conviction, already 
 perceived by bright minds, effectually stifles the 
 statements conscientiously written on the secret 
 evils of the country, effectually disarms courage, 
 corrupts those who had the strictest regard for hon- 
 esty, fatigued as they were by injustice and induced 
 to become careless by destructive ennuis. A clerk 
 in the employ of Rothschild Brothers corresponds 
 with all England, a single government official can 
 correspond with all the prefects; but here where 
 one goes to learn how to make his fortune, another 
 loses in useless endeavor his time, his life and his 
 health. Hence comes the mischief. Certainly a 
 country will not be immediately menaced with 
 death because a talented government official retires 
 and a man of mediocre ability takes his place. Un- 
 happily for nations no one man is indispensable to 
 their existence. But in the long run, when talent 
 in every department is diminished, the nations 
 must disappear. Everyone who has read can find 
 instruction in Venice, Madrid, Amsterdam, Stock- 
 holm and Rome, places where once great power 
 reigned, and see them now destroyed by the small 
 ideas which filtered into them while they were 
 gaining their power. On the day of conflict, every- 
 thing having been found in a weak condition, the
 
 28 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 state yielded to a slight attack. To adore the fool 
 who succeeds, to feel no sorrow for the fall of a 
 man of talent, is the result of our sadly misdirected 
 education and our customs, which put talented men 
 to ridicule, and drive genius to despair. But what 
 problem is more difficult to solve than that of the 
 re-establishment of the civil service at a time when 
 liberalism cried out through the newspapers in all 
 industrial workshops that the salary of government 
 officials constituted a perpetual robbery, when lib- 
 eralism compared the headings of the chapters of 
 the budget to a cluster of leeches, and every year 
 asked the gain of the thousand million francs of 
 taxes spent? In Monsieur Rabourdin's eyes the 
 employe, in relation to the budget, held the same 
 position that the gambler holds to the game ; every- 
 thing that he wins, he risks again. All large sal- 
 aries imply an equivalent Is it not organizing 
 robbery and misery to pay a man a thousand 
 francs a year for his entire services? A convict 
 costs the government almost as much and he does 
 less work. But this government desires that a man 
 to whom it gives twelve thousand francs a year in 
 return for his devotion to his country would thereby 
 make a contract profitable for both, which would 
 inspire him to do his best
 
 These reflections had thus led Rabourdin to try 
 to remodel the staff. To employ fewer clerks, to 
 triple or double their salaries and to abolish 
 pensions; to employ young clerks as did Napoleon, 
 Louis XIV., Richelieu and Ximenes, but to keep 
 them a long time by holding out inducements of 
 high places and great honors, these were the chief 
 points in a reform as useful to the state as to those 
 employed in its service. It is difficult to relate in 
 detail, chapter by chapter, a plan which embraced 
 the budget and which descended into the smallest 
 details of the administration to carry out these 
 principles; but perhaps one instance of these great 
 reforms will suffice for those who understand as 
 well as for those who are ignorant of the adminis- 
 trative constitution. Although the position of a 
 historian may be dangerous in relating a plan some- 
 what resembling politics made by the fireside, yet 
 it is necessary to portray it, so as to explain the 
 man by his deeds. By suppressing the recital of 
 these deeds, you would not be able to believe the 
 narrator under oath, if he had contented himself 
 with merely stating the talent or audacity of this 
 chief of the department 
 
 Rabourdin's plan divided the government into 
 three divisions. He thought that, if formerly 
 there had been men of a sufficient ability to grasp 
 (39)
 
 30 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 at once, domestic and foreign affairs, France to-day 
 would not lack a Mazarin, a Suger, a Sully, a Choi- 
 seul, a Colbert, to direct a government even greater 
 than that which now exists. Besides, constitu- 
 tionally speaking, three ministers of state would 
 agree better than seven. Then it is also less diffi- 
 cult to make a mistake in choosing them. Finally, 
 perhaps royalty would in this way avoid the per- 
 petual oscillation of the different factions which do 
 not permit the following out of any plan of foreign 
 policy, nor the accomplishment of any domestic 
 reform. Austria, composed of so many national- 
 ities, presents a great many different interests, all 
 of which must be conciliated, ruled by the one 
 crown ; here two statesmen carry the weight of 
 public business, without being crushed by it Is 
 France poorer than Germany in political ability? 
 The child's play, quite foolish enough, called the 
 institutions constitutionnelles, developed beyond all 
 bounds, have ended, as is said, by requiring many 
 ministers of state in order to satisfy the increased 
 ambitions of the middle-classes. At first it seemed 
 quite natural to Rabourdin to unite in the same 
 person the secretary of the navy with the secretary 
 of war. According to his ideas the navy was 
 merely one of the accounts kept by the secretary of 
 war, just like the artillery, the cavalry, the infantry, 
 the commissariat Was it not a mistake to place 
 the admiralty and the marshals in separate depart- 
 ments when they have a common object in view; 
 the defence of the country, the attack of the enemy,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 31 
 
 the protection of the national possessions ? To the 
 ministry of the interior should be united commerce, 
 the police, and the finances, under penalty of bely- 
 ing its name. To the ministry of foreign affairs 
 should belong law, the king's palace, and everything 
 which in the internal administration concerns arts, 
 literature and science. All protection should be 
 derived directly from the sovereign. This, of 
 course, implied the presidency of the council. 
 Each one of these three administrators would not 
 need more than two hundred clerks under this cen- 
 tralized rule, where Rabourdin would place them 
 all, as was formerly the case, under the monarchy. 
 In taking as an average the sum of twelve thousand 
 francs per head, he calculated that seven millions 
 would be needed for the salaries of these officials, 
 which cost more than twenty in the budget of to- 
 day. In thus reducing the ministries to three 
 departments he would abolish entire administra- 
 tions, which had become useless, and whose offices 
 were kept up at immense expense in Paris. 
 He proved that one arrondissement could be ruled 
 by ten men, a prefecture by twelve at the most, 
 which would be at the rate of five thousand gov- 
 ernment officials for all France justice and the 
 army not included a number less than the list 
 even of those employed under the present adminis- 
 tration. But in this plan the clerks of the tribunal 
 would have all mortgages under their care; but the 
 public minister would have the making out of deeds, 
 and the management of property. Rabourdin would
 
 32 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 reunite under the same head similar parties. Thus 
 mortgages, the transfer of property, the making out 
 of deeds would not have to go from one department 
 to the other, and would only necessitate three 
 supernumeraries for each tribunal, and three for the 
 royal court The constant application of this prin- 
 ciple led Rabourdin to reform the finances. He 
 combined all the various duties under one head, by 
 taxing all kinds of products instead of taxing real 
 estate. According to his ideas these products were 
 the only taxable articles in times of peace. The 
 taxes on real estate, he thought, should be held in 
 reserve in case of war. Then only could the state 
 demand taxes on lands, for it was then occupied in 
 defending them; but in times of peace, it was a 
 grave political error to alarm people beyond a certain 
 limit; in great crises they could then get no more. 
 Thus the loan during peace would be placed at par 
 and not at fifty per cent discount, as in bad times; 
 in time of war, real estate should be taxed. 
 
 The invasion of 1814 and 1815, said Rabourdin to 
 his friends, has established itself in France and 
 demonstrated the workings of an institution that 
 neither law nor Napoleon had power to establish: 
 which is credit 
 
 Unhappily, Xavier thought that the true princi- 
 ples of this admirable government were not well 
 understood, at the time he began his reform in 
 1820. Rabourdin would tax the products by levy- 
 ing the taxes directly, by suppressing all means of 
 indirect taxation. The collection of taxes was to
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 33 
 
 be simplified by classing many articles under one 
 head. He would thus beat down the annoying toll- 
 gates at the entrance to the cities, which would 
 bring greater revenues by simplifying their mode of 
 collection, now very costly. Diminishing the bur- 
 den of a heavy taxation is not, in a matter of 
 finance, necessarily diminishing the taxes, it is the 
 art of distributing them better; lightening them is 
 to increase the mass of business by giving them 
 more play; the individual pays less, the state 
 receives more. This reform, which might seem 
 immense, rests on a very simple foundation. 
 Rabourdin thought that the taxes on personal effects 
 and furniture were the most faithful representations 
 of the general consumption. Individual fortunes 
 are well represented in France by the rent paid, by 
 the number of servants employed, by the elegant 
 horses and carriages which are the marks of wealth. 
 Dwellings and what they contain vary little, and 
 would not be likely to disappear. After having 
 indicated the way of making a list of taxable per- 
 sonal property, more correct than the one which at 
 that time existed, he would invest the sums brought 
 into the treasury under the head of indirect taxa- 
 tion at so much per cent for each assessment A 
 tax is levying money under more or less specious 
 disguises on things or on people; these disguises 
 serve a good purpose when money is to be extorted, 
 but are they not ridiculous in an age when the 
 class which suffers from the taxes knows why the 
 state makes them out and what machinery it 
 3
 
 34 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 employs to gather them? In reality the budget is 
 not a strong-box, but a watering-pot; the more it 
 receives and pours out, the more the country pros- 
 pers. For instance, let us suppose six millions of 
 cotes aistes Rabourdin proved their existence by 
 counting the cotes riches would it not be better to 
 ask them at once for a tax on wine which would not 
 be more odious than the tax on doors and -windows 
 and would produce a hundred million francs, rather 
 than irritate them by taxing the thing itself? By 
 thus regulating the tax, each taxpayer would in 
 reality have to pay less, the state would receive 
 more, and the consumers would enjoy an immense 
 reduction in the price of the articles which the 
 state would no longer allow to be taxed without 
 bonds. Rabourdin would retain the taxes on cul- 
 tivating vineyards, so that this industry might be 
 protected against overproduction. Then to reach 
 the products of the poorer taxpayers the licenses of 
 retail dealers were to be taxed according to the pop- 
 ulation of the places in which they lived. Thus 
 under three heads : a tax on wines, a tax on agricul- 
 ture and a tax on licenses, the treasury would gain 
 great returns without any trouble or vexation, 
 where now a galling tax is divided between the 
 Civil Service and the state. The taxes would 
 then fall on the rich instead of tormenting the 
 poor. Let us take another example. Suppose 
 there was a tax of one franc levied on salt, you 
 would obtain ten or twelve millions of francs, the 
 present tax on salt would disappear, the poor
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 35 
 
 would breathe freely, agriculture would be helped, 
 the state would receive as much, and no taxpayer 
 would feel the effects of this method. All tax- 
 payers who belong more or less to the industrial 
 classes or to the capitalists would immediately rec- 
 ognize the benefits of a tax thus readjusted, when 
 they see even in the least settled districts the 
 amelioration of the condition of the country and the 
 expansion of commerce. In fact from year to year 
 the state would see an increase in the number of 
 rich taxpayers. By suppressing the levying of 
 indirect taxes a very costly proceeding, which is 
 a state within a state the treasury and the tax- 
 payer would gain enormously, by only having to 
 consider the small outlay in the cost of collection. 
 Tobacco and powder could be let to a management 
 under surveillance. The system adopted for these 
 two taxes, further developed by others that Rabour- 
 din invented at the time he remodeled the law in 
 regard to tobacco, was so convincing that this law 
 would not have passed in a Chamber of Deputies 
 which could not be threatened with a rupture of re- 
 lations, as was then the case with the ministry. 
 It was then less a question of finance than a ques- 
 tion of government The state in itself would 
 then possess nothing, neither forests, mines, nor 
 public-works. That the state should be in the posses- 
 sion of domains was, in Rabourdin's eyes, an 
 administrative error. The state does not know 
 how to make the best of things and therefore de- 
 prives itself of taxes, it loses two gains at once.
 
 36 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 As to the government manufactures they are under 
 the same nonsensical system as the other industries. 
 The state obtains products at a higher cost than 
 commercial rates, and produces them more slowly. 
 At the same time it fails to perceive its duty in 
 regard to industrial activity, by taking away its 
 support Does the art of governing a country con- 
 sist in manufacturing instead of encouraging man- 
 ufactures, in possessing instead of furthering the 
 greatest variety of possessions? In this system, 
 the state would no longer demand a single security 
 in money. Rabourdin would only admit mortgage 
 securities and this is the reason. Either the state 
 holds the security in specie which hinders the cir- 
 culation of money, or it invests it at a higher rate 
 of interest than it pays, which is a mean kind of 
 robbery, or it loses on the transaction, which is 
 very foolish; at last, if one day it disposed of 
 the mass of securities, it would in certain cases 
 bring about the most distressing bankruptcy. The 
 land tax would then not disappear entirely. Rabour- 
 din would be in favor of having a small portion of 
 it retained, as a starting point in case of war, but 
 evidently the productions of the soil would become 
 free, and the manufacturer finding raw-materials at 
 the lowest price would be able to compete with for- 
 eigners without the deceptive help of duties. The 
 rich would undertake the government of the depart- 
 ments free of charge, in having for their reward a 
 peerage subject to certain conditions. Magistrates, 
 learned bodies, officers of inferior rank would see
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 37 
 
 their services properly paid. There would be no 
 government official who could complain that he was 
 not treated with great consideration, merited by the 
 value of his work and the importance of his posi- 
 tion; each of them would, of his own accord, 
 provide for his future, and France would no longer 
 have at her heart the cancer of pensions. As a result, 
 Rabourdin would find that seven hundred millions 
 only had been spent and would see twelve hundred 
 millions of receipts. A saving of five hundred mil- 
 lions yearly would be more important than the small 
 abatement left after the errors were demonstrated. 
 Then according to his idea the state would take the 
 position of a stockholder, as it was formerly obsti- 
 nately determined to be a land owner and a 
 manufacturer. 
 
 Besides, in order to execute his reform without 
 creating a disturbance, and in order to avoid a 
 Saint-Bartholomew's day throughout the Service, 
 Rabourdin asked for twenty years' time. 
 
 Such were the thoughts matured by this man 
 from the time when his place was given to Mon- 
 sieur de la Billardiere, an incapable man. This plan, 
 of so vast an aspect, was in reality very simple, it 
 suppressed so many great state officials, and so many 
 smaller officials equally useless, which required con- 
 tinual calculations, exact statistics, definite proofs. 
 Rabourdin had for a long time studied the budget 
 in its double aspect, that of ways and means, and 
 that of expenses. Thus occupied he passed many 
 nights without his wife's knowledge. It was
 
 38 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 nothing more than that he had dared to conceive this 
 plan and to have superimposed it on the adminis- 
 trative body, the next step would be to explain it 
 to a minister of state capable of appreciating it. 
 Rabourdin's success then depended upon the tran- 
 quillity of a government still unsettled. He did not 
 consider the government as definitely settled until 
 the time should arrive when three hundred dep- 
 uties would have the courage to form a compact 
 majority, systematically ministerial. A govern- 
 ment formed on this basis had been established 
 since Rabourdin had finished his labors. In this 
 age, the luxury of peace due to the Bourbons caused 
 the people to forget the warlike luxury in the days 
 when France glittered like a vast camp, prodigal 
 and magnificent because victorious. After her 
 campaign in Spain the ministry seemed to enter 
 on one of those peaceful careers where reforms 
 might be accomplished and since three months 
 a new reign had begun without meeting with any 
 obstacles, for Liberalism of the Left had saluted 
 Charles X. with as much enthusiasm as the Right 
 This was calculated to mislead the most far-seeing 
 people. This moment then seemed propitious for 
 Rabourdin. Was it not a pledge of the durability 
 of an administration to propose and to push to its 
 consummation a reform whose results were to be so 
 great ? 
 
 This man in consequence was never anything 
 but careworn, he was preoccupied in the morning 
 when he walked down to the office, and when he
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 39 
 
 returned home at half-past four in the afternoon. 
 Madame Rabourdin, on her part, bemoaned the fail- 
 ure of her life, was weary of her secret struggles to 
 secure some pleasures from her toilet, never seemed 
 more bitterly discontented, but as a wife attached 
 to her husband she regarded as unworthy of a fine 
 woman the shameful practices by which certain 
 women, the wives of government officials, eked out 
 their scanty income. For this reason she had 
 refused all intercourse with Madame Colleville, 
 then in liaison with Francois Keller, and whose 
 soirees were often more elegant than those on Rue 
 Duphot She mistook the firm r&le of a political 
 thinker, and the preoccupation of the hard worker, 
 for apathetic depression of the government official 
 subdued by the ennuis of office routine, worsted by 
 the most detestable of all mishaps by that medi- 
 ocrity which only earns a living, and she sighed to 
 think that she was married to a man without energy. 
 So about this time she resolved unaided to make 
 her husband's fortune, to thrust him, at all hazards 
 into a higher sphere, and to hide from him the 
 move she was to take. In her mind she still 
 retained the independence of ideas which distin- 
 guished her, and which completely elevated her 
 beyond women generally, for she was not like them 
 swayed by petty prejudices, neither did she trouble 
 herself about the shackles imposed by society. In 
 her anger she resolved to fight fools with their own 
 weapons, and to strike out herself if necessary. 
 She saw everything from a high standpoint A
 
 40 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 favorable occcasion presented itself. Monsieur de 
 la Billardiere, attacked by a mortal malady, would 
 possibly die in a few days. If Rabourdin should 
 succeed him, his talents, for Celestine thought that 
 he had administrative talents, would be so well 
 appreciated that the place of maitre des requetes, 
 promised formerly, would be given him; she imag- 
 ined him as king's commissioner defending the bills 
 before the Chamber of Deputies. She would then 
 assist him ! If need be she would become his sec- 
 retary. Thus she passed entire nights. That 
 would mean to ride to the Bois de Boulogne in an 
 elegant barouche, to be on an equal footing with 
 Madame Delphine de Nucingen, to have as elegant 
 entertainments as Madame Colleville, to be invited 
 to the great ministerial events, to fascinate her lis- 
 teners, to have people say of her "Madame Rabour- 
 din de quelque chose" she did not yet know by 
 what territorial title as they speak of Madame 
 d'Espard, Madame d'Aiglemont, Madame de Carig- 
 liano; anything to be free from the odious name of 
 Rabourdin. 
 
 These thoughts, which she kept to herself, brought 
 about several changes in her household arrange- 
 ments. Madame Rabourdin now began to walk 
 with a firm step, and contracted debts. She once 
 more hired a man-servant, whom she dressed in a 
 plain livery of brown cloth with red trimmings. 
 She had some of her furniture restored, she redraped 
 her apartment, embellished it with flowers often 
 renewed, encumbered it with the little nothings
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 41 
 
 which were fashionable at that time; then she, 
 who used to take some thought as to what she spent, 
 did not now hesitate to dress in harmony with the 
 rank to which she aspired, the profits of which were 
 discounted in several of the shops where she 
 equipped herself for the conflict So that she might 
 be fashionable on her Wednesdays at home she 
 gave a dinner-party every Friday, those invited on 
 these occasions being expected to call the following 
 Wednesday and take a cup of tea with her. She 
 always chose her guests among influential deputies, 
 among the people who, far and near, would be able 
 to serve her interests. After a while she made a 
 very agreeable circle of acquaintances. People en- 
 joyed themselves greatly at her house, at least they 
 said so, which is sufficient in Paris to attract soci- 
 ety. Rabourdin was so busily engaged in finishing 
 his serious and great undertaking that he did not 
 remark this new growth of luxury in his home. 
 
 Thus the wife and the husband sought the same 
 promotion, and worked for it on parallel lines, each 
 without the knowledge of the other. 
 
 At that time there flourished in the ministry 
 as secretary-general, a certain Monsieur Clement 
 Chardin des Lupeaulx, one of those people whom 
 the fluctuation of politics pushes forward for a few 
 years, they are submerged in tempestuous times, 
 but we find them again on the banks of the stream 
 some distance away, stranded like the hull of a 
 boat, which nevertheless has the semblance of 
 being of some use. The traveler asks himself if
 
 42 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 this wreck has not contained precious merchandise, 
 has not been used on important occasions, has not 
 aided in some defence, carried the velvets for some 
 throne or transported some royal corpse. At this 
 time Clement des Lupeaulx the Lupeaulx eclipsed 
 the Chardin was in the height of his power. In 
 the most illustrious lives as well as in the most 
 obscure, in animals as well as in secretaries-gen- 
 eral, is there not a zenith and a nadir, one period 
 when the color of the hair of animals is beautiful, 
 where fortune showers all her blessings ? In the 
 nomenclature created by the writer of fables, des 
 Lupeaulx belonged to the species Bertrand, and was 
 always hunting for Ratons, and as he is to become 
 one of the principal actors in the drama, he merits 
 a description all the more minute, because the Rev- 
 olution of July has suppressed this office, which 
 was so eminently useful to constitutional ministers. 
 Moralists usually exercise their energies against 
 the most pressing abuses. For, according to them, 
 crimes should be punished by the court of assizes, 
 or at the police court, but social artifices escape 
 their attention; the qualifications which are of such 
 service under the rule of the Code are either above 
 or beneath their comprehension, they possess 
 neither magnifying-glasses nor telescopes; sins 
 must be very great to be seen by them. Always 
 thinking of the beasts, they do not discover the 
 reptiles; happily they leave to the comic poets the 
 shading which colors Chardin des Lupeaulx. Ego- 
 tistical and vain, supple and proud, libertine and
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 43 
 
 gourmand, grasping from the pressure of his debts, 
 silent as the tomb, from which nothing issues to 
 contradict the epitaph destined to be read by the 
 passers-by, intrepid and fearless when soliciting, 
 amiable and witty in every acceptation of the word, 
 a timely raillery possessing great tact, knowing 
 how to compromise you by a caress as well as by a 
 nudge, recoiling before no width of stream, and 
 gracefully jumping over it, an intrepid admirer 
 of Voltaire, yet attending mass at Saint-Thomas 
 d'Aquin, when fashionable people were to be seen 
 there, this secretary-general resembled all the men 
 of mediocre ability who form the kernel of the 
 political world. Understanding human nature, he 
 assumed the position of listener, and then no one 
 could be more attentive. Thus in order to awaken 
 no suspicion he flattered even to satiety, insinuat- 
 ing as a perfume, and caressing as a woman. He 
 was just forty years of age. His youth had for 
 some time hindered his advancement, for he felt 
 that his wheel of fortune would turn on his becom- 
 ing a deputy. How had he attained this position ? 
 every one asked. The answer was very simple : 
 des Lupeaulx, although a fool in regard to politics, 
 had taken charge of delicate undertakings which 
 could not have been confided to a self-respecting 
 man, nor to one who had no self-respect, but which 
 might be confided to a man at the same time serious 
 and enigmatical, who could be acknowledged or 
 disavowed at will. His position was that of being 
 always compromised, but he gained as much by
 
 44 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 failure as he did by success. He well understood 
 that under the Restoration, a period of continual 
 transactions between men and things, between 
 deeds accomplished and those which only loomed 
 above the horizon, it was very necessary for the 
 ruling powers to have a factotum. When once 
 there is an old woman-servant in the family who 
 knows how to make and air the bed, where to 
 sweep the dust, and where is thrown the soiled 
 linen, where the silver is kept, who can appease a 
 creditor, who can tell which people should be 
 allowed to enter the house and which refused 
 admittance; this creature, even if she have vices, 
 is dirty, bandy-legged or toothless, or tries the 
 lottery and steals thirty sous a day for her chance, 
 is liked and consulted by her masters from habit, 
 gives her advice in the most important matters : she 
 is there, suggests ways and means, and ferrets out 
 secrets, brings the rouge and the shawl at the right 
 moment, lets herself be scolded, or pushed down the 
 stairs, and the next day early, with a smiling face, 
 brings an excellent consomme. However great a 
 statesman may be, he requires a housekeeper, 
 before whom he can be weak, undecided caviling 
 with his lot in life questioning himself, answering 
 himself and preparing for the combat Is this per- 
 son not like the soft wood of savages, which strikes 
 fire when rubbed against hard wood? Many a 
 genius is thus lighted. Napoleon lived with Ber- 
 thier, and Richelieu with Pere Joseph. Des 
 Lupeaulx dwelt with everyone. He continued
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 45 
 
 friends with fallen ministers in constituting himself 
 their go-between with their successors, wafting thus 
 the last flattery and perfuming the first compliment 
 He also understood very well the little matters 
 which a statesman has not the leisure to think of. 
 He saw what was necessary ; he knew how to obey ; 
 he relieved his base acts by jesting about them at 
 first, so as to fully profit by them, and he chose 
 that the service he rendered should be one that 
 could not easily be forgotten. Thus when the ditch 
 between the Empire and the Restoration was to be 
 crossed, when everyone was looking about for a 
 plank to cross it, at the moment when the curs of 
 the Empire were rushing by with enthusiastic 
 speeches, des Lupeaulx crossed the frontier after 
 having borrowed large amounts from the usurers. 
 Risking everything in hopes of gaining everything, 
 he bought up the most pressing debts of Louis 
 XVIII., and by this means was the first to liquidate 
 nearly three millions of them at twenty per cent, 
 for he had the good luck to be fortunately placed in 
 1814 and 1815. The profits were absorbed by 
 Sieurs Gobseck, Werbrust and Gigonnet, silent 
 partners in the enterprise; but des Lupeaulx had 
 promised them these profits, he was not playing 
 one move only, he played the entire bank, by 
 knowing well that Louis XVIII. was not a man to 
 forget this debt of honor. Des Lupeaulx was nom- 
 inated maitre des requetes, Knight of the Order of 
 Saint-Louis, and Officer of the Legion of Honor. 
 When this clever man had once climbed to this
 
 46 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 height, he looked around him for the means of 
 holding himself on this ladder ; for in such a strong- 
 hold as he had succeeded in entering, generals do not 
 long indulge in useless remarks. Thus to his 
 capacity of drudge and agent he added that of giv- 
 ing gratuitous consultations on the secret maladies 
 of the Civil Service. After having discovered in the 
 so-called superior men of the Restoration, their 
 great inferiority in regard to the events which led 
 them to the front, he overcame their political medi- 
 ocrity by bringing them, by selling them in the 
 very midst of the crisis the word of command 
 which men of talent hear in future events. Do 
 not think that this word originated in his own 
 mind; if it had, des Lupeaulx would have been a 
 man of genius, while he was only a man of talent 
 This Bertrand went everywhere, collecting opin- 
 ions, sounding men's minds, and catching their 
 tenor. He gathered knowledge like a true and 
 indefatigable political bee. This walking dictionary 
 of Bayle did not do as did that famous lexicon, he 
 did not report all opinions without drawing his own 
 conclusions, he had the talent of the fly which 
 alights directly on the choicest meat in the centre 
 of the kitchen. He also passed for a man who was 
 indispensable to statesmen. This belief had become 
 so deeply rooted in all minds, that the ambitious 
 new-comers thought it necessary to compromise des 
 Lupeaulx in order to prevent him from rising 
 higher; they recompensed him for his lack of public 
 position by their secret confidence. Nevertheless,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 47 
 
 feeling that everyone depended upon him, this 
 searcher for ideas exacted dues. Rewarded by a 
 staff appointment in the National Guard, where he 
 held a sinecure which was paid for by the city of 
 Paris, he was government commissioner to a joint 
 stock company, and filled the position of inspector 
 in the king's household. His two official positions 
 inscribed on the budget were those of secretary- 
 general and maitre des requites. Now he wished 
 to be Commander of the Legion of Honor, Gentle- 
 man of the Bed-Chamber, Count and Deputy; to 
 become a Deputy it was necessary for him to 
 pay a thousand francs of taxes, and the miserable 
 homestead of des Lupeaulx scarcely produced five 
 hundred francs of rent Where could he obtain 
 money to build a chateau, and to surround it with 
 several respectable looking domains, so that he 
 might throw dust in the eyes of an entire arrondisse- 
 ment? Notwithstanding that he dined out every 
 day, that he had been housed for nine years at the 
 expense of the state, that he had used the carriage 
 belonging to the minister of state, des Lupeaulx 
 possessed but little, at the moment when this scene 
 opens, except thirty thousand francs of genuine 
 debts, which no one disputed. A marriage might 
 set this ambitious man afloat, by bailing out his 
 bark, now full of the water of debt ; but a good mar- 
 riage would depend upon his advancement, and his 
 advancement on his becoming a Deputy. In search- 
 ing for the means of breaking through this vicious 
 circle, he saw but one way, that of rendering a
 
 48 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 great service, or of carrying an intrigue to a suc- 
 cessful issue. But alas ! the days of conspiracies 
 were past, and the Bourbons had apparently van- 
 quished all parties. Unfortunately, for the last few 
 years, the government had been so well held up to 
 the light of day by the foolish discussions of the 
 Left, whose aim was to render all government in 
 France impossible, that business could no longer be 
 carried on ; the last was done in Spain, and what 
 an outcry it excited! Then des Lupeaulx multi- 
 plied difficulties in believing in the friendship of 
 his minister, to whom he imprudently expressed the 
 desire of being placed on the ministerial bench. 
 The ministers divined the source of this wish, 
 which was that des Lupeaulx thought to consolidate 
 his now precarious position, and no longer re- 
 main under their rule. The greyhound turned 
 against the huntsman. The ministers gave him 
 by turns cuts with the whip and caresses, and 
 placed rivals in his path; but toward them des 
 Lupeaulx conducted himself as a practised courtier 
 would with a new-comer. He laid traps for them 
 into which they fell, and thereby exercised prompt 
 justice. The more he felt himself threatened, the 
 more he desired to gain a permanent position ; but 
 he was forced to play prudently! Otherwise, in 
 one moment all might be lost One stroke of the 
 pen might strike off his epaulettes which told his 
 rank as civil-colonel, his inspectorship, his sinecure 
 in the joint stock company, his two offices and the 
 advantages pertaining to them; in all, six salaries
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 49 
 
 retained under fire of the law regarding the holding 
 of several offices. Often he threatened his minister 
 as a mistress threatens her lover, he said he was on 
 the point of marrying a rich widow; then the min- 
 ister would coax his dear des Lupeaulx. When one 
 of these reconciliations took place, he received the 
 formal promise of a place in the Academy of Belles- 
 Lettres at the first vacancy. It was he said, worth 
 the keep of a horse. In his fine position, Clement 
 Chardin des Lupeaulx was like a tree planted in 
 fertile soil. He could satisfy his vices, his caprices, 
 his virtues and his defects. 
 
 These are the trials of his life: daily he had to 
 choose from among five or six invitations, the house 
 where he would be likely to find the best dinner. 
 Every morning he went to the informal reception of 
 the minister to make him and his wife laugh, to pet 
 the children and to play with them. Then he 
 worked for an hour or two, that is to say he lay 
 back in a comfortable chair, and read the papers, 
 dictated the purport of a letter, received visitors 
 during the minister's absence, explained the work 
 in a general way, held, or sprinkled a few drops of 
 the blessed water of the court, glanced over the 
 petitions through his eye-glasses, or wrote in his 
 own handwriting on the margin, words which sig- 
 nified: / consider it ridiculous, but do what you 
 think best about it! Everyone knew that when des 
 Lupeaulx was interested in any one or anything, he 
 attended to the matter himself. He permitted the 
 head clerks to converse confidentially about their 
 4
 
 JO THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 private affairs, at the same time he listened to their 
 gossip. From time to time he went to the chateau 
 to get his cue. He always waited for the minister 
 to return from the chamber when it was in session, 
 to see if he was required to originate or direct any 
 intrigue. This official sybarite was well dressed, 
 dined, and visited twelve or fifteen drawing-rooms 
 between eight in the evening and three in the 
 morning. At the opera, he talked with journalists, 
 for by them he was held in great esteem ; a con- 
 tinual flow of small courtesies was exchanged 
 between them, he dished up for them his misleading 
 news, and greedily devoured theirs; he prevented 
 them from attacking this or that minister on such or 
 such of their actions, as he said, it would cause their 
 wives or their mistresses real distress. 
 
 Say that the bill is worth nothing, and prove it 
 If you can ; but do not say that Mariette danced 
 badly. Let us speak slightingly of our love for our 
 female relatives, but let us not reveal the follies of 
 our youth. The devil ! we have all sowed our wild 
 oats, and we do not know what will become of us 
 in the present state of affairs. Perhaps you will be 
 minister of state, you who to-day are seasoning the 
 sandwiches of the Constitutionnel 
 
 In return, as occasion offered, he helped editors, 
 he overcame obstacles which interfered with the 
 production of a play, he gave gratuities or a good 
 dinner at the appropriate moment, or promised to 
 facilitate the settling up of some affair. Moreover 
 he loved literature and patronized the arts; he
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 5 1 
 
 possessed autographs and magnificent albums which 
 he obtained gratis, besides which he owned many 
 sketches and pictures. He did a great many favors 
 for artists by not injuring them, and in gratifying 
 them on certain occasions when their self-love 
 longed for something which was not very costly. 
 He was also loved by the world of actors and 
 actresses, of journalists and artists. In the first 
 place they all had the same vices and the same 
 indolence as himself; then they were so witty 
 between their cups or in company with two dancing 
 girls ! by these means how could they help being 
 friends? If des Lupeaulx had not been secretary- 
 general, he would have been a journalist Thus in 
 the fifteen years' struggle in which the hammer of 
 epigram opened the breach by which insurrection 
 entered, des Lupeaulx never received the least blow. 
 In seeing this man playing ball in the minister's 
 garden with the minister's children, the petty 
 clerks racked their brains to guess the secret of his 
 influence and the nature of his work, while the 
 aristocrats of every ministry regarded him as the 
 most dangerous Mephistopheles, adored him and 
 returned to him with interest, the flatteries he 
 bestowed in the higher ranks. The utility of the 
 secretary-general, although as difficult for the under- 
 clerks to decipher as a hieroglyphic inscription, 
 was as plain as the rule of three to those interested. 
 Charged with choosing opinions and ideas, with 
 making verbal reports, this little prince of Wagram, 
 of the ministerial Napoleon, knew all the secrets of
 
 52 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 parliamentary politics; dragged in the lukewarm, 
 fetched, carried, and interred propositions, said the 
 ayes or nays that the minister himself dared not 
 say. Compelled to receive the first fire and the 
 first blows of despair or of anger, he condoled or 
 laughed with the minister. Mysterious link by 
 which many interests were attached to the chateau, 
 and discreet as a confessor, he sometimes knew 
 everything, and then again he knew nothing; 
 besides he was able to say of a minister what 
 a minister would hesitate to say of himself. In 
 short, with this political Hephaestion, the minister 
 might dare to be himself; might lay aside his wig 
 and his false teeth, might thrust aside formalities 
 and wear his slippers, expose his sharp practices, 
 and lay bare his conscience. Everything then was 
 not a bed of roses for des Lupeaulx ; he flattered and 
 advised his minister, he was obliged to flatter him 
 if he wished to advise him, to counsel him in flat- 
 tering him and to disguise flattery under the guise 
 of advice. For this reason nearly all political men 
 who adopt this method have very bilious complex- 
 ions. The habit they have of constantly shaking 
 their heads affirmatively in approval of what has 
 been said, or in order to give the appearance of 
 doing so, gave a certain peculiar turn to their 
 heads. They agreed indifferently to everything 
 said in their hearing. Their conversation was full 
 of buts, howevers, noiwithstandings, as for me, in 
 your place, I would do they often said in your 
 place phrases, however, which invite contradiction.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 53 
 
 In person Clement des Lupeaulx gave the impres- 
 sion of having been a handsome man; he was five 
 feet, four inches tall, modestly stout, his complexion 
 flushed with good cheer, he had a worn appearance, 
 a powdered head, delicate little spectacles; to sum 
 up, he was blond which could be seen by glanc- 
 ing at his hand, which was as plump as that of an 
 old woman rather too square, short nails the 
 hand of a satrap. His foot was sufficiently remark- 
 able. After five o'clock in the afternoon des 
 Lupeaulx always wore open-work silk stockings, low 
 shoes, black trousers, and a cashmere vest, he car- 
 ried an unscented cambric handkerchief and wore 
 a gold chain ; he also wore a coat of a shade known 
 as "King's blue," with carved buttons, and the in- 
 signia of his orders. In the morning he wore creaking 
 boots under gray trousers, and the short, tight little 
 overcoat affected by politicians. In his appearance 
 he more closely resembled a cunning lawyer than a 
 minister of state. His eyes being glazed by the 
 constant use of spectacles, made him appear uglier 
 than he really was, that is when he by mischance 
 removed his glasses. To skilful judges, to upright 
 men who are only at their ease with truthful men, 
 des Lupeaulx was insupportable. For his gracious 
 manners hid his lies, his agreeable protestations, 
 his old-time compliments always new to the fool- 
 ish showed but too plainly what he was. Every 
 observing man saw in him a rotten plank on which 
 one should be very careful not to step. No sooner 
 had the beautiful Madame Rabourdin deigned to
 
 54 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 interest herself in the administrative advancement 
 of her husband, than she became acquainted with 
 Clement des Lupeaulx, and studied his character, 
 thinking perchance she might find in this scantling 
 some ligneous fibres solid enough for her to step 
 across from the bureau to the department, from a 
 salary of eight thousand to twelve thousand francs. 
 This brilliant woman thought herself competent to 
 play with this political roue. Monsieur des Lupeaulx 
 then was partly the cause of the extraordinary 
 expenses which were now made and were continued 
 in the Rabourdin household.
 
 Rue Duphot, built under the Empire, is remark- 
 able for the elegant exterior of some of the houses, 
 containing as a general rule apartments which were 
 very well-planned. The one occupied by Madame 
 Rabourdin was especially well-arranged, an advan- 
 tage which counts for a great deal in the elegance 
 of a home. A beautiful ante-chamber, of consider- 
 able size, lighted from the court, led to a large salon, 
 the windows of which looked out on the street. At 
 the right of this salon were Rabourdin's study and 
 bed-room, and behind them the dining-room, which 
 was entered through the ante-chamber ; to the left 
 was Madame Rabourdin's bed-room and her dressing- 
 room, behind which was the little bed-room of her 
 daughter. On reception days the door of Rabour- 
 din's study and also the door of Madame Rabourdin's 
 bed-room were thrown open. The rooms were thus 
 large enough to entertain a select company, without 
 exciting the ridicule which weighs so heavily on 
 certain middle-class receptions, where the extra 
 preparations, made at the expense of daily comfort, 
 show the infrequency of the occasion. The draw- 
 ing-room had just been redraped in yellow silk with 
 light-brown colored trimmings. Madame Rabour- 
 din's bed-room was upholstered in chintz of a bright 
 blue color, and was furnished in the rococo style. 
 Rabourdin's study had fallen heir to the hangings 
 (55)
 
 56 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 from the old drawing-room, which had been reju- 
 venated, it was also adorned by the beautiful pic- 
 tures which had been left by Leprince. The daughter 
 of the late appraiser utilized in her dining-room 
 the exquisite Turkish rugs, which her father had 
 bought at a bargain, by placing them as panels 
 framed in old ebony, which has since become very 
 costly. Elegant buffets designed by Boulle, also 
 bought by the late appraiser, ornamented the wall of 
 this room, in the centre of which sparkled the brass 
 arabesques inlaid with tortoise-shell, which deco- 
 rated the first pedestal clock which had been made 
 after the patterns of the XVII. Century, and set the 
 then present fashion. Flowers perfumed this apart- 
 ment, furnished so tastefully, and containing so 
 many beautiful things, where each detail was a 
 work of art well placed and well surrounded ; where 
 Madame Rabourdin dressed with that peculiar 
 simplicity which artists affect appeared like a 
 woman accustomed to these possessions ; she never 
 spoke of them, but allowed the charms of her mind 
 to complete the effect produced upon her guests by 
 this ensemble. Thanks to her father, since rococo 
 style had become the fashion, everyone spoke of 
 Celestine. 
 
 Accustomed as des Lupeaulx was to false as well 
 as to real magnificence of all kinds, he was sur- 
 prised when he went to Madame Rabourdin's house. 
 The fascination which seized this Parisian Asmodeus 
 may be explained by a comparison. Let us imagine 
 a traveler fatigued with the rich aspects of Italy,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 57 
 
 Brazil or the Indies, on returning to his country 
 finding on his way a delightful little lake, for 
 instance, like Lake d'Orta, at the foot of Monte 
 Rosa, an island beautifully placed on its calm waters, 
 bewitching and at the same time simple, wild but 
 nevertheless beautiful, standing alone, but well sur- 
 rounded; elegant groves, and statues effectively 
 placed. Beyond, shores both wild and cultivated ; 
 grandeur and confusion without, while within, 
 everything is of usual size. The world which the 
 traveler has seen is represented there in miniature 
 modest and pure; his soul refreshed, invites him to 
 rest there, for a poetic and melodious charm sur- 
 rounds him with harmonious thoughts, and awakens 
 all his ideas. This represents at the same time a 
 monastery and the world! A few days earlier the 
 beautiful Madame Firmiani, one of the most fasci- 
 nating women of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, who 
 liked and visited Madame Rabourdin, said to des 
 Lupeaulx whom she had especially invited to hear 
 this remark: "Why do you not go to see 
 Madame ?" looking toward Celestine. She has 
 delightful evenings, and what is more, she gives 
 dinners better than mine. " Des Lupeaulx allowed 
 himself to be persuaded into promising to call by 
 the beautiful Madame Rabourdin, who for the first 
 time raised her eyes to his while speaking. And 
 he went to Rue Duphot, does not that tell every- 
 thing? Figaro says woman has only one ruse, but 
 that is infallible. When des Lupeaulx first dined 
 at the house of this unimportant head-clerk, he
 
 58 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 promised himself that he would dine there occa- 
 sionally. Thanks to the perfectly proper and con- 
 ventional manoeuvres of this charming woman, 
 whom her rival, Madame Colleville, called the 
 CUimltie of Rue Duphot, he had dined there every 
 Friday for the past month, and had returned of his 
 own free will to drink a cup of tea every Wednes- 
 day. For some days past, Madame Rabourdin, 
 thanks to her wise and fine powers of perception, 
 thought she had found in this ministerial plank a 
 spot where she might place her foot She no longer 
 doubted her success. Her inward joy can only be 
 understood in the homes of government officials who 
 for three or four years have looked forward to pros- 
 perity as the result of attaining the longed-for and 
 cherished appointment How many troubles are 
 appeased! how many good wishes given to the 
 ministerial divinities! How many visits are made 
 for self-interest! At last, thanks to her boldness, 
 Madame Rabourdin heard the hour strike, when she 
 was to have twenty thousand francs a year instead 
 of eight thousand. 
 
 And I shall have managed well, she said to her- 
 self. I have been under some expense; but in this 
 age no one seeks merit that hides itself, whereas if 
 one keeps one's self well in sight, before the world, 
 and cultivates opportunities, and extends them, he 
 becomes a man of consequence. After all, min- 
 isters of state and their friends are only interested 
 in the people whom they see, and Rabourdin takes 
 everything on trust! If I had not cajoled these
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 59 
 
 three deputies, perhaps they would have wanted 
 de la Billardiere's place themselves; whereas now, 
 entertained at my house, they would be ashamed 
 to ask this so they become our supporters instead 
 of our rivals. I have in a measure played the 
 coquette, but I am happy to know that the first 
 nonsense with which men are amused has been 
 sufficient 
 
 The day on which a serious and unforeseen strug- 
 gle took place about this appointment after a minis- 
 terial dinner which preceded one of these receptions 
 which ministers regard as public, des Lupeaulx was 
 by the fire-place near the wife of the minister. 
 While taking his cup of coffee he again included 
 Madame Rabourdin among the seven or eight really 
 superior women of Paris. Many times he had 
 staked Madame Rabourdin like Corporal Trim 
 staked his cap. 
 
 "Do not say that too often, dear friend, or you 
 will injure her," said the wife of the minister to 
 him, half laughingly. 
 
 No woman likes to hear another woman praised in 
 her presence; she reserves her opinion in that case, 
 so as to embitter the praise. 
 
 "Poor La Billardiere is dying," remarked His 
 Excellency, "the administrative succession falls to 
 Rabourdin, one of our most able men, to whom our 
 predecessors have not behaved well, although one 
 of them owed his position as Prefect of Police 
 under the Empire to a certain salaried personage 
 who was interested in Rabourdin. Frankly, dear
 
 60 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 friend, you are yet young enough to be loved for 
 yourself " 
 
 "If La Billardiere's place is given to Rabourdin, 
 I may be believed when I praise the superiority of 
 his wife," replied des Lupeaulx, piqued by the 
 minister's sarcasm, "but if the countess would judge 
 for herself " 
 
 "Shall I invite her to my next ball, yes? Your 
 superior woman will arrive when the women are 
 present who come here to ridicule us, and when 
 they hear the name Madame Rabourdin an- 
 nounced " 
 
 "But is not Madame Firmiani received at the 
 house of the Minister of Foreign Affairs? " 
 
 "She was born a Cadignan!" said the new 
 count quickly in turning a fierce glance toward his 
 secretary-general, for neither he nor his wife were 
 noble. 
 
 Many people thought that important affairs were 
 being discussed, and the office-seekers stayed at the 
 other end of the room. When des Lupeaulx left, 
 the new countess said to her husband : 
 
 "I believe des Lupeaulx is in love!" 
 
 "Then it is the first time in his life," he replied, 
 shrugging his shoulders, as much as to say to his 
 wife that des Lupeaulx did not occupy himself with 
 trifles. 
 
 The minister then saw a Deputy of the Right 
 Centre enter and he left his wife to try to influence 
 an undecided vote. But this Deputy, under the 
 blow of an unforeseen and overwhelming disaster,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 6l 
 
 wished to gain protection and he had just announced 
 the secret that in a few days he would be obliged 
 to tender his resignation. Thus forewarned, the 
 minister would be able to use his batteries before 
 those of the opposition. 
 
 The minister, that is to say des Lupeaulx, had in- 
 vited to dine with him a person who had remained 
 irremovably placed under all the ministries, a person 
 who suffered very much from embarrassment, and 
 who in his desire to gain a dignified expression of 
 countenance, stood motionless on his two legs, 
 placed close together like those of an Egyptian 
 mummy. This functionary waited near the fire- 
 place at the moment when he was thanking the 
 secretary-general, whose abrupt and unlocked for 
 retreat disconcerted him just as he was about to 
 pay a compliment This man was purely and 
 simply the cashier at the ministry, he was the only 
 clerk who did not tremble when the government 
 changed hands. At this time the Chamber of Dep- 
 uties did not meddle meanly with the budget, as it 
 does in the degenerate days in which we live; it 
 did not contemptibly reduce the ministerial emolu- 
 ments, or save as the saying is, in kitchen par- 
 lance the candle ends in order to economize, it 
 accorded to each minister taking charge of a depart- 
 ment, an indemnity called an outfit. It costs, alas! 
 as much to enter the Service as to retire from it, and 
 the newcomer is confronted by expenses of all kinds 
 which it is scarcely possible to foresee. This indem- 
 nity consists of the snug little sum of twenty-five
 
 62 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 thousand francs. When the decisions appeared 
 in the Moniteur, the greater and less officials clus- 
 tered around the stoves or before the fire-places, 
 being shaken by the political storm, said to each 
 other: "What will this one do? will he increase the 
 number of clerks ? will he dismiss two in order to 
 put in three to fill their places ? " The calm cashier 
 took twenty-five beautiful bank-notes, pinned them 
 together, while on his beadle's solemn face there 
 rested a joyous expression. He climbed up the 
 stairs of the apartments and had himself presented 
 to the minister, at his reception, by people who 
 confounded, as one and the same power, the money 
 and the guardian of that money, the contents and 
 the man who took charge of it, the idea and the 
 form. The cashier seized the ministerial couple at 
 the dawn of official ecstasy, during which period a 
 statesman is benign and good-natured. To the 
 What do you want? by which the minister addressed 
 him, he replied by showing the bank-notes, at the 
 same time saying that he had hastened to bring His 
 Excellency the usual indemnity. He explained 
 the motives to the minister's wife, who was aston- 
 ished as well as delighted, and who never failed to 
 take some of it, and often all. An outfit is a house- 
 hold affair. The cashier then turned a compliment, 
 and spoke a few elegant phrases to monseigneur : 
 "If His Excellency would deign to retain him, if, 
 satisfied with his services, which were purely 
 mechanical, if, etc." As a man who brings twenty- 
 five thousand francs is always a worthy clerk, the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 63 
 
 cashier did not leave without hearing that his posi- 
 tion was assured, this position whence he had 
 seen many ministers come, go and die during twenty- 
 five years. Then he placed himself at the service 
 of the minister's wife, he brought the monthly 
 thirteen thousand francs at a useful time, he 
 advanced them or held them back as ordered, and, 
 according to an old monastic saying, he in this way 
 managed to get a voice in the chapter. 
 
 Formerly bookkeeper at the Treasury, when 
 the Treasury kept its books by double-entry, Sieur 
 Saillard was indemnified for the loss of that posi- 
 tion, by his present position as cashier. He was a 
 large, stout, good kind of man, very strong in the 
 matter of bookkeeping, very weak in everything 
 else, round as a cipher, simple as possible, and he 
 walked to the office with measured steps like those 
 of an elephant, and returned in the same manner to 
 the Place Royale, where he lived on the ground floor 
 of an old house which he owned. As companion 
 in his walks to and fro he had Monsieur Isidore 
 Baudoyer, head of a bureau in the department of 
 Monsieur de la Billardiere, one of Rabourdin's 
 colleagues, who had married Elisabeth Saillard, 
 Monsieur Saillard's only daughter, and who had 
 therefore naturally taken an apartment above his. 
 No one at the ministry doubted that Saillard 
 was a fool, but no one could tell how far his stu- 
 pidity would go; it was too compact to be examined, 
 it did not ring hollow; it absorbed everything and 
 gave nothing. Bixiou a clerk of whom I will
 
 64 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 speak later on made a caricature of the cashier 
 by drawing a head dressed with a wig, at the top 
 of an egg, and two little limbs beneath, with this 
 inscription: "Born to pay and to receive with- 
 out ever blundering. A little less luck, and he 
 might have been messenger to the Bank of France; 
 a little more ambition and he might have been 
 discharged." 
 
 At this time, the minister regarded his cashier 
 as we regard a curtain or a cornice, without think- 
 ing that the ornament can hear our conversations, 
 or understand our inward thoughts. 
 
 "I would advise, as nearly as possible, that we 
 should settle everything with the prefect in the 
 most secret manner, because des Lupeaulx wishes 
 the place for himself," said the minister to the 
 deposed Deputy, "his small estate is in your arron- 
 dissement, and we do not want him to have the 
 position." 
 
 "He has not the qualifications, nor is he old 
 enough," said the Deputy. 
 
 "Yes, but you know how the question of age was 
 decided for Casimer Perier. As to worldly goods, 
 des Lupeaulx possesses something, though not 
 much; but the law has not foreseen its possibly 
 great increase in value commissions have wide 
 margins for the Deputies of the Centre, and we 
 cannot ostensibly oppose the good-will that is shown 
 to this dear friend." 
 
 "But where could he get the money for these 
 acquisitions?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 65 
 
 "And how did Manuel come to possess a house 
 in Paris? " said the minister. 
 
 The cashier listened, but very reluctantly. These 
 rapid remarks, although they were spoken softly, 
 struck Saillard's ear by one of those acoustic 
 rebounds which are not yet well understood. Do 
 you know what feeling took possession of this good 
 man when he heard these political secrets? Extreme 
 terror. He was one of those simple-minded persons 
 who hate to appear to be listening to what they 
 should not hear, to enter where they are not invited, 
 to appear bold when they are timid, inquisitive 
 when they are discreet. The cashier glided along 
 the carpet so as to withdraw, and when the min- 
 ister perceived his presence he was some distance 
 away. Saillard was a ministerial fanatic incapable 
 of the least indiscretion ; if the minister had had 
 any idea that he had overheard the secret, he would 
 only have had to say to him Motus! The cashier 
 profited by the influx of office-seekers, called a cab, 
 hired by the hour for those costly entertainments, 
 and returned to his house in the Place Royale. 
 
 While the father Saillard was driving through 
 Paris, his son-in-law and his dear Elisabeth were 
 playing a virtuous game of boston with the Abbe 
 Gaudron, their confessor, in company with a few of 
 their neighbors, and a certain Martin Falleix, a 
 brass-founder in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, to 
 whom Saillard had loaned the funds necessary to 
 establish the business on a favorable footing. This 
 Falleix, a respectable Auvergnat, had come with 
 
 a
 
 66 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 his brazier on his back and had been immediately 
 employed by the firm of Brezac, which was chiefly 
 engaged in dismantling chateaux. Martin Falleix 
 was about twenty-seven years of age, and as much 
 spoiled by success as anyone else; he had the good 
 fortune to possess an interest in the business through 
 Monsieur Saillard, for having worked out a discovery 
 in smelting patent of invention and gold medal of 
 the Exposition of 1825. Madame Baudoyer, whose 
 only daughter was treading to use an expression 
 of old Saillard at the tail end of her twelve years, 
 had fixed her choice on Falleix, a thick-set, swarthy, 
 active fellow of strict integrity, whose education 
 she was directing. According to her ideas this 
 education consisted in teaching this brave Auvergnat 
 to play boston, to hold his cards properly, and to let 
 no one see his hand, to be well-shaved before com- 
 ing to the house, to clean his hands by using ordi- 
 nary bar soap; not to swear, to speak their French, 
 to wear boots instead of shoes, to wear calico shirt? 
 instead of sacking, to brush his hair up instead of 
 smoothing it down. The week before, Elisabeth 
 had persuaded Falleix to take off his earrings two 
 enormous flat rings resembling hoops. 
 
 "You go too far, Madame Baudoyer," he said, in 
 seeing her delight at this sacrifice, "you rule me 
 too strictly ; you make me clean my teeth, and that 
 loosens them ; you will soon order me to brush my 
 nails, and curl my hair, which will not be appro- 
 priate in our business; we do not like dandies." 
 
 Elisabeth Baudoyer, r&e Saillard , was one of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 67 
 
 those persons who cannot be described by reason of 
 their very commonness; yet who, nevertheless, 
 ought to be sketched ; because they are a good type 
 of the little Parisian bourgeoisie who occupy a 
 place above the rich artisan and beneath the upper 
 untitled class whose virtues are almost vices, 
 whose defects are never agreeable, but whose man- 
 ners, although stupid, do not lack originality. 
 Elisabeth had a somewhat pinched appearance, 
 very painful to behold. Her form scarcely over four 
 feet high was so thin that her waist scarcely meas- 
 ured twenty inches. Her fine features were grouped 
 about her nose, and gave her face a vague resem- 
 blance to a weasel's snout. After she was over 
 thirty years of age she had the appearance of a girl 
 of sixteen or seventeen. Her china-blue eyes, over- 
 hung by heavy eyelids, as well as by the arch 
 of her eyebrows, shed but little light. Everything 
 about her was seedy. Her light hair was nearly 
 white, and her flat forehead was brightened by 
 planes which absorbed the light, while her complex- 
 ion was full of gray, almost leaden, tints. The lower 
 part of her face more triangular than oval ter- 
 minated in an irregular manner the generally un- 
 shapely outline. Besides, her voice had a rather 
 pretty intonation ranging from sharpness to sweet- 
 ness. Elisabeth was a good sample of the little 
 bourgeoise who counsels her husband in the even- 
 ing, on his pillow, without taking the least credit 
 for her virtues. She was ambitious, but not design- 
 ing, and developed selfishness only in domestic
 
 68 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 affairs. Had she lived in the country, she would 
 have increased her property, but now she wished to 
 advance in the administration. To narrate the life 
 of her father and her mother is to give a good idea 
 of the woman by painting her childhood and girl- 
 hood. 
 
 Monsieur Saillard married the daughter of a man 
 who dealt in furniture, whose store was under the 
 arcade of the market-place. Monsieur and Madame 
 Saillard, owing to their limited means, were at first 
 obliged to endure constant privations. After having 
 been married for thirty-three years and having 
 worked in the Civil Service for twenty-nine 
 years, the property of the Saillards that is the 
 name by which their circle of acquaintances called 
 them consisted of sixty thousand francs entrusted 
 to Falleix, the house in the Place Royale bought for 
 forty thousand francs in 1804, and thirty-six thou- 
 sand francs of dowry which they had given to their 
 daughter. But of this capital, the sum of about 
 fifty thousand francs had come to them through the 
 will of the widow Bidault, Madame Saillard's 
 mother. Saillard's salary had always brought him 
 four thousand five hundred francs, for his position 
 was one which led to no promotion, and which for 
 a long time had tempted no one. These ninety 
 thousand francs, amassed cent by cent, were the 
 result of petty economies, unintelligently used. In 
 fact the Saillards knew no other manner of placing 
 their money than to take it in sums of five thousand 
 francs to their notary, Monsieur Sorbier, Cardot's
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 69 
 
 predecessor, and to lend it at five per cent on first 
 mortgage, with the wife's rights reserved, if the 
 borrower were married! In 1804 Madame Saillard 
 obtained an office for the sale of stamped-paper, 
 which circumstance made it necessary to have a 
 servant in the house. At this time the house, 
 which was worth more than a hundred thousand 
 francs, rented for eight thousand. Falleix contrib- 
 uted seven per cent of his sixty thousand francs, 
 besides an equal division of the profits. Thus the 
 Saillards enjoyed at least seventeen thousand francs 
 income. The whole ambition of the good man was 
 to obtain the Cross of the Legion of Honor on retir- 
 ing from office. 
 
 Elisabeth spent her youth in constant toil in a 
 family whose manners were serious and whose 
 Ideas were limited. This family would consider 
 well before buying a hat for Saillard, the number of 
 years a coat had lasted were calculated, the umbrellas 
 were hung up on a peg by means of a brass ring. 
 The house had not had any repairs since 1804. 
 The Saillards kept the ground floor in the same con- 
 dition in which the previous owner had left it; the 
 gilding had peeled off of the frames of the pier- 
 glasses, the frescoes over the doors were scarcely 
 visible, owing to the dust which had lodged there all 
 those years. In these large and beautiful rooms the 
 sculptured marble mantel-pieces were still to be 
 seen, also the ceilings worthy of Versailles, and the 
 old furniture from the house of the widow Bidault 
 These consisted of walnut arm-chairs, disjointed
 
 70 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 and covered with tapestry rose-wood bureaus, with 
 hall centre-tables decorated with brass ornaments, 
 and having white marble tops which were cracked; 
 one superb Boulle secretary, the value of which 
 fashion had not yet recognized; beside a chaos of 
 bargains which had been purchased by the widow 
 of the merchant, whose store was in the arcade of 
 the market-place : pictures bought for the beauty of 
 their frames ; crockery of composite designs, that is 
 to say, a dessert service of magnificent Japanese 
 plates, while the rest of the set was of various 
 makes ; silver-plate which did not match, old glass, 
 fine damask, and a four-post canopied bedstead 
 hung with chintz, and a feather bed. 
 
 Amid all these relics Madame Saillard always sat 
 in a modern mahogany easy-chair. Her feet placed 
 on a foot-warmer were well toasted. She drew her 
 chair near a fire-place full of ashes, but without 
 fire, while on top of the mantel-piece were an orna- 
 mented panel, antique bronzes, and candelabra 
 ornamented with flowers, but containing no candles, 
 for she lighted the room by means of a candle which, 
 owing to the drippings, had the appearance of being 
 fluted and which stood in a flat brass candlestick. 
 Madame Saillard's countenance was one which, not- 
 withstanding the wrinkles, showed the marks of ob- 
 stinacy and severity, limited ideas, an all-around 
 probity, a religion without compassion, artless ava- 
 rice and the peace of a good conscience. In certain 
 Flemish pictures, one may see the wives of the 
 burgomasters formed by nature after the same
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 71 
 
 pattern, and wonderfully well reproduced in the 
 painting; but they are clad in beautiful velvet robes 
 or precious stuffs, while Madame Saillard had no cos- 
 tumes, except that antique garment called in Tou- 
 raine and Picardy cottes, or more generally in France, 
 petticoats, a kind of skirts pleated behind and at 
 the sides, worn one over the other. Her body was 
 enclosed in a jacket, another fashion of a by- 
 gone age! She continued to wear the butterfly 
 bonnet, and shoes with high heels. Although she 
 was fifty-seven years old, and from having worked 
 so faithfully in household duties she might now 
 feel herself entitled to some rest, she knitted 
 her husband's stockings, her own and her uncle's, 
 as the country women knit while walking, speak- 
 ing, taking the air in the garden or in looking 
 around the kitchen to see what is going on there. 
 
 The Saillards' avarice, at first the result of neces- 
 sity, had become habitual. The cashier, on return- 
 ing from the office, took off his coat, and worked 
 with his own hands in the beautiful garden shut off 
 from the court by a railing, and which was devoted 
 to their exclusive use. For some time Elisabeth 
 accompanied her mother to market every morning, 
 and these two attended to all the domestic depart- 
 ment Her mother knew how to cook a duck dressed 
 with turnips in the most delicious manner, but 
 according to Saillard, Elisabeth knew how to hash 
 what was left over of a leg of mutton with onions, 
 so as to distance all rivals. "One might eat 
 one's uncle in that dish without being any the
 
 72 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 wiser," he used to remark. As soon as Elisabeth 
 knew how to use her needle, her mother assigned 
 to her the mending of the house linen and her 
 father's clothes. As she was incessantly occupied 
 in menial work, she never went out alone. Al- 
 though she lived but a few steps from thg Boulevard 
 du Temple, where Franconi, la Gaiete, 1'Ambigu- 
 Comique were, while further on was the Porte- 
 Saint-Martin, Elisabeth had never gone to the 
 play. When she thought she would like to see 
 what was going on there -with the permission of 
 Monsieur Gaudron, of course Monsieur Baudoyer 
 took her, at great expense, and showed her the most 
 beautiful of all sights, the Opera, where they were 
 then playing The Chinese Plowman. Elisabeth 
 thought the play as tantalizing as flies, and had no 
 desire to go there again. On Sundays, after having 
 walked four times from the Place Royale to Saint- 
 Paul's church and back for the mother made her 
 conform strictly to the precepts and duties belong- 
 ing to religion her father and mother took her to 
 the Turkish Cafe, where they seated themselves on 
 chairs placed between a barrier and the wall. The 
 Saillards hurried to be there among the first, so that 
 they could get the best seats, and could also amuse 
 themselves watching the people as they passed. At 
 this time the Turkish Cafe was the rendezvous of the 
 fashionable society of the Marais,the Faubourg Saint- 
 Antoine, and of the people living in the neighbor- 
 hood of those places. In summer Elisabeth had 
 never worn anything but cotton gowns, and in winter
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 73 
 
 merino; these she made herself. Her mother only 
 gave her twenty francs a month for her expenses, 
 but her father, who loved her dearly, tempered this 
 strictness by giving her a few presents. She never 
 read books which the Abbe Gaudron vicar of 
 Saint-Paul, and family adviser called profane. 
 This regime had borne its fruits. Elisabeth found 
 it necessary to give way to her feelings in some 
 direction, and so she became greedy for gain, 
 although she lacked neither sense nor perspicacity ; 
 but her religious theories and her ignorance had 
 combined to limit the workings of her mind, as 
 though bound with an iron band. She only thought 
 about the most common-place events, and such 
 thoughts as she had were soon exhausted on a few 
 points of the question. She threw her whole soul 
 into the matter she had on hand. Repressed by 
 her religious observances, the natural scope of her 
 intelligence could only be employed within the 
 limit set by her conscience, which formed a mind 
 stored with subtleties in which self-interest chooses 
 subterfuges. Like those saintly personages in 
 whom religion has not stifled ambition, she was 
 capable of asking her neighbors to commit blamable 
 deeds from which she might reap all the fruit; on 
 such an occasion she would have been, like them, 
 implacable as to her dues, and dissembling in the 
 means of obtaining them. If offended, she would 
 have watched her adversaries with the perfidious 
 patience of a cat, and was capable of successfully 
 planning some cold and complete vengeance, which
 
 74 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 she laid to the account of God. Until Elisabeth's 
 marriage, the Saillards had no other society than 
 that of the Abbe Gaudron, a priest born in 
 Auvergne, who was made vicar of Saint-Paul, after 
 the restoration of the Catholic worship. Besides this 
 ecclesiastic, who was a friend of the late Madame 
 Bidault, there was Madame Saillard's uncle on her 
 father's side, an old paper-dealer, who had retired 
 from business the second year of the Republic; at 
 this time he was sixty-nine years of age, and he 
 only came to see them on a Sunday, because there 
 was no business done on that day. 
 
 This little old man had a face of a greenish 
 hue the most remarkable feature of which was 
 a nose as red as that of a drinker pierced 
 with two vulture-like eyes; his gray hair was 
 allowed to float under a three-cornered hat; he wore 
 breeches with flaps that extended considerably 
 beyond the buckles, cotton stockings of mixed colors, 
 knitted by his niece, whom he always called the 
 little Saillard; large shoes with silver buckles, and 
 an overcoat of many colors. He looked very much 
 like those little sextons vergers bell-ringers 
 1 beadles grave-diggers parish-clerks of the village, 
 who are taken for the fancies of caricaturists until 
 they are seen performing their various duties. He 
 had just now come on foot to dine, and intended to 
 return in the same way to Rue Grenetal, where he 
 lived on the third floor. His business was that of 
 discounting commercial paper in the Quartier Saint- 
 Martin, where he was known by the nickname
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 75 
 
 of Gigonnet, in consequence of the nervous and 
 convulsive way in which he raised his leg. Mon- 
 sieur Bidault had been discounting since the year 
 II. in partnership with a Dutchman, Sieur Wer- 
 brust, a friend of Gobseck. 
 
 Later, in the bank of the Saint-Paul factory, Sail- 
 lard made the acquaintance of Monsieur and Madame 
 Transon, extensive dealers in pottery, established 
 in Rue de Lesdiguieres, who took a great interest 
 in Elisabeth, and who introduced young Isidore 
 Baudoyer to the Saillards, hoping that it would 
 result in Elisabeth's marriage. The connection of 
 Monsieur and Madame Baudoyer with the Saillards 
 was strengthened by the approval of Gigonnet, who 
 for some time had employed a Sieur Mitral in his 
 business, a sheriff's officer, a brother of Madame 
 Baudoyer, the mother, who was then about to retire 
 to dwell in a beautiful house at He-Adam. Mon- 
 sieur and Madame Baudoyer, Isidore's father and 
 mother, highly respectable leather-dressers in Rue 
 Censier, had slowly accumulated a comfortable for- 
 tune in the regular course of business. After 
 having married their only son, to whom they 
 gave fifty thousand francs, they concluded to live 
 in the country, and chose the neighborhood of 
 He-Adam, where they induced Mitral to join them ; 
 but they frequently came to Paris, where they 
 kept a small sleeping-apartment in the house on 
 Rue Censier, which they gave to Isidore on his 
 marriage. .The Baudoyers still had an income 
 of three thousand francs, after having deducted
 
 76 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 the marriage-portion which they had given to 
 their son. 
 
 Monsieur Mitral was a man with an evil-looking 
 wig, a face the color of the River Seine, lighted by 
 two Spanish-tobacco colored eyes, as cold as a well- 
 rope, and was always smelling a mouse, and kept the 
 secret of his income; but he no doubt worked in his 
 own corner, as Gigonnet worked in the Quartier 
 Saint-Martin. 
 
 Although the circle of this family increased, 
 neither their ideas nor their manners changed. 
 The saint's days of father, mother, son-in-law, 
 daughter and grand-daughter, and the anniversaries 
 of the births and marriages were all celebrated, as 
 were also Easter, Christmas, New Year's Day, and 
 Twelfth Day. These festivals were the occasion of 
 great sweepings and general cleaning up of the 
 house, which added utility to the pleasures of these 
 domestic ceremonies. Then followed the offerings 
 given with much ceremony and accompanied with 
 bouquets, and useful presents, a pair of silk stock- 
 ings: a fur cap for Saillard, gold earrings, a silver 
 dish for Elisabeth, or for her husband, to whom, little 
 by little, a whole service of plate was being given; 
 silk skirts for Madame Saillard, who kept them in 
 the piece. Before receiving the present the recip- 
 ient was seated in an arm-chair and asked for a 
 certain length of time : 
 
 "Guess what we are going to give you ? " 
 
 Then came a splendid dinner, which lasted five 
 hours, to which were invited the Abbe Gaudron,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 77 
 
 Falleix, Rabourdin, Monsieur Godard, formerly 
 deputy-chief to Monsieur Baudoyer; Monsieur Ba- 
 taille, captain of the company to which the son- 
 in-law and father-in-law belonged. Monsieur Car- 
 dot, who was naturally invited, did as Rabourdin, 
 he accepted one invitation out of six. At dessert 
 the company sang, and enthusiastically embraced 
 each other, at the same time extending wishes for 
 all manner of happiness. They showed their pres- 
 ents, at the same time asking their guests what 
 they thought of them. The day when Saillard 
 received the fur-cap he kept it on his head during 
 dessert, much to the general satisfaction. In the 
 evening those who were merely acquaintances came, 
 and there was a dance. The dancing went on for 
 some time to the music of only one violin, but for 
 the last six years Monsieur Godard, who was a 
 great flute-player, contributed to the festival by 
 adding the music of a piercing flageolet. The cook, 
 Madame Baudoyer's nurse, old Catherine, Madame 
 Saillard's servant, and the porter or his wife stood 
 in the doorway of the salon to look on. The ser- 
 vants then received three francs to buy for them- 
 selves wine or coffee. This group of people looked 
 upon Baudoyer and Saillard as transcendent beings, 
 for they were employed by the government. They 
 had attained this distinction by their merit; they 
 worked, it was said, with the minister himself; they 
 owed their good fortune to their talents ; they were 
 politicians; but Baudoyer was thought to be the 
 more capable. His position as head of a bureau
 
 78 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 presupposed much more complicated duties, much 
 more arduous than that which was necessary for the 
 position of cashier. Moreover, Isidore, though he 
 was the son of a leather-dresser of Rue Censier, had 
 had the ability to study, the hardihood to renounce 
 his father's business and to go into the government 
 employ, where he had attained a high position. In 
 short, being uncommunicative, he was considered 
 a profound thinker, and perhaps said the Tran- 
 sons he would one day become Deputy of the 
 eighth arrondissement While listening to these 
 remarks, Gigonnet would often shut his lips even 
 tighter than usual, and glance at his great-niece 
 Elisabeth. 
 
 In person Isidore was a man thirty-seven years 
 of age, tall and stout, who perspired easily, and 
 whose head resembled that of a person afflicted 
 with water on the brain. His enormous head, cov- 
 ered with chestnut tiair cut very short, was joined 
 to his neck by a roll of flesh which swelled out over 
 the collar of his coat He had arms like Hercules, 
 and hands worthy of a Domitian, a stomach which 
 his sobriety kept in majestic form, according to the 
 saying of Brillat-Savarin. His face closely resem- 
 bled that of the Emperor Alexander. The Tartar 
 type could be seen in his small eyes, in his flattened 
 nose turned up at the end, in the expression of his 
 mouth with its cold lips, and in his short chin. His 
 forehead was low and narrow. Although of a lym- 
 phatic temperament, the devout Isidore was swayed 
 by excessive conjugal passion which time did not
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 79 
 
 alter. Notwithstanding his resemblance to the firm- 
 looking Russian Emperor and the terrible Domitian, 
 Isidore was nothing more than a Civil Service clerk, 
 not very capable as head of the bureau, but formed 
 for routine work, who hid his flabby inability under 
 such a thick covering that no scalpel could lay it 
 bare. When making his severe studies he displayed 
 the patience and wisdom of an ox, and his square 
 head had deceived his parents into believing him 
 to be an extraordinary man. Fastidious and 
 pedantic, meddlesome and talkative, he was the 
 dread of the clerks, to whom he made continual 
 suggestions. He exacted all the periods and commas, 
 rigorously enforcing the rules, and being himself so 
 terribly punctual that no one in his bureau failed to 
 be there before him. Baudoyer wore a blue-bottle 
 coat with yellow buttons, a chamois vest, gray 
 trousers and a colored cravat He had large feet 
 badly shod. His watch-chain was ornamented 
 with an enormous bunch of old trinkets, among 
 which as late as 1824 he still wore American 
 beans, which were fashionable in the year VII. 
 
 In the bosom of this family, which was bound 
 together by religious ties, by the inflexibility of its 
 manners, by one single thought that of avarice 
 which became, as it were their compass, Elisabeth 
 was forced to commune with herself instead of 
 imparting her thoughts to others, for she felt she 
 had no equals who could understand her. Although 
 circumstances compelled her to judge her husband, 
 her devotion taught her to do her best to think of
 
 80 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Monsieur Baudoyer in as favorable a light as possi- 
 ble; she showed him great respect, and honored 
 him as the father of her daughter ; her husband, the 
 temporal power, as the vicar of Saint-Paul said. 
 She would also have regarded it as a mortal sin to 
 make one gesture, give one glance, say one word, 
 which could have revealed to the stranger her true 
 opinion of the stupid Baudoyer. She professed 
 even a passive obedience to all his wishes. Every- 
 thing that went on in the world reached her ears. 
 She thought about these things, weighed them for 
 herself, and judged so well of things and men that 
 at the moment when this history commences she 
 was the secret oracle of the two functionaries, who 
 had both insensibly come to the conclusion to do 
 nothing without consulting her. Old Saillard said 
 naively: "Isn't that Elisabeth shrewd?" But 
 Baudoyer, who was too foolish to escape being 
 puffed up by the false reputation which he enjoyed 
 in the Quartier Saint-Antoine, denied his wife's 
 shrewdness, at the same time he profited by it 
 Elisabeth had foreseen that her uncle Bidault, nick- 
 named Gigonnet, would be very rich and would 
 handle enormous sums of money. Enlightened by 
 self-interest she had learned to know Monsieur des 
 Lupeaulx better than the minister knew him. 
 Finding herself married to a blockhead, she naturally 
 thought that her life should have been different, but 
 she imagined a better lot without wishing for it 
 All her tenderest affections found their nourishment 
 in her love for her daughter, to whom she spared
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 8l 
 
 the troubles which she had endured during her 
 childhood, and thus she thought that she had her 
 share in the world of affection. For her daughter's 
 sake alone she had persuaded her father to take the 
 great step of going into partnership with Falleix. 
 Falleix had been introduced to the Saillards by the 
 old Bidault, who had lent him some money on his 
 merchandise. Falleix found his old countryman 
 extortionate ; he complained with frankness before 
 the Saillards that Gigonnet had taken eighteen per 
 cent from an Auvergnat Old Madame Saillard had 
 ventured to blame her uncle. 
 
 "It is just because he is an Auvergnat that I only 
 demand eighteen per cent from him!" Gigonnet 
 replied. 
 
 Falleix, who was twenty-eight years of age, hav- 
 ing made a discovery and having communicated it 
 to Saillard, appeared to carry his heart in his hand 
 one of Saillard's expressions and seemed likely 
 to make a large fortune. Elisabeth at once conceived 
 the idea of nursing him for her daughter and her- 
 self training her son-in-law, calculating thus seven 
 years ahead. Martin Falleix was remarkably 
 respectful to Madame Baudoyer, for in her he recog- 
 nized a superior mind. If later he were to have 
 millions, he should always belong to her family, 
 where he saw something of family life. Little 
 Mademoiselle Baudoyer was already in the habit of 
 bringing him his glass gracefully, and taking his hat
 
 Just as Monsieur Saillard was returning from the 
 minister's house, the game of boston was at its 
 height. Elisabeth was giving advice to Falleix. 
 Madame Saillard was knitting in the chimney-cor- 
 ner, regarding the cards of the vicar of Saint-Paul. 
 Monsieur Baudoyer, as still as a post, was employ- 
 ing his mind in calculating who had the cards, and 
 sat facing Mitral, who had come from lie-Adam 
 for the Christmas festivities. No one disturbed 
 himself when the cashier entered. He walked up and 
 down the salon for some minutes, his fat face con- 
 tracted by unusual meditation. 
 
 "He is always in this mood when he dines at the 
 minister's house, which luckily happens only 
 twice a year, otherwise it would be the end of me," 
 said Madame Saillard. "Saillard is not made for 
 the Civil Service. Ah! now! I hope, Saillard," 
 she said in a loud voice, "that you will not keep on 
 your silk breeches and that Elbeuf cloth coat here. 
 Come, then, take them all off; there is no use in 
 wearing them out here, ma mdre." 
 
 "Something ails your father," said Baudoyer to 
 his wife when the cashier was in his room, undress- 
 ing without any fire. 
 
 "Perhaps Monsieur de la Billardiere is dead," 
 Elisabeth quietly remarked ; "and as he desires that 
 (83)
 
 84 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 you should replace him, that is the cause of his 
 anxiety." 
 
 "If I can be useful in any way," said the vicar 
 of Saint-Paul, bowing, "call upon me. I have the 
 ( honor to be known to the Dauphine. These are 
 times when government offices should be given to 
 trusted men, whose religious principles cannot be 
 shaken." 
 
 "Listen," said Falleix. "Do men of merit, then, 
 need protection to get places in your line? I chose 
 well in being an iron-founder; experience teaches 
 where to get articles of good manufacture. " 
 
 "Sir," replied Baudoyer, "the government is the 
 government. Never attack it in this place." 
 
 "Really," said the vicar, "you speak like the 
 Constitutionnel. " 
 
 "The Constitutionnel never says anything else," 
 Baudoyer replied, although he never read it. 
 
 The cashier believed that his son-in-law was as 
 superior in talent to Rabourdin, as God was greater 
 than Saint-Crepin, as he said; but the goodman 
 frankly wished for this promotion. Influenced by 
 the feeling which leads all government officials to 
 seek for promotion, a violent, unreflecting, brutal 
 passion, he desired success as he desired the Cross 
 of the Legion of Honor, without doing anything 
 against his conscience, and by the force of merit 
 alone. According to his views a man who had been 
 patient enough to stay twenty-five years in the 
 office, behind a railing, and had worn himself out 
 for his country, had well merited the Cross of the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 85 
 
 Legion of Honor. In order to further the interests 
 of his son-in-law but one thing had occurred to him, 
 and that was to say a word or two to the wife of 
 His Excellency in handing her the monthly salary. 
 
 "Well, Saillard, you look as though you had lost 
 all your relations! Speak to us, my boy! Say 
 something to us," cried his wife when he returned 
 to the room. 
 
 Saillard made a sign toward his daughter and then 
 turned on his heel, so that he would not have to 
 talk politics before strangers. After Monsieur 
 Mitral and the vicar had left, Saillard pushed back 
 the table, seated himself in an arm-chair, and struck 
 the attitude he always took when he was going to 
 repeat some office-gossip movements serving the 
 purpose of the three knocks given at the Comedie- 
 Franc.aise. After having made his wife, his son- 
 in-law and his daughter promise the greatest secrecy, 
 for however trivial the gossip, their places, he 
 thought, depended on their discretion, he told them 
 this incomprehensible enigma of the resignation of 
 a deputy, of the very legitimate desire of the secre- 
 tary-general to be elected to his place, of the min- 
 ister's secret opposition to the wish of one of his 
 firmest supporters, one of his most zealous workers; 
 then came the question of age and qualification. 
 This gave rise to an avalanche of suppositions pen- 
 etrating the brains of the two government officials, 
 who passed from one to the other foolish bread 
 and butter speeches. Elisabeth asked three ques- 
 tions:
 
 86 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "If Monsieur des Lupeaulx is on our side, will 
 Monsieur Baudoyer be sure of the nomination?" 
 
 "Why, zounds!" cried the cashier. 
 
 "In 1814, my uncle Bidault and Monsieur Gob- 
 seek, his friend, helped him," she thought "Is he 
 still in debt?" she remarked aloud. 
 
 "Yes," said the cashier, dwelling with a hissing 
 and piteous accent on the last letter of the word. 
 "There has been some opposition about paying him 
 the salary, but the higher authorities ordered it 
 paid by check at sight 
 
 "Where then is the des Lupeaulx estate?" 
 
 "Why, zounds ! in the part of the country where 
 your grandfather and your great-uncle, Bidault, and 
 Falleix belong, not far from the district of the Deputy 
 who is about to resign." 
 
 When Elisabeth's huge husband had gone to bed, 
 she bent over him, and, although he always regarded 
 her questions as whims, she said : 
 
 "My dear, perhaps you will obtain Monsieur de 
 la Billardiere's position." 
 
 "There you are again with your imaginations," 
 said Baudoyer. "Let Monsieur Gaudron speak to 
 the Dauphine, and do not meddle with politics." 
 
 At eleven o'clock, when all was quiet at the Place 
 Royale, Monsieur des Lupeaulx left the opera to go 
 to Rue Duphot This was one of Madame Rabour- 
 din's most brilliant Wednesday evenings. Many 
 of those friends who were in the habit of going 
 on these evenings went there after the theatre, 
 and had increased the number of guests in her
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 87 
 
 drawing-rooms, among whom might be noticed 
 several celebrities; for instance, Canalis, the poet; 
 Schinner, the artist; Doctor Bianchon, Lucien de 
 Rubempre, Octave de Camps, the Comte de Gran- 
 ville, the Vicomte de Fontaine; du Bruel, the vau- 
 devillist; Andoche Finot, the journalist; Derville, 
 who had one of the most level heads in the Palais; 
 the Comte du Chatelet, a deputy; du Tillet, the 
 banker; and elegant young men like Paul de Man- 
 erville, and the young Vicomte de Portenduere. 
 As the secretary-general entered, Celestine was 
 serving tea. This evening her costume was exceed- 
 ingly becoming; she wore a gown of black velvet, 
 without any ornaments, a black gauze scarf, her 
 hair brushed smooth, and done up in a thick braid, 
 while on each side of her head hung curls, after the 
 English fashion. This woman was especially 
 remarkable for the neglige Italian grace of her 
 artistic movements, the ease with which she under- 
 stood everything, and the grace with which she 
 cordially welcomed the slightest desire of her 
 friends. By nature she was endowed with a slen- 
 der figure, which could turn gracefully at the first 
 word of interrogation, black eyes of Oriental shape, 
 able, like those of the Chinese, to see out of their 
 corners. She knew how to manage her sweet, 
 sympathetic voice in such a way as to throw a 
 tender charm over all her words, even such as she 
 spoke nap-hazard. Her feet were like those seen 
 in portraits, where the painters boldly lie in treat- 
 ing the feet of their models, the only way in which
 
 88 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 they can flatter without compromising anatomy. 
 Her complexion, which was rather inclined to be 
 yellow by day-light, like that of brunettes, was 
 brilliant by lamp-light, which heightened the lustre 
 of her hair and black eyes. In short, her slender 
 and nimble form reminded the artist of the Venus 
 of the Middle Ages found by Jean Goujon, and the 
 illustrious statue of Diane de Poitiers. 
 
 Des Lupeaulx stopped at the door and leaned his 
 shoulder against the jamb. This man, who pried so 
 closely into every idea, was not loath to pry into 
 sentiment, for this woman interested him much more 
 than any of the others with whom he was in any 
 way associated. Des Lupeaulx had reached that 
 age when men have an excessively high standard 
 of woman. The first gray hairs lead to the latest 
 passions, the more intense because they are master 
 of a power about to end, and which will be followed 
 by the feebleness of age. Forty years is the age of 
 follies, the age when a man wishes to be loved for 
 himself, for then his love is not self-sustaining, 
 as is the case in early youth, when one can be 
 happy in loving thoughtlessly after the manner of 
 Cherubin. When forty years of age a man wishes 
 everything, yet fears he will obtain nothing, while 
 at twenty-five years of age his life is so rushed, 
 that he does not think of wanting anything but 
 what he has. When twenty-five years of age, he 
 rushes ahead with such force that he can waste it 
 with impunity, but when forty years of age he mis- 
 takes abuse for power. The thoughts which took
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 89 
 
 possession of des Lupeaulx at this moment were, 
 doubtless melancholy. The nerves of this old beau 
 relaxed, the agreeable smile which ordinarily spread 
 over his entire countenance, like a mask, faded, 
 and his face became contracted. The real man then 
 appeared, and his countenance was horrible. Ra- 
 bourdin perceived him and said to himself: "What 
 has happened to him? Is he in disgrace?" The 
 secretary-general was only recalling how, not long 
 ago, he had been suddenly discarded by the pretty 
 Madame Colleville, whose designs were exactly 
 those of Celestine. Rabourdin surprised this false 
 statesman, whose eyes were fixed on Madame 
 Rabourdin, and he recorded this look in his memory. 
 Rabourdin was too keen an observer not to know 
 des Lupeaulx through and through, and he thor- 
 oughly despised him, but, as is often the case with 
 busy men, he never expressed his sentiments. 
 The absorption caused by a favorite occupation is 
 equivalent to the most clever dissimulation, so the 
 opinions of Rabourdin were as a sealed book, as far 
 as des Lupeaulx was concerned. The head-clerk of 
 the department saw with sorrow that this new poli- 
 tician frequented his house, but he did not wish to 
 thwart Celestine. Just then he was talking confi- 
 dentially with a supernumerary who was about to 
 play a r&le in the intrigue resulting from the now 
 certain death of La Billardiere. He watched, in 
 a preoccupied way, both Celestine and des Lu- 
 peaulx. 
 
 Here, perhaps, it would be well to explain, as
 
 90 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 much for foreigners as for our own people, what a 
 supernumerary in a government office in Paris is. 
 
 The supernumerary bears the same relation to 
 the administration that the choir-boy does to the 
 church, that the child of the regiment does to the 
 regiment, that the ballet-girl does to the theatre; 
 something naive, frank a being blinded by illu- 
 sions. Without illusions, where would we be? By 
 inspiring us with faith, they give us strength to un- 
 dergo the great hardships necessary to master the 
 arts, and, in fact, to conquer the beginnings of all 
 knowledge. Illusion is an immeasurable faith! 
 Now the supernumerary has faith in the administra- 
 tion ! he does not think it cold, cruel, and hard, as 
 it really is. Thre are only two kinds of super- 
 numeraries, the rich and the poor. The poor super- 
 numerary is rich in hope and wants a place ; the 
 rich supernumerary is poor in spirit and wants 
 nothing. A wealthy family is not foolish enough 
 to place an intelligent man in the administration. 
 The rich supernumerary is confided to the care of a 
 head clerk, or is placed near the director-general, 
 who initiates him into what Bilboquet that great 
 philosopher would call the high comedy of the 
 administration. The horrors of plodding drudgery 
 are made easy for him until the time when he is 
 appointed to some office. The rich supernumerary 
 never alarms the other officials. The clerks know 
 that he does not threaten their interests, for he 
 seeks only the highest posts of the administration. 
 About this time, many families were thinking,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 9! 
 
 "What shall we make of our sons?" The army 
 did not offer any chance to make a fortune. Spe- 
 cial careers, like civil engineering, the navy, min- 
 ing, military engineering, or a professorship, were 
 fenced in by rules or impracticable because of the 
 great competition; whereas the rotary movement 
 which metamorphosed the clerks into prefects, sub- 
 prefects, assessors, receivers, etc., like the figures 
 of a magic-lantern, was subject to no rules, to no 
 drudgery. By this easy gap, sprang up the super- 
 numeraries who drove in their cabriolets, who wore 
 fine clothes, and cultivated moustachios, and were 
 all of them as impertinent as parvenus. Journalists 
 made enough fun of these wealthy supernumeraries, 
 who were always a cousin, a nephew or some rela- 
 tion of some minister, of some deputy, or of a very 
 influential peer. But the fellow-clerks of these 
 supernumeraries looked up to them for protection. 
 The poor supernumerary, the real, the only super- 
 numerary, is almost always the son of the widow 
 of a clerk, who lives on a meagre pension, wears 
 herself out in taking care of her son until he can 
 get the place of copying-clerk, and who dies leaving 
 him near the baton of the marshal, some position 
 as writer of deeds, order-clerk or perhaps under- 
 head clerk. This supernumerary, who is always 
 obliged to live where rents are low, leaves home 
 early in the morning; for him the state of the sky 
 is the sole Eastern Question ! He goes on foot, and 
 takes care not to get bespattered with mud, saves his 
 clothes, counts the time he is under forced shelter
 
 92 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 on account of a heavy shower. What subjects 
 for contemplation ! The pavements in the streets, 
 the flagging in the boulevards and the quays were 
 of great use to him. If, as some strange freak, you 
 should go abroad in Paris at half-past seven or 
 eight o'clock on a winter's morning, in the piercing 
 cold, in the rain, or in some sort of bad weather, 
 and you should see a timid and pale young man, 
 without cigar, approach you, take notice of his 
 pockets. You would certainly see there the outlines 
 of a roll which his mother had given him, so that 
 he might, without danger of indigestion, bridge over 
 the nine hours between his breakfast and dinner. 
 Besides which, the guilelessness of the supernu- 
 merary in other respects does not last long. A 
 young man, enlightened by the brilliancy of Parisian 
 life, soon measures the enormous distance between 
 himself and the deputy-chief, a distance which no 
 mathematician, neither Archimedes, Newton, Pas- 
 cal, Kepler, Leibnetz nor Laplace, has been able to 
 calculate, the distance between the cipher and the 
 figure i, between a problematical gratuity and a 
 salary. It is then that the supernumerary at once per- 
 ceives the impossibilities of this career; he hears 
 the clerks talk about and explain favoritism; he 
 discovers the intrigues of office; he sees the ques- 
 tionable means by which his superiors have attained 
 their places. One, for instance, having married a 
 young woman whose character was not without 
 reproach, another the natural daughter of a minister 
 of state; this one shouldered a great responsibility;
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 93 
 
 that one, possessing great talent, risked his health 
 by excessive toil, he persevered like a mole, and one 
 is not always capable of such prodigious efforts. 
 Everything is known in a government office. The 
 incapable man has a wife of great ability, who has 
 pushed him on until he was nominated deputy; if 
 he displays no ability for office work, he plots in 
 the Chamber of Deputies. The wife of one has a 
 statesman as her intimate friend. Another is the 
 silent partner of a powerful journal. Then the dis- 
 gusted supernumerary sends in his resignation. 
 Three-quarters of the supernumeraries leave the 
 employ of the government without having 
 obtained even a clerkship, and those who remain 
 are stubborn or foolish young men, who say to them- 
 selves: "I have been here for three years, and I 
 must some time gain a position ! " or else they have 
 a vocation for this kind of work. Evidently the 
 position of supernumerary bears the same relation 
 to the government as that of the novice to religious 
 orders. They are on trial, and this trial is harsh. 
 The state discovers how many of them can bear 
 hunger, thirst and indigence without succumbing; 
 how many can bear incessant work without becom- 
 ing disgusted ; whose temperament will accept this 
 horrible existence, or, if you like, the disease of 
 government life. From this point of view, the posi- 
 tion of supernumerary, far from being an infamous 
 device of the government to obtain work gratis, 
 should become a useful institution. 
 
 The young man with whom Rabourdin was talking
 
 94 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 was a poor supernumerary named Sebastien de 
 la Roche, who had walked all the way from the Rue 
 du Roi-Dore in the Marais, on tiptoe, without having 
 splashed his boots. He talked of "Mamma," and 
 dared not raise his eyes in speaking to Madame 
 Rabourdin, whose house seemed to him somewhat 
 like the Louvre. He tried to hide his gloves, which 
 had been cleaned with india-rubber. His poor 
 mother had put a hundred sous in his pocket, in 
 case it should be absolutely necessary for him to 
 take a hand at cards, at the same time enjoining 
 him to drink nothing, to remain standing, and to be 
 very careful not to overturn any of the lamps, or 
 pretty bric-a-brac placed on an etagere. His dress 
 was of the severest black. His face was fair, his 
 eyes were of a beautiful shade of green, with golden 
 lights, and were in harmony with his beautiful, 
 warm-toned hair. The poor youth occasionally 
 looked timidly up at Madame Rabourdin, whisper- 
 ing to himself: "What a beautiful woman!" On 
 his return home he would surely dream of this fairy 
 until sleep should close his eyelids. Rabourdin had 
 noticed that Sebastien had an aptitude for his work, 
 and as he, himself, took the position of supernu- 
 merary seriously,he became greatly interested in this 
 poor lad. Besides, he had guessed the misery which 
 was the lot of this poor widow, who received only 
 seven hundred francs pension, and whose son who 
 had just finished college had necessarily used up 
 all her savings. Thus he treated this poor super- 
 numerary with paternal care ; he often argued with
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 95 
 
 the council to give him a fee, and sometimes he 
 even took it from his own purse when the discus- 
 sion between himself and those who distributed the 
 fees became too animated. Then he overwhelmed 
 Sebastien with work; he trained him, he made him 
 fill the place of du Bruel, the playwright, known 
 in dramatic literature, and advertised publicly 
 as Cursy, and who paid Sebastien three hundred 
 francs out of his salary. In the minds of Madame 
 de la Roche and her son, Rabourdin was at the 
 same time a great man, a tyrant and an angel ; on 
 him hung all their hopes. Sebastien's eyes were 
 always fixed on the time when he should pass 
 beyond a clerkship. Ah ! the day when the super- 
 numeraries signed receipts for their salaries was a 
 bright day for them ! They have all long handled 
 their first month's salary, all of which they had 
 not given to their mothers! Venus always smiles 
 on these first-fruits of the ministerial chest. 
 This hope in Sebastien's case could not be realized 
 except through Monsieur Rabourdin, his only pro- 
 tector; thus his devotion to his chief was boundless. 
 The supernumerary dined twice a month at Rue 
 Duphot, but only en famille, and when brought 
 there by Rabourdin; Madame never invited him 
 except to dances when partners were wanted. The 
 heart of this poor supernumerary beat hard when he 
 saw the grand des Lupeaulx often drive up in the 
 state carriage at half-past four, while he unrolled 
 his umbrella at the door of the minister of state, to 
 go on his way to the Marais. The secretary-general,
 
 96 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 on whom his future depended, he who could, by 
 a word, give him a place worth twelve hundred 
 francs yes, twelve hundred francs was the height 
 of his ambition; with this salary he and his mother 
 could be very happy! Ah, well, this secretary-gen- 
 eral did not know him ! Then, des Lupeaulx was 
 scarcely conscious of the existence of a Sebastien de 
 la Roche. And if the son of La Billardiere, the rich 
 supernumerary of the office over which Baudoyer 
 presided, should also be at the door, then des Lu- 
 peaulx never omitted saluting him with an amicable 
 bow. Monsieur Benjamin de la Billardiere was a 
 son of the cousin of a minister of state. 
 
 At that moment Rabourdin was scolding this poor 
 little Sebastien, the only person who was in his 
 entire confidence in this great undertaking. The 
 supernumerary copied and recopied the famous state- 
 ment, which covered one hundred and fifty great 
 folio sheets, besides the corroborative documents, 
 the resume which covered one page, and the esti- 
 mates bracketed, the headings in an English hand 
 and the sub-headings in a round handwriting. En- 
 thusiastic in consequence of his participation in the 
 mechanical part of this great idea, the lad of twenty 
 would write over a section for having made a small 
 erasure, he took pride in retouching his writing, 
 regarding it as the element of this noble enterprise. 
 Sebastien committed the imprudence of taking to 
 the office a paper containing facts most dangerous 
 to divulge, so that he might finish copying it This 
 document was an account of the general condition
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 97 
 
 of the clerks in the central government of all the 
 ministries in Paris, with facts concerning their 
 fortunes, present and future, together with their 
 individual enterprises outside of their position. 
 
 In Paris all government clerks who are not en- 
 dowed, like Rabourdin, with patriotic ambition or 
 some superior ability, add to their salaries the 
 profits of some industry to help them to gain enough 
 to live on. Some do, as Monsieur Saillard did, when 
 he put his money in trade carried on by others, and 
 spent his evenings in keeping the books of his part- 
 ner. Many clerks are married to needle-women, to 
 retail tobacco dealers, or to women who have charge 
 of lottery offices, or reading-rooms. Some, like the 
 husband of Madame Colleville, Celestine's rival, 
 perform in the orchestra at the theatre. Others, 
 likedu Bruel, write vaudevilles, comic operas, melo- 
 dramas, or direct the play. Among these we may 
 mention Messieurs Seurin, Pixerecourt, Planard, etc. 
 Pigault-Lebrun Piis, Duvicquet were, in their day, 
 in government employ. The head librarian of 
 Monsieur Scribe was a clerk in the Treasury. 
 
 Besides such information, the memorandum made 
 by Rabourdin contained an examination into the 
 moral and physical characteristics necessary for 
 those who should be able to recognize intelligence, 
 aptitude for work and good health, three indispensa- 
 ble conditions in men who would have to endure 
 the burden of public office, and who must do their 
 business quickly and thoroughly. But this great 
 work, the result of ten years of experience, of a long 
 
 7
 
 98 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 acquaintance with men and things, obtained by 
 coming in contact with the principal functionaries 
 of the different ministries, would have for those 
 who did not see to what it led the air of a govern- 
 ment spy. If a single page of this document should 
 be read, Monsieur Rabourdin would be lost Sebas- 
 tien who admired his chief unreservedly was 
 still ignorant of the malice of the civil service, 
 and had the follies of guilelessness, as well as all 
 its graces. Thus, although he had already been 
 scolded for bringing this work to the office, he now 
 acknowledged his fault without reserve; he told how 
 he had put away the memorandum and the copy in 
 a portfolio where no one could find them; but when 
 he perceived the extent of his offence, tears rolled 
 from his eyes. 
 
 "Come, sir," said Rabourdin to him, kindly, "let 
 us have no more imprudence, but do not be in 
 despair about it To-morrow go to the office very 
 early. Here is the key of a small safe which is in 
 my revolving secretary ; it is closed with a combi- 
 nation lock. You can open it by spelling the word 
 del and you will lock therein the copy and mem- 
 orandum. " 
 
 This proof of confidence dried the tears of the 
 amiable supernumerary, whom Rabourdin pressed 
 to take a cup of tea and some cakes. 
 
 "Mamma has forbidden me to drink tea, on ac- 
 count of my chest," said Sebastien. 
 
 "Very well, dear child," said the imposing 
 Madame Rabourdin, who made a parade of being
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 99 
 
 gracious, "here are some sandwiches and cream, 
 come, sit down by me." 
 
 She forced Sebastien to sit next her at table, and 
 the heart of the poor lad beat in his throat as he 
 felt the gown of this divinity brush his coat At 
 this moment the beautiful Madame Rabourdin per- 
 ceived Monsieur des Lupeaulx, smiled at him, and, 
 instead of waiting until he came to her, she ap- 
 proached him. 
 
 "Why do you remain there as if you were angry 
 with us?" she said. 
 
 "I was not sulking," he replied. "I came to tell 
 you some good news, yet I cannot but think that 
 you will now be even more severe toward me. I 
 fancy that in six months from now I will be almost 
 a stranger to you. Yes, you have too much wit, 
 and I I have too much experience I am too blase, 
 if you prefer for either of us to deceive the other. 
 Your end is attained without costing you more than 
 a few smiles and gracious words " 
 
 "Deceive each other! What are you saying?" 
 she cried, in an apparently hurt tone. 
 
 "Yes, Monsieur de la Billardiere is worse to-day 
 than he was yesterday, and, from what the minister 
 of state said, I think your husband will be nomi- 
 nated chief of the division." 
 
 He then recounted what he called his scene at the 
 minister's house, the jealousy of the countess, and 
 also told what she had said about the invitation 
 which he had asked for Madame Rabourdin. 
 
 "Monsieur des Lupeaulx, " said Madame Rabourdin
 
 100 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 with dignity, "permit me to tell you that my 
 husband is the oldest head-clerk of the service, and 
 also the most capable; beside, the nomination of 
 that old La Billardiere was a favoritism which made 
 so much talk in the office, that my husband remained 
 in the service for another year. Thus we have 
 neither competitor nor rival." 
 
 "All that is true." 
 
 "Very well, " she resumed, while smil ing and show- 
 ing the most beautiful teeth in the world. "How can 
 the friendship I have for you be sullied by the thought 
 of self-interest ? Do you think me capable of that ?" 
 
 Des Lupeaulx made a gesture of admiring denial. 
 
 "Ah!" she cried, "the heart of woman will always 
 remain a secret for the cleverest among you. Yes, 
 I have, with the greatest pleasure, seen you come 
 here, and, at the foundation of my pleasure, there 
 was an interested motive." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "You have," she whispered to him, "a boundless 
 future. You will be deputy, then minister ! " what 
 a great pleasure for an ambitious man to hear such 
 words whispered in his ear by the sweet voice of a 
 pretty woman! "Oh! I know you better than you 
 know yourself. Rabourdin is a man who will be of 
 immense service to you in your career; he will do 
 the drudgery when you are occupied in the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies. Just as you hope to gain a posi- 
 tion in the ministry, I desire that Rabourdin should 
 be in the council of state, and general director. I, 
 therefore, have the idea of uniting two men who
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 101 
 
 never can be in each other's way, but who will be 
 able to help each other powerfully. Is that not a 
 r&le for a woman to play ? " 
 
 "As friends, you will both rise faster, and it is 
 time for both of you to bestir yourselves! I have 
 burned my ships," she added, smiling. "You are 
 not as frank with me as I am with you." 
 
 "You will not listen to me," he said, with a mel- 
 ancholy air, notwithstanding the deep inward con- 
 tent which Madame Rabourdin's remarks gave him. 
 "What would those future promotions be to me, if 
 you dismiss me now ? " 
 
 "Before listening to you," she said, with all her 
 Parisian vivacity, "we must be able to understand 
 one another." 
 
 And she left the old beau to go and speak with 
 Madame de Chessel, a provincial countess, who 
 seemed about to leave. 
 
 "This is a very extraordinary woman," said des 
 Lupeaulx to himself. "I don't know myself when 
 talking to her." 
 
 Thus this roue, who six years before had kept a 
 ballet-girl, and who now, thanks to his position, 
 made himself a seraglio with the pretty wives of 
 the clerks, who lived in the society of journalists 
 and actresses, became very much devoted to Celes- 
 tine during the entire evening, and was the last to 
 leave the house. 
 
 "At last," thought Madame Rabourdin, while she 
 was undressing, "we have gained the position! 
 Twelve thousand francs a year, gratuities and the
 
 102 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 revenue from our farm at Grajeux. All that added 
 together will make twenty-five thousand francs. 
 That is not wealth, neither is it penury." 
 
 Celestine went to sleep dreaming of her debts, in 
 thinking that by annually reserving six thousand 
 francs she could, in the course of three years, pay 
 them all off. She was far from imagining that a 
 woman who had never put her foot in a drawing- 
 room, that a little middle-class woman, selfish and 
 scolding, bigoted and hidden in the Marais, insig- 
 nificant and without acquaintances, would dream of 
 carrying by storm the position in which she had 
 placed her Rabourdin beforehand. Madame Rabour- 
 din would have despised Madame Baudoyer if she 
 had known that she was going to have her for an 
 antagonist, for she was ignorant of the power of 
 pettiness, which, like a worm, gnaws the elm-tree 
 by cutting a circle under the bark. 
 
 If it were possible for literature to use the micro- 
 scope of the Lewenhoek, the Malpighis, and the 
 Raspails which Hoffmann of Berlin tried to do 
 and if we could magnify and then picture these ship- 
 worms, which brought Holland to the brink of ruin 
 by gnawing the dykes, perhaps we could produce 
 creatures, somewhat resembling Messieurs Gig- 
 onnet, Mitral, Baudoyer, Saillard, Gaudron, Falleix, 
 Transon, Godard and Company, borers who had 
 shown their undermining power in the thirtieth year 
 of this century. But now let us look at the worms 
 that crawled in the government offices, where the 
 principal scenes of this book were prepared.
 
 In Paris, nearly all government bureaus re- 
 semble each other. Into whatever ministry you 
 penetrate to solicit the least redressment of wrongs, 
 or the most trivial favor, you will find the same 
 dark corridors, ill-lighted passages, doors pierced 
 like the boxes of the theatre, with an oval glass 
 resembling an eye, and through which one can see 
 phantasies worthy of Callot, and on which are 
 incomprehensible signs. When you have discov- 
 ered the person you are looking for, you find your- 
 self in an ante-room, where the office-boy presides; 
 in the second are the inferior clerks; the office of 
 an under-chief follows to the right or to the left; 
 finally, farther on, or above that of the head of the 
 office. As to the important personage called chief 
 of the division under the Empire, then director 
 under the Restoration, and now again called chief 
 of the division, he lives either above or below his 
 two or three offices, sometimes next to the apart- 
 ments of one of his chiefs. His apartment is always 
 of larger size, an advantage much prized in this 
 honey-comb of a bee-hive, called a ministry or gen- 
 eral direction, if even one general direction still 
 exists! Now, nearly all the ministries have 
 absorbed these administrations, which were formerly 
 separated. In this agglomeration the general direc- 
 tors have lost all their brilliancy by losing their 
 (103)
 
 104 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 establishment, their followers, their drawing-rooms 
 and their little court Who would recognize, to- 
 day, in the man who walks to the treasury, and 
 then has to climb to the second story, the director- 
 general of forests, or of the indirect taxes, formerly 
 lodged in a magnificent house, in Rue Sainte-Avoye, 
 or Rue Saint-Augustin ? Who would, in him, recognize 
 a counsellor, often a minister of state and a Peer of 
 France? Messieurs Pasquier and Mole, among 
 others, were contented with general directorships 
 after having been ministers, thus putting in practice 
 the words of the Duke d'Antin to Louis XIV. : "Sire, 
 when Jesus Christ died on Friday, He knew very 
 well that He would return on Sunday." If, in losing 
 his luxurious surroundings, the director-general had 
 gained an administrative advancement, the wrong 
 would not have been so great; but now, this person- 
 age, after great efforts, is obliged to take the position 
 of maitre des requetes, with a wretched salary 
 of some twenty thousand francs. As a symbol of 
 his former power, he is allowed an officer who 
 wears short breeches, silk stockings, a French coat, 
 if, however, the officer has not been lately changed. 
 In the administrative sense, a bureau consists of 
 a lad, several supernumeraries who do the work 
 gratis for a certain number of years several copy- 
 ing-clerks, writers of bills, order-clerks, or head- 
 clerks, deputy-chief and chief of the bureau. The 
 divisions, which comprise, ordinarily, two or three 
 bureaus, cover sometimes even more. Their names 
 vary according to the administrations; for instance,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 105 
 
 there is sometimes an auditor instead of order- 
 clerk, a bookkeeper, etc. The first room, where 
 the office-boy is seated, is paved like the corridor, 
 and hung with a cheap paper, and is furnished 
 with a stove, a large black table, pens, inkstand, 
 sometimes running water, and we must not forget 
 to mention the benches. But there are no mats for 
 the public to wipe their feet on. The clerk of the 
 bureau, seated in his comfortable arm-chair, rests 
 his feet on matting instead. The office of the clerks 
 is a large apartment more or less well lighted, but 
 rarely has a parquet floor. Wooden floors and fire- 
 places are especially affected by the heads of the 
 bureau and the division, as well as wardrobes, 
 mahogany bureaus and tables, arm-chairs covered 
 with red or green morocco, divans, silk curtains and 
 other objects of administrative luxury. The clerk's 
 office is furnished with a stove, the pipe of which 
 fits in a walled-up chimney, if there happens to 
 be a chimney. The wall paper is plain, green or 
 brown. The tables are of black wood. The in- 
 genuity of the clerks shows itself in their manner 
 of making themselves comfortable. The chilly one 
 has a kind of wooden foot-stool under his feet, the 
 man with a bilious-sanguine temperament has a 
 rush-matting, the lymphatic man, who dreads 
 draughts caused by the opening of doors and other 
 causes of the changing of the temperature, makes 
 a little screen with the boxes. There is a closet 
 where each clerk keeps his business coat, his linen 
 sleeves and eye-shades, caps, skull-cap and other
 
 106 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 things necessary for the business. The mantel- 
 piece is nearly always ornamented with decanters 
 filled with water, glasses and the debris of breakfast. 
 In certain dark places there are lamps. The door 
 of the under-head clerk's office remains open, so 
 that he can watch his clerks, hinder them from 
 talking too much, or so that he can go and speak 
 with them on great occasions. The furniture of the 
 offices indicates to the observer, if need be, the rank 
 of those who occupy them. The curtains are white 
 or colored, cotton or silk material ; the chairs are of 
 cherry-wood or mahogany, with seats of straw, 
 leather or some other material; the wall-papers are 
 more or less fresh. But to whichever administra- 
 tion all this government furniture belongs, when the 
 minister of state is through with it, no stranger 
 history can be imagined than that which belongs to 
 this furniture which has seen so many masters, so 
 many governments, and which has met with so 
 many disasters. Besides this, of all movings in 
 Paris the most grotesque are those of the adminis- 
 trations. Even the genius of Hoffmann, this singer 
 of the impossible, has not been able to invent any- 
 thing more fantastic. No attention is paid to what 
 passes in the carts. The boxes gape open, leaving 
 a train of dust in the streets. The tables can be 
 seen placed in the carts with their four legs in the air, 
 and the moth-eaten arm-chairs, the incredible tools 
 with which France is ruled, have a terrible aspect. 
 They resemble at the same time theatre property 
 and clown's apparatus, just as one perceives on
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 107 
 
 the obelisks intelligible traces and remains of 
 writing which are troublesome to decipher, as 
 everything is that one sees but cannot comprehend 
 as to its purposes. In short, everything is so old, 
 so used up and so faded that the utensils of the 
 dirtiest kitchen are infinitely more agreeable to see 
 than the utensils of the administrative kitchen. 
 
 Perhaps, by giving a description of the division 
 of Monsieur de la Billardiere, the foreigner and those 
 living in the provinces can form an exact idea of 
 the internal customs of the offices, for these princi- 
 pal features are doubtless common to all European 
 administrations. At first, and before everything, 
 picture to yourself a man thus described in the 
 Annuaire: 
 
 CHIEF OF DIVISION. 
 
 "Monsieur le Baron Flamet de la Billardiere Athanase- 
 Jean-Franc.ois-MicheI formerly grand-provost of the depart- 
 ment of La Correze, gentleman in ordinary of the bed- 
 chamber, mattre de requites extraordinary, president of the 
 college of the department of Dordogne, officer of the Legion 
 of Honor, Knight of Saint-Louis, and of the foreign orders 
 of Christ, of Isabelle, of Saint- Wladimir, etc.; member of the 
 Academy of Gers and of several other learned societies, 
 vice-president of the Society of Belles-lettres, member of the 
 Association of Saint-Joseph, and of the Society of Prisons, 
 one of the Mayors of Paris, etc., etc." 
 
 This personage, who took so much typographical 
 display, at this time occupied a space only five feet 
 six inches, by thirty-six inches, in a bed. His head 
 was done up in a cotton night-cap, tied by flame- 
 colored ribbons. He was attended by the illustrious
 
 108 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Desplein, the King's surgeon, and also by the young 
 Doctor Bianchon, flanked by two old female rela- 
 tives, surrounded by vials, bandages, remedies and 
 various mortuary instruments, and watched over 
 by the curate of Saint-Roch, who was persuading 
 him to think of his salvation. His son, Benjamin 
 de la Billardiere, asked both doctors every morning: 
 "Do you think that 1 shall have the good fortune 
 of keeping my father ?" Even this very morning 
 the heir had transposed the word good fortune into 
 misfortune. 
 
 La Billardiere's division occupied a space seventy- 
 one feet long on the top floor in the ministerial 
 ocean of a magnificent mansion at the north-east of 
 a court where formerly were stables, at this time 
 occupied by Clergeot's division. A landing sepa- 
 rated the two offices, whose doors were labeled, the 
 entire length of a vast corridor lighted with bor- 
 rowed lights. The private offices and antechambers 
 of Messieurs Rabourdin and Baudoyer were under- 
 neath on the second story. After Rabourdin's were 
 the antechamber, the salon, and the two offices of 
 Monsieur de la Billardiere. 
 
 On the first floor, which was divided in two by 
 an entresol, were the lodgings and office of Monsieur 
 Ernest de la Briere, a mysterious and powerful per- 
 sonage, who must be described in a few words, for 
 he well merits a parenthesis. This young man was, 
 during the entire time of this administration, 
 private secretary to the minister. His apartment 
 communicated by means of a secret door with the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE IOQ 
 
 private office of His Excellency, for, in addition to 
 the working office, there was another in harmony 
 with the grand apartments where His Excellency 
 received, so that he might work by turns with his 
 private secretary without interruption, and confer 
 with the great personages without the presence of 
 his secretary. A private secretary bears the same 
 relation to the minister that des Lupeaulx did to the 
 ministry. Between the young La Briere and des 
 Lupeaulx there were the same differences as between 
 the aide-de-camp and the chief of staff. This min- 
 isterial apprentice decamps and returns just when 
 his protector does. If the minister enjoys the royal 
 favor, or still has parliamentary hopes, when he 
 falls, he takes his secretary away with him, and 
 when he is restored to office this secretary returns 
 also; otherwise he puts him to graze in some 
 administrative pasture for instance, in the Court 
 of Exchequer, that refuge where secretaries wait 
 until the storm has dissipated. This young man 
 is not precisely a statesman, but he is a 
 political character, and sometimes his politics are 
 confined to the interests of one man. When one 
 thinks of the infinite number of letters he has to 
 open and read, besides his other occupations, is it 
 not evident that a monarchical government would 
 pay a high price for his services? A drudge of this 
 kind costs Paris between ten and twenty thousand 
 francs a year ; but this young man enjoys the opera- 
 boxes, the invitations and the carriages of the min- 
 ister. The Emperor of Russia would be very glad
 
 1 10 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 to have, for a salary of forty-thousand francs a year, 
 one of those amiable, constitutional poodles, so gen- 
 tle and so well curled, so caressing, so docile, so 
 marvelously well got up, a good watch-dog and 
 faithful ! But the private secretary is produced, 
 obtained, discovered and developed only in the 
 forcing-house of a representative government. In 
 a monarchy there are only courtiers and vassals ; 
 whereas under a constitutional government you are 
 served, flattered and caressed by men who are free. 
 In France, ministers of state are better off than 
 women and kings ; they have some one who under- 
 stands them. Perhaps one ought to pity private 
 secretaries as much as women and white paper ; they 
 suffer everything. Like a chaste woman, they must 
 only use their talents secretly, and for the good of 
 the ministers to whom they are attached. If they 
 display talent in public, they are lost. A private 
 secretary is, then, a friend given by the government. 
 Let us return to the offices ! 
 
 Three men-servants lived peacefully in the Bil- 
 lardiere division, to wit: one servant for the two 
 offices, another to wait on the two chiefs, and the 
 third, who belonged to the director of the division. 
 All three were warmed and clothed by the state, and 
 wore the well-known livery, of king's blue, with 
 red bands on ordinary occasions, and broad braid, 
 red, white and blue on state occasions. La Billar- 
 diere's man held himself like a gentleman-usher. 
 This he did to flatter the self-esteem of the cousin 
 of the minister of state. The secretary-general
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE III 
 
 tolerated this innovation, which gave dignity to the 
 administration. These servants, veritable pillars 
 of the ministers, experts in all the ways of 
 government officials, wanted for nothing. They 
 were comfortably housed, lived at the expense 
 of the state, grew rich by their humble savings, and 
 knew the government officers through and through. 
 They had no other means of amusing themselves 
 than by observing these men, and studying their 
 peculiarities. They also knew to what point they 
 could trust them with loans, besides doing their 
 commissions with the greatest discretion ; they 
 pawned and took out of pawn, bought up bills when 
 due, and lent money without interest; but no clerk 
 ever borrowed the smallest sum without returning 
 a bonus ; the sums borrowed were small, and were 
 repaid soon with high rate of interest These ser- 
 vants without masters received nine hundred francs 
 salary; New Year's gifts and gratuities brought 
 their emoluments to twelve hundred francs, and 
 they were in a position to gain almost as much 
 more from the clerks, for the breakfasts of those 
 whose breakfasts they served. In certain minis- 
 tries the concierge provided these breakfasts. The 
 position of concierge to the minister of finance was 
 formerly worth nearly four thousand francs, as for 
 instance to the jolly Thuillier, whose son was a 
 clerk in La Billardiere's division. Sometimes 
 these servants had five-franc pieces slipped into 
 their hand by solicitors pressed for time; these 
 gifts they received as a matter of course. The
 
 112 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 oldest wore the state livery at the offices of the 
 ministry only, and at other times wore their ordi- 
 nary clothes. 
 
 The office-clerk, who was also the richest, imposed 
 upon the majority of the .clerks. He was sixty 
 years of age, had white hair, cut short like a brush, 
 was thick-set, stout, with the neck of an apoplectic, 
 a common, pimpled-face, gray eyes and a mouth 
 like a stove; such was the outline of Antoine, the 
 oldest servant in the ministry. Antoine had 
 brought his two nephews, Laurent and Gabriel, 
 from Echelles in Savoy, and placed them, one .as 
 servant to the heads of the offices, the other as ser- 
 vant to the director. They were clad in full cloth 
 costume, like their uncle: were between thirty and 
 forty years old, had the physiognomy of porters, and 
 were receivers of checks in the evening at a royal 
 theatre, which places were procured for them 
 through La Billardiere's influence. These two 
 Savoyards were married to clever lace-cleaners who 
 also darned woolen fabrics. The uncle was not 
 married; he and his nephews and their wives lived 
 together in better style than most of the under- 
 chiefs. Gabriel and Laurent, who had scarcely had 
 their place for ten years, had not yet come to dis- 
 trust the methods of the government ; they appeared 
 in livery, as proud as dramatic authors after a great 
 financial success. Their uncle, whom they served 
 with fanatical devotion and who seemed to them to 
 be a shrewd man, initiated them gradually into the 
 mysteries of the government machinery. All three
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 113 
 
 came to open the offices and to clean them, between 
 seven and eight every morning; they then read the 
 newspapers or talked politics after their fashion, 
 and conversed about the business of the division 
 with the other servants, exchanging among them- 
 selves the gossip of their positions just like mod- 
 ern domestics who have full knowledge of their 
 masters' affairs, they were at the ministry like 
 spiders in the centre of their web, where they felt 
 the slightest movement 
 
 On Thursday morning, the day after the minis- 
 terial reception, and that of Rabourdin, at the mo- 
 ment when the uncle was dressing his beard, 
 assisted by his two nephews, in the ante-chamber 
 of the second story, they were surprised by the 
 unexpected arrival of one of the clerks. 
 
 "This is Monsieur Dutocq, " said Antoine, "I 
 know him by his stealthy step. He always seems 
 to be skating, this man! He is on your back before 
 you dream which way he came. Yesterday, con- 
 trary to his custom, he remained in the office of the 
 division after every one had left, something he has 
 not done three times since he has been at the min- 
 istry." 
 
 Thirty-eight years of age, and oblong face and 
 bilious complexion; gray, frizzled hair always cut 
 close to his head ; a low forehead, heavy eyebrows ; 
 which met; a crooked nose, and tight shut lips; 
 light green eyes which evaded the person to whom 
 he was talking; a tall figure, the right shoulder 
 slightly higher than the left; brown coat, black
 
 114 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 vest, silk cravat, yellowish trousers, black woolen 
 stockings, and shoes with draggling bows. Such is 
 Monsieur Dutocq, order clerk in Rabourdin's office. 
 Incapable and idle, he hated his chief. Nothing 
 more natural. Rabourdin had no vice calling for 
 flattery, and no bad side to his character by which 
 Dutocq could make himself useful. Far too noble 
 to injure a clerk, Rabourdin was also too clear- 
 sighted to allow himself to be deceived by outward 
 appearances. Dutocq therefore held his place solely 
 through Rabourdin's generosity, and would despair 
 of all advancement if his chief should be head of 
 the division. Although he was conscious that he 
 was incapable of occupying a higher place, Dutocq 
 knew enough about government offices to see that 
 incapacity does not hinder advancement He 
 would make up for it by finding a Rabourdin among 
 his clerks, for the example of La Billardiere was im- 
 pressive and fatal. Wickedness combined with self- 
 interest, is in such cases equivalent to much intelli- 
 gence; very wicked and very selfish, this clerk 
 tried to consolidate his position by making himself 
 the spy of the offices. After 1816 he assumed a 
 profoundly religious phase, foreseeing the favors 
 which the fools of that age would indiscriminately 
 bestow on those who were called by them Jesuits. 
 Belonging to that sect, without, however, being 
 admitted to its mysteries, Dutocq went from one 
 office to another, penetrated into the consciences of 
 people by making unseemly jests, and then para- 
 phrased his reports to des Lupeaulx, whom he
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 11$ 
 
 informed of the slightest circumstances. He often 
 astonished the minister by his great knowledge of 
 private affairs. Really a silly fellow in the sense 
 of political silliness, Dutocq aspired to the honor of 
 carrying the secret messages of des Lupeaulx, who 
 tolerated this vile man, thinking that chance might 
 make him useful, were it only to get him, or some 
 great personage, out of trouble by a shameful mar- 
 riage. They understood each other well. Dutocq 
 counted on such a stroke of good fortune, and 
 remained a bachelor. He had succeeded Monsieur 
 Poiret, the elder, who, retired to a bourgeois 
 boarding-house, was superannuated in 1814 on a 
 small pension, a time when these great reforms were 
 introduced among the clerks. He lived on the fifth 
 floor, Rue Saint-Louis-Saint-Honore, near the Palais- 
 Royal, on a side street. He had such a passion for 
 collecting old engravings that he wanted all the 
 works of Rembrandt and Charlet, as well as all 
 those of Sylvestre, Audran, Callot, Albert Diirer, 
 etc. Like most people who make collections and 
 those who do their own housework, he pretended 
 that he bought everything very cheap. He lived 
 in a boarding-house in Rue de Beaune, and passed 
 the evenings in the Palais-Royal, sometimes going 
 to the theatre, thanks to du Bruel, who gave him 
 an author's ticket once a week. One word about 
 du Bruel. 
 
 Although Sebastien did du Bruel's work and 
 received the poor compensation already mentioned, 
 du Bruel still went to the office, but solely as a
 
 Il6 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 make-believe so that he could be called under-head- 
 clerk and draw the salary. He wrote up the small 
 theatres for one of the ministerial daily papers, for 
 which he also wrote articles which were ordered by 
 the ministers: a position recognized, definite and 
 unassailable. Du Bruel was, moreover, not want- 
 ing in any of those little diplomatic devices which 
 could win him the general good-will. He offered 
 Madame Rabourdin a box at the theatre every first 
 night, called for her in a carriage, and escorted her 
 home, an attention which she appreciated highly. 
 Rabourdin, who was very tolerant and not at all 
 strict with his clerks, allowed him to go to the the- 
 atre and return when it suited him, and to work on 
 his vaudevilles during office hours. The Due de 
 Chaulieu knew that du Bruel was busy writing a 
 novel which he was going to dedicate to him. This 
 under-head-clerk, dressed with the carelessness of a 
 vaudevillist, wore, in the morning, trousers strapped 
 down, list slippers, a waistcoat which had been 
 repaired, an olive overcoat and a black cravat. In 
 the evening he wore an elegant costume, for then he 
 posed as a gentleman. Du Bruel lived, and for 
 good reasons, in the house of Florine, an actress for 
 whom he wrote parts. Florine lived at that time 
 in the same house with Tullia, a dancer, who was 
 more remarkable for her beauty than for her talent. 
 This environment gave the under-head-clerk the 
 opportunity of often seeing the Due de Rhetore, 
 the eldest son of the Due de Chaulieu, a favorite 
 with the king. It was through Chaulieu's influence
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 117 
 
 that du Bruel had obtained the Cross of the Legion 
 of Honor, after writing an eleventh piece for the 
 occasion. Du Bruel, or, if you prefer, Cursy, was 
 now busy writing a play in five acts for the Fran- 
 cais. Sebastien had a great affection for du Bruel, 
 for through him he had received several tickets for 
 the parterre, in return for which he applauded with 
 the enthusiasm of youth all the parts which du Bruel 
 indicated to him were of doubtful merit Sebastien 
 regarded him as a writer of exceptional talent. Du 
 Bruel once said to Sebastien, the day after a first 
 representation of a vaudeville produced, like all 
 vaudevilles, by three collaborators in some parts of 
 which the gallery hissed : 
 
 "The public recognized those scenes written by 
 two." 
 
 "Why do you not write it all yourself?" naively 
 asked Sebastien. 
 
 There were excellent reasons why du Bruel did 
 not work alone ; he was only the third of an author. 
 A dramatic author as few people know is com- 
 posed of : first, a man with ideas, who finds the sub- 
 ject and plans the outline or scenario of the vaude- 
 ville; second, the hard worker, who drafts the 
 piece; and lastly, the practical man, who sets the 
 couplets to music, arranges the choruses and con- 
 certed pieces, and the songs to add to the scene. 
 The practical man also took charge of the receipts ; 
 that is to say, he superintended the composition of the 
 advertisements, at the same time not forgetting to 
 mention that to-morrow a society play would be
 
 Il8 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 produced. Du Bruel, a hard worker, read the new 
 books at the office, extracted their best sentences 
 and kept them to adorn his dialogue. Cursy his 
 theatrical name was valued by his collaborators 
 on account of his great exactitude; with him as a 
 helper, the man of ideas felt that he was sure of being 
 understood, and therefore folded his hands. The 
 clerks of the division liked the vaudevillist well 
 enough to go in a body to his plays and to support 
 them, for he merited the title of good fellow. His 
 hand was always in his pocket, and he cheerfully 
 paid for ices and punches, and would lend fifty 
 francs without ever asking for their return. Du 
 Bruel owned a country-house at Aulnay, besides 
 having money invested ; his salary amounted to four 
 thousand five hundred and he received a pension of 
 twelve hundred francs from the civil list and eight 
 hundred from the three hundred thousand francs voted 
 by the Chamber for encouraging the arts. Add to 
 these divers sums nine thousand francs earned by 
 his quarters, thirds and halves of plays in three 
 different theatres, and you will understand that 
 physically he would be large, stout, fat, round 
 and present the appearance of a good capitalist 
 As to du Bruel's morals, he truly loved Tullia, and 
 so felt that she preferred him to the brilliant Due de 
 Rhetore, who was supposed to be her lover. 
 
 Dutocq had not seen without alarm what he 
 chose to call the liaison of des Lupeaulx with Madame 
 Rabourdin, and his secret anger increased. Besides 
 he had too keen an eye not to perceive that
 
 Rabourdin was devoting himself to a great work 
 outside of his official labors, and he was in despair 
 because he knew nothing about it, while little Sebas- 
 tien was either partly or completely let into the 
 secret. Dutocq tried to connect himself with Mon- 
 sieur Godard, Baudoyer's deputy-chief, a colleague 
 of du Bruel, and he had accomplished it The great 
 esteem in which Dutocq held Baudoyer was the 
 cause of his acquaintance with Godard; not that 
 Dutocq was sincere in his friendship, but by prais- 
 ing Baudoyer and keeping silence in regard to 
 Rabourdin he satisfied his hatred after the fashion 
 of small minds. 
 
 Joseph Godard, a cousin of Mitral on his mother's 
 side, had presumed on this distant relationship with 
 Baudoyer, by aspiring to the hand of Mademoiselle 
 Baudoyer; inconsequence he thought that Baudoyer 
 shone like a genius. He professed a high esteem 
 for Elisabeth, and also for Madame Saillard, without 
 having yet perceived that Madame Baudoyer was 
 trying to nurse Falleix for her daughter. He pre- 
 sented Mademoiselle Baudoyer with small gifts 
 of artificial flowers, bonbons on New Year's Day, 
 and fancy boxes on her fe"te-days. He was twenty- 
 six years of age, a worker without talent, steady 
 as a girl, monotonous and apathetic, holding cafes, 
 cigars and horsemanship in horror. He retired reg- 
 ularly at ten o'clock and arose at seven, was gifted 
 with some social talents, such as playing contra- 
 dances on the flageolet, which brought him into 
 high favor with the Saillards and the Baudoyers.
 
 120 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 He played the fife in the National Guard so that he 
 would not have to pass the nights in the barracks. 
 Godard gave especial attention to natural history. 
 He made collections of minerals and of shells, and 
 he knew how to stuff birds, and filled his room with 
 a mass of curiosities which he had bought cheap, 
 such as stones on which landscapes were painted, 
 models of palaces in cork, specimens of petrified 
 articles which came from the fountain Saint-Allyre 
 at Clermont in Auvergne, etc. He cherished all the 
 empty cologne bottles, in which he kept his speci- 
 mens of baryta, his sulphates, salts, magnesia, 
 corals, etc. He accumulated butterflies on frames, 
 and decorated his walls with Chinese parasols and 
 dried fish-skins. Godard lived with his sister, a 
 flower-maker in Rue de Richelieu. Although much 
 admired by mothers of families, this model young 
 man was despised by his sister's work-girls, and 
 especially by the cashier, who for some time past 
 had hoped to catch him. He was not only thin 
 and lank, of medium height, with dark circles 
 around his eyes, and scant beard, and killing, as 
 Monsieur Bixiou would say, flies on the wing ; and he 
 took little care of his person, his clothes were badly 
 cut, his trousers were large and hung like a bag; he 
 wore white stockings no matter what the weather, 
 a hat with a small rim and laced shoes. When at 
 the office in a cane-seated arm-chair, with a hole in 
 the centre and ornamented with a band of green 
 morocco, he complained much of his digestion. His 
 chief vice was getting up parties for the country
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 121 
 
 on Sundays, during the summer, to Montmorency, 
 dinners spread on the grass, and drinking milk and 
 cream on the Boulevard du Montparnasse. For the 
 last six months Dutocq began to visit Mademoiselle 
 Godard occasionally, hoping to effect some affair in 
 that house in discovering there some female treasure. 
 
 Thus Baudoyer had in his offices these two 
 preachers, Dutocq and Godard. Monsieur Saillard, 
 who was incapable of fathoming the character of 
 Dutocq, sometimes made him short visits in the 
 office. The young La Billardiere, who was placed 
 with Baudoyer as supernumerary, belonged to this 
 clique. The talented men in the office laughed 
 heartily at the banding together of these incapable 
 clerks. Baudoyer, Godard and Dutocq had been 
 nicknamed by Bixiou The Trinity without the Spirit 
 and the little La Billardiere was called The Paschal 
 Lamb. 
 
 "You are early this morning," said Antoine to 
 Dutocq laughingly. 
 
 "And you, Antoine," Dutocq replied, "you see 
 that the newspapers sometimes come earlier than 
 we receive them." 
 
 "To-day, for example," said Antoine without 
 the slightest confusion, "but they never come twice 
 at the same hour." 
 
 The two nephews looked at each other stealthily, 
 as if to say while admiring their uncle, "What 
 cheek he has." 
 
 "Although I make two sous by serving breakfast," 
 murmured Antoine, after he heard Dutocq close the
 
 122 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 door, "I would forego the money willingly not to 
 have him in our division." 
 
 "Ah ! Monsieur Sebastien, you are not the first to- 
 day," said Antoine to the supernumerary when he 
 entered a quarter of an hour later. 
 
 "Who is here ? " said the poor youth, turning pale. 
 
 "Monsieur Dutocq," replied Laurent, the door- 
 keeper. 
 
 Pure natures have above all others the inexpli- 
 cable gift of second sight, owing perhaps to the pur- 
 ity of their nervous systems, which are in some 
 sense new. So Sebastien had guessed the hatred 
 which Dutocq bore to the venerated Rabourdin. 
 And scarcely had Laurent pronounced his name, 
 when, seized by a horrible presentiment, he cried : 
 
 "I suspected it" 
 
 And he rushed into the corridor with the rapidity 
 of an arrow. 
 
 "There will be a quarrel in the offices !" said 
 Antoine, at the same time shaking his white head 
 and putting on his livery. " It is very certain that 
 the baron has just rendered himself up to his God. 
 Yes, Madame Gruget, his nurse, told me that he 
 'could not live through the day. Will there not be 
 a great commotion here ? Will there not ? Go 
 see if all the stoves draw well ! Zounds ! Our 
 world is going to fall on our heads." 
 
 " It is true," said Laurent, " that this poor young 
 man was greatly affected when he heard that this 
 Jesuitical Monsieur Dutocq had been here before 
 him."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 123 
 
 "As for me, I have told him often, for at least 
 one ought to tell the truth to a good clerk, and he is 
 a good clerk who, like this youth, gives punctually 
 his ten francs on New Year's Day," said Antoine, 
 "I have told him : 'The more you do, the more you 
 will be required to do, and then you will be left be- 
 hind in the promotions ! ' Very well, he would not 
 listen to me; he wears himself out staying here 
 until five o'clock, one hour later than anyone else." 
 He shrugged his shoulders and then continued 
 "All that is foolishness, he will not get on in the 
 world that way. To prove that, there is even now 
 no chance of his obtaining an appointment, and he 
 would make an excellent clerk. After two years' 
 service! That is a shame! on my word of honor." 
 
 "Monsieur Rabourdin loves Monsieur Sebastien," 
 said Laurent. 
 
 "But Monsieur Rabourdin is not a minister," an- 
 swered Antoine; "he will make things hot when he 
 is hens will then have teeth ; he is too well, never 
 mind ! When I think that I carry salaries to those 
 rascals, who stay at home and do as they please, 
 and only sign receipts for their salaries, while this 
 poor la Roche is wearing his life away, I ask my- 
 self if God ever thinks of the government clerks ! 
 And what do these proteges of Monsieur le Mare- 
 chal and Monsieur le Due give you? They 
 thank you." He made a patronizing bow. "They 
 make you a gracious bow, saying: 'Thank you, my 
 dear Antoine.' Pack of idle fellows, go to your 
 work, or you will be the cause of a revolution.
 
 124 THE C1VIL SERVICE 
 
 Under Monsieur Robert Lindet there was not all this 
 confusion; as for me, such as you see me, I entered 
 this wretched office under Robert Lindet And under 
 him the clerks worked. You ought to have seen 
 these quill-drivers writing until midnight, the fire 
 in the stoves having gone out scarcely perceived; 
 but this was because the guillotine was there ! and 
 let me say that when they came late they had other 
 punishment than a late mark which they now 
 receive." 
 
 "Father Antoine," said Gabriel, "as you are so 
 talkative this morning, what is your idea of a 
 clerk?" 
 
 "He is," said Antoine seriously, "a man who 
 writes, seated in the office But what am I saying? 
 Without these government clerks where would we 
 be ? Go then, look to your stoves, and never speak 
 any evil of the clerks ! Gabriel, the stove in the 
 large office draws like the devil; you must turn the 
 damper a little." 
 
 Antoine placed himself at the landing at an angle 
 where he could see all the officials enter from under 
 the porte-cochere; he knew every one at the min- 
 istry and watched their gait, at the same time 
 remarking on the contrasts in their mode of dress. 
 Before entering into this tale it is necessary here 
 to depict the chief characteristics of the principal 
 actors in La Billardiere's division, which besides will 
 furnish a description of some of the varieties of the 
 genus clerks, and will justify not only the observa- 
 tions of Rabourdin, but also the title of this study,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 12$ 
 
 essentially Parisian. In fact, do not be deceived! 
 According to the accounts of misery and originality, 
 there are clerks and clerks, just as all men are not 
 alike. Let us hold as distinct above all others the 
 Paris clerk from the clerk in the country. In the 
 country places the clerk's lot is a happy one; he 
 has a comfortable house, a garden, and is usually 
 comfortably fixed at the office; he drinks good wine 
 and pays little for it, does not have to eat horse- 
 meat, and knows the luxury of having a dessert at 
 dinner. Instead of contracting debts, he saves 
 money. Without knowing exactly what he spends, 
 everyone will tell you that he does not spend all his 
 salary. The mothers of families salute this young 
 man if he be a bachelor, and if married, he and his 
 wife go to the ball at the house of the receiver- 
 general, the prefect, the under-prefect and the com- 
 missary. His character interests people, he rises 
 from the ranks, he gains for himself the reputation 
 of a man of ability, he has chances of being 
 regretted. The whole city knows him, is interested 
 in his wife and his children. He gives his recep- 
 tions, and if he has the means, or a father-in-law 
 in easy circumstances, he may become deputy. His 
 wife is watched over by the particular gossips of 
 the little towns, and if he is unhappy in his home 
 they know it; while in Paris, a fellow clerk will 
 know nothing about it. Besides, the government 
 clerk in the country is a something while the 
 clerk in Paris is scarcely anything. 
 The first to arrive after Sebastien was a writer
 
 126 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 of deeds in Rabourdin's office, named Monsieur 
 Phellion, an honorable father of a family. To the 
 influence of his chief he owed a half-scholarship for 
 each of his two sons in the College Henri IV. ; a 
 favor well bestowed, for Phellion had one daughter 
 i besides, who was being educated gratis in a board- 
 ing-school where his wife gave piano lessons, and 
 where he taught a class of history and geography 
 in the evenings. He was forty-five years old, ser- 
 geant-major of his company in the National Guard, 
 very compassionate as far as words went, but could 
 never be induced to give away a cent This excel- 
 lent clerk lived in the Faubourg Saint- Jacques, not 
 far from Sourds-Muets, in a house with a gar- 
 den, where his premises cost only four hundred 
 francs. Proud of his position, happy in his lot, he 
 set about to serve the government, thought himself 
 useful to his country, and boasted of his indiffer- 
 ence to politics, in which he saw nothing but the 
 POWER. Monsieur Rabourdin pleased Phellion, when 
 he asked him to remain a half hour longer to do 
 some work, and he then said to the Demoiselles la 
 Grave, for he dined in Rue Notre-Dame-des- 
 Champs, in the boarding-school where his wife 
 gave music lessons : 
 
 "Ladies, my business has compelled me to 
 remain at the office. When one is in the Civil 
 Service, one is not one's own master! " 
 
 He compiled books of questions and answers for 
 the use of young ladies in boarding-schools. These 
 little concise treatises, as he called them, were sold
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 127 
 
 at the University library, under the name of His- 
 torical and Geographical Catechism. Feeling 
 obliged to offer a copy on vellum, bound in red 
 morocco, of each new Catechism to Madame Rabour- 
 din, he dressed in his best when he took them: 
 silk breeches, silk stockings, shoes with gold 
 buckles, etc. Monsieur Phellion received on Thurs- 
 day evenings after the boarding-school pupils had 
 retired for the night He provided beer and cakes. 
 He and his friends played bouillotte for five sous a 
 pool. Notwithstanding this simple entertainment, 
 gotten up with effort on certain Thursdays, Mon- 
 sieur Laudigeois, who was employed in the mayor's 
 office, lost his ten francs. The parlor, hung with 
 American wall-paper of a green hue with a red bor- 
 der, was adorned with portraits of the King, the 
 Dauphine and Madame, with two engravings of 
 Ma^eppa after Horace Vernet, that of the Pauper's 
 Funeral after Vigneron "a picture wonderful to 
 contemplate, and which according to Phellion's 
 opinion should console the lowest class of society 
 by proving to it that it has friends more devoted 
 than mankind, whose love reaches far beyond the 
 tomb." From these few words you can imagine 
 this man who, once every year, on mourners' day, 
 took his three children to the cemetery of 1'Ouest 
 and showed them the twenty or more yards of earth 
 bought in the graveyard, in which place his father 
 and his wife's mother were interred. "We will 
 all lie here," he told them, so that they would be 
 come familiar with the iclea of death. One of his
 
 128 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 greatest pleasures was to explore the environs of 
 Paris, which he did with a map. Having already 
 become very well acquainted with Antony, Arcueil, 
 Bievre, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Aulnay so celebrated 
 as being the dwelling-place of many great authors 
 he hoped in time to know the whole western side 
 of the environs of Paris. He destined his elder son 
 for the administration and the second he intended 
 to send to the Ecole Polytechnique. He often said 
 to his eldest child, "When you have attained the 
 distinction of being employed by the government," 
 but he suspected that his son had a preference for 
 the exact sciences which he tried to suppress, at 
 the same time being willing to let him go according 
 to his own bent if he persisted in it Phellion had 
 never dared to ask Monsieur Rabourdin to dine with 
 him, although he would have thought that day one 
 of the gayest in his life. He imagined that if he 
 could have one of his sons follow in the footsteps of 
 Rabourdin, he could die the happiest man in the 
 world. He had so well sounded the praises of this 
 worthy and respectable head of the department to 
 the Demoiselles la Grave, that they wished to see 
 this great Monsieur Rabourdin, as much as a young 
 man might wish to see Monsieur de Chateaubriand. 
 "They would be very happy," they said, "to have 
 his daughter to educate." If perchance the car- 
 riage of the minister drove up or drove away, 
 whether anyone was in it or not, Phellion took off his 
 hat in the most respectful manner, and asserted 
 that France would do much better by thus honoring
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 129 
 
 the power, even to bowing to its insignia. When 
 Rabourdin sent for him to go downstairs, so that 
 he could explain to him some work, Phellion paid 
 strict attention; he listened to the slightest word of 
 his chief like a dilettante listens to an air at the 
 Italian opera. Silent at the office, with his feet in 
 the air resting on a wooden desk, he never budged. 
 He attended conscientiously to his business. He 
 displayed the most religious gravity while writing 
 his administrative correspondence, taking every- 
 thing seriously, and transcribing in the most solemn 
 words the orders given by the minister. This man, 
 so particular about observing the conventionalities 
 of life, had had a disaster in his career of writer, 
 and such a disaster! Notwithstanding the great 
 care with which he drew up documents, it so hap- 
 pened that one phrase escaped him thus expressed : 
 "You will be at the place indicated, bringing with 
 you the necessary papers." Happy, laughing at 
 the expense of this innocent man, the copying-clerks, 
 without his knowledge, consulted Rabourdin, who, 
 knowing the character of his clerk, burst out laugh- 
 ing and modified the sentence by these words in 
 the margin, "You will come to the meeting-place 
 with all the documents indicated." Phellion, to 
 whom the correction was shown, studied it, weighed 
 the difference of expression, and did not hesitate to 
 say that he should have to take two hours to dis- 
 cover the equivalents. He said, "Monsieur Rabour- 
 din is a man of genius! " He always thought that 
 his colleagues had lacked due consideration for him, 
 
 9
 
 130 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 by taking this so promptly to the head of the depart- 
 ment, but he had too much respect for the rules not 
 to know that they had a perfect right to do so, 
 the more so as he was then absent However, in 
 their place, he would have waited, for the circular 
 was not pressing. This affair caused him to lose 
 sleep for some nights. When they wanted to make 
 him angry they had only to allude to this unfor- 
 tunate sentence by saying to him as he passed out: 
 "Have you the necessary papers?" The worthy 
 clerk would then return, glance witheringly at the 
 clerks and say to them: "What you say, gentle- 
 men, seems to me very much out of place." One 
 day there was such a fierce quarrel on this subject 
 that Rabourdin was obliged to intervene and to for- 
 bid the clerks to mention this sentence again. Mon- 
 sieur Phellion had the face of a pensive ram, with 
 little color, and marked by small-pox, large hanging 
 lips, light blue eyes and a stature taller than ordi- 
 nary. He was as neat about his person as should 
 be a master of history and geography accustomed to 
 appear before young ladies ; he wore fine linen, a 
 pleated shirt-frill, an open waistcoat of black cash- 
 mere, which showed a pair of suspenders which 
 had been embroidered by his daughter, a diamond 
 in his shirt, a black coat, and blue trousers. In 
 winter he wore a nut-brown overcoat with three 
 capes, and carried a loaded cane, which was neces- 
 sary on account of the loneliness of the neighbor- 
 hood in which he lived. He no longer took snuff, 
 ajid cited this reform as a striking example of the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 131 
 
 control a man could have over himself. He ascended 
 the stairs slowly, for he feared asthma, being 
 afflicted with what he called adipose chest. He 
 greeted Antoine with dignity. 
 
 Immediately after Monsieur Phellion came a 
 copying-clerk who formed a singular contrast to 
 this virtuous good fellow. Vimeux was a young 
 man twenty-five years of age, who had a salary of 
 fifteen hundred francs, was well-made and graceful, 
 with an elegant and romantic face, having jet black 
 hair, beard, eyes and eyebrows, beautiful teeth, 
 faultless hands, and wearing his moustache so 
 thick and so well trimmed that he seemed to make 
 capital of it. Vimeux showed such great aptitude 
 for his work that he dispatched it quicker than any 
 one else. 
 
 "This young man is gifted !" said Phellion, when 
 he saw him cross his legs and not know what to do 
 the remainder of the day, after his work was fin- 
 ished. "And see, he is perfection," said the clerk 
 to du Bruel.
 
 Vimeux breakfasted on a simple roll and a glass 
 of water, dined for twenty sous at Katcomb's and 
 lodged in a furnished room at twelve francs a 
 month. His joy, in fact his only pleasure, was his 
 toilet He ruined himself by purchasing miracu- 
 lous waistcoats, tight trousers, half-tight trousers, 
 pleated or embroidered, fine boots, well-made coats 
 which outlined his figure, bewitching collars, new 
 gloves and hats. His hand was ornamented with 
 a signet ring, which he wore over his glove; and 
 provided with a beautiful cane, he tried to assume 
 the air and manners of a rich young man. Later 
 in the day he went, with a toothpick in his mouth, 
 to walk in the grand avenue of the Tuileries, as 
 though he were a millionaire who had just arisen 
 from the table. Hoping that some woman, an Eng- 
 lish woman, or any stranger, or a widow, might fall 
 in love with him, he studied the art of playing 
 with his cane, and of throwing a glance which 
 Bixiou said was American. He laughed so that he 
 might show his beautiful teeth, he wore no socks, 
 but had his hair curled every day. Vimeux, in 
 accordance with his fixed principles, would have 
 been willing to marry a hunchback with six thou- 
 sand francs income, or a woman of forty-five with 
 eight thousand a year, or an English woman for 
 three thousand francs. Phellion, who was delighted
 
 134 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 with the handwriting of this young man, took com- 
 passion on him, and tried to persuade him to give 
 writing lessons, an honorable profession which 
 would ameliorate his life, and would render it even 
 agreeable, and he promised to procure this position 
 for him at the boarding-school of the Demoiselles 
 la Grave. But Vimeux had his own views so 
 firmly fixed that no one could prevent him from 
 having faith in his star. Thus he continued to 
 promenade in the afternoons with an empty stom- 
 ach, like a sturgeon of Chavet, although he had 
 vainly displayed his enormous moustaches for three 
 years. As Vimeux owed Antoine thirty francs for 
 breakfasts, each time he saw him he lowered his 
 eyes so that they should not meet those of the man 
 to whom he was indebted; and yet when mid-day 
 came he always asked that man to buy him a roll. 
 Rabourdin, after trying to drive some sense into 
 that poor head, had given him up. Monsieur 
 Vimeux, the father, was recorder to a justice de 
 paix in the department du Nord. Adolphe Vimeux 
 had latterly economized by giving up Katcomb's and 
 living on rolls, so that he might buy a pair of spurs 
 and a riding-whip. He was laughed at for his mat- 
 rimonial calculations, and called Pigeon-Villiaume. 
 The jokes which were made at the expense of this 
 fasting Amadis, were only to be attributed to the 
 wicked genius which created the vaudeville, for he 
 was a good companion, and harmed no one but him- 
 self. A great subject of mirth in the offices, at his 
 expense, consisted in wagering whether he wore a
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 135 
 
 corset Vimeux was first placed in Baudoyer's office, 
 but he manoeuvred until he was transferred to 
 Rabourdin's, because of Baudoyer's severity in rela- 
 tion to the English a name given by these clerks 
 to their creditors. The English day is the day 
 when the offices are thrown open to the public. 
 Sure of finding their debtors there, the creditors 
 come in swarms, they come to torment the clerks 
 by asking when they will be paid, and threaten to 
 obtain an attachment against their salaries. The 
 implacable Baudoyer compelled his clerks to remain. 
 "It was their place not to have debts," he said. 
 He regarded his severity as something necessary 
 for the public good. Rabourdin, on the contrary, 
 protected his clerks from their creditors, to whom 
 he showed the door, saying that the offices were not 
 open for transacting private business, but for public 
 business only. Both offices ridiculed Vimeux when 
 his spurs clanked through the corridors and up the 
 stairs. Bixiou, the wit of the ministry, circulated 
 in the two divisions of Clergeot and La Billardiere 
 a paper at the head of which Vimeux was repre- 
 sented in caricature seated on a pasteboard horse, 
 and inviting everyone to subscribe to buy him a 
 real horse. Monsieur Baudoyer was down for a 
 bale of hay, taken from his private stock, and each 
 clerk wrote an epigram on his neighbor. Vimeux, 
 who was really a good-natured fellow, himself sub- 
 scribed under the name of Miss Fairfax. 
 
 Handsome clerks of the style of Vimeux have 
 their salary on which to live and their good looks
 
 136 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 by which to make their fortunes. Always attend- 
 ing the masked balls which take place during the 
 Carnival, they hope to meet the good fortune 
 which eludes them even there. Many of these 
 clerks end by marrying either modistes, whom they 
 accept weary of the contest, or old women, or else 
 young girls whom their physique has attracted, and 
 with whom they get up a flirtation sprinkled with 
 stupid love-letters, but which nevertheless produce 
 the desired result These clerks are sometimes 
 bold; they see a woman riding in her carriage to 
 the Champs Elysees, they procure her address, they 
 send her impassioned love-letters at every oppor- 
 tunity, and find an occasion which unhappily 
 encourages this ignoble practice. 
 
 This Bixiou pronounce it Bisiou was a draughts- 
 man who ridiculed Dutocq as well as Rabourdin, 
 whom he nicknamed the virtuous Rabourdin. In 
 order to explain the vulgarity of his chief, he called 
 him the Place Baudoyer; he nicknamed the vaude- 
 villist Flonflon. Without doubt the most high- 
 minded man of the division and of the ministry, 
 but clever after the fashion of a monkey, without 
 aim or object, Bixiou was so useful to Baudoyer 
 and to Godard, that they protected him notwith- 
 standing his misconduct, and he hurried through 
 their business very quickly. Bixiou desired the 
 place of Godard or of du Bruel, but his conduct 
 interfered with his advancement Sometimes he 
 sneered at the offices, and that was when he had 
 just made some good hit, as the publication of the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 137 
 
 portraits in the Fualdes case for which he drew 
 faces at random or his drawings of those who fig- 
 ured in the debates on the Castaing case. At 
 other times, seized by the desire to attain a higher 
 position, he applied -himself to his work; then 
 again he left it to write a vaudeville which he 
 never finished. An egotist, avaricious and also 
 lavish at the same time, that is to say, he only spent 
 his money on himself; blunt, aggressive and indis- 
 creet, he returned evil for evil ; he especially attacked 
 the weak, respecting nothing, and believing in 
 nothing, neither in France, in God, in art, in the 
 Greeks, in the Turks, in Champ-d'Asile nor in the 
 monarchy, insulting above everything what he was 
 incapable of understanding. It was he who first 
 painted a black cap on the head of Charles X. on a 
 five-franc piece. He mimicked Doctor Gall when he 
 was delivering his lectures so that the best-dressed 
 diplomats burst their neckties laughing. The chief 
 jokes of this terrible caricaturist consisted in heat- 
 ing the stoves to their utmost, so as to give colds to 
 those who imprudently ventured out of his over- 
 heated room, and he had in addition the satisfaction 
 of consuming the government wood. Famous for 
 his jokes, he varied them with so much skill that 
 he always obtained a victim. His great secret in 
 this kind of work was to find out what each one 
 wished; he knew the road to all the castles in 
 Spain, to the dreams about which a man may be 
 mystified because he is inclined to believe them 
 himself, and he would hoodwink one for hours at a
 
 138 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 time. Thus this profound observer, who possessed 
 the greatest tact in playing a joke, had not the 
 faculty of using this power to induce men to further 
 his fortune or to advance his promotion. The per- 
 son he took most pleasure in teasing was the young 
 La Billardiere, his bete noire, his nightmare, whom 
 nevertheless he was constantly wheedling, so that 
 he could torment him with greater success. He 
 
 wrote him love-letters signed "Comtesse de M ," 
 
 or "Marquise de B ," thus drawing him on fte- 
 
 days to the foyer of the Opera, in front of the clock, 
 and let him loose to some grisette, after having 
 made fun of him before everyone. He allied him- 
 self with Dutocq whom he considered a serious 
 jester because of his hatred toward Rabourdin and 
 his high idea of Baudoyer, and aided him willingly. 
 Jean- Jacques Bixiou was the grandson of a grocer 
 in Paris. His father, who was a colonel at the time 
 of his death, left his son under the care of his grand- 
 mother, who had married for her second husband 
 her head-clerk, named Descoings, and who died in 
 1822. When the youth left college, finding himself 
 without occupation, he attempted painting, and 
 notwithstanding the friendship which bound him to 
 Joseph Bridau, the friend of his childhood, he gave 
 up painting, and devoted himself to making carica- 
 tures, vignettes, and illustrating books, which 
 twenty years later were called illustrations. The 
 protection of the Dues de Maufrigneuse and de 
 Rhetore, with whom he became acquainted through 
 the danseuses, procured him his position in 1819.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 139 
 
 On good terms with des Lupeaulx, with whom 
 in society he was on an equal footing, very 
 familiar with du Bruel, he was a living example of 
 Rabourdin's observations relative to the constant 
 deterioration of the administrative hierarchy in 
 Paris, through the personal importance which a 
 man may acquire outside of the bureaus. Short, 
 but well-formed, with delicate features, remarkable 
 for a vague resemblance to Napoleon, thin lips, a 
 flat, straight chin, chestnut whiskers, twenty-seven 
 years old, blond, with thrilling voice and spark- 
 ling eye such was Bixiou. This man, so sensible 
 and witty, was carried away by all kinds of pleas- 
 ures, which plunged him into continual dissipation. 
 A tireless hunter after grisettes, a smoker, a jester, 
 a man who dined out and attended many supper 
 parties, always tuned to the highest pitch, as brill- 
 iant in the green-room as in the balls given by the 
 grisettes in the Allee des Veuves, he was as witty 
 at table as on a pleasure party, as gay at mid- 
 night in the streets as in the morning when he 
 first jumped out of bed; but gloomy and sad at 
 heart, as is the case with most comedians. Launched 
 in the world of actors and actresses, of writers and 
 artists, and of certain women of uncertain fortunes, 
 he lived well, went to the play without paying, 
 played at Frascati and often won. Moreover, this 
 artist, really profound, but only by flashes, swung 
 to and fro in life like a swing, without thinking of 
 the time when the cord would break. His lively 
 wit, his profusion of ideas, caused him to be courted
 
 140 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 by all who were accustomed to appreciate brilliancy 
 of intellect; but not one of his friends liked him. 
 Incapable of withholding a witty saying, he would 
 compromise his two neighbors at table before the 
 first course was served. Notwithstanding his out- 
 ward gaiety, the spirit of dissatisfaction with his 
 social position would pierce his sayings; he aspired 
 higher, while the fatal demon hidden in his soul 
 prevented him from possessing the gravity which 
 imposes so much on fools. He lived in Rue Pon- 
 thieu, on the second floor, where he had three 
 rooms which were given up to the disorder of a 
 bachelor's establishment, a true bivouac. He often 
 talked of leaving France and of going to wrest his 
 fortune in America. No sorcerer could foretell the 
 future of a young man whose talents were undevel- 
 oped, who was incapable of perseverance, always 
 intoxicated with pleasure, and who lived as rapidly 
 as though the world were going to end to-morrow. 
 As to his dress, he had the merit of never being 
 ridiculous, and he was perhaps the only one of all 
 the ministry of whom it could not be said, "There 
 goes a government clerk." He wore elegant boots, 
 black trousers strapped down, a fancy vest, a 
 pretty blue coat, a collar always presented to him 
 by a grisette one of Bandoni's hats, and a pair of 
 dark kid gloves. He carried himself with the air of 
 a cavalier, yet unaffected and not lacking in grace. 
 Thus when he was summoned by des Lupeaulx to 
 account for some too great impertinence toward 
 the Baron de la Billardiere, and threatened with
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 141 
 
 dismissal, he contented himself by replying: "You 
 will take me back because I dress so well." At 
 this des Lupeaulx could not help laughing. 
 
 The most harmless joke which Bixiou played at 
 the office was that aimed at Godard, to whom he 
 presented a butterfly just brought from China, 
 which the deputy chief treasures in his collection 
 and still shows to-day, without having recognized 
 that it is only painted paper. Bixiou had the 
 patience to work over the masterpiece so that he 
 might play a hoax on his superior. 
 
 The devil always places a martyr near a Bixiou. 
 Baudoyer's office now held the victim, a poor 
 copying-clerk, twenty-two years old, with a salary 
 of fifteen hundred francs. His name was Auguste- 
 Jean-Franc.ois Minard. Minard had married, for love, 
 an artificial flower maker, a daughter of a porter; 
 this young woman had worked at home for Mademoi- 
 selle Godard's establishment Minard had met her 
 in the shop in Rue de Richelieu. Being unmarried, 
 Zelie Lorain had often dreamed of changing her con- 
 dition. At first she became a pupil at the Conserva- 
 tory, then by turns a dancer, a singer and an actress ; 
 she had even dreamed of doing as many working 
 girls do, but the fear of suffering and of falling into 
 frightful misery had preserved her from vice. She 
 hesitated as to many courses, when Minard luckily 
 appeared upon the scene with a proposition of mar- 
 riage in his hand. Zelie earned five hundred francs 
 a year, Minard earned fifteen hundred. Believing 
 that they could live on two thousand francs, they
 
 142 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 married without settlements, and started to live 
 very economically. Minard and Zelie lived like two 
 turtle-doves, near the Barriere de Courcelles, in an 
 apartment on the third floor, for which they paid 
 three hundred francs a year; with white cotton cur- 
 tains to the windows, cheap Scotch paper, costing 
 fifteen sous a roll on the walls, polished floors, wal- 
 nut furniture, and a little kitchen kept very neat 
 and clean. This apartment consisted, in the first 
 place, of a little room in which Zelie made her 
 flowers, then a parlor furnished with chairs uphol- 
 stered in horse-hair, a round table in the centre, a 
 mirror, a clock representing a revolving glass foun- 
 tain, gilded candelabra enveloped in gauze, and a 
 bed-room in white and blue, containing a bed, a 
 chest of drawers, a mahogany writing-desk, a little 
 striped rug at the foot of the bed, six arm-chairs 
 and four chairs; and in a corner was the cradle in 
 cherry, where her little son and daughter slept 
 Zelie nursed her children herself, attended to the 
 kitchen department, made her artificial flowers, and 
 kept her home in order. There was something 
 touching in this happy and laborious mediocrity. 
 Feeling that she was loved by Minard, Zelie loved 
 him dearly. Love attracts love it is the abyssus 
 abyssum of the Bible. This poor man arose in the 
 morning while his wife slept, and went out to get 
 her some provisions. He carried the flowers she 
 had finished, on his way to the office; and on return- 
 ing he brought her more material to make up, then, 
 while waiting for dinner, he cut or stamped leaves,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 143 
 
 trimmed the stems, prepared her colors. Small, 
 thin, wiry, nervous, with crisp red hair, eyes of a 
 light yellow, a skin of dazzling whiteness, but 
 marked by freckles, he was possessed of a quiet 
 courage which made no show. He understood the 
 science of writing as well as Vimeux. At the office 
 he was very quiet; he did his work, and maintained 
 the reserved air of a man who suffers and thinks. 
 His white eyelashes and his scanty eyebrows caused 
 the implacable Bixiou to name him The white 
 rabbit. Minard this Rabourdin in a lower sphere 
 was extremely desirous of placing his Zelie in 
 better circumstances, and he searched the ocean of 
 the wants of luxury and Parisian industry, in the 
 hope of gaining an idea, of making a discovery, 
 an improvement on something, thereby gaining a 
 sudden fortune. His apparent stupidity was pro- 
 duced by the continual tension of his mind; he 
 examined into the Sultana Double Paste, into 
 Cephalic Oils, steel and flint for portable gas, 
 jointed sockets for hydrostatic lamps, thus looking 
 into all the infinite little inventions of material civ- 
 ilization. He bore Bixiou's jests as a busy man 
 bears the humming of an insect; he was not even 
 annoyed by them. Bixiou, notwithstanding his 
 cleverness, never perceived the profound contempt 
 in which Minard held him. Minard did not care to 
 quarrel with him ; he viewed it as a waste of time. 
 Thus his persecutor was wearied out Minard 
 came to the office very simply clad, wearing duck 
 trousers until October, clad in shoes and gaiters, a
 
 144 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 goatskin vest, a beaver coat in winter and of coarse 
 merino in summer, a straw hat or a silk hat worth 
 eleven francs, according to the seasons, for his 
 delight was his Zelie; he would even go without 
 food so that he could buy her a dress. He break- 
 fasted with his wife and ate nothing while at the 
 office. Once a month he took Zelie to the theatre 
 with tickets given him by du Bruel or Bixiou, for 
 Bixiou did everything, even a kindness. Zelie's 
 mother left her own home on such occasions and 
 took care of the children. Minard had replaced 
 Vimeux in Baudoyer's department. Monsieur and 
 Madame Minard paid their visits to him on New 
 Year's Day. In seeing them, one naturally wonders 
 how the wife of a poor clerk, on a salary of fifteen 
 hundred francs, could manage to have her husband 
 dressed in a black suit, and how she could afford 
 Leghorn hats with flowers, embroidered muslin 
 dresses, silk mantles, prunella shoes, elaborate 
 fichus, a Chinese parasol, and could drive up in a 
 hackney-coach, and yet remain a virtuous woman, 
 while Madame Colleville and such ladies could 
 scarcely make both ends meet, and they had two 
 thousand four hundred francs income! 
 
 In these offices were two clerks who were such 
 close friends as to seem almost ridiculous, for every- 
 thing is ridiculed at the office. He who was in 
 Baudoyer's office was named Colleville; he was 
 chief-clerk, and if the Restoration had not taken 
 place he would have been deputy-chief or even 
 head-chief long before this. In Madame Colleville
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 145 
 
 he possessed a wife as superior in her way as 
 Madame Rabourdin was in hers. Colleville the 
 son of a first-violin at the Opera fell in love with 
 the daughter of a celebrated dancer. Flavie Mi- 
 noret, one of those capable and charming Parisians 
 who know how to make their husbands happy, at 
 the same time preserving their own liberty, made 
 the Colleville home the resort of the best artists, 
 and orators in the Chamber of Deputies. At her 
 house the humble position in which Colleville was 
 placed was scarcely referred to. Flavie's conduct 
 she was a little too prolific offered such a field for 
 scandal that Madame Rabourdin had refused all her 
 invitations. Colleville's friend, named Thuillier, 
 filled a place in Rabourdin's office exactly the same 
 as Colleville's position, and like causes had hindered 
 his administrative advancement, which had pre- 
 vented Colleville's promotion. Everyone who 
 knew Colleville knew Thuillier, and vice versa. 
 Their friendship, which originated at the office, was 
 brought about by the coincidence of their entering 
 the Civil Service. The pretty Madame Colleville, so 
 they said in the office, accepted the attentions of 
 Thuillier, whom his wife had left without children. 
 Thuillier, who was called the handsome Thuillier, 
 who had had much success with the fair sex, led a 
 life as lazy as that of Colleville was busy. Colle- 
 ville was first-clarionet at the Opera Comique, 
 he kept books in the morning, and underwent much 
 exertion to bring up his family, although he was 
 not without influential friends. He was regarded
 
 146 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 as a very shrewd man, the more so that he hid his 
 ambition under a kind of indifference. Apparently 
 content with his lot, loving his work, he found 
 everyone, even the chiefs, ready to further his 
 brave career. For the last few days only, Madame 
 Colleville had reformed her household regime, and 
 had become very devout; by which means, it was 
 vaguely hinted in the offices, she hoped to gain 
 through the Church a firmer foothold than by the 
 famous orator Frangois Keller, one of her most con- 
 stant admirers, whose influence had not yet been 
 able to obtain a higher position for Colleville. 
 Flavie then made the mistake of appealing to des 
 Lupeaulx. Colleville was very fond of reading the 
 horoscopes of famous men in the anagrams of their 
 names. He passed entire months in taking apart 
 and rearranging names in order to discover thereby 
 a meaning. Un corse la finira, found in Revolution 
 Francaise; Vierge de son man; from Marie de 
 Vigneros, niece of the Cardinal de Richelieu; Hen- 
 rici mei casta dea, from Catharina de Medicis; Eh ! 
 c'est large ne^, from Charles Genest, the abbe at the 
 court of Louis XIV., who was greatly celebrated for 
 his large nose which amused the Due de Bourgogne; 
 in short, all known anagrams were a marvel to 
 Colleville. Raising the anagram to the level of a 
 science, he pretended that the lot of every man was 
 written in the phrase which was produced by the 
 combination of the letters of his name, Christian 
 name and title. Ever since the accession of 
 Charles X., he busied himself over the anagram of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 147 
 
 the king. Thuillier, who sometimes made puns, 
 pretended that an anagram was a pun in letters. 
 That Colleville, who was a man of feeling, should 
 be so indissolubly attached to Thuillier, a model 
 egotist, presented an insoluble problem which many 
 clerks of the division explained after this fashion : 
 "Thuillier is rich and Colleville's housekeeping 
 weighs upon him heavily!" In other words, 
 Thuillier was thought to add to the emoluments of 
 his position the advantages of the discount He 
 was often sought for to confer with merchants, with 
 whom he had conferences in the court, which lasted 
 several minutes, about Mademoiselle Thuillier, his 
 sister. This friendship, consolidated by time, was 
 based on sentiment, on very natural foundations 
 which will find mention elsewhere see Les Petite 
 Bourgeois which if given here would come under 
 the heading called by the critics tedious. Notwith- 
 standing this it may not be useless to make this 
 observation, that if Madame Colleville was well 
 known in the bureaux, Madame Thuillier's existence 
 was almost unknown. Colleville, an active man, 
 who had children to bring up, was fat, round and 
 jolly, while Thuillier, the beau of the Empire, with- 
 out apparent cares, was lazy, slender, and had a pale 
 and almost melancholy face. 
 
 "We never know," said Rabourdin, in speaking 
 of these two clerks, "whether our friendships are 
 oftener born of contrasts or of resemblances." 
 
 Unlike the Siamese twins, Chazelle and Paulmier 
 were two clerks who were always at war ; one of them
 
 148 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 smoked, the other took snuff, and they disputed in- 
 cessantly as to which was the best way of using 
 tobacco. One fault which was common to both and 
 which rendered them each equally annoying to the 
 other clerks, was their incessant wrangling over the 
 changes in prices, of the price of small peas, of the 
 price of mackerel, of materials, the umbrellas, coats, 
 hats, canes and gloves of their colleagues. They 
 boasted emulatingly of new discoveries by which 
 neither profited. Chazelle collected the prospectuses 
 of the book-stores, advertisements in lithograph or 
 drawings; but he never subscribed to anything. 
 Paulmier, Chazelle's colleague at talking nonsense, 
 passed his time by saying that if he had such and 
 such a fortune he would treat himself to so and so. 
 One day Paulmier called on the famous Dauriat to 
 compliment him on having induced the book-sellers 
 to produce some books in satin, with printed covers, 
 begging him to persevere in this direction of improve- 
 ment, while Paulmier himself did not possess a book ! 
 Chazelle's household was tyrannized over by his 
 v/ife, although he wished to appear independent, 
 and furnished Paulmier endless subject for ridicule; 
 while Paulmier, a bachelor often half-starved like 
 Vimeux, presented Chazelle with a fruitful source 
 of ridicule, by his threadbare clothes and his dis- 
 guised poverty. Chazelle and Paulmier were acquir- 
 ing a paunch; that of Chazelle was round, small, 
 pointed, and had, according to Bixiou's saying, the 
 impertinence of always entering first; Paulmier's 
 stomach swayed from right to left; Bixiou made
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 149 
 
 them get measured once every three months. Both 
 these men were between thirty and forty years of 
 age, both were silly enough; doing nothing outside 
 the office, they presented the type of the pure-blood 
 clerk, stupefied by red tape, by long association with 
 the offices. Chazelle often went to sleep while work- 
 ing; and his pen, which he always held in his 
 hand, marked little dots which registered his breath- 
 ing. Paulmier attributed this sleepiness to the 
 exigences of married life. In reply to this jest, 
 Chazelle accused Paulmier of drinking herb tea four 
 months out of the twelve every year, and told him 
 he would die for love of a grisette. Paulmier 
 demonstrated then that Chazelle should mark on 
 an almanac the days when Madame Chazelle found 
 him in good humor. These two clerks, by dint of 
 washing their soiled linen by reproaching each 
 other on account of the most minute details of their 
 private lives, obtained the disrepute they merited. 
 
 "Do you take me for a Chazelle?" was a word 
 which was sufficient to end a tiresome, annoying 
 discussion. 
 
 Monsieur Poiret, Jr., called junior to distinguish 
 him from his brother, Poiret the elder, who had 
 retired to the Vauquer house, where Poiret, Jr., 
 sometimes dined, who intended also to end his days 
 there had been in the service thirty years. Nature 
 is not so invariable in her revolutions as this poor 
 man was in the acts of his life; he always put his 
 things in the same place, placed his pen on the same 
 rack, sat in his place at the same hour, warmed
 
 150 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 himself at the stove at a certain moment, for his 
 only vanity consisted in carrying a watch which 
 kept perfect time ; this he regulated every day as 
 he walked by the City Hall, before which he passed, 
 as he lived in Rue du Martroi. From six to eight 
 o'clock every morning he kept the books of a large 
 business house which dealt in novelties, situated in 
 the Rue Saint-Antoine, and from six to eight o'clock 
 in the evening, those of Camusot of Rue des Bour- 
 donnais. By this means he gained three thousand 
 francs a year, including his official salary. In a few 
 months more it would be time for him to retire on a 
 pension, and so he showed the greatest indifference 
 about the intrigues in the offices. Like his brother, 
 whose withdrawal from service had been to him a 
 great blow, he would no doubt perceptibly fail in 
 health when he could no longer go from Rue du Mar- 
 troi to the ministry, seat himself in his chair and get 
 through with his work. He had been assigned the 
 duty of collecting the journal for which the bureau 
 subscribed, and that of the Moniteur. He became a 
 fanatic about this collection; if any clerk lost a 
 number, took it away and did not return it, 
 Poiret, Jr., felt himself called upon to leave, went 
 immediately to the office of the journal, re- 
 claimed the missing number and returned enthu- 
 siastic over the politeness of the cashier. He had 
 always had business with an agreeable fellow, 
 and according to his account, journalists were 
 decidedly delightful people who were little known. 
 A man of middle height, Poiret had very dull eyes,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE !$! 
 
 a feeble glance without warmth, leather-like skin, 
 wrinkled and of a grayish hue speckled with bluish 
 dots, a flat nose, and a mouth drawn inward, in 
 which remained a few decayed teeth. Thuillier 
 said that it was useless for Poiret to look at the 
 mirror, as he no longer saw himself dedans in it pro- 
 nounced like de dents, of teeth. His thin long arms 
 were terminated by large hands which were by no 
 means white. His gray hair, flattened by the 
 pressure of his hat, gave him the air of an ecclesi- 
 astic, a resemblance which was not very flattering 
 to him, for he hated priests and the clergy gen- 
 erally, without being able to explain his religious 
 views. This antipathy did not hinder him from 
 being very much attached to the government, what- 
 ever it happened to be. He never buttoned his old 
 green overcoat, even in extreme cold ; he wore laced 
 shoes only and black trousers. He bought his 
 clothes from the same stores for thirty years. 
 When his tailor died he asked leave of absence to 
 go to his funeral, and pressed the hand of the son 
 over the grave of his father, at the same time 
 assuring him of his patronage. A friend of all 
 tradesmen, he kept himself informed about their 
 affairs, talked with them, listened to their griev- 
 ances and paid them promptly. If he wrote to one 
 of these gentlemen to change an order he had given, 
 he took care to write in the most polite manner, 
 placing Monsieur on a line by itself, dating and 
 making a rough copy of the letter, which he kept in 
 a box labeled: My correspondence. No life could be
 
 152 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 more according to rule. Poiret kept all his paid 
 bills, all his receipts, even the smallest, and his 
 books of annual expenses were tied up in bundles 
 and placed away by years; this he did ever 
 since his entry into the ministry. He dined at 
 the same restaurant buying a season ticket 
 The Sucking Calf, in the Place du Chatelet; and 
 sat there each day in the same seat; for the 
 waiters kept his place for him. He never gave to 
 the Cocon d'Or, the famous silk house, five min- 
 utes, overtime; at half-past eight he arrived at the 
 Cafe David, the most celebrated of the Quartier, 
 and stayed there until eleven o'clock; he remained 
 faithful to it as he did to The Sucking Calf, for thirty 
 years, and called for a bavaroise at half-past ten. 
 There he listened to political discussions, his arms 
 crossed on his cane, and his chin resting in his right 
 hand, without ever taking part in them himself. The 
 woman at the desk the only woman to whom he 
 spoke with pleasure was his confidante as to the 
 little events of his life, for his place at the table 
 was near the desk. He played dominoes the 
 only game he understood. When his partners did 
 not come, he sometimes went to sleep, his back 
 against the wainscoting, while holding a journal, 
 the wooden file of which rested on the marble 
 table. He maintained his interest in everything 
 that went on in Paris, and devoted Sunday to 
 examining new buildings. He questioned the old 
 soldier whose business it was to prevent the public 
 from entering the fenced-off enclosure, and was
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 153 
 
 worried at the delays which the buildings en- 
 countered in consequence of lack of material or of 
 money, or of difficulties which the architect ex- 
 perienced. He was heard to say, "I have seen the 
 Louvre emerge from its rubbish, I have seen the 
 birth of the Place du Chatelet, the Quai aux Fleurs, 
 the markets. " He and his brother were born at 
 Troyes; they were the sons of a tax-collector's clerk 
 and had been sent to Paris to study in the Civil 
 Service departments. Their mother was conspic- 
 uous for her disastrous misconduct, for the two 
 brothers had the grief of hearing of her death at 
 the hospital of Troyes, notwithstanding the many 
 remittances of funds. These two men then swore 
 not only never to marry, but they had a great 
 antipathy to children, and were ill at ease in their 
 presence ; they feared them as some people fear the 
 insane, and watched them with haggard eyes. 
 Both of them had been overworked under the 
 regime of Robert Lindet At that time the admin- 
 istration had not treated them justly, but they 
 thought themselves happy in having preserved their 
 heads, and complained of this ingratitude only to 
 each other, for they had reached the highest. When 
 they played the trick on Phellion by causing his 
 famous phrase to be reconstructed by Rabourdin, 
 Poiret took Phellion aside in the hall as he went out 
 and said to him: 
 
 "Believe truly, sir, that I have opposed, as far as 
 was in my power, what has just taken place." 
 
 Since his arrival in Paris he had never left the
 
 154 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 city. From that time he began a journal of his life 
 in which he noted the principal events of the day. 
 Du Bruel told him that Lord Byron also did so; and 
 this resemblance filled Poiret with joy, and led him 
 to buy the works of Lord Byron, translated by 
 Chastopalli, of which he did not understand a word. 
 He was often surprised in a melancholy attitude at 
 the office, and he had the air of a profound thinker, 
 while he was thinking of nothing. He had not 
 become acquainted with even one of the tenants in 
 the house where he lived, and he always kept by 
 him the key to his domicile. On New Year's Day, 
 he left his cards personally at the houses of all the 
 clerks of the division, although he never made 
 visits. 
 
 Bixiou took it into his head, one very hot 
 day, to grease with lard the interior of an old hat 
 which Poiret Jr. he was fifty-two years old had 
 worn for nine years. Bixiou, who had never seen 
 Poiret wear any other hat, dreamed of it; he saw it 
 before him even when eating; he therefore resolved, 
 in the interest of his digestion, to rid the office of 
 this unsightly hat. Poiret Jr. went out about four 
 o'clock. On going into the streets of Paris where 
 the rays of the sun are reflected by the pavement 
 and the walls produce tropical heat, he felt that his 
 head was saturated, although he rarely perspired. 
 Feeling that he was either ill or about to become so, 
 he went home instead of going to The Sucking Calf, 
 took his diary from his writing-desk and made the 
 following entry:
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 1 55 
 
 "To-day, the third of July, 1823, was overtaken by a 
 strange perspiration, which perhaps is the first symptom of 
 malaria, a malady peculiar to Champagne. I am of the 
 opinion that I had better consult Doctor Haudry. The illness 
 commenced at the upper end of the Quai de 1'Ecole " 
 
 Suddenly, when he took off his hat, he discovered 
 that his perspiration was caused by something 
 independent of his own person. He wiped his face, 
 examined his hat, but could discover nothing, for 
 he did not dare to take out the lining. All this he 
 noted in his journal : 
 
 " Carried my hat to Sieur Tournan, hat-maker, Rue Saint- 
 Martin, for the reason that I have a suspicion that there is 
 some other cause for this perspiration, which was after all no 
 perspiration, but the effect of something lately added or for- 
 merly done to my hat" 
 
 Monsieur Tournan immediately told his customer 
 that it was owing to the presence of a greasy sub- 
 stance obtained by frying the fat of a hog or a 
 sow. The next day Poiret came in wearing a 
 hat which he had borrowed from Monsieur Tournan 
 while waiting for his new one; but before retiring 
 for the night he made this entry in his journal : 
 "// is asserted that my hat contained lard, or tbe 
 fat of a pig." This inexplicable affair occupied 
 Poiret's attention for two weeks. He could not 
 imagine how this phenomenon had occurred. At 
 the office he was entertained with accounts of the 
 showers of toads, and other dog-day wonders, also 
 that the head of Napoleon was found stamped in the
 
 156 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 root of a young elm-tree, and a thousand eccentric- 
 ities of natural history. Vimeux told him that 
 one day his hat Vimeux's had stained his face 
 black, and that hat-makers sold drugs. Poiret went 
 several times to see Sieur Tournan, to post him- 
 self as to the process of manufacturing hats. 
 
 In Rabourdin's employ there was also a man who 
 posed as courageous, who professed the opinions of 
 the Left Centre, and rebelled against Baudoyer's 
 tyrannies which he displayed toward the unhappy 
 slaves in his office. This youth, named Fleury, 
 foolishly subscribed to an "opposition" sheet, wore 
 a gray hat with a broad brim, red band on his 
 blue trousers, a blue vest with gilt buttons, and 
 an overcoat which crossed over his chest like that 
 of a quartermaster of gendarmerie. Though un- 
 yielding in his opinions, he nevertheless remained 
 in the office; but he predicted a fatal end to the 
 government, if it still persisted in upholding 
 religion. He avowed his sympathy for Napoleon, 
 now that the death of that great man had caused the 
 laws against the partisans of the usurper to become 
 obsolete. Fleury, ex-captain in a line-regiment 
 under the Emperor, was a tall, handsome, dark man ; 
 he was also treasurer at the Cirque-Olympique. 
 Bixiou never permitted himself to plague Fleury, 
 for this rough trooper who knew very well how 
 to handle a pistol, and was an excellent fencer 
 appeared capable, should occasion offer, of resorting 
 to extreme measures. An enthusiastic subscriber 
 to Victoires et Conquetes, Fleury refused to pay his
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 157 
 
 dues, though he kept the books, taking refuge in 
 the fact that they exceeded the number proposed 
 in the prospectus. He adored Monsieur Rabourdin, 
 who had prevented him from being discharged. He 
 was heard to say that if ever any misfortune should 
 befall Monsieur Rabourdin, through anyone's fault, 
 he would kill that person. Dutocq basely cringed 
 to Fleury because he feared him. Fleury, crippled 
 by debts, played many tricks on his creditors. Ex- 
 pert in legal affairs, he never signed promissory 
 notes; and his salary was attached in the names of 
 fictitious creditors, so that he could get almost all of 
 it himself. Intimately connected with a supernu- 
 merary in the Porte-Saint-Martin, with whom his 
 furniture was stored, he played ecarte with a happy 
 heart, was the life of receptions because of his 
 talents, drank a glass of champagne at one draught 
 without wetting his lips, and knew all Beranger's 
 songs by heart He was proud of his full, sonorous 
 voice. His three great men were Napoleon, Bolivar 
 and Beranger. Foy, Laffite and Casimir Dela- 
 vigne he only esteemed. Fleury, you can readily 
 imagine, was a man from the south who was des- 
 tined to become the responsible editor of some 
 liberal journal. 
 
 Desroys, the mysterious man of the division, did 
 not come in collision with anyone; he talked but 
 little and hid his private life so carefully that no 
 one knew where he lived, who were his protectors 
 or what means he had to live on. In trying to find 
 the cause of Desroys' silence some thought him a
 
 158 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Carbonaro, others an Orleaniste, others a spy, and 
 others again thought him a deep thinker. Desroys 
 was merely the son of a member of the National Con- 
 vention who had not voted for the death of the 
 King. He was cold and reserved by temperament, 
 he had judged the world and relied only on himself. 
 Republican at heart, an admirer of Paul-Louis 
 Courier, a friend of Michel Chrestien, he looked to 
 time and to public intelligence to accomplish the 
 triumph of his opinions in Europe. He also 
 dreamed of the new Germany and the new Italy. 
 His heart swelled with that stupid collective love 
 called Humanitarianism, the eldest son of defunct 
 Philanthropy, and which bears the same relation to 
 the divine catholic charity as system does to art, or 
 reasoning does to works. This conscientious puri- 
 tan of liberty, this apostle of an impossible equality 
 regretted that his poverty had forced him to serve 
 the government, and he made exertions to try to 
 find a position in the office of some forwarding 
 house. Tall, thin, lanky, and serious like a man 
 who expects to lay down his life some day for the 
 great cause, he lived on a page of Volney, studied 
 Saint-Just and occupied himself in a vindication 
 of Robespierre, considered as the successor of Jesus 
 Christ 
 
 The last of these people who merit a sketch 
 is the little La Billardiere. Having unfortunately 
 lost his mother, and being protected by the min- 
 ister, and exempt from the tyrannies of the 
 Place- Baudoyer, received in all the ministerial
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 159 
 
 salons, he was hated by everyone because of his 
 impertinence and his conceit. The chiefs were 
 polite to him, but the clerks placed him beyond 
 their companionship by the exaggerated politeness 
 they showed him. Bellatre of twenty-two years, 
 tall and slender, with the manners of an English- 
 man, insulting the offices by his dandified dress; 
 he was curled, perfumed, and wore fashionable 
 collars, yellow gloves, hats, the lining of which 
 was always new; using an eye-glass, breakfasting 
 at the Palais-Royal, having the manners of a 
 polished dunce who understood the art of imitating, 
 Benjamin de la Billardiere thought himself a 
 charming young man, and possessed all the vices 
 of swell society without its graces. Sure of being 
 something, it occurred to him that he would write a 
 book so that he might obtain the Cross as an author 
 and impute it to his administrative talent He flat- 
 tered Bixiou with the intention of making use of 
 him, but had not dared to confide his project to him. 
 This noble heart waited impatiently for the death 
 of his father so that he might succeed to the title of 
 Baron, recently granted; he wrote on his cards, 
 Le Chevalier de la Billardiere, and had his office hung 
 with his coat-of-arms framed a field azure with 
 three stars, and two swords crossed obliquely 
 on a field sable, with this device: "A TOUJOURS 
 FIDELE!" Having a mania for conversing about 
 heraldry, he asked the young Vicomte de Portenduere 
 why his arms were so crowded, and brought forth this 
 happy reply, "I did not have them made. " He spoke
 
 160 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 of his devotion to monarchy and of the kindness the 
 Dauphine had shown him. On good terms with 
 des Lupeaulx, he often breakfasted with him, and 
 considered him his friend. Bixiou posed as his 
 mentor, and hoped to rid the division and France of 
 this young coxcomb by thrusting him into excesses, 
 and he openly avowed his intention. 
 
 Such were the principal characters in La Billar- 
 diere's division, where were still other clerks whose 
 manners or faces moreor less resembled those already 
 described. In Baudoyer's office were found clerks 
 with bald heads, chilly, enveloped in flannel, living 
 on the fifth floor, cultivating flowers there, having 
 thorn canes, threadbare coats, and always carrying 
 an umbrella. These people who hold the middle 
 rank between the happy porters and the uncom- 
 fortable workmen ; too far from the centre of the 
 administration to dream of any advancement 
 whatever, represent the pawns on the Civil 
 Service chess-board. Happy to be on guard so that 
 they did not have to go to the office, ready to do 
 anything for a fee, how they exist is a problem 
 even for those who employ them, and is an accusa- 
 tion against the state which certainly makes these 
 people unfortunate by accepting their services for 
 so little. Looking at these strange faces it is diffi- 
 cult to decide if these mammals with pens have 
 become stupid from their routine life, or whether, 
 being bom somewhat stupid, they pursue this 
 vocation. Perhaps the fault is equally divided 
 between nature and the government. Someone has
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE l6l 
 
 said that " country-people are unconsciously in- 
 fluenced by atmospheric changes and outward con- 
 ditions. Identified somewhat with the nature in the 
 midst of which they live, they are insensibly 
 imbued with the ideas and sentiments which it 
 inspires and which they reproduce in their actions 
 and in their expressions, according to their temper- 
 aments and individual characters. Formed thus 
 and fashioned long ago by the objects by which 
 they are continually surrounded, they are the most 
 interesting as well as the truest book for whomso- 
 ever feels himself drawn toward this part of physi- 
 ology, so little understood and at the same time so 
 prolific, which explains the connection which the 
 moral being has with the external agents of nature. " 
 But nature, to a government clerk, is the office; his 
 horizon is bounded on all sides by green boxes; for 
 him, atmospheric changes are represented by the air 
 of the corridors, the masculine exhalations contained 
 in rooms without ventilators, the odor of papers 
 and pens; his soil is a tiled pavement or a par- 
 quet floor strewn with curious rubbish, moistened 
 by the watering-pot of the office-boy; his sky is 
 the ceiling towards which he looks when he yawns; 
 and his element is dust The observations pre- 
 viously made about country-people are equally 
 appropriate to the government clerks who are iden- 
 tified with the surroundings in the midst of which 
 they live. If several distinguished doctors dread 
 the influence of this nature, at the same time savage 
 and civilized, on the moral beings who spend their 
 
 IX
 
 162 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 days in those dreadful compartments called offices, 
 where but little sunlight can penetrate, where 
 thoughts are bridled to occupations like horses who 
 turn a crank who yawn horribly and die soon 
 Rabourdin, therefore, was perfectly right in his 
 efforts to thin out the clerks by giving those who 
 remain more salary and heavier work. People 
 never tire when doing great things. Besides, the 
 government offices as they are now constituted 
 during the nine hours their clerks owe to the ser- 
 vice, waste four of them in conversation, as we 
 shall see, in telling stories, in disputes, and above 
 all, in intrigues. One must be very familiar with 
 the life in these offices to realize to what point this 
 belittling life resembles that in colleges; but wher- 
 ever men live collectively, this similitude is strik- 
 ing: in the regiment, in the tribunals, you will find 
 the college on a more or less extended scale. All 
 these clerks, sitting together eight hours a day in 
 these offices, looked upon their work as a kind of 
 class in which they had a task to do, where the 
 chiefs replaced the principal of the school, where 
 the gratuities were like prizes for good conduct 
 given out to proteges a place where they teased 
 each other, hated each other, and where, notwith- 
 standing, there existed a sort of comradeship, 
 but colder than that in a regiment, which itself 
 is not so strong as that in colleges. As a man 
 advances in life his egotism develops and relaxes 
 the secondary bonds of affection. Besides, is 
 not the government office a little world in itself.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 163 
 
 with its oddities, its friendships, its hatreds, its 
 envy and its cupidity, its steady onward march 
 in spite of obstacles, its frivolous conversation 
 which gives so many wounds, and its incessant 
 espionage ?
 
 Just now the division of the Barcn de la Billar- 
 diere was a prey to an extraordinary excitement, 
 well justified by the event which was just going to 
 take place, for chiefs of divisions do not die every 
 day, and there are no insurance companies in which 
 the chances of life and death are calculated more 
 accurately than in government offices. Self-interest 
 there stifles all pity, as it does in children; but to 
 this the clerks add hypocrisy. 
 
 Toward eight o'clock the clerks of Baudoyer's 
 office arrived at their post, while those in Rabour- 
 din's office rarely appeared before nine, which did 
 not prevent them from working much more rapidly 
 for Rabourdin than for Baudoyer. Dutocq had 
 grave reasons for arriving so early. The evening 
 before he had furtively entered the office where 
 Sebastien was at work; he had surprised him while 
 doing copying-work for Rabourdin; he remained 
 hidden, and saw Sebastien go away without any 
 papers. Certain then of finding this very volumi' 
 nous memorandum and the copy hidden in some 
 corner, he turned over all the boxes one after the 
 other, and at last he found this terrible list. He 
 hastened to the head of an autograph-printing 
 house, and had two copies of this work made by 
 means of a copying-press, and in this way he pos- 
 sessed even the very writing of Rabourdin. In 
 (165)
 
 166 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 order to avoid suspicion, he had hastened to replace 
 the memorandum in the box, by arriving the first 
 one at the office. Sebastien, who was kept in Rue 
 Duphot until midnight, was, notwithstanding his 
 diligence, outstripped by hatred. Hatred lived in Rue 
 Saint-Louis-Saint-Honore whereas devotion lived in 
 Rue du Roi-Dore, in the Marais. This slight delay 
 pressed heavily on the entire life of Rabourdin. 
 Sebastien hurried to open his box, and there found 
 his unfinished copy and the memorandum itself, 
 and locked them in his chief's desk. Toward the end 
 of December, often, little light penetrates through 
 the offices in the morning, in fact there are some in 
 which lamps are burned until ten o'clock. Sebas- 
 tien, therefore, did not notice the pressure of the 
 copying-stone machine on the paper. But when 
 Rabourdin examined his memorandum, about half- 
 past nine, he perceived much better the effect pro- 
 duced by the autographic process, because he was 
 much occupied in testing whether these autographic 
 presses could do the work of copying-clerks. 
 
 The chief of the office sat in his arm-chair, took 
 the tongs and set about to arrange the fire, being 
 greatly absorbed by his reflections; then, curious 
 to know in whose hands his secret was held, he sent 
 for Sebastien. 
 
 "Has anyone come to the office before you?" he 
 asked him. 
 
 "Yes," said Sebastien, "Monsieur Dutocq." 
 "Well, he was punctual. Send Antoine to me." 
 Too noble to wound Sebastien needlessly by
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 167 
 
 reproaching him with a misfortune which had 
 already taken place, Rabourdin said no more to 
 him. Antoine came; Rabourdin asked him if some 
 clerks had not remained at the office yesterday after 
 four o'clock ; the man mentioned that Dutocq had 
 worked later than Monsieur de la Roche. Rabour- 
 din dismissed him by a nod of the head, and con- 
 tinued his reflections. 
 
 "Twice I have prevented his discharge," he said, 
 "and this is my reward!" 
 
 This morning was to the chief of the office like 
 the solemn moment when great captains decide a 
 battle in which all chances are weighed. Being 
 more familiar than anyone else with the spirit of 
 the Civil Service, he knew that pardon would 
 be as difficult to obtain there for what resembles 
 espionage or tale-bearing as at college, in the peni- 
 tentiary, or in the army. A man who informs 
 against his comrades is disgraced, ruined, con- 
 demned ; in such a case the ministers of state would 
 disavow their own agents. Under such circum- 
 stances an official ought to send in his resignation 
 and leave Paris, for his honor is forever stained, 
 explanations are useless, no one will ask for or 
 listen to them. A minister who is up to this same 
 game is thought to be a great man, for it is his 
 business to choose men ; but a simple clerk who 
 should do the same thing would pass for a spy, what- 
 ever his motives. While fully aware of the empti- 
 ness of these foolish opinions, Rabourdin felt their 
 great power, and he also felt that they were crushing
 
 168 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 him. More surprised than cast down, he sought for 
 the best course to follow under the circumstances, 
 and so he took no note of the excitement in the 
 offices which was occasioned by the death of de la 
 Billardiere; he only learned about it through the little 
 de la Briere, who knew how to appreciate the good 
 qualities of the head of the office. 
 
 Consequently, Bixiou was in Baudoyer's office, 
 about ten o'clock, relating the history of the last 
 moments of the director of the division to Minard, 
 Desroys and Monsieur Godard, whom he had called 
 from his private office, and also to Dutocq, who had 
 hastened to Baudoyer's office with a double motive. 
 Colleville and Chazelle were absent. 
 
 BIXIOU standing in front of the stove, turning up the sole of one boot at 
 a time to dry it at the opening. 
 
 " This morning at half-past seven, I went to ask 
 after our worthy and respectable director, knight of 
 the Order of Christ, etc., etc. Ah! mon Dieu, yes, 
 gentlemen, as late as yesterday the baron had twenty 
 et cceteras to his name, while to-day he is nothing, 
 not even a government clerk. I asked for all the 
 details of his last night on earth. His nurse, who 
 had no thought of his dying, told me that this 
 morning, at five o'clock, he became anxious about 
 the royal family. He wished to have read to 
 him the names of those of us who had called to 
 inquire after him. At last he said, ' Fill my snuff- 
 box, give me the paper, bring me my spectacles, 
 change my ribbon of the Legion of Honor it is 
 very much soiled.' You know he wore his decorations
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 169 
 
 in bed. He had then full consciousness, retained 
 his mind, and also all his usual ideas. But, bah! ten 
 minutes later the water rose higher, higher, higher 
 toward the heart, and flooded his chest; he knew that 
 he was dying when he felt the cysts burst. At this 
 fatal moment, he gave proof of his powerful mind 
 and great intelligence! Ah! we none of us have 
 appreciated him! We used to laugh at him, we 
 called him an old fogy, in fact, every name which 
 could be applied to an old blockhead; is it not so, 
 Monsieur Godard?" 
 
 GODARD. 
 
 " As for me, I always considered Monsieur de la 
 Billardiere's talents to be greater than those of other 
 men." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "You understood each other." 
 
 GODARD. 
 
 " After all he was not a bad sort of man, he never 
 did anyone any harm." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " In order to do wrong, one must do something, 
 and he did nothing. If it was not you who thought 
 him altogether incapable, it must then have been 
 Minard." 
 
 MINARD shrugging his shouldera. 
 "I?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Well, then, was it you, Dutocq? (Dutocq made 
 
 vehement gesture of denial.) Good! then, it Was no One!
 
 1 70 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Every one here then thought he had the head of a 
 Hercules! Ah! yes, you were right; to the last he 
 was a man of ability, of talent, of thought, like the 
 great man that he was." 
 
 DESROYS Impatiently. 
 
 "Mon Dieu, what great thing has he done? He 
 made his confession!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Yes, sir, and he wished to receive the Last 
 Sacrament. But, do you know what he did in order 
 to receive it? He put on his uniform of Gentle- 
 man-in-Ordinary of the Bed-Chamber, all his orders, 
 and had himself powdered; and his queue that 
 poor queue! tied with a new ribbon. Now, I say 
 only a man of great character would order his queue 
 dressed in his dying moments. We are eight of us 
 here, and not one of us would have done likewise. 
 This is not all; he said for you know all celebrated 
 men when dying make a last speech he said How 
 did he say it? Ah! 'I must attire myself to meet 
 the King of Heaven, I who have been so often dressed 
 in my best to pay my addresses to the king in this 
 world!' In this manner Monsieur de la Billardiere 
 passed his last moments; he wished to try to justify 
 this saying of Pythagoras: ' Men are not well known 
 until after their death.' " 
 
 COLLEVILLE entering. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I bring you great news." 
 
 ALL. 
 
 " We know it already."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 171 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " I defy you to know it! I have been looking for 
 it ever since the accession of His Majesty to the 
 thrones of France and Navarre. Last night I suc- 
 ceeded, but after so much trouble, that Madame 
 Colleville asked me what was the matter and why 
 I was so worried." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " Do you think any one has time to occupy himself 
 with your anagrams, when the worthy Monsieur de 
 la Billardiere has just died?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 "That is one of Bixiou's speeches! I have just 
 come from Monsieur de la Billardiere's house; he 
 was then alive, but his death was expected at any 
 
 moment (Godard, perceiving the ho*x, Is annoyed and goes to his 
 
 office) Gentlemen, you will never guess the events 
 which are revealed by the anagram of this sacra- 
 mental phrase (he shows a paper and reads aloud) Charles 
 
 Dix t par la grace de Dieu, roi de France et de Navarre. ' ' 
 
 GODARD returning. 
 
 " Tell us at once, and do not tantalize these 
 gentlemen." 
 
 COLLEVILLE In a triumphant manner unrolling the hidden part of his 
 sheet of paper. 
 
 A H. V. il cedera, 
 De 5. C /. d. partira, 
 En nauf err era. 
 Deccde a Gorix.
 
 172 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "Every letter is there (he then repeats it) A Henri 
 Cinq il cedera (sa couronne) (to Henry V. he will 
 give up his crown); de Saint-Cloud partira (from 
 Saint-Cloud he will depart); en nauf (in shipwreck, 
 in a skiff, war-ship, sloop of war, corvette, anything 
 you wish, for it is an old French word) errera 
 (he will wander )" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " What a tissue of absurdities! How would you 
 like the king to cede the crown to Henry V., who, 
 according to your hypothesis, would be his grandson, 
 when the dauphin is living? Thus you prophesy 
 the death of the dauphin." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "What is Gorix? the name of a cat?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE provoked. 
 
 "It is the lapidarial abbreviation of the name of 
 a town, my dear friend; I found it in Malte-Brun: 
 Goritz is in Latin Gorixia and it is situated in 
 Bohemia or in Hungary, or perhaps in Austria " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Tyrol, the Basque provinces, or South America. 
 You should set it to music and play it on the 
 clarionet." 
 
 GODARD shrugging his shoulders and departing. 
 
 'What nonsense!" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 "Nonsense, nonsense! I truly wish that you
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 173 
 
 would take the trouble to study fatalism, the reli- 
 gion of the Emperor Napoleon." 
 
 GODARD offended at Colleville's tone. 
 
 " Monsieur Colleville, Bonaparte may be called 
 Emperor by historians, but it is not necessary to 
 recognize him as such in the government offices." 
 
 BIXIOU smiling. 
 
 " Look for an anagram in this, my dear friend! 
 Hold! in the matter of anagrams I like your wife's 
 better, because it is easier to make. (inaiowvoice) 
 Flavie should have in her leisure moments pro- 
 cured the position of chief of the office for you if 
 only to preserve you from the nonsense of a 
 Godard!" 
 
 DUTOCQ coming to Godard's rescue. 
 
 " If there were no stupidities you would lose your 
 place, for you prophesy events which would be 
 unpleasant to the king; all good royalists should 
 presume that he has had enough trouble, having 
 been twice banished from his country." 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " If I should be deprived of my place, Francois 
 Keller will give your minister a good shaking-up. 
 (Deep silence.) I tell you, Master Dutocq, that all known 
 anagrams have been fulfilled. Listen, you! Well, you 
 do not marry, for in your name is the word coqu!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 '* D. t. stands then for de-testable."
 
 174 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 DUTOCQ without appearing angry. 
 
 " I much prefer that this word should remain only 
 in my name." 
 
 PAULMIER whispering to Desroys. 
 
 "A hoax, Monsieur Colleville." 
 
 DUTOCQ to Colleville. 
 
 " Have you made the anagram of Xavier Rabour- 
 dm, chef de bureau?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 "Zounds!" 
 
 BIXIOU mending his 
 
 "What did you find?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " It is as follows: D'abord reva bureaux, E-u do 
 you catch the meaning? ET IL EUT ! E-u fin riche; 
 which means that after first belonging to the 
 administration, he will remain there so that he can 
 make his fortune in other directions. (Repeating.) 
 D'abord reva bureaux, E-u fin riche.'' 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 " That is at least singular." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " And Isidore Baudoyer? " 
 
 COLLEVILLE mysteriously. 
 
 "I do not wish to tell that to anyone but 
 Thuillier." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Bet me a breakfast that I can tell it to you!"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 175 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 " I will pay for it if you find out. " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " You will treat me then, but do not regret it; two 
 geniuses like you and me can always amuse ourselves 
 in each other's company! Isidore Baudqyer makes 
 Ris d'aboyeur d'oie ! " 
 
 COLLEVILLE struck with astonishment 
 
 " You have stolen it from me!" 
 
 BIXIOU ceremoniously. 
 
 " Monsieur de Colleville, do me the honor of 
 believing that I have a sufficient supply of nonsense 
 to prevent me from stealing that of my neighbor." 
 
 BAUDOYER entering, a bundle of papers In his hand. 
 
 "Gentlemen, 1 pray you, speak a little louder; 
 you place the office in very good repute before the 
 administration. The worthy Monsieur Clergeot, 
 who did me the honor of coming in to ask me a 
 question, heard your conversation." (He passed by Mon- 
 sieur Godard's desk.) 
 
 BIXIOU in a whisper. 
 
 " The growler is very gentle this morning, we are 
 about to have a change of weather." 
 
 DUTOCQ In a low voice to Blxlou. 
 
 " 1 have something to tell you." 
 
 BIXIOU touching Dutocq's vest 
 
 " You wear a pretty vest which has doubtless cost 
 you next to nothing. Is that the secret?"
 
 176 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "What did you say, almost nothing? I never 
 paid such a high price for anything. That is worth 
 six francs a yard at the large store in Rue de la 
 Paix a beautiful heavy material, which is very 
 suitable for deep mourning." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "You are a judge of engravings, but you are 
 ignorant of the laws of etiquette. One cannot be 
 universally talented. Silk is not admissible in deep 
 mourning. For this reason I wear wool only. Mon- 
 sieur Rabourdin, Monsieur Clergeot, and the minis- 
 ter, all wear woolen clothing; every one in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Germain wears wool. Minard is 
 the only one who does not wear wool; he is afraid 
 of being mistaken for a sheep, called laniger'm bucolic 
 Latin; under this pretext he dispenses with wearing 
 mourning for Louis XVIII., that great law-maker, 
 author of the Bill of Rights and a man of ability, a 
 king who will always hold his place in history, as 
 he has held it everywhere, for do you know the 
 greatest characteristic of his life? No. Very well, 
 on his secon'd return, when receiving all the allied 
 sovereigns, he took the lead in going to dinner." 
 
 PAULMIER looking at Dutocq. 
 
 " I do not understand." 
 
 DUTOCQ looking At Paulmtef 
 
 "Neither do I."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 177 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " You do not understand? Ah, well! He did not 
 consider himself at home. He was high-minded, 
 great and epigrammatic. The sovereigns understood 
 it no better than you do, even when they put their 
 heads together to try to comprehend it; it is true 
 that they were almost all strangers." (Baudoyer. 
 
 during- this conversation, was In the corner of the fireplace in the office of his 
 deputy-chief and they both spoke in a low voice.) 
 
 BAUDOYER. 
 
 "Yes, the worthy man is now dying. The two 
 ministers are there to watch his last moments; my 
 father-in-law has just been told of the event. If you 
 would render me a signal service you may take a 
 cab and inform Madame Baudoyer, for Monsieur 
 Saillard cannot leave his desk, and I, I dare not 
 leave the office alone. Place yourself at her ser- 
 vice; I think she has her own views and might now 
 wish to take some action in the matter." (Tht two 
 
 functionaries 20 out together.) 
 
 GODARD. 
 
 "Monsieur Bixiou, I am about to leave the office 
 for the day; take my place." 
 
 BAUDOYER to Bixiou, with a kindly manner. 
 
 "You would consult me should there be occa- 
 sion." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " The truth is, La Billardiere is dead." 
 
 DUTOCQ whispering In Blxlou's ear. 
 
 " Come OUtside With me." (Bixiou and Dutocq step into 
 the corridor and gaze ominously at each other.) 
 12
 
 178 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 DUTOCQ whispering In Bixlou's ear. 
 
 " Listen. Now is the time to talk together about 
 our promotion. What would you say if you should 
 become chief assistant and I head-clerk?" 
 
 BIXIOU shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 "Come, no nonsense." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " If Baudoyer should be nominated, Rabourdin 
 would not remain; he would send in his resignation. 
 Between ourselves, Baudoyer is so incapable, that 
 if Du Bruel and you do not help him he will be dis- 
 missed in two months. If my calculations are cor- 
 rect we will have among us three vacant places." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Three places right under our noses, which will 
 be given to pot-bellies and to lackeys, to spies, 
 to men belonging to the Society of Jesuits, to Colle- 
 ville, whose wife has at last played the r61e which 
 all pretty women end by playing that of piety " 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " As to you, my friend, if you wish for once in 
 your life to employ your mind logically (he stopped as 
 
 though to study In Bixlou's face the effect of his speech.) let US play 
 
 our cards above board." 
 
 BIXIOU calmly. 
 
 " Let us see your play!" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "As for me, I do not wish any other position than 
 that of deputy-chief. I know myself; I know that
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 179 
 
 I have not, like you, the means of becoming chief. 
 Du Bruel may become director, you may be his 
 chief clerk; he may leave you his place when he 
 shall have laid up his hoard, and 1, 1 shall slide easily 
 through under your protection, until I am retired." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " How shrewd! But by what means do you 
 expect to succeed in accomplishing an undertaking 
 where it will be necessary to force the hand of the 
 minister, and to eject a man of talent? Between 
 ourselves, Rabourdin is the only competent man in 
 the division, and perhaps in the ministry. But 
 there is talk of putting in his place that square of 
 foolishness, that cube of silliness, la Place-Bau- 
 doyer!" 
 
 DUTOCQ with an Important air. 
 
 " My friend, I can arouse all the officials against 
 Rabourdin! You know how much Fleury cares for 
 him? Very well, Fleury will despise him." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " To be despised by Fleury!" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "No one will remain true to Rabourdin; the clerks 
 en masse will bring their grievances to the minister, 
 and not only in our division but in Clergeot's 
 division, Bois-Levant's division, and that of other 
 ministries." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Forward, cavalry, infantry, artillery and sailors
 
 180 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 of the guard! You rave, my boy! And I, what 
 part am I to play in this?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 'Make a biting caricature, a drawing of a man 
 being killed!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 4 'Will you pay for it?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 "A hundred francs." 
 
 BIXIOU to himself. 
 
 " There is something " 
 
 DUTOCQ continuing 
 
 "You must represent Rabourdin dressed as a 
 butcher, but make the likeness to him striking; hunt 
 for analogies between an office and a kitchen, place 
 a skewer in his hand, draw portraits of the principal 
 clerks of the ministry as fowls shut up in an im- 
 mense cage over which must be written: Civil 
 Service Executions, and make him in the act of cutting 
 their throats one by one. You can have geese, 
 ducks with human heads, vague likenesses, you 
 understand! Rabourdin will be represented holding 
 a fowl in his hand Baudoyer, for example, made 
 to resemble a turkey " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Ris d'dbqyeur d'oie ! (he looks ion* at Dutocq.) Did 
 you discover that, you?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 "Yes, I, myself."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE l8l 
 
 BIXIOU speaking to himself. 
 
 " Do these violent feelings lead to the same results 
 as talent? (toDutocq). My dear fellow, I will do it. 
 
 (Dutocq allowing an exclamation of joy to escape him.) ^Vhen (stop) 
 
 I know what I can count on; for if you should 
 not succeed I would lose my place, and I must make 
 a living. You are a singularly good fellow, my dear 
 colleague!" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "Very well. Do not make the lithograph until 
 the success of the undertaking is clear to you." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Why do you not tell me everything at once?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " I must first feel the pulse of the office; we will 
 speak of that anon." (He departs.) 
 
 BIXIOU alone in the corridor. 
 
 " This fried skate, for he bears a greater resem- 
 blance to a fish than to a bird; this Dutocq has a good 
 idea, then; I do not know whence he has taken it. If 
 La Place- Baudoyer succeed to La Billardiere, it would 
 be droll, more than droll; in that event we would 
 gain much! (He re-enters the office.) Gentlemen, there 
 will be remarkable changes! Papa la Billardiere is 
 really dead. No joking! word of honor! See, there 
 is Godard off on an errand for our worthy chief, 
 Baudoyer, presumed successor of the defunct 
 
 (Minard, Desroys, and Collevllle raise their heads In astonishment, each on* 
 lays down his pen, Collevllle blows his nose.) We are all to be 
 
 promoted! Colleville will at least be chief assistant.
 
 1 82 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Minard will perhaps be head-clerk, and why should 
 it not be so? he is as stupid as I. Eh! Minard, if 
 you should get two thousand five hundred, your 
 little wife would be more than pleased, and you 
 'could then buy yourself boots!" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " But you are not yet in possession of these two 
 thousand five hundred." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Monsieur Dutocq gets that much in Rabourdin's 
 office; why should I not have as much this year? 
 Monsieur Baudoyer has had that amount." 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " Through Monsieur Saillard's influence; no head- 
 clerk in Clergeot's division receives a like amount." 
 
 PAULMIER. 
 
 " For example, has not Monsieur Cochin three 
 thousand? He succeeded Monsieur Vavasseur, who 
 was ten years under the Empire at four thousand. 
 He was reduced to three thousand when the King 
 . returned, and at the time of his death received only 
 two thousand five hundred. But Monsieur Cochin, 
 through the influence of his brother, had his salary 
 increased to three thousand." 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 "Monsieur Cochin signs his name, E. L.'L. E. 
 Cochin; his name is Emile-Louis-Lucien-Emmanuel, 
 which, made into an anagram, gives COCHENILLE.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 183 
 
 By the bye, he is interested in a druggist's estab- 
 lishment, Rue des Lombards, Maison Matifat, which 
 made a fortune by successful speculations in that 
 colonial product." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Poor man, he has fooled a year with Florine!" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " Sometimes Cochin is present at our evenings at 
 home, for he is a very expert performer on his 
 
 Violin. (To Bixlou, who had not as yet begun his work) YOU OUght 
 
 to come to our house to listen to a concert next 
 Tuesday. A quintette by Reicha will be per- 
 formed." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Thank you, I prefer to read the score." 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " Are you trying to joke by speaking thus? For 
 an artist of your ability ought to love music." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " I will go, but for madame's sake alone." 
 
 BAUDOYER returning 
 
 " Monsieur Chazelle has not yet come; present 
 my compliments to him, gentlemen." 
 
 BIXIOU who put a hat In Chazelle's place when he heard Baudoyer 
 approach. 
 
 " Pardon, sir, he has gone to Rabourdin's house 
 to ask a question for you." 
 
 CHAZELLE entering, his hat on his head, without perceiving Baudoyer. 
 
 "Father la Billardiere is done for, gentlemen!
 
 1 84 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Rabourdin is chief of division, maitre des requites! 
 He has not stolen his promotion, that is sure " 
 
 BAUDOYER to Chazelle. 
 
 "You found that appointment in your second hat, 
 
 Sir, iS it not SO? (He shws him the hat which is in his place.) 
 
 This is the third time within the month that you 
 have arrived after nine o'clock; if you continue to be 
 so late, you will make your way, but know in what 
 manner. (To Bixiou. who is reading the paper.) My dear Mon- 
 sieur Bixiou, do leave the paper to these gentlemen 
 who are going to breakfast, and lay hold of the 
 business of the day. I do not know what Monsieur 
 Rabourdin wants with Gabriel; he keeps him, I 
 believe, for his especial use; I have rung three 
 
 times. ' ' (Baudoyer and Bixiou retire Into the inner office.) 
 
 CHAZELLE. 
 "Damned luck." 
 
 PAULMIER delighting to annoy Chazelle. 
 
 "Were you not told downstairs that he was up 
 here? Besides, could you not have looked around as 
 you entered, and so have seen the hat at your place, 
 and the elephant " 
 
 COLLEVILLE laughing. 
 
 "In the menagerie!" 
 
 PAULMIER. 
 
 " It is large enough to be seen." 
 
 CHAZELLE In despair. 
 
 "Zounds! in return for the four francs seventy- 
 five centimes which the government pays us for a
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 185 
 
 day's labor, I do not see that we ought to be 
 slaves." 
 
 FLEURY entering. 
 
 " Down with Baudoyer, hurrah for Rabourdin! 
 That is the sentiment of the division." 
 
 CHAZELLE exasperated. 
 
 " Baudoyer can dismiss me if he likes; I shall not 
 be greatly grieved. In Paris there are a thousand 
 ways of gaining five francs a day! One can earn 
 that much at the Palais de Justice, copying briefs 
 for lawyers.' 
 
 PAULMIER continuing to tease Chazell*. 
 
 "You may say that, but a position is a position, and 
 the plucky Colleville, who works like a convict 
 outside of this office, and who could earn, if he were 
 to lose his position here, more than his present 
 salary by simply teaching music, even he prefers to 
 keep his position. The deuce! One does not readily 
 abandon one's expectations." 
 
 CHAZELLE continuing his philippic. 
 
 ' He may have expectations, but they are not for 
 me! We have no chances of promotion? Zounds! 
 Time was when there was no career more enticing 
 than the administrative. So many men were in 
 the army, that there were not enough for the 
 government work. The toothless, those wounded in 
 the hand, in the foot, or in bad health like Paulmier, 
 and those who were near-sighted could obtain rapid
 
 1 86 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 promotion. Families whose children thronged the 
 colleges became fascinated with the brilliant career 
 of a young man in spectacles, clad in a blue coat, 
 whose buttonhole bouquet was brightened by a red 
 ribbon, and who handled a million francs a month, 
 by only staying a few hours in some government 
 office, superintending some work, arriving there late 
 and leaving early, having, like Lord Byron, hours of 
 leisure, and writing novels, promenading in the 
 Tuileries, with a rather consequential air, being seen 
 everywhere, at the theatre, at the ball, admitted to 
 the best society, dispensing his emoluments, thus 
 returning to France everything that France had 
 given him, returning even his services. In fact 
 clerks were then, like Thuillier, cajoled by pretty 
 women; they seemed to have ability, they were not 
 overworked at the office. Empresses, queens, 
 princesses, the wives of marshals in that happy 
 time, had their caprices. All those fine ladies had 
 the ambition of noble souls; they loved to give their 
 protection. Thus one might fill a high position for 
 twenty-five years; one might be auditor to the 
 council of state, or maitre des requites, and bring in 
 his reports to the Emperor while amusing himself 
 with his august family. Pleasure and work went on 
 together. Everything was done quickly. But now, 
 since the Chamber has insisted on a minute account 
 of the expenses, and chapters marked: The Staff! 
 we are of less account than soldiers. The lowest 
 places are subject to a thousand chances, for there 
 are a thousand sovereigns."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 187 
 
 BIXIOU re-entering. 
 
 "Chazelle is crazy. Where does he find a thousand 
 sovereigns? unless perchance in his pocket?" 
 
 CHAZELLE. 
 
 'Let us count! There are four hundred at the 
 end of Pont de la Concorde so called because it 
 leads to the scene of perpetual discord between the 
 Right and Left of the Chamber; three hundred more 
 at the end of Rue deTournon. The court, which ought 
 to count for three hundred, is then obliged to have 
 seven hundred times more power than the Emperor 
 in order to appoint one of its proteges to any govern- 
 ment position whatsoever!" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 ' All this means, that in a country where three 
 powers rule, you may bet a thousand to one that a 
 clerk who relies solely upon his own merits will 
 never be promoted." 
 
 BIXIOU regarding Chazelle and Fleury by turns. 
 
 "Ah! my boys, you have yet to learn that in this 
 age the worst state in life is the state of belonging 
 to the State." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Because of the constitutional government.' 1 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 "Gentlemen! Do not talk politics." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Fleury is right: serving the State to-day is not 
 like serving the Prince, who knows when to punish
 
 1 88 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 and when to reward! To-day, the State is every 
 one. Now, everybody is not concerned in anybody. 
 To serve every one is to serve no one. No one is 
 interested in any one. A clerk lives between two 
 negations. The world has no pity, has no respect, 
 has no heart, no brains; it is an egotist, it forgets 
 to-morrow the services rendered to it yesterday. 
 In vain can you search within yourselves to find, 
 like Monsieur Baudoyer, that from the tenderest 
 infancy you had a talent for administration, that 
 you are a Chateaubriand as regards reports, a Bos- 
 suet as regards circulars, a Canalis as regards me- 
 morials, or the genius of dispatches. There is 
 a law of fatality against administrative genius, the 
 law of promotion through its means. This fatal 
 method is based on the statistics of promotion and 
 the statistics of mortality combined. It is certain 
 that on entering whatever administration you choose, 
 at eighteen years of age, you will have to wait until 
 you are thirty years old before your salary is raised 
 to eighteen hundred francs, while to obtain six thou- 
 sand at fifty, Colleville's life proves to us that the 
 ability of a woman, the support of several Peers of 
 France, of several influential deputies, are of no 
 effect. There is then no free and independent 
 career in which, after twelve years' labor, a young 
 man having gone through his school-course, having 
 been vaccinated, freed from military duty and 
 possessing all his faculties without being a tran- 
 scendent genius there is no career in which he 
 may not have amassed a capital of forty -five thousand
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 189 
 
 francs in centimes, representing a permanent in- 
 come equal to our salaries, essentially precarious, 
 for they are not even for life. In that time a grocer 
 ought to make enough to ensure him ten thousand 
 francs income, to make an assignment, or to preside 
 over the Tribunal of Commerce. A painter can color 
 over half a mile of canvas, and be decorated with 
 the Legion of Honor, or pose as a neglected genius. 
 A man of letters can become professor of some one 
 subject; a journalist earn a hundred francs a thou- 
 sand lines, by writing feuilletons, or find himself in 
 Sainte-Pelagie for having written a brilliant pam- 
 phlet which displeased the Jesuits, which is of great 
 benefit to him and will make him a politician at once. 
 Even a lazy man, who has accomplished nothing for 
 some lazy people do really something has debts 
 and a widow who pays them. A priest has had 
 time to become a bishop in partibus. A vaudevillist 
 becomes owner, although he may never write, 
 like Du Bruel, entire plays. A sober and intelligent 
 lad who begins to discount with a very small capital, 
 may like Mademoiselle Thuillier, then buy a share 
 in a broker's business. Let us look lower down in 
 the scale! a petty clerk will become notary, a rag- 
 dealer will have an income of three thousand francs, 
 the poorest workmen have been able to become 
 manufacturers; while in the rotatory movement of 
 this present civilization which mistakes perpetual 
 division for progress, a man like Chazelle must dine 
 at twenty -two sous a meal! beat down his tailor 
 and his boot-maker! has debts! is nothing! and
 
 I go THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 has become idiotic! Come, gentlemen, a fine con- 
 dition! Heh! Let us send in our resignations? 
 Fleury, Chazelle, fling yourselves into other employ- 
 ments, and in those pursuits become great men! " 
 
 CHAZELLE calmed down by Bixiou's words. 
 " Thank yOU." (A generallaugh.) 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "You are wrong; in your place I should try to 
 get ahead of the secretary-general.' 1 
 
 CHAZELLE uneasily. 
 
 " And what does he wish to say to me?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Odry would tell you, Chazelle, with more polite- 
 ness than des Lupeaulx would, that the only place 
 open for you is the Place de la Concorde." 
 
 PAULMIER holding fast to the stove-pipe. 
 
 " Zounds! Baudoyer will show you no mercy; 
 let us be off!" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 "Another example of Baudoyer's spite! Ah! 
 what a queer fellow he is! Speak to me of Mon- 
 sieur Rabourdin, now he is a man. He placed 
 work on my table for me, which would take three 
 days to accomplish in this office. Ah! well, he 
 expects that it will be done by four o'clock this 
 evening. But he is not always at my heels to 
 prevent me from talking to my friends." 
 
 BAUDOYER appearing. 
 
 " Gentlemen, you will admit that if one has the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 19! 
 
 right to blame the Chamber or the progress of the 
 administration, this right must be elsewhere than in 
 
 the Offices! (He addressed himself to Fleury.) Why are yOU 
 
 here, sir?" 
 
 FLEURY Insolently. 
 
 " To tell these gentlemen that there are some 
 changes taking place! The secretary-general has 
 sent for Du Bruel and for Dutocq also! Every one 
 is asking who will be appointed." 
 
 BAUDOYER re-entering. 
 
 " Here, sir, it is not your business; return to your 
 own office, and do not disturb the routine of mine." 
 
 FLEURY in the doorway. 
 
 " It would be a great injustice if Rabourdin should 
 gobble it up! Faith! I would leave the ministry. 
 (Here-entered.) Have you found your anagram, Papa 
 Colleville?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 " Yes, here it is." 
 
 FLEURY leaning over Collevllle's desk. 
 
 "Famous {famous! Behold, what will surely happen 
 if the government continues its method of hypocrisy. 
 
 (He made a sign to the clerks that Baudoyer was listening.) If the 
 
 government would frankly state its intention, with- 
 out concealing anything, the Liberals would then 
 see what was to be done. A government that turns 
 against itself, its best friends, and men like those 
 of the ' D'ebats,' like Chateaubriand and Royer- 
 Collard! is only to be pitied!"
 
 ' 192 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 COLLEVILLE after having consulted his colleagues. 
 
 " Come, Fleury, you are a good fellow; but do 
 not speak about politics here, you do not know 
 what wrong you do us." 
 
 FLEURY dryly. 
 
 " Adieu, gentlemen, I must hurry with my work. 
 
 (He returns and speaks to Bixiou In a low voice.) It is Said that 
 
 Madame Colleville is connected with the Society of 
 the Jesuits." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Where?" 
 
 FLEURY laughing aloud. 
 
 " You are too clever to be caught." 
 
 COLLEVI LLE anxiously. 
 
 "What are you saying?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Last night our theatre made three thousand 
 francs profit by the new play, although it is its 
 fortieth representation. You ought to see it; the 
 setting is superb."
 
 At this moment des Lupeaulx was receiving Du 
 Bruel in the secretary's office, where shortly after 
 Dutocq joined them. Des Lupeaulx had learned of 
 the death of Monsieur de la Billardiere, through his 
 valet, and wished to please the two ministers by 
 publishing, that very evening, an obituary notice. 
 
 "Good-day, my dear Du Bruel," said the semi- 
 minister to the head-clerk, as he entered, at the 
 same time leaving him standing. " Do you know 
 the news? La Billardiere is dead; the two ministers 
 were present when he received the Last Sacrament. 
 The good man strongly recommended Rabourdin, 
 saying that he would have died very unhappy, had 
 he not known that the man who had so often acted 
 as his substitute would be his successor. It seems 
 that in the agony of death one confesses every- 
 thing. The minister agreed the more readily, be- 
 cause his intention, as well as that of the Council, 
 was to reward Monsieur Rabourdin for his numer- 
 ous services Du Bruel nods the council of state 
 needs his experience. It is said that Monsieur de 
 la Billardiere will leave the division of his late father, 
 and will pass to the Commission of Seals; that is 
 the same as though the king were to make him a 
 present of a hundred thousand francs, the position 
 is like a notary's position and can be sold. This 
 news will delight your division, for one can well
 
 194 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 believe that Benjamin will be placed there. Du 
 Bruel, we must get ten or a dozen lines together 
 about this worthy man and put it among the Paris 
 items. Their Excellencies will glance over them. 
 He reads the paper. Do you know the particulars 
 of the life of Papa la Billardiere?" 
 
 Du Bruel made a gesture which implied ignorance 
 on his part. 
 
 "No?" replied des Lupeaulx. "Oh, well! he 
 was connected with the affairs of La Vendee, and 
 he was one of the confidants of the late king. Like 
 Comte de Fontaine, he never wished to make any 
 terms with the First Consul. He had a little of the 
 Chouan in him. He was born in Brittany, of a 
 parliamentary family of so late a date that its title 
 of nobility originated during the reign of Louis XVIII. 
 How old was he? Never mind! Arrange it thus: 
 Loyalty which was never doubted an enlightened 
 religion the poor man had this peculiarity, that he 
 would never put his foot inside of a church; say 
 that he was a pious subject. Bring in modestly 
 that he sang the song of Simeon at the accession of 
 Charles X. The Comte d'Artois thought very 
 highly of La Billardiere, for he co-operated unhappily 
 in the affair of Quiberon and took everything on his 
 own shoulders. Do you know that? La Billar- 
 diere defended the King in a pamphlet in reply to an 
 impudent account of the Revolution written by a 
 journalist; you can then lay stress on his devotion. 
 In short, weigh well your words, so that the other 
 journals do not ridicule us, and bring me the article.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 195 
 
 You were yesterday at Monsieur Rabourdin's 
 house?" 
 
 "Yes, Monseigneur," said Du Bruel. "Ah par- 
 don" 
 
 "There is no harm in that," said des Lupeaulx, 
 laughing. 
 
 "His wife is wonderfully beautiful," said Du 
 Bruel; "there are not two such women in Paris; there 
 are others as intellectual as she, but none as 
 graciously intellectual. A woman may be more 
 beautiful than Celestine; but it is difficult to find 
 one with such a variety of beauty. Madame 
 Rabourdin is much superior to Madame Colleville," 
 said the vaudevillist in recalling des Lupeaulx' adven- 
 ture. " Flavie owes what she is to her intercourse 
 with men, while Madame Rabourdin depends upon 
 herself alone; she knows everything. You cannot 
 even tell a secret in Latin in her presence. If I 
 had such a wife, I should believe it possible for me 
 to succeed in every undertaking." 
 
 "You have more mind than an author ought to 
 have," replied des Lupeaulx with a conceited air. 
 
 Then he turned around, espied Dutocq, and said 
 to him: 
 
 "Ah! good-day, Dutocq; I have sent for you to ask 
 you to lend me your Charlet, if it is complete; the 
 countess knows nothing of Charlet." 
 
 Du Bruel retired. 
 
 "Why do you come when you are not called?" 
 said des Lupeaulx harshly to Dutocq when they 
 were alone. " Is the state in danger, that you come
 
 196 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 to me at ten o'clock when I am just going to break- 
 fast with His Excellency?" 
 
 " Perhaps, sir," said Dutocq, "if 1 had had the 
 honor of seeing you this morning, you would doubt- 
 less not have eulogized Monsieur Rabourdin, after 
 having read his opinion of you." Dutocq opened 
 his coat, took a sheet of paper printed on the left- 
 hand pages and placed it on des Lupeaulx'sdesk, 
 having marked off the passage. Then he bolted 
 the door, fearing interruption. The following is the 
 paragraph which the secretary-general read while 
 Dutocq was closing the door: 
 
 "MONSIEUR DES LUPEAULX. A government degrades 
 itself by openly employing such a man, who is more especially 
 qualified for the diplomatic police. He is fitted to successfully 
 cope with political filibusters of other cabinets, and it would be 
 a pity to employ him in the domestic police. He is superior 
 to the ordinary spy, he understands a scheme, he would be 
 capable of carrying on successfully an intrigue, and of skil- 
 fully covering his retreat." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx was succinctly analyzed in five or 
 six paragraphs, the quintessence of the biographical 
 portrait drawn at the beginning of this story. As 
 the secretary-general read the first words he felt 
 that he was being judged by a man stronger than 
 himself; but he wished to reserve the right to 
 examine into this memorandum which struck far and 
 wide, without permitting a man like Dutocq to 
 suspect his secret intentions. Des Lupeaulx thus 
 assumed a calm and serious expression before the spy. 
 The secretary-general, like lawyers, magistrates,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 197 
 
 diplomats and all those who by profession are 
 obliged to pry into the human heart, was aston- 
 ished at nothing. Accustomed to treachery, to the 
 wiles of hatred, and to snares, he was able to receive 
 a wound in the back without changing the expression 
 of his countenance. 
 
 " How did you get this article?" 
 
 Dutocq recounted his good luck. Des Lupeaulx 
 listened to it without making the least sign of 
 approbation, and so the spy tremblingly ended the 
 narration which he had triumphantly commenced. 
 
 " Dutocq, you have placed your finger between 
 the bark and the tree," said the secretary-general 
 dryly. " If you do not wish to make very powerful 
 enemies, guard most carefully this secret, which is a 
 work of the utmost importance, and known to me." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx dismissed Dutocq with one of those 
 glances more expressive than words. 
 
 " Ah! this scoundrel of a Rabourdin is concerned 
 in this also!" said Dutocq, alarmed at finding a rival 
 in his chief. "He then plays the major while I 
 march on foot! I would not have thought it!" 
 
 To all his other motives of aversion to Rabourdin 
 was added the jealousy of a member of the same 
 profession against a colleague one of the most 
 powerful ingredients of hatred. 
 
 When des Lupeaulx was alone, he fell into a 
 strange meditation. Of what power was Rabourdin 
 the instrument. Should he des Lupeaulx make 
 use of this singular document to ruin him, or should 
 he keep it as a weapon to enable him to succeed with
 
 198 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 the wife? This mystery was quite obscure to des 
 Lupeaulx, who glanced with terror at the pages of 
 this article where the men of his acquaintance were 
 judged with extraordinary accuracy. He admired 
 Rabourdin at the same time that he felt wounded 
 to the quick by him. Breakfast-hour found des 
 Lupeaulx still reading. 
 
 " Monseigneur will wait for you, if you do not go 
 down," said the valet de chambre to the minister. 
 
 The minister was in the habit of breakfasting with 
 his wife, his children and des Lupeaulx, without the 
 presence of servants. The morning meal is the 
 only moment of privacy which statesmen can snatch 
 from the pressure of their overwhelming business. 
 Yet notwithstanding the ingenious devices they 
 resort to, to keep this hour for private conversa- 
 tion and unconstrained home life and affection, a 
 great many important and unimportant people find 
 means of infringing upon it. Often business will 
 come up, as at this time, to interrupt their 
 happiness. 
 
 " I thought Rabourdin was a man much superior 
 to the ordinary government clerk; and see how, 
 ten minutes after de la Billardiere's death, he 
 arranges to have a real theatre ticket sent to me by 
 la Briere. Look," said the minister to des Lupeaulx, 
 in giving him a paper which he was rolling between 
 his fingers. 
 
 Too noble to dream of the disgraceful interpreta- 
 tion which the death of de la Billardiere lent to his 
 letter, Rabourdin had not withdrawn it from de la
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 199 
 
 Brire, after he had heard the news through him. 
 Des Lupeaulx read as follows: 
 
 " MONSEIGNEUR, If twenty-three years of faithful ser- 
 vice merits a favor, I entreat Your Excellency to give me an 
 audience to-day if possible; it concerns an affair in which my 
 honor is Involved." 
 
 Then followed the usual formulas of respect. 
 
 " Poor man!" said des Lupeaulx, with a compas- 
 sionate tone which confirmed the minister in his 
 error, " we two are alone, bid him come. You have 
 a meeting of the Council after the Chamber, and 
 Your Excellency has to reply to-day to the Opposi- 
 tion, and so there is no other time when you can 
 receive him." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx arose, called the attendant, spoke 
 a few words to him, and then sat down at the 
 table. 
 
 " I have summoned him to dessert," he said. 
 
 This minister, like all ministers of the Restora- 
 tion, was a man past his youth. The charter granted 
 by Louis XVIII. had this defect, that it tied the hands 
 of the kings by forcing them to trust the destinies 
 of the country to quadragenarians of the Chamber 
 of Deputies, and to septuagenarians of the Peerage, 
 so that it deprived them of the right to lay hold of a 
 man of political talent wherever he might be found, 
 notwithstanding his youth or his poverty-stricken 
 condition. Napoleon alone could employ young men 
 whom he chose, without being hampered by any 
 consideration. Now, since the overthrow of that
 
 200 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 mighty will, energetic action has deserted those in 
 high positions. Inertia which succeeds energy is a 
 contrast more dangerous in France than any other 
 country. As a general thing, ministers who have 
 been appointed when well on in years are all of 
 medium ability, while ministers chosen when young 
 have been an honor to European monarchies and to 
 republics whose affairs they directed. The world 
 still rings with the struggle between Pitt and Na- 
 poleon, two men who were engaged in politics at the 
 age when the Henrys of Navarre, the Richelieus, the 
 Mazarins, the Colberts, the Louvois, the d'Oranges, 
 the Guises, the la Roveres, the Machiavellis, in fact, 
 all the best known celebrated men, springing from a 
 lowly sphere or born around thrones, commenced 
 to govern the State. The Convention a model of 
 energy was, in a great part, composed of young 
 men; no sovereign can ever forget that it raised 
 fourteen armies against Europe. Its policy, so fatal 
 in the eyes of those who were in favor of absolute 
 power, was, nevertheless, dictated by real monarchi- 
 cal principles; because it conducted itself like a great 
 king. After ten or twelve years of parliamentary 
 struggles, after having studied politics until worn 
 out with the effort, this minister had become firmly 
 supported by a party who looked upon him as their 
 man of business. Happily for him, he was nearer 
 sixty than fifty years of age; if he had still retained 
 any youthful vigor, he would have been promptly 
 undone. But, accustomed to thrust things aside, to 
 beat a retreat, to return to the charge, he could allow
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 201 
 
 himself to be attacked in turn by his party, the 
 opposition, the court, the clergy, by confronting them 
 with the inertia of matter at the same time soft and 
 firm; thus he profited by his misfortunes. Harassed 
 by a thousand government questions, his mind like 
 that of an old lawyer who has pleaded in all sorts 
 of cases no longer retained that keenness which 
 belongs to solitary minds, neither had he the 
 promptitude of decision of people early accustomed 
 to action, such as distinguishes young soldiers. How 
 could it be otherwise? He had quibbled instead of 
 judging, he had criticised effects without searching 
 for their causes; above all, his head w^as full of a 
 thousand reforms such as a political party thrusts 
 upon its leader, a course that private interest brings 
 to an orator supposed to have a future before him, a 
 medley of schemes, and impracticable counsels. Far 
 from coming to his work fresh, he was tired out 
 with his marches and counter-marches. Afterward, 
 on attaining a place at the height so eagerly sought 
 for, he found that he was pierced by a thousand 
 thorny bushes, that he had a thousand conflicting 
 wills to conciliate. If the statesmen of the Restora- 
 tion had been permitted to carry out their own ideas, 
 their ability would doubtless have been less subject 
 to criticism; but, though their wishes were overruled, 
 their age saved them by hindering them from making 
 the resistance which youth opposes to intrigues, 
 both high and low, such as sometimes vanquished 
 Richelieu, and towhich, in a lower sphere, Rabourdin 
 was to succumb. After the anxieties of their first
 
 202 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 troubles, these men less old than aged have to 
 endure anxieties inseparable from the ministry. 
 Thus their eyes become weak at the time when 
 they should be as clear-sighted as the eagle; their 
 minds are weary when it is necessary for them to 
 redouble their energy. 
 
 The minister in whom Rabourdin wished to 
 confide was daily accustomed to listen to men of 
 unquestionable superiority explain to him the most 
 ingenious theories of government, applicable or inap- 
 plicable in regard to the affairs of France. These 
 people, who had no idea of the difficulties of national 
 politics, assailed this minister on his return from a 
 parliamentary struggle, or in a contest with the 
 secret follies of the court, or on the eve of a combat 
 with the public spirit, or on the morrow of a diplo- 
 matic question which had divided the Council into 
 three parties. Placed in this situation, a statesman 
 naturally keeps a yawn ready for the first sentence 
 referring to the better regulation of public affairs. 
 At such times there was no dinner where the most 
 audacious speculators, or shrewdest financiers and 
 politicians did not in the most serious conversation 
 j reflect the opinions of the Bourse and the bank, 
 the diplomatic secrets, and the plans which treated 
 of European affairs. In des Lupeaulx, and his 
 private secretary, the minister possessed, moreover, a 
 petty Council which digested these opinions, so that 
 they could control and analyze the interests which 
 were expressed by so many clever men. In fact, his 
 misfortune which was common to all sexagenarian
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 203 
 
 ministers was, that he shuffled with all difficul- 
 ties; with journalism, which at this time it was 
 deemed advisable to suppress noiselessly, instead of 
 fighting openly; with the question of finance as well 
 as the labor question; with the clergy as well as 
 with the question of national wealth; with liberalism 
 as well as with the Chamber. The minister, after 
 having controlled the power for seven years, thought 
 that he could dispose of all questions in like manner. 
 It is so natural for one to endeavor to retain power by 
 the same means by which it was attained, that no 
 one dared to blame a method invented by people of 
 moderate ability to conciliate minds of moderate 
 capacity. The Restoration, as well as the Polish 
 Revolution, proved to nations, as well as to princes, 
 what a man was worth, and what happens to the 
 country when the right man is wanting. The last 
 and greatest fault of statesmen of the Restoration 
 was their honesty during the struggle, in which their 
 adversaries employed all the resources of political 
 trickery, lies and calumnies, and who let loose upon 
 them, through subversive means, the ignorant 
 masses, accustomed only to comprehend revolt. 
 
 Rabourdin acknowledged all that to himself. But 
 he had just decided to stake all in the hopes of 
 winning everything, like a man who, weary of gam- 
 bling, only allows himself one more stake. But 
 chance had given him a sharper for his adversary, 
 in the person of des Lupeaulx. Notwithstanding 
 his sagacity, the chief of the office Rabourdin was 
 wiser IL the affairs of the administration than in
 
 204 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 insight into parliamentary affairs, and so did not 
 imagine the whole truth; he had no idea that the 
 great work which filled his life would be viewed by 
 the minister as a theory, and that it would be im- 
 possible for a statesman not to confound it with the 
 innovators of the dessert, with the chatters of the 
 chimney-corner. 
 
 At the moment when the minister, standing, was 
 thinking of Francois Keller, instead of Rabour- 
 din, and only remained because his wife offered him 
 a bunch of grapes, the servant announced the 
 chief of the bureau. Des Lupeaulx had counted 
 on preoccupying the minister by means of the tales 
 he had invented; thus seeing the statesman talking 
 to his wife, he stood in front of Rabourdin and 
 crushed him by his first sentence. 
 
 " His Excellency and I already know what you 
 have on your mind, and you have nothing to fear," 
 said des Lupeaulx, lowering his voice. Then raising 
 his voice, he added, " neither from Dutocq nor from 
 anyone else." 
 
 "Do not be uneasy, Rabourdin," said His Ex- 
 cellency, with kindness, at the same time making a 
 movement as though to retire. 
 
 Rabourdin advanced respectfully, and so the 
 minister could not avoid him. 
 
 " Will Your Excellency deign to allow me to say 
 two words in private?" said Rabourdin, while look- 
 ing at him with a mysterious glance. 
 
 The minister looked at the clock and went toward 
 the window, followed by the poor chief. 'J'
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 205 
 
 " When can I have the honor of submitting this 
 matter to Your Excellency? so that I can explain to 
 you the new plan of administration which is con- 
 nected with the article about which so much fault 
 has been found " 
 
 "A plan of administration!" said the minister, 
 contracting his eyebrows and interrupting him. " If 
 you have something of this kind to communicate to 
 me, you had better wait for the day when we shall 
 work together. For to-day I have the Council, and 
 I ought to make a reply to the Chamber on the 
 point which the Opposition raised yesterday, at the 
 end of the session. Your day is next Wednesday; 
 we could not work yesterday, for yesterday I was 
 unable to attend to the business of the ministry. 
 Political business has interfered with purely ad- 
 ministrative affairs." 
 
 " I place my honor with confidence in the hands 
 of Your Excellency," Rabourdin replied, seriously, 
 " and I entreat you not to forget that you have not 
 allowed me the time to explain at once about the 
 stolen paper " 
 
 " Fear nothing," said des Lupeaulx, placing him- 
 self between the minister and Rabourdin, whom he 
 interrupted, " before a week shall have passed you 
 will doubtless be nominated." 
 
 The minister laughed when he thought of des 
 Lupeaulx's enthusiastic admiration for Madame 
 Rabourdin, and he cast a side glance at his wife who 
 smiled. Rabourdin, surprised at this by-play, sought 
 its meaning, and so ceased to look at the minister
 
 206 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 for a moment. His Excellency took advantage of it 
 to make his escape. 
 
 "We will talk of that together," said desLupeaulx, 
 with whom the chief of the office, much to his sur- 
 prise, found himself alone. " But do not be vexed 
 with Dutocq. I will answer for him." 
 
 " Madame Rabourdin is a charming woman," said 
 the minister's wife to the head of the office, for the 
 sake of saying something. 
 
 The children gazed at Rabourdin with curiosity. 
 Rabourdin had expected a serious interview, and he 
 was like a great fish caught in the meshes of a light 
 net; he struggled with himself. 
 
 " Madame la Comtesse is very good," he said. 
 
 " Shall I not have the pleasure of seeing her some 
 Wednesday?" said the countess. " Bring her to my 
 house; you will oblige me " 
 
 "Madame Rabourdin receives on Wednesdays," 
 said des Lupeaulx, who knew the insipidity of the 
 official Wednesdays, "but as you show so much 
 kindness toward her, you will soon give one of your 
 private soirees " 
 
 The minister's wife arose, annoyed. 
 
 " You are the master of ceremonies at my house," 
 she said to des Lupeaulx. 
 
 These ambiguous words expressed the annoyance 
 which des Lupeaulx caused her when he interfered 
 with her private soirees, on which occasions she only 
 admitted a select few. She left the room, as she 
 bowed to Rabourdin. Des Lupeaulx and the head 
 clerk were then left alone in the little parlor, where
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 2OJ 
 
 the minister was accustomed to breakfast with his 
 family. Des Lupeaulx was at that moment twisting 
 in his hands the confidential letter which la Briere 
 had carried to the minister, and Rabourdin recog- 
 nized it. 
 
 "You do not know me thoroughly," said he, 
 smiling to the chief of the office. " Friday evening 
 we will come to a full understanding. Now I must 
 receive callers. The minister puts the burden of 
 everything on me because he is preparing to meet 
 the Chamber. But I repeat to you, Rabourdin, fear 
 nothing." 
 
 Rabourdin loitered slowly along the stairs, con- 
 fused by the singular turn things had taken. He 
 had expected Dutocq to denounce him, and he had 
 not been mistaken. Des Lupeaulx had the very 
 document which judged him so severely, at this 
 moment in his hands, and des Lupeaulx was flat- 
 tering his judge. It was totally bewildering! Men 
 usually comprehend with difficulty deep intrigues, 
 and Rabourdin felt that he was lost in this labyrinth, 
 without having the power to guess the part played by 
 the secretary-general. 
 
 " Either he has not read this article about himself, 
 or he loves my wife!" Such were the two thoughts 
 which occupied the mind of the chief as he traversed 
 the court-yard, for the look which he surprised 
 between Celestine and des Lupeaulx the previous 
 evening came before him at this moment like a flash 
 of lightning. During Rabourdin's absence his office 
 had become the scene of the greatest excitement, for
 
 208 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 the relations between the clerks and their chiefs in 
 the ministry are so well regulated that the coming 
 of a minister's messenger, sent to the office by His 
 Excellency, and especially at the hour when the 
 minister is not to be seen, causes great excitement. 
 The coincidence of this extraordinary communication 
 with the death of Monsieur de la Billardiere gave, 
 moreover, an undue importance to the fact which 
 Monsieur Saillard learned through Monsieur Clergeot, 
 and he had just conferred with his son-in-law 
 thereon. Bixiou, who, at that moment, was engaged 
 with his chief, left him conversing with his father-in- 
 law and withdrew to Rabourdin's office, where all 
 work was interrupted. 
 
 BIXIOU entering. 
 
 " There is no great warmth about you, gentlemen! 
 You have no idea what is going on down stairs. 
 The Virtuous Rabourdin is done for; yes, replaced! 
 There is a terrible scene taking place at the 
 ministry." 
 
 DUTOCQ looking at Bixiou. 
 
 "Is that true?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Who will be disturbed by that news? That is 
 none of your business! You will become deputy- 
 chief, and Du Bruel chief. Monsieur Baudoyer will 
 be rewarded by the division." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " I bet a hundred francs that Baudoyer will never 
 be head of the division."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 2OQ 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 "I will join in the bet. Will you, Monsieur 
 Poiret?" 
 
 POIRET. 
 "I have my pension in January." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "How is that? Then we shall never more see 
 those laced shoes? and what will the ministry do 
 without you? Who will take up my bet?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "I cannot bet, for I am too sure of the result. 
 Monsieur Rabourdin is appointed. Monsieur de la 
 Billardiere, while on his death-bed, recommended 
 him to the two ministers for the position, while he 
 confessed that he had taken money for a position 
 while Rabourdin had done all the work; for this he 
 had scruples of conscience, and in order to calm him 
 they promised, unless ordered otherwise by superior 
 authority, to appoint Rabourdin." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Gentlemen, are you all against me? Look, there 
 are seven of you! For you will be in this bet, 
 Monsieur Phellion. I bet a five hundred franc dinner 
 at the Rocher de Cancale that Rabourdin has not 
 obtained La Billardiere's place. That will not cost 
 you a hundred francs each, and as for me, I venture 
 five hundred. I will play the stroke alone then. 
 Shall we leave it thus? Do you agree, Du Bruel?"
 
 210 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 PHELLION laying down his pen. 
 
 "Sir, on what data do you found this uncertain 
 proposition? for uncertain is the word. But I am 
 wrong in using the word proposition; I meant to say 
 contract. A wager constitutes a contract." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " No, for the name contract can only be given to 
 those agreements recognized by the Code, and the 
 Code allows no suit for recovering a bet." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 " To reject it is the same as to recognize it." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "That is a rather strong expression, my little 
 Dutocq." 
 
 POIRET. 
 " For example." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " True. It is the same as by refusing to pay one's 
 debts, one acknowledges them." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 "You would make famous jurists." 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " I am as curious as Monsieur Phellion to know 
 what grounds Monsieur Bixiou has " 
 
 BIXIOU shouting across the office. 
 
 "Are you a bettor, Du Bruel?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 211 
 
 DU BRUEL appearing. 
 
 "Zounds, gentlemen, I have something difficult 
 to do, which consists in writing an obituary on the 
 death of de la Billardiere. Pray, do keep quiet; 
 after I am through, you may laugh and bet." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 " Joking or not! You infringe upon my puns!" 
 
 BIXIOU entering Du Bruel's office. 
 
 " That is so, Du Bruel. It is very difficult to praise 
 a good man; I would rather make his caricature!" 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "Will you help me, then, Bixiou?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " I will with pleasure, although such articles are 
 better done while eating." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 " We will dine together Reads aioud. 'Religion and 
 the monarchy are daily losing many of those who 
 fought for them in revolutionary times.' " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Bad. I would say: ' Death carries on its ravages 
 particularly among the old defenders of the monarchy 
 and the most faithful servants of the king, whose heart 
 bleeds under so many blows.' DU Bruei writes rapidly. 
 ' Monsieur le Baron Flamet de la Billardiere died this 
 morning of dropsy of the chest, caused by an affec- 
 tion of the heart.' Do you see, it is not an uninter- 
 esting matter to show that there are hearts in these 
 government offices. Shall I run in here a few lines
 
 212 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 about the emotions of the Royalists during the Reign 
 of Terror? Heh! that would not be amiss. But, 
 no; the small newspapers would say that the emo- 
 tions have their origin rather in the stomach than in 
 the heart. Suppose we do not mention that. What 
 have you written?" 
 
 DU BRUEL reading aloud. 
 
 " Having been born of old parliamentary stock " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " That is good! it is poetic, and stock is profoundly 
 true." 
 
 DU BRUEL continuing. 
 
 " In which devotion to the throne was hereditary, 
 as well as the attachment to the faith of our fathers, 
 Monsieur de la Billardiere " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " I would speak of him as Monsieur le Baron." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 " But he was not a baron in 1793." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " That does not make any difference. You know 
 that under the Empire, Fouche, when telling an 
 anecdote about the Convention, in which Robes- 
 pierre was speaking to him, told it thus, ' Robespierre 
 said to me: Due d'Otrante, you will go to the Hotel 
 de Viller There is a precedent for you." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 " Let me take a note of that word! But let us
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 213 
 
 not write le baron, for I have reserved for the last 
 the honors which were showered on him." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Ah! well. That is dramatic, the whole outline 
 of the article." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "Do you see? In nominating Monsieur de la, 
 Billardiere baron, gentleman-in-ordinary " 
 
 BIXIOU aside. 
 
 "Very ordinary." 
 
 DU BRUEL contlnuine. 
 
 " Of the bed-chamber, etc., the king rewarded at 
 one time all the services rendered by the Provost, 
 the severity of whose duties was disguised by the 
 gentlemanly polish common to the Bourbons, and 
 bravery of the Vendean hero, who had never bent 
 the knee before the imperial idol. He leaves a 
 son, who inherits his loyalty and his talents, etc." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Is that not in too high a key, too highly colored? 
 I should advise the toning down of this poetry: the 
 imperial idol, to bend the knee! The devil! Writ- 
 ing vaudevilles has ruined your manner, and you 
 are no longer capable of a solid prose style. I 
 would put: ' He belonged to the small number of those 
 who, etc.* Simplify your expressions, for you are 
 dealing with a simple man." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "One word more on vaudeville. You would 
 make your fortune at the theatre, Bixiou."
 
 214 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "What have you said about Quiberon? He reads 
 aloud. That will not do! I would say: 'In a book 
 recently published he took upon himself the respon- 
 sibility of all the misfortunes connected with the 
 expedition to Quiberon thus showing a test of 
 loyalty which shrank from no sacrifice.' That 
 is clever, bright, and saves La Billardiere from 
 reproach." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "At whose expense?" 
 
 BIXIOU as solemnly as a priest mounting the pulpit 
 
 " At Hoche's and Tallien's expense. You have 
 no knowledge of history?" 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 " No. I subscribed to the Baudouin collection, but 
 I have never had time to open it; there is not one 
 subject for a vaudeville in it." 
 
 PHELLION at the door. 
 
 " We want to know everything, Monsieur Bixiou. 
 Who can induce you to believe that the virtuous and 
 worthy Monsieur Rabourdin who has replaced de la 
 Billardiere during his nine months' illness, who is 
 the oldest head clerk of the ministry, and whom the 
 minister, on returning from Monsieur de la Billar- 
 diere 's house, sent his servant to summon will not 
 be appointed head of the division?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Papa Phellion, you understand geography?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 21$ 
 
 PHELLION straightening. 
 
 "Sir, I flatter myself that 1 do." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "History?" 
 
 PHELLION with a modest look. 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 BIXIOU looking at him. 
 
 " The setting of your diamond is loose; it may fall. 
 Well, yes, but you do not know the human heart. 
 You know no more about it than you do about the 
 environs of Paris." 
 
 POIRET to Vimeux-ln a low voice. 
 
 " The environs of Paris? I thought that he was 
 talking about Monsieur Rabourdin." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Is Rabourdin's entire office betting against me?" 
 
 ALL 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Du Bruel, are you in it?" 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 " I should say so! It is for our interest that our 
 chief be promoted. In that case, everyone in the 
 office will step up a peg." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "I will bet. Let me tell you why. It will be 
 difficult for you to understand, but let me tell it to
 
 2l6 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 you all the same. It is but right that Monsieur 
 Rabourdin should be appointed, he glances at Dutocq 
 for in selecting him long service, talent, and integrity 
 would be recognized, appreciated and rewarded. 
 This appointment would be in the best interests of 
 
 the administration. Pnellion, Polret and Tnulllier. listening 
 without understanding a word, are like people trying to see clearly in the 
 
 dark. Very well. In consequence of his entire fitness 
 for it and his merits, in recognizing how greatly such 
 an act would be equitable and wise, I bet that he 
 will not be appointed. Yes, it will be a case like 
 that of the expeditions to Boulogne and to Russia, 
 where genius united every element of success. It 
 will fail, as will fail everything here below that 
 seems just and good. I play the devil's games." 
 
 DU BRTJEL. 
 
 "Who, then, will be appointed?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " The more I think about Baudoyer, the more I 
 think he unites in himself all the contrary qualities, 
 and so he will be head of this division." 
 
 DUTOCQ Pushed to his last extremity. 
 
 " But Monsieur des Lupeaulx, who sent for me to 
 come here to borrow my Charlet, told me that 
 Monsieur Rabourdin would be nominated, and that 
 the little La Billardiere would be made keeper of 
 the seals." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Appointed! appointed! The appointment will 
 not be signed for ten days yet. The appointment
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 217 
 
 will date from the first day of the year. Look, see 
 your chief in the court, and tell me if my Mrtuous- 
 Rabourdin has the air of a man in favor. One would 
 think that he had been discharged! Fieury rushes to the 
 window. Adieu, gentlemen. I am going to tell Mon- 
 sieur Baudoyer that you have chosen Monsieur 
 Rabourdin; that will anger him exceedingly, the 
 holy man! Then I will tell him about our bet, so 
 that he may take heart again. That is what we call 
 in the theatre the event, is it not, Du Bruel? What 
 does that matter to me? If I win, he will make me 
 head clerk." He goes out 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " Everyone says that this man is clever. Well, as 
 for me, 1 can never understand a word he says 
 he goes on copying. I listen to it, and I listen to it; I 
 hear words without sense. He talks about the 
 environs of Paris in the same breath with the 
 
 human heart and he lays down his pen and goes to the stove 
 
 says that he is playing the devil's game when 
 speaking about the expeditions of Russia and 
 Boulogne! One must first admit that the devil can 
 play, and then know what game! I would first 
 mention the game of dominoes." He blows his nose. 
 
 FLEURY Interrupting. 
 
 " It must be eleven o'clock, for Father Poiret blows 
 his nose." 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 " That must be so already 1 I must hurry to the 
 office."
 
 218 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 POIRET. 
 " What was I saying?" 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 
 "Domino to the Seigneur; for the devil is in 
 question, and he is a sovereign without any charter. 
 But this aims more at the point than at the pun. 
 That is a play on words. As for the rest, I cannot 
 see the difference between a play on words and " 
 
 Sebastien enters to gather up documents for signature and for correction. 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 "You here, fine young man? The time of your 
 sorrows is ended; you will be appointed! Monsieur 
 Rabourdin will be nominated. You were present 
 last evening at Madame Rabourdin's soiree. Were 
 you not delighted to be present! It is said that one 
 always meets superb women there." 
 
 SEBASTIEN. 
 " 1 do not know." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 "Are you blind?" 
 
 SEBASTIEN. 
 " I do not like to look at what I cannot possess." 
 
 PHELLION enchanted. 
 
 " Well said, young man." 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 " You pay great attention to Madame Rabourdin. 
 The devil! She is a charming woman."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 2 19 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Bah! a very thin figure. I saw her in the 
 Tuileries; I much prefer Percilliee, the head ballet 
 girl, Castaing's victim." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " But what has an actress to do with the wife of 
 the chief of the office?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 " They both play comedy." 
 
 FLEURY regarding Dutocq sideways. 
 
 " The physical has nothing to do with the moral 
 character, and if you mean, by that, that " 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 " Oh, I mean nothing." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Do you wish to know who will be head of the 
 office?" 
 
 ALL. 
 "Tell us!" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 "It will be Colleville." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 "Why?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Madame Colleville has taken the short cut to- 
 ward this position the road through the sacristy " 
 
 THUILLIER dryly. 
 
 " I am such a dear friend of Colleville that I must
 
 220 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 beg you, Monsieur Fleury, not to speak so lightly of 
 his wife." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 "Never should women, who have no means of 
 defending themselves, be the subject of our con- 
 versations " 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 "All the more because Madame Colleville has 
 not chosen to receive Fleury, he disparages her for 
 the sake of revenge." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 "She did not wish to receive me on the same 
 footing as she does Thuillier, but 1 go there " 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 "When? Where? under her windows?"
 
 Although Fleury was dreaded in the office for his 
 blustering, he accepted in silence Thuillier's last 
 word. This resignation, which surprised the clerks, 
 was caused by a note for two hundred francs, with 
 a doubtful signature, which Thuillier was going to 
 present to Mademoiselle Thuillier, his sister. After 
 this skirmish, deep silence ensued. Every one 
 worked from one to three o'clock. Du Bruel did 
 not return. 
 
 About half-past three, the preparations for depart- 
 ure, the brushing of hats, the changing of coats, etc., 
 went on simultaneously in all the offices of the 
 ministry. This precious half-hour, spent in fussing 
 about, shortened by so much the hours of labor. 
 At this time the over-heated stove cools off, the 
 odor peculiar to offices evaporates, and silence is 
 restored. At four o'clock no one remains except 
 the clerks proper, those who take their duty con- 
 scientiously. A minister may know who are the 
 real workers in his ministry by going through the 
 offices at precisely four o'clock a kind of spying to 
 which these dignified personages do not descend. 
 
 At this hour, in the courts, some chiefs meet to 
 talk over their opinions in regard to the events of 
 the day. Usually they were grouped in twos or 
 threes, and they concluded their arguments in favor 
 of Rabourdin, but old stagers, like Monsieur Clergeot, 
 shook their heads, saying: Habent sua sidera lites, 
 (ar)
 
 222 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Saillard and Baudoyer were politely avoided, for no 
 one knew what to say to them about La Billardiere's 
 death, and every one knew that Baudoyer wanted 
 the place, although it was not his due. 
 
 When the son-in-law and his father-in-law found 
 that they had gone sufficiently far from the ministry, 
 Saillard broke the silence, by saying: " That looks 
 bad for you, my poor Baudoyer." 
 
 "I do not understand," said the chief, "of what 
 Elisabeth was thinking when she sent Godard in 
 such haste to procure the passport for Falleix. 
 Godard tells me that she hired a post-chaise, by the 
 advice of my uncle Mitral, and that even now Falleix 
 is on his way to his own part of the country." 
 
 " Without doubt, some matter relative to our busi- 
 ness," said Saillard. 
 
 " The most pressing business for us at this moment 
 is to look out for Monsieur de la Billardiere's place." 
 
 By this time they had arrived opposite the Palais- 
 Royal in Rue Saint-Honore. Dutocq saluted them, 
 bowed and entered into conversation with them. 
 
 "Sir," said he to Baudoyer, "if I can be of any 
 use to you in the circumstances in which you are 
 placed, I am at your disposal, for I am not less 
 devoted to you than Monsieur Godard." 
 
 "Such an assurance is at least consoling," said 
 Baudoyer, "and merits the esteem of worthy 
 people." 
 
 " If you will deign to use your influence to place 
 me near to you as deputy chief, by selecting 
 Bixiou for your chief, you will make the fortune of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 223 
 
 two men capable of doing anything to further your 
 advancement." 
 
 "You are making fun of us, sir?" said Saillard, 
 staring stupidly." 
 
 "That is far from my thoughts," said Dutocq. 
 "I have just come from the printing office of the 
 journal where I went to carry by request of the 
 secretary -general a notice on Monsieur de la Billar- 
 diere. This article, which I then read, has given 
 me the highest opinion of your talents. When the 
 time comes to crush Rabourdin, I have it in my 
 power to give a tremendous final blow, deign to 
 remember that." 
 
 Dutocq disappeared. 
 
 "I'll be hanged if I understand a word of this," 
 said the cashier, looking at Baudoyer, whose little 
 eyes looked on with singular stupefaction. "We 
 must buy the paper this evening." 
 
 When Saillard and his son-in-law entered their 
 parlor on the ground-floor, they saw Madame Sail- 
 lard, Elisabeth, Monsieur Gaudron and the curate 
 of Saint-Paul in front of a large fire. The curate 
 turned toward Monsieur Baudoyer, to whom his 
 wife made a sign which he failed to comprehend. 
 
 "Sir," said the curate, "I have lost no time in 
 coming to thank you for the magnificent gift with 
 which you have adorned my poor church. I dared 
 not run in debt in order to buy that beautiful mon- 
 strance worthy of a cathedral. You, who are one of 
 our most pious and faithful parishioners, you, before 
 all others, must have been struck with the bareness
 
 224 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 of our high altar. In a few moments I will see Mon- 
 seigneur, the coadjutor, and he will soon send you 
 his thanks." 
 
 " I have done nothing yet ," said Baudoyer. 
 
 " Monsieur le Cure," replied his wife, cutting her 
 husband's sentence short, " I will betray his whole 
 secret. Monsieur Baudoyer hopes to complete his 
 gift by giving you a dais for the coming Fe'te Dieu. 
 But this acquisition depends somewhat on the state 
 of our finances, and our finances depend on our 
 advancement." 
 
 " God recompenses those who honor Him," said 
 Monsieur Gaudron, as he withdrew with the curate. 
 
 "Why," said Saillard to Monsieur Gaudron and 
 the curate, " why will you not do us the honor of 
 dining with us pot-luck?" 
 
 "Stay, my dear vicar, "said the curate to Gaud- 
 ron. 
 
 " You know that I am engaged to dine with the 
 curate of Saint-Roch, who will conduct the burial 
 services for Monsieur de la Billardiere to-morrow." 
 
 " Can the curate of Saint-Roch say a word for 
 us?" said Baudoyer, whose wife pulled the skirts 
 of his coat violently. 
 
 " Keep quiet, Baudoyer!" she said, while leading 
 him into a corner so that she could whisper in his ear: 
 "You have given a monstrance to the church, that 
 is worth five thousand francs. I will explain every- 
 thing to you." 
 
 The avaricious Baudoyer made a horrible grimace, 
 and remained thoughtful during the entire dinner.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 225 
 
 " Why, then, were you so agitated about Falleix's 
 passport? Why do you meddle in the matter?" he 
 added. 
 
 " It seems to me that Falleix's affairs somewhat 
 concern us," Elisabeth replied dryly, throwing a 
 glance at her husband to make him cognizant of the 
 presence of Monsieur Gaudron, before whom he 
 ought to be silent. 
 
 " Certainly," said Father Saillard, thinking of his 
 interest in the business. 
 
 " I hope you arrived at the newspaper office in 
 time," said Elisabeth to Monsieur Gaudron, as she 
 gave him some soup. 
 
 "Yes, my dear Madame," the vicar replied, "as 
 soon as the editor of the paper saw the short article 
 written by the secretary of the Grand Almoner, he 
 placed no further difficulty in its way. The little 
 slip he took pains to place in the most desirable 
 position. I should never have thought of that; but 
 this young journalist has a very bright mind. The 
 defenders of religion can fight against impiety without 
 disadvantage, for there is a great deal of talent in 
 the royalist press. I have every reason to think 
 that success will crown your hopes. But remember, 
 my dear Baudoyer, to look after Monsieur Colle- 
 ville's interests; he is an object of great interest to 
 His Eminence. I am requested to speak to you about 
 him" 
 
 " If I am head of the division, I will make him 
 head of one of my offices, if it is desiredl" said 
 Baudoyer. 
 15
 
 226 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 The answer to the enigma came after dinner was 
 over. The ministerial newspaper bought by the 
 porter contained, among the Paris news, the two fol- 
 lowing articles, called items: 
 
 "The Baron de la Billardiere died this morning, after a 
 long and painful illness. In him the King loses a devoted 
 subject, and the Church one of her most pious children. 
 Monsieur de la Billardiere's last days have fitly crowned his 
 noble life, which during tempestuous times was entirely con- 
 secrated to perilous missions, and has been of late years 
 devoted to the most arduous duties of his position. Monsieur 
 de la Billardiere, was marshal of a department where his 
 ability triumphed over the obstacles which were increased by 
 the rebellion. He accepted the arduous position of director of 
 a division, in which his brilliancy was not less useful than 
 the French suavity of his manners, in arranging the grave 
 affairs which were under consideration there. No rewards 
 could have been better deserved than those by which the 
 King, Louis XVIII., and His Majesty took pleasure in crown- 
 ing his loyalty, which had never swerved under the usurper. 
 This old family will revive in his son, who inherits the talents 
 and devotion of the worthy man whose loss grieves so many 
 friends. His Majesty has already, by a gracious word, given 
 it to be understood that he considered Monsieur Benjamin de 
 la Billardiere among the number of gentlemen-in-ordinary of 
 the bed-chamber. 
 
 "The numerous friends who perchance have not been 
 notified in regard to the funeral services, or those who have 
 not received the notice in time, are informed that the obsequies 
 will take place to-morrow at four o'clock in Saint-Roch 
 Church. The memorial sermon will be delivered by the 
 Abbe Fontanon." 
 
 " Monsieur Isidore Baudoyer, who represents one of the 
 oldest bourgeois families of Paris, and who is head of an 
 office in La Billardiere's division, has of late recalled the old
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 227 
 
 traditions of piety which distinguished these great families, so 
 jealous for the glory of religion and so friendly to its monu- 
 ments. Saint-Paul's Church needed a monstrance, cor- 
 responding to the magnificence of that basilica, which was 
 built by the Society of Jesus. Neither the vestry nor the 
 curate were rich enough to decorate the altar. Monsieur 
 Baudoyer has presented this parish with the monstrance 
 which many people have admired at Monsieur Gohier's the 
 King's jeweler. Thanks to this pious man, who did not 
 cavil at the enormous price, Saint-Paul's Church possesses, 
 to-day, this master-piece of the goldsmith's art, the design 
 for which was drawn by Monsieur de Sommervieux. We 
 take pleasure in publishing a fact which proves how little 
 effect the declamations of liberalism have on the minds of the 
 Parisian bourgeoisie. At all times the highest class of the 
 bourgeoisie have been royalists, and they always prove it 
 when occasion offers." 
 
 "The price was five thousand francs," said the 
 Abbe Gaudron, " but, as the money was paid down, 
 the court jeweler reduced the amount." 
 
 " Representing one of the oldest families of the Paris- 
 ian bourgeoisie!" said Saillard. "It is printed, and 
 in the official newspaper, too!" 
 
 " Dear Monsieur Gaudron, do aid my father to 
 compose a little speech to slip into the ear of the 
 countess when he carries her the monthly stipend, 
 a sentence which shall comprise everything. I will 
 leave you. I must go out with my Uncle Mitral. 
 Would you believe that it has been impossible for 
 me to find my Uncle Bidault? And in what a hovel 
 he lives! But Monsieur Mitral, who knows his ways, 
 says that he transacts all his business between 
 eight o'clock and noon, that after that hour he can
 
 228 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 only be found at the cafe named ThZmis, a peculiar 
 name " 
 
 " Is justice done there?" said the Abbe Gaudron, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Why does he go to a cafe at the corner of Rue 
 Dauphine and the Quai des Augustins? It is said 
 that he plays dominoes there every evening with 
 his friend, Monsieur Gobseck. I do not care to go 
 there alone; my uncle takes me there and calls for 
 me." 
 
 At this moment appeared Mitral 's yellow face and 
 sleek wig, which looked as though it were made of 
 dog-grass; he motioned to his niece to come immedi- 
 ately, so as not to waste time which cost two francs 
 per hour. Madame Baudoyer left at this time 
 without giving any explanation to her father or her 
 husband. 
 
 As soon as Elisabeth had disappeared, Monsieur 
 Gaudron said to Monsieur Baudoyer: 
 
 " In this woman heaven has given you a treasure 
 of prudence and virtue, a model of wisdom, a Chris- 
 tian woman possessing a divine spirit. Religion 
 alone is able to form such perfect characters. To- 
 morrow, I will say mass for the success of the good 
 cause! The interests of the monarchy and religion 
 require that you shall be appointed. Monsieur 
 Rabourdin is a Liberal; he subscribes to the Journal 
 des DZbats, a dangerous paper,which made war on the 
 Comte de Villele, to serve the defeated interests of 
 Monsieur de Chateaubriand. His Eminence will read 
 the newspaper this evening, if only for the sake of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 229 
 
 his poor friend, Monsieur de la Billardiere, and Mon- 
 siegneur, the coadjutor, will speak to him about you 
 and Rabourdin. I am acquainted with the curate; 
 when thinking of his dear church, he will not forget 
 you in his address; further, he is at this moment 
 dining with the coadjutor, at the house of the curate 
 of Saint-Roch." 
 
 At these words, Saillard and Baudoyer began to 
 perceive that Elisabeth had not been idle since the 
 time Godard had informed her. 
 
 " Isn't she shrewd, this Elisabeth," said Saillard, 
 who comprehended more clearly than the abbe the 
 rapid mole's path which his daughter had made. 
 
 "She sent Godard to Monsieur Rabourdin's door 
 to find out what newspaper he took," said Gaudron; 
 "and I told the result of my observations to the 
 secretary of His Eminence, for we live in a time 
 when the church and the throne ought to take 
 especial care to find out who are their friends and 
 who their enemies." 
 
 " I have been five days trying to make up a sen- 
 tence to say to the wife of His Excellency,'' said 
 Saillard." 
 
 "All Paris will read it," said Baudoyer, whose 
 eyes were riveted on the newspaper. 
 
 "Your eulogy has cost us* four thousand eight 
 hundred francs, my boy," said Madame Saillard. 
 
 "You have embellished God's house," the Abbe 
 Gaudron replied. 
 
 "We might have saved our souls without that," 
 she continued. " But if Baudoyer gets the place,
 
 230 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 which is worth eight thousand francs more than he 
 receives at present, the expenditure will not be so 
 great. And if he should not get it? HeyJ my 
 Mother!" she said, while glancing at her husband, 
 "what a bleeding! " 
 
 "Ah! well," said Saillard, enthusiastically, "we 
 would make up our deficiency through Falleix, who 
 is now about to extend his business by making use 
 of his brother, whom he has made a stock-broker 
 purposely. Elisabeth should certainly have told us 
 why Falleix has gone away so suddenly. But let 
 us compose the sentence. This is what I have thus 
 far thought of: Madame, if you would only say a word 
 or two to His Excellency " 
 
 "If you would! " said Gaudron, "or, if to speak 
 more respectfully, condescend. Besides, you must 
 find out, before everything, whether Madame la 
 Dauphine will grant you her support, for then you 
 would be able to suggest the idea of co-operating 
 with the wishes of Her Royal Highness." 
 
 " It will also be necessary to designate the vacant 
 place," said Baudoyer. 
 
 "Madame la Comtesse," replied Saillard, rising and 
 smiling agreeably at his wife. 
 
 " Jesus! Saillard, how droll you are! But, my son, 
 take care now; you will make the woman laugh." 
 
 "Madame la Comtesse, have I improved?" he 
 said, while looking at his wife. 
 
 "Yes, my darling." 
 
 " The place of the late worthy Monsieur de la Billar< 
 di&re is vacant; my son-in-law, Monsieur Baudoyer "
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 231 
 
 "A man of great talent and extreme piety ," Gaudron 
 whispered. 
 
 "Write it down, Baudoyer," said old Saillard; 
 "write that sentence." 
 
 Baudoyer naively took his pen and wrote down 
 his own praises without blushing; this he did abso- 
 lutely as Nathan or Canalis would have done in 
 describing one of their own books. 
 
 "Madame la Comtesse do you see?" said Sail- 
 lard to his wife. " I am supposing that you are the 
 minister's wife." 
 
 " Do you take me for a simpleton? I understand 
 it," she replied. 
 
 " The place of the late worthy Monsieur de la Bit- 
 lardiere is vacant; my son-in-law, Monsieur Baudoyer, 
 a man of great talent and extreme piety " 
 
 After looking at Monsieur Gaudron, who was 
 reflecting, he added: 
 
 "Would be very happy if he should get it. Ah! 
 that is not bad; it is brief, and at the same time says 
 everything that is necessary." 
 
 "But wait, Saillard! Do you not see that the 
 abbe is meditating?" said his wife; "do not disturb 
 him now." 
 
 "Would be very happy if you would deign to interest 
 yourself in his behalf," replied Gaudron, "and, in 
 saying a word or two to His Excellency, you would 
 especially please the Dauphiness, by whom he has the 
 honor of being protected." 
 
 "Ah! Monsieur Gaudron, this sentence alone is 
 worth the monstrance; I now regret less the four
 
 232 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 thousand eight hundred. Besides, say then, Bau- 
 doyer, you will pay them, my lad! Have you 
 written everything down?" 
 
 "I shall make you repeat it, mother!" said 
 Madame Saillard, " and I will make you say it over 
 every morning and evening. Yes, very well turned, 
 is this sentence! How happy you must be that you 
 are so wise, Monsieur Gaudron! See what it is to 
 have studied in the seminaries; there one learns to 
 speak to God and His saints." 
 
 " He is as good as he is learned," said Baudoyer, 
 while pressing the priest's hands. " Did you write 
 that article?" he asked, at the same time showing 
 him the newspaper. 
 
 "No," said Gaudron, " this was written by the 
 Secretary to His Eminence, a young abbe who is 
 under great obligations to me and who is interested 
 in Monsieur Colleville; in times past I paid his ex- 
 penses at college." 
 
 " A good deed always has its reward," said Bau- 
 doyer. 
 
 While these four people sat down to their game 
 of boston, Elisabeth and her Uncle Mitral had 
 reached the cafe Thkmis, after having talked all the 
 way there about the business which Elisabeth's tact 
 told her was the most powerful lever to force the 
 minister's hand. Uncle Mitral, the former sheriff's 
 officer, who excelled in trickery, in expedients and 
 in judicial precautions, believed that the honor of 
 his family was involved in the appointment of his 
 nephew. His avarice led him to sound the wealth of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 233 
 
 Gigonnet, for he knew that, in order of succession, 
 this would revert to his nephew, Baudoyer; so he 
 desired that this nephew should have a position in 
 keeping with the fortune which the Saillards and 
 Gigonnet were one day to possess, all of which 
 would be inherited by Baudoyer's little daughter. 
 To what heights might not a girl aspire were her for- 
 tune to consist of an income of more than a hundred 
 thousand francs! He adopted the opinions of his 
 niece and comprehended them. Thus he had 
 accelerated the departure of Falleix by explaining to 
 him the advantage to be gained by taking post- 
 horses. After which, during the dinner he reflected 
 on the turn he wished to give to the plan invented 
 by Elisabeth. 
 
 On arriving at the cafe Themis, he told his niece 
 that he alone could arrange the business with 
 Gigonnet, and he made her wait in the cab, so 
 that she might not intervene until the proper time, 
 and in the right place. Through the window, 
 Elisabeth perceived the two figures of Gobseck and 
 her Uncle Bidault standing out in bold relief against 
 the bright yellow woodwork of this old cafe, like 
 two cameo-heads, cold and impassible, in the posi- 
 tion chosen by the engraver. These two Parisian 
 misers were surrounded by several old faces, on 
 which thirty per cent discount seemed written in the 
 circular wrinkles, which started from the nose, and 
 turned around the frigid cheek-bones. These faces 
 became animated at the sight of Mitral, and their 
 eyes glistened with tigerish curiosity.
 
 234 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "Ah! ah! there is Papa Mitral," said Chaboisseau. 
 This little old man discounted for the book-trade. 
 
 " Yes, upon my word," replied a paper-dealer 
 named Metivier. "Ah! he is an old monkey who 
 knows how to make grimaces." 
 
 "And you, you are an old raven well versed 
 about carcasses," Mitral replied. 
 
 " True," said the stern Gobseck. 
 
 "What are you here for, my son? Have you 
 come to seize our friend Metivier?" Gigonnet said, 
 pointing out to him the wholesale paper-dealer, who 
 had the red face of an old porter. 
 
 " Your great-niece, Elisabeth, is there, Papa Gigon- 
 net," Mitral whispered in his ear. 
 
 "What! some misfortune?" said Bidault. 
 
 The old man contracted his eyebrows and assumed 
 a tender look, like that of an executioner, when pre- 
 paring to fulfil the duties of his office. In spite 
 of his Roman virtue, he must have been moved, for 
 his nose, ordinarily so red, had lost a little of its 
 color. 
 
 " Eh, so! Suppose it is some misfortune, will you 
 not help Saillard's daughter, a young woman who 
 ^has knitted you stockings for the last thirty years?" 
 cried Mitral. 
 
 " If there is security, I will not say that I will not!" 
 Gigonnet replied. " Falleix is interested in this 
 affair. Your Falleix has established his brother as a 
 stock-broker, and he is doing as much business as 
 the Brezacs, with what capital? With his brains, is 
 it not so! At least Saillard is not a child."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 235 
 
 " He knows the value of money," said Chabois- 
 seau. 
 
 That remark, uttered among these old men, as 
 they all shook their heads, would have made an 
 artist shiver. 
 
 "Well, that does not concern me; that is the 
 misfortune of my neighbors," Bidault-Gigonnet 
 replied. " It is my principle never to be too intimate 
 with my friends, or my relations. One does not 
 perish except by one's weak point. Ask Gobseck; 
 he is kind." 
 
 The usurers applauded this sentiment by a move- 
 ment of their metallic heads. Any one seeing them 
 would have fancied that he heard the creaking of 
 badly greased machinery. 
 
 " Come, Gigonnet, show a little feeling," said 
 Chaboisseau; " during thirty years she has knitted 
 you stockings." 
 
 "Ah! that is worth considering," said Gobseck. 
 
 "You are alone, I can speak freely," said Mitral, 
 after having examined those around him. " I have 
 come on good business." 
 
 "Why do you come to us, if it is good?" said 
 Gigonnet harshly, interrupting Mitral. 
 
 "A Gars who was gentleman of the bed-cham- 
 ber, an old Chouan, his name? La Billardiere is 
 dead." 
 
 "True?" said Gobseck. 
 
 " And our nephew is giving monstrances to the 
 churches!" said Gigonnet. 
 
 "He is not fool enough to give them; he sells
 
 236 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 them," Papa Mitral proudly replied. " He is desirous 
 of obtaining Monsieur de la Billardiere's position, and 
 to get it, it is necessary to seize." 
 
 "Seize, always the sheriff," said Metivier, 
 touching Mitral on the shoulder in a friendly way. 
 "1 like that, I do!" 
 
 " To seize Monsieur Chardin des Lupeaulx in our 
 clutches, "Mitral replied. "Now, Elisabeth has found 
 a way to do it, which is " 
 
 "Elisabeth!" cried Gigonnet, once more inter- 
 rupting. " Dear little creature, she resembles her 
 grandfather, my poor brother! There was no one 
 like Bidault! Ah! if you had only seen him at the 
 sales of old furniture. What tact! How shrewd! 
 What does she want?" 
 
 "Look, look," said Mitral. "You have found 
 your bowels of compassion very quickly, Papa 
 Gigonnet. There must be a reason for this phe- 
 nomenon." 
 
 "Child!" said Gobseck to Gigonnet, "you are 
 always too quick." 
 
 " Come, Gobseck and Gigonnet, my masters, 
 you need des Lupeaulx, you remember having 
 plucked him. You are afraid that he will demand 
 some of his down," said Mitral. 
 
 "Shall we tell him about it, Gobseck?" asked 
 Gigonnet. 
 
 "Mitral is on our side; he would not do a bad 
 turn toward his old customers," Gigonnet replied. 
 "Ah! so, Mitral, we have, among us three," he 
 whispered to the old sheriff, "just bought up all
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 237 
 
 those debts, the acknowledgment of which depends 
 on the decision of the commission of liquidation." 
 
 "What can you lose?" asked Mitral. 
 
 "Nothing," said Gobseck. 
 
 " It is not known that we are concerned in this 
 affair," added Gigonnet; " Samanou serves as our 
 screen." 
 
 " Listen to me, Gigonnet," said Mitral. " It is cold, 
 and your great-niece is waiting. Three words will 
 explain all. It will be necessary to send, between 
 you two, two hundred and fifty thousand francs, 
 without interest, to Falleix, who is now thirty miles 
 from Paris, going post-haste, with a courier sent 
 ahead." 
 
 " Is that possible?" said Gobseck. 
 
 "Where is he going?" cried Gigonnet. 
 
 "To des Lupeaulx's magnificent estate," said 
 Mitral. " He is familiar with the country; he intends 
 to buy the land surrounding the shanty belonging 
 to the secretary-general for the aforesaid two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand francs, excellent land which 
 will always be well worth the price paid for it. In 
 nine days the legal papers must be drawn up do 
 not lose sight of that! . With this little addition, the 
 land belonging to des Lupeaulx will pay a thousand 
 francs taxes. Ergo, des Lupeaulx can then become 
 elector of the great college, eligible for the Chamber, 
 count, and everything he desires! You know the 
 deputy who has ruined himself?" 
 
 The two misers made an affirmative sign. 
 
 " Des Lupeaulx would be willing to have his leg
 
 238 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 cut off in order to become a deputy," Mitral replied. 
 " But he wishes to have the contracts we are about 
 to show him drawn up in his own name, and then 
 mortgage them as is well understood to us for our 
 loan, with subrogation in favor of the sellers. Ah! 
 ah! you see through it? First of all, we must obtain 
 the position for Baudoyer; after that is attained we 
 will reconsider des Lupeaulx! Falleix is to remain in 
 the country and prepare the election campaign; 
 thus you stake des Lupeaulx in the game through 
 Falleix during the whole time of the election, a dis- 
 trict election where Falleix's friends form the ma- 
 jority. Is not Falleix concerned in this affair, Papa 
 Gigonnet?" 
 
 "So is Mitral," said Metivier. "This game is 
 well played." 
 
 "It is decided," said Gigonnet. "Is it not so, 
 Gobseck? Falleix will sign vouchers for us and 
 make out the mortgages in his own name; we will 
 go and see des Lupeaulx at the proper time." 
 
 "And we," said Gobseck, "we are robbed." 
 
 "Ah! papa," said Mitral, "I would very much 
 like to know who the robber is." 
 
 "Eh! we can only rob ourselves," Gigonnet 
 rejoined. "We thought we were doing well by 
 buying up the claims of all des Lupeaulx's creditors 
 at sixty per cent discount." 
 
 " Place a mortgage on his estate and you will 
 hold him still more by the interest!" replied Mitral. 
 
 "Possibly," said Gobseck. 
 
 After exchanging a shrewd glance with Gobseck,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 239 
 
 Bidault, called Gigonnet, came to the door of the 
 cafe. 
 
 " Elisabeth, continue in the course you have 
 begun," said he to his niece. " We have your man 
 in our grasp, but do not neglect the accessories. 
 You have begun well, shrewd woman! complete 
 what you have attempted and you will have the 
 esteem of your uncle!" 
 
 And he grasped her gayly by the hand. 
 
 "But," said Mitral, " Metivier and Chaboisseau 
 are able to play us false by going this evening to 
 the office of some opposition newspaper, catching 
 the ball on its way and once more seizing the min- 
 isterial article. Go alone, my dear; I dare not loosen 
 my hold on these two cormorants." 
 
 Then he re-entered the cafe. 
 
 "To-morrow the funds will go to their destination 
 by an order on the receiver-general. We will find 
 at our friend's three hundred thousand francs on his 
 paper," said Gigonnet to Mitral when the sheriff 
 came to speak to the discounter. 
 
 The next day, the numerous subscribers of the 
 liberal journal, read in the news of Paris an article 
 inserted by the authority of Chaboisseau and 
 Metivier, shareholders in two journals, discounters 
 for the publishing, printing and paper trades, whose 
 requests no editor dared refuse. 
 
 Here is the article: 
 
 " Yesterday a ministerial journal plainly indicated as a suc- 
 cessor to Baron de la Billardiere, Monsieur Baudoyer, one 
 of the worthiest citizens of a populous quarter, where his
 
 240 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 benevolence is scarcely less known than his piety, on which the 
 ministerial organ lays so much stress; that paper might have 
 spoken about his ability! But did it think that by boasting 
 of the ancient bourgeois family to which Monsieur Baudoyer 
 belongs, which certainly is a title of nobility in its way equal 
 to any other it would point out a reason for the probable 
 exclusion of its candidate? Wanton perfidy ! The good old 
 lady caresses before she kills, according to her custom. To 
 appoint Monsieur Baudoyer would be to honor the virtues 
 and talents of the middle-classes, who will always have our 
 support, although we may often see our cause lost. This 
 appointment would be an act of justice and good policy, which 
 the ministry will not permit itself to carry out. The religious 
 journal has just now more spirit than its readers; for they will 
 find fault with it." 
 
 The next morning, Friday, the day for him to dine 
 at the house of Madame Rabourdin, whom des 
 Lupeaulx had left at midnight, radiant in her beauty, 
 on the staircase of the Bouffons, arm in arm with 
 Madame de Camps Madame Firmiani had lately 
 married the old roue awoke, his thoughts of 
 vengeance calmed, or rather refreshed; he was 
 occupied in thinking of the last glance he had 
 exchanged with Madame Rabourdin. 
 
 " I will make sure of Rabourdin 's support by 
 pardoning him for the present, but later I will take 
 my revenge. If he does not obtain this position, for 
 the moment, I shall have to renounce a woman who 
 may become one of the most precious instruments 
 in the pursuit of high political fortune; she under- 
 stands everything, shrinks from nothing; and then, 
 in the presence of the minister, I must pretend I 
 have no knowledge of the plan of administration
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 241 
 
 Rabourdin has invented! Go ahead, dear des 
 Lupeaulx, you must win everything for your 
 Celestine. It is no use your making wry faces, 
 Madame la Comtesse, you will invite Madame 
 Rabourdin to your next evening given to intimate 
 friends." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx was one of those men who, in order 
 to satisfy a passion, are able to hide their revenge 
 in the corner of their hearts. Thus his mind was 
 made up, he resolved to get Rabourdin appointed. 
 
 " I will prove to you, dear chief, that I merit a 
 good place in your diplomatic establishment," he 
 said, as he seated himself in his office and unfolded 
 his newspaper. 
 
 He knew too well, by five o'clock, what the 
 ministerial journal would contain, to take any 
 pleasure in reading it; but he opened it to look over 
 the article on de la Billardiere, while thinking of the 
 dilemma in which Du Bruel had placed him by 
 bringing him the mischievous article written by 
 Bixiou. He could not help laughing while re-reading 
 the biography of the late Comte de Fontaine, who 
 had died some months before, which Bixiou had re- 
 printed as the biography of La Billardiere, when all 
 at once des Lupeaulx's eyes were dazzled by the 
 name of Baudoyer. He became furious as he read 
 the specious article which pledged the ministry. 
 He rang the bell violently and called for Dutocq, 
 whom he sent to the newspaper office. What was 
 his astonishment when he read the reply of the 
 opposition! for, by chance, he had received the 
 16
 
 242 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 liberal journal first. Things looked serious. He 
 knew this party, and the master who was shuffling 
 his cards seemed to him a thorough Greek in 
 masterly skill. In placing it so cleverly in two 
 antagonistic newspapers at once, on the same 
 evening, and in beginning the fight by guessing 
 the intention of the minister, he thought he traced 
 the pen of a liberal editor of his acquaintance, and so 
 he resolved to question him that evening at the 
 Opera. 
 
 Dutocq appeared. 
 
 " Read that," des Lupeaulx said to him, handing 
 the two newspapers, while continuing to glance 
 over the others to see if Baudoyer had pulled any 
 more wires. " Go and see who has dared to com- 
 promise the ministry in this way." 
 
 " It is certainly not Monsieur Baudoyer," replied 
 Monsieur Dutocq, " for he did not leave the office 
 yesterday. I need not go to the newspaper office, 
 for yesterday, when taking your article, I met the 
 abbe, who came furnished with a letter from the 
 Grand Almoner, before which you yourself would 
 have had to bow." 
 
 " Dutocq, you have a grudge against Monsieur 
 Rabourdin, and that is not fair, for he has twice 
 prevented your discharge. But we cannot control 
 our feelings. It is possible to hate one's benefactor. 
 Only, know that if you allow yourself to commit the 
 slightest breach of faith against Monsieur Rabourdin 
 until I give you leave, it will be to your loss; in that 
 case you could count me as your enemy. As to
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 243 
 
 my friend's journal, let the Grand Almoner himself 
 subscribe for as many copies as we do, if he wishes 
 the exclusive control. It is now the end of the 
 year, the question of subscriptions will soon be 
 discussed, and then we shall have our say in the 
 matter. As to La Billardiere's position, the way to 
 settle it is to make a nomination this very day." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Dutocq, returning to his office 
 and addressing his colleagues, " I do not know if 
 Bixiou has the gift of reading the future, but if you 
 have not read the ministerial journal, I entreat you 
 to read the article on Baudoyer; then, as Monsieur 
 Fleury takes the opposition sheet, you can see the 
 reply. It is true that Monsieur Rabourdin has some 
 talent, but a man who, in the present time, gives 
 monstrances worth six thousand francs to the 
 churches is also possessed of a devilish amount of 
 talent!" 
 
 BIXIOU entering:. 
 
 "What do you say to the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians in our religious journal, and the Epistle 
 to the Ministers in the liberal journal? How does 
 Monsieur Rabourdin feel now, Du Bruel?" 
 
 DU BRUEL arriving. 
 
 "I do not knOW. He leads Bixiou Into his office and whispers 
 
 to him. My friend, your method of helping people 
 resembles that of the executioner who places his 
 foot on your shoulders so that he may more easily 
 break your neck. You got me into a snare with des 
 Lupeaulx, merited by my folly. It was fine, that article
 
 244 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 about Billardiere! I will not forget that trick. The 
 first sentence seemed to say to the king: You must 
 die. The sentence about Quiberon clearly signified 
 
 that the king was a . In fact, everything was 
 
 ironical." 
 
 BIXIOU beginning to laugh. 
 
 " Stop, you are getting angry! One cannot even 
 joke?" 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "Joke! joke! When you ask to be made deputy- 
 chief, you will be replied to in jokes, my boy." 
 
 BIXIOU in a threatening tone. 
 
 " Are we angry?" 
 
 DU BRUEL. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 BIXIOU dryly. 
 
 " Very well, so much the worse for you " 
 
 DU BRUEL thoughtful and anxious 
 
 "Would you pardon that?" 
 
 BIXIOU In a wheedling tone. 
 " TO a friend? I think SO! Fleury's voice was heard. 
 
 Here comes Fleury who cursed Baudoyer. Hey! is 
 the game well played? Baudoyer will gain the 
 position. Confidentially. After all, so much the better. 
 Du Bruel, follow up the sequence carefully. Rabour- 
 din would be a dunce to stay under Baudoyer; he 
 will send in his resignation, and that will give us 
 two places to fill. You will be chief, and you will 
 take me for head-clerk. We will write vaudevilles 
 together, and I shall dig away at your work in the 
 office."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 245 
 
 DU BRUEL smiling. 
 
 "Stay, 1 never thought of that. Poor Rabourdin! 
 That would trouble me, though." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Ah! that shows how much you love him? 
 Changing his tone. Ah! well, I do not pity him any 
 longer. After all, he is rich; his wife gives her even- 
 ings at home, and never invites me, and I go every- 
 where! Well, my good Du Bruel, adieu. Do not 
 bear me a grudge! He leaves the office. Adieu, gentle- 
 men. Did I not tell you yesterday that a man who 
 possessed nothing but virtue and talent would always 
 be poor, even with a pretty wife?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " You are very rich, you!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Not badly off, my dear Cincinnatus! But you 
 will treat me to that dinner at the Rocker de Can- 
 call" 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 "It is always impossible for me to understand 
 Monsieur Bixiou." 
 
 PHELLION with a dejected air. 
 
 "Monsieur Rabourdin so rarely reads the papers 
 that it might perhaps be a good thing to deprive 
 ourselves of them temporarily by taking them to 
 
 him." Fleury hands him his newspaper. Vlmeux gives him the one 
 belonging to the office; he takes the papers and departs.
 
 At that moment des Lupeaulx, who was going 
 down stairs on his way to breakfast with the minis- 
 ter, was asking himself whether, before employing 
 his trickish schemes to assist the husband, prudence 
 might not suggest that he sound the heart of the 
 wife, so as to know if he would be rewarded for his 
 devotion. He was feeling for the little heart which 
 he possessed, when, on the staircase, he met his 
 lawyer, who said to him, smilingly: " Just two words, 
 Monseigneur?" in the familiar tone of people who 
 know that they are indispensable. 
 
 "What is it, my dear Desroches?" said the poli- 
 tician. "What misfortune has happened to me? 
 They are angry, these gentlemen, and do not know 
 how to do things as I do: that is, to wait!" 
 
 " I have come to warn you that all your notes are 
 in the hands of Sieurs Gobseck and Gigonnet, under 
 the name of a Monsieur Samanou." 
 
 "Men whom I placed in the way of making im- 
 mense sums!" 
 
 " Listen," the lawyer whispered to him, " Gigon- 
 net is called Bidault; he is the uncle of Saillard, your 
 cashier, and Saillard is the father-in-law of a certain 
 Baudoyer, who thinks himself entitled to the vacant 
 position in your ministry. Am I not right in warning 
 you?" 
 
 (247)
 
 248 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 " Thank you," said des Lupeaulx, saluting the 
 lawyer with a shrewd glance. 
 
 "One stroke of your pen and you will be re- 
 leased," said Desroches, leaving him. 
 
 " What an immense sacrifice!" said des Lupeaulx 
 to himself. "It is impossible to explain it to a 
 woman," he thought. "Is Celestine worth more 
 than the discharge from all my debts? I will go and 
 see her this morning." 
 
 Thus the beautiful Madame Rabourdin would, a 
 few hours later, be the arbitrator of her husband's 
 future; no power could foresee the importance of 
 her replies, while no sign could warn her to compose 
 her behavior and her voice. And if, unfortunately, 
 she believed that she was sure of success, she did 
 not know that Rabourdin was undermined in all 
 directions by the secret labors of those borers. 
 
 "Ah! well, Monseigneur," said des Lupeaulx, as he 
 entered the little parlor where breakfast was served, 
 " have you read the articles about Baudoyer?" 
 
 "For the love of God, my friend," replied the 
 minister, "let the nominations alone for these few 
 moments. They split my head yesterday with this 
 monstrance. If Rabourdin is to be saved, his ap- 
 pointment must be brought under the consideration 
 of the Council; otherwise my hand will be forced. 
 Such things make one disgusted with business. To 
 protect Rabourdin, it is necessary for us to promote 
 a certain Colleville 
 
 " Will you allow me to manage this vaudeville, 
 and do not trouble yourself about it? I will entertain
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 249 
 
 you every morning with an account of the game of 
 chess I would play with the Grand Almoner," said 
 des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " Very well," replied the minister, " settle it with 
 the chief of staff. Do you know that nothing is 
 more likely to strike the King's mind than the reasons 
 contained in the opposition journal? Managing a 
 minister with a man like Baudoyer!" 
 
 "A devout imbecile," replied des Lupeaulx, "and 
 as incapable as " 
 
 " As La Billardiere," said the minister. 
 
 " La Billardiere had at least the manners of a 
 gentleman-in-ordinary of the bed-chamber," replied 
 des Lupeaulx. " Madame," he continued, address- 
 ing the countess, " it now becomes necessary for 
 you to invite Madame Rabourdin to your next se- 
 lect reception. Let me tell you that Madame de 
 Camps is her intimate friend; they were together 
 yesterday at the Opera, and I became acquainted 
 with her at the H6tel Firmiani. Besides, you will 
 see that she is not the kind of person to spoil your 
 evening." 
 
 " My friend, invite Madame Rabourdin, and let us 
 speak of something else," said the minister. 
 
 " Celestine is now in my grasp," said des Lu- 
 peaulx, as he went up to his room to make his 
 morning toilet. 
 
 Parisian housewives strain every point to keep 
 pace with the luxury which surrounds them on every 
 side, and few of them are wise enough to make only 
 such show as their income will warrant. But this
 
 250 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 vice is perhaps the result of a patriotism peculiarly 
 French, which aims at preserving for France its 
 supremacy in regard to dress. France reigns over 
 all Europe by means of her garments; each member 
 of that nation feels the necessity of retaining a com- 
 mercial sceptre which makes fashion to France what 
 the navy is to England. This patriotic ardor, which 
 sacrifices everything to paroistre to appearance 
 as d'Aubigne said in the days of Henry IV., is the 
 cause of those vast and concealed efforts which 
 occupy all the mornings of a Parisian woman, 
 when she wishes, as Madame Rabourdin did, to keep 
 up a style, with her twelve thousand francs, which 
 many rich people with thirty thousand do not 
 attempt. Thus, on Fridays the day of her dinner 
 parties Madame Rabourdin assisted the chamber- 
 maid to arrange the rooms; for the cook went early 
 to the market and the man-servant was busy clean- 
 ing the silver, folding the napkins, polishing the 
 glasses. The ill-advised person who, through an 
 oversight of the porter, should gain entrance to 
 Madame Rabourdin's house at eleven or twelve 
 o'clock would have found her in the midst of a con- 
 fusion by no means picturesque, clothed in her 
 dressing-gown, her feet encased in old slippers, her 
 hair carelessly dressed, arranging the lamps, fixing 
 the flower-pots with her own hands, or hastily cook- 
 ing a very unromantic breakfast. The visitor to 
 whom the mysteries of Parisian life were unfamiliar 
 would certainly have learned not to intrude his 
 foot behind the scenes ; for he would be at once
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 251 
 
 marked as a man capable of the greatest atrocities; 
 the woman surprised while in the midst of her morn- 
 ing duties would speak of his stupidity and of his 
 indiscretion in such a manner as to destroy his pros- 
 pects. 
 
 The Parisian woman, so lenient in all curiosity 
 which is to her advantage, is implacable in that by 
 which she would lose her prestige. Is not such an 
 invasion of the home not only like what the police- 
 reports call an attack on the privacy, but a burglary 
 with house-breaking, the theft of what is considered 
 most precious, credit! A woman is quite ready to 
 be seen slightly clad, with her hair falling about her; 
 if it is all her own, she gains admiration thereby; 
 but she does not wish to be seen when she is doing 
 her own housework; she then loses her paroistre. 
 Madame Rabourdin was in the midst of her Friday's 
 work, in the midst of the provisions which the cook 
 had fished from the ocean of the market, when 
 Monsieur des Lupeaulx made his way slyly to her 
 house. 
 
 The secretary-general was, of all others, the last 
 person the beautiful Madame Rabourdin expected 
 to see, and when she heard the creak of his boots 
 on the stairway, she cried: " The hair-dresser so 
 early!" an exclamation which was as disagree- 
 able for des Lupeaulx to hear as the sight of des 
 Lupeaulx was to her. She retreated hastily into her 
 bedroom, which was crowded with an alarming 
 confusion of pieces of furniture which were to be put 
 out of sight, heterogeneous things in matters of
 
 252 THE CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 elegance, a true domestic Mardi Gras. Des Lupeaulx 
 had the effrontery to follow the beautiful startled 
 woman, so piquant did she seem to him in her 
 dishabille. I do not know what attraction holds the 
 eye; the flesh, seen through an opening in the 
 dressing-gown, seems a thousand times more attrac- 
 tive than when it rises gracefully above the circular 
 line traced on the back by the velvet piping, to the 
 vanishing curve of the most beautiful swan-like 
 neck, on which a lover ever left his kiss, before the 
 ball. When the eye wanders over a woman in full 
 dress, who displays her beautiful bosom, do we not 
 fancy that we see the crowning dessert of a fine 
 dinner? But the glance that penetrates through the 
 material rumpled in sleep fastens itself on these 
 dainty openings, and enjoys the luxury as one feasts 
 on stolen fruit which blushes between two leaves on 
 the wall. 
 
 "Stop! stop!" cried the pretty Parisian woman 
 while bolting the door of her disordered room. 
 
 She rang for Therdse, her maid, the cook, the 
 man-servant, begging for a shawl, wishing for the 
 whistle of the machinist at the Opera. The whistle 
 sounded, and, in a turn of the hand, another 
 phenomenon! something else happened! the cham- 
 ber assumed the look of a dainty morning-room in 
 harmony with a toilet hurriedly put together, which 
 was this woman's particular gift. She now rose to 
 the occasion. 
 
 " You here, at this hour!" she said. " What can 
 be the matter?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 253 
 
 "The most serious things in the world," des 
 Lupeaulx replied. " It is necessary that we come to 
 an understanding to-day." 
 
 Celestine looked at this man through his glasses 
 and understood. 
 
 "My chief vice," she said, "is that of being 
 extremely whimsical, so I do not mix my affections 
 with politics; let us talk about politics, business, and 
 we will see afterwards. Besides, it is not a whim, 
 it is the result of good taste, of my artistic sense, 
 which keeps me from combining colors with those 
 that do not harmonize, and causes me to avoid 
 discords. We take our politics thus, we women!" 
 
 Already the tones of her voice, the gentleness of 
 her manners, had produced their effect and had 
 changed the roughness of the secretary-general into 
 sentimental courtesy! She had recalled him to his 
 obligations as a lover. A pretty woman who is 
 clever makes an atmosphere about her in which 
 the nerves relax, in which feelings soften. 
 
 "You are ignorant of what is taking place," 
 brusquely replied Monsieur des Lupeaulx, who tried 
 to appear rude. " Read." 
 
 He then offered the gracious Madame Rabourdin 
 the two newspapers, with the articles marked with 
 red ink. As she read, Celestine's shawl became 
 unfastened without her knowledge, or by a trick 
 well-disguised. At an age when the force of whims 
 is in proportion to the rapidity of their changes, des 
 Lupeaulx could not keep himself cool, any more 
 than could Celestine.
 
 254 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 " How! but this is dreadful!" she said. "Who is 
 this Baudoyer?" 
 
 "A donkey," said des Lupeaulx; "but you see 
 he carries the relics, and will get there conducted 
 by the cunning hand that holds the bridle." 
 
 The remembrance of Madame Rabourdin's debts 
 passed before her, and blinded her as though she 
 had seen two consecutive flashes of lightning; her 
 ears tingled under the pressure of the blood which 
 beat in her arteries; she remained as one stupefied, 
 absently looking at a curtain-hook. 
 
 " But you are true to us!" she said to des Lu- 
 peaulx, in giving him a caressing glance, so as to 
 attach him to her. 
 
 " That depends," he said, while he answered her 
 glance by an inquisitive look which made this poor 
 woman blush. 
 
 " If you demand a deposit, you will lose all the 
 price," she said, laughingly. "I thought you a 
 greater man than you are. And, as for you, you 
 think of me as very small, a boarding-school miss!" 
 
 "You have not understood me," he replied, with 
 a shrewd air. " I would say that I could not assist 
 a man who plays against me, like 1'Etourdi played 
 against Mascarille." 
 
 " What does this mean?" 
 
 "This will prove to you whether or not I am 
 magnanimous." 
 
 So he presented Madame Rabourdin with the 
 paper stolen by Dutocq, showing her the part where 
 her husband had so cleverly analyzed him.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 255 
 
 "Read that!" 
 
 Celestine recognized the handwriting, read and 
 turned pale under the blow of this tomahawk. 
 
 "All the ministries are mentioned," said des 
 Lupeaulx. 
 
 "But happily," said she, "you alone possess 
 this document, which I am at a loss to explain." 
 
 " He who has stolen it is not so silly but that he 
 has had a copy made; he is too great a liar to admit 
 it, and too wise in his business to give it up. I even 
 have not attempted to speak of it." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 "Your head-clerk." 
 
 " Dutocq. One never suffers except for his bene- 
 factions! But," she replied, "he is a dog who 
 desires a bone." 
 
 " Do you know what they offer me, poor devil of 
 a secretary -general?" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I owe some thirty and more thousand miserable 
 francs; you will have a very bad opinion of me, 
 when you learn that I do not owe more; but in that 
 I am only a beginner! Ah! well, Baudoyer's uncle 
 has just bought my debts, and will doubtless give 
 me my titles." 
 
 " But that is an infernal plan." 
 
 " Not at all, it is monarchical and religious, for 
 the Grand Almonry is concerned in it " 
 
 " What are you going to do?" 
 
 "What will you bid me do?" said he, with ador- 
 able grace, while holding her hand.
 
 256 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Celestine did not find that he was ugly, old, or 
 with time-frosted hair, secretary-general, or any- 
 thing impure; but she did not give him her hand; 
 of an evening in the salon she would have let him 
 take it a hundred times, but in the morning, and 
 alone, this familiarity constituted a too positive 
 promise, which might lead her astray. 
 
 " And it is said that statesmen have no hearts," 
 she said, in trying to disguise the harshness of her 
 refusal under the grace of her words. " That used 
 to terrify me," she added, in assuming the most 
 innocent air in the world. 
 
 "What a calumny!" replied des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " One of the stiffest diplomatists, who has been 
 in power since his birth, has just married the daugh- 
 ter of an actress, and has gained her admission to 
 the most rigid court as to quarterings of nobility.'' 
 
 " And you will support us?" 
 
 " I will work for the appointment. But no cheat- 
 ing!" 
 
 She gave him her hand to kiss and patted him on 
 the cheek. 
 
 "You are mine," she said. 
 
 Des Lupeaulx admired that expression. That 
 evening at the Opera the fop related it after this 
 fashion: " A woman, not wishing to tell a man she 
 was his, an acknowledgment that a well-bred woman 
 never makes, said to him: ' You are mine! How do 
 you like the turn for a change?' " 
 
 "But you must be my ally," he replied. "Your 
 husband has spoken to the minister about a plan of
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 257 
 
 government in which is to be found the article in 
 which I am criticised; learn all about it, and tell me 
 this evening." 
 
 "That shall be done," she said, without seeing 
 the great importance of the business which caused 
 des Lupeaulx to visit her so early in the morning. 
 
 " Madame, the hair-dresser," said the maid. 
 
 " We have had to wait for him some time. I do 
 not know what I would have done had he remained 
 longer," thought Celestine. 
 
 " You do not know to what lengths my devotion 
 will go," des Lupeaulx said, as he arose. "You 
 are to be invited to the next exclusive soiree at the 
 house of the minister's wife " 
 
 " Ah! you are an angel," she said. " And I now 
 see how much you love me; you love me intelli- 
 gently." 
 
 "This evening, dear child," he replied, "I will 
 find out at the Opera which journalists are conspiring 
 for Baudoyer, and we will compare our notes." 
 
 " Yes, but you are to dine with us, are you not? 
 I have tried to have the dishes you most like." 
 
 " All that, however, seems so like love, that it 
 would seem sweet to be thus deceived for a long 
 time!" said des Lupeaulx to himself, as he descended 
 the stairs. " But if she is trifling with me, I shall 
 know it. I will prepare the cleverest of all traps, 
 before the appointment is signed, so that I may read 
 in her heart. My little kittens, we know you! for, 
 after all, women are just what we men are! Twenty- 
 eight years and virtuous, and here in Rue Duphot!
 
 2$8 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 A very rare good fortune, and one worthy of cultiva- 
 tion." 
 
 The eligible butterfly then skipped down the stairs. 
 
 " Mon Dieu, that man without his glasses and 
 powdered hair must make a very ridiculous appear- 
 ance in his dressing-gown!" said Celestine to her- 
 self. " He has a harpoon in his back, and will tow 
 me at length where I wish to go: to the minister's 
 house. He has played his part in my comedy." 
 
 When, at five o'clock, Rabourdin came home to 
 dress, his wife helped him to make his toilet, and told 
 him about this memorandum, which, like the slipper 
 in the tale of the Arabian Nights, the poor man was 
 obliged to see wherever he went. 
 
 " Who gave it to you?" said Rabourdin, stupefied. 
 
 "Monsieur des Lupeaulx." 
 
 "He has been here?" asked Rabourdin, as he 
 gave his wife a look which would have made a 
 guilty woman turn pale, but which met a brow of 
 marble and a laughing eye. 
 
 "And he will return to dine with us," she an- 
 swered. " Why this startled expression?" 
 
 "My dear," said Rabourdin, "I have mortally 
 offended des Lupeaulx. Such people never pardon, 
 and still he courts my favor! Do you think I cannot 
 see the reason for this?" 
 
 "This man," she answered, "seems to me to 
 have very good taste; I cannot blame him for 
 that. Besides, I can think of nothing more flattering 
 to a woman than to reawaken a lost appetite. 
 After"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 259 
 
 "Enough nonsense, Celestine! Spare a down- 
 trodden man. I am unable to meet the minister, 
 and my honor is at stake." 
 
 " Heavens! no. Dutocq shall be promised a posi- 
 tion, and you will be chief of division." 
 
 "I guess what you mean, dear child," said 
 Rabourdin; "but the r61e which you play is as dis- 
 honorable as the reality. A lie is a lie, and a true 
 woman " 
 
 " Allow me, then, to employ the same weapons 
 which are used against us." 
 
 " Celestine, the more this man sees that he is 
 caught in a snare, the more he will be against me." 
 
 " And if I can thwart his plans?" 
 
 Rabourdin regarded his wife with astonishment. 
 
 " I am thinking only of your advancement, and it 
 is high time, my poor friend!" replied Celestine. 
 " But you mistake the hunting-dog for the game," 
 she said, after a pause. " In a few days des 
 Lupeaulx can readily accomplish his mission. While 
 you are seeking to speak to the minister, and before 
 you can see him, I shall have spoken with him. 
 You have strained every nerve to give birth to a 
 plan which you have hidden from me; and, in three 
 months from now, your wife will have done more 
 work than you have accomplished in six years. 
 Tell me your beautiful plan!" 
 
 Rabourdin continued shaving, and, after having 
 made his wife promise not to tell a single word about 
 his work, and warning her that to confide even one 
 idea to des Lupeaulx would be to put the cat within
 
 260 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 reach of the bowl of milk, commenced an explana- 
 tion of his work. 
 
 " Rabourdin, why have you not already told me 
 this?" said Celestine, stopping her husband as he 
 finished his fifth sentence. " You would have saved 
 yourself useless trouble. I know how blinded one 
 can become by one idea for a moment, but for six 
 or seven years, that seems incredible. You want to 
 reduce the budget a common and middle-class 
 idea! We ought to have a budget of two thousand 
 millions, then France would be twice as great. A 
 new system might be brought about by setting 
 everything moving by loans, like Monsieur Nucingen 
 proposes. The poorest treasury is that with a 
 surplus which it never utilizes. The mission of a 
 minister of finance is to fling money out of the 
 windows, it will return to him through the cellars; 
 and you would make him hoard the public money! 
 But it is necessary that the number of officials 
 should be increased, not reduced. Instead of re- 
 deeming the debts, it would be preferable to in- 
 crease the number of bondholders. If the Bour- 
 bons would reign in peace, they ought to create 
 bondholders in the smallest boroughs, and, above 
 all, not allow foreigners to receive interest in France 
 of which they would some day surely require the 
 principal, while if all state funds are held in France, 
 neither France nor her credit will perish. That is 
 the way England was saved. Your plan is like 
 that of a little middle-class man. An ambitious 
 man would not have dared to present himself before
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 261 
 
 the minister except as a Law, without his risky 
 schemes; by stating the power of credit, by showing 
 that we should not diminish our capital, but reduce 
 the interest, just as the English do!" 
 
 " Go ahead, Celestine," said Rabourdin, "jumble 
 up everything, turn everything wrong-side out; 
 amuse yourself as with a toy! I am accustomed to 
 that. But do not criticise a work of which you 
 are yet ignorant." 
 
 " Do I need," she said, "to know a scheme, the 
 essence of which is to govern France with six 
 thousand instead of twenty thousand officials? But, 
 my friend, were this even a scheme of a man of 
 genius, a king of France would be dethroned in 
 trying to execute it. A feudal aristocracy can be 
 subdued by striking off a few heads, but a hydra 
 with a thousand heads cannot be subdued. No, the 
 little ones cannot be crushed, they are too flat 
 under foot. So it is with the present ministers, 
 between ourselves, a poor lot, that you propose in 
 this way to reform mankind! Reform interests, if 
 you will, but mankind cannot be reformeJ. People 
 cry out too much; while gold is dumb." 
 
 " But, Celestine, if you will always talk, and if 
 you place wit before argument, we will never under- 
 stand each other " 
 
 " Ah! I understand what that paper, in which you 
 have analyzed the capacities of the administrators, 
 will lead to," she replied, without even having 
 listened to her husband. " Mon Dieu, you yourself 
 have sharpened the hatchet to cut off your own
 
 262 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 head. Holy Virgin! Why did you not consult me? 
 I would have prevented you from writing a single 
 line; or, at least, if you would have written this 
 memorandum, I would have copied it for you myself, 
 and then it could never have gone further. My 
 God, why did you not tell me? Such are men! 
 They are capable of sleeping by the side of their 
 wives and guarding a secret from them for seven 
 years! To hide his thoughts from a poor woman for 
 seven years is to doubt her devotion!" 
 
 " But," said Rabourdin, " for eleven years I have 
 not been able to argue with you because you always 
 cut my words short and substitute your ideas for 
 mine. You know nothing about my scheme." 
 
 "Nothing? I know everything." 
 
 "Tell it to me, then!" cried Rabourdin, angry for 
 the first time since his marriage. 
 
 " There, it is half-past six; shave yourself, dress," 
 she replied, after the manner of all women when 
 pressed on a point upon which they should keep 
 silence. "I am going to finish dressing, and we 
 will adjourn the discussion, for I do not wish to be 
 annoyed on my reception day. Good heavens! 
 the poor man!" she said, as she left, "to labor for 
 seven years only to give birth to a scheme for his 
 own destruction, and not to have trusted his wife." 
 She re-entered. 
 
 " If you had listened to me in time, you would 
 not have interceded to keep your head clerk, and he, 
 without doubt, has a fac-simile of this document 
 which he has stolen! Adieu, man of genius!"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 263 
 
 Seeing her husband in a tragic attitude of grief, 
 she found that she had gone too far; she ran toward 
 him, and seized him, all lathered, and embraced him 
 tenderly. 
 
 "Dear Xavier, do not be angry with me," she 
 said. "This evening we will study your plan 
 together, and then you can speak at your ease. I 
 will listen as attentively and as long as you wish me 
 to. Is not that amiable? Go, I do not ask for a 
 better fate than to be the wife of Mahomet." 
 
 She began to laugh and Rabourdin could not help 
 laughing also, for the white lather was clinging to 
 Celestine's lips, and the tone of her voice indicated 
 the depth of the purest and stanchest affection. 
 
 " Go, get dressed my child, and be especially 
 careful to say nothing about it to des Lupeaulx, 
 promise me! That is the only penance I impose on 
 you." 
 
 "Impose?" shesaid; "then I will promise nothing." 
 
 "Come, Celestine, I said a serious thing jestingly." 
 
 " This evening," she answered, " your secretary- 
 general will find out whom we have to combat, and I 
 know whom to attack." 
 
 "Whom?" said Rabourdin. 
 
 " The minister," she answered, at the same time 
 drawing herself up proudly. 
 
 Notwithstanding the loving grace of his dear 
 Celestine, Rabourdin, while dressing, could not keep 
 some sad thoughts from clouding his brow. 
 
 "When will she be capable of appreciating me?" 
 he said to himself. " She will not even understand
 
 264 THE QVIL SERVICE 
 
 that it is for her alone that I have undertaken this 
 work! What a wrong-headed woman, and yet what 
 intelligence she has. If I had not married, I would 
 by this time have been high in office and rich! I 
 would have saved five thousand francs a year of my 
 salary. By investing this amount well, I would 
 have by this time possessed ten thousand francs 
 income besides my salary. I would have been a 
 bachelor and have had a chance of becoming, by 
 marriage . Yes," he replied, interrupting his own 
 thoughts, "but I have Celestine and my two 
 children." 
 
 He took refuge in his happiness. In the happiest 
 household there will always be moments of regret. 
 He entered the parlor and looked at the room. 
 
 " In all Paris there cannot be found two women 
 who understand how to manage a household as she 
 does. With only twelve thousand francs income, 
 and to accomplish all this!" he said, as he looked at 
 his jardinieres full of flowers, and thought of the 
 homage which the world was about to pay him. 
 " She was born to be the wife of a minister of state. 
 When I think how the wife of His Excellency is of 
 no assistance to him; she looks like a good, fat, 
 middle-class woman, and when she goes to the 
 chateau, or into the salons " 
 
 He bit his lips. Men who are very busy have 
 such false ideas about housekeeping, that it is just as 
 easy to make them believe that a hundred thousand 
 francs amount to nothing as that twelve thousand 
 francs are sufficient to meet every expense.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 265 
 
 Although impatiently expected, notwithstanding 
 the favorite dishes prepared for his palate, the con- 
 summate gourmand, des Lupeaulx, did not come to 
 dinner; he only arrived very late in the evening, 
 at midnight, an hour when conversation in every 
 drawing-room becomes more intimate and confi- 
 dential. 
 
 Andoche Finot, the journalist, still remained. 
 
 "I know everything," said des Lupeaulx, when 
 he was comfortably seated on the sofa by the corner 
 of the fire, his cup of tea in his hand. Madame 
 Rabourdin stood before him, holding a plate full of 
 sandwiches and some slices of cake very appropri- 
 ately called plum-cake. " Finot, my d^ar and 
 clever friend, you can render a service to our 
 gracious queen by letting loose a few dogs on the 
 men about whom we will speak. You have against 
 you," he said to Rabourdin while lowering his 
 voice so as only to be heard by the three people to 
 whom he spoke " usurers, the clergy, money and 
 the church. The article in the liberal journal was 
 written at the request of an old money-lender to 
 whom the paper was under obligations, but the 
 young fellow who wrote it cares nothing about it. 
 The editor-in-chief of this journal will be changed 
 in three days and we shall gain the upper hand. 
 The royalist opposition, for we have thanks to 
 Monsieur de Chateaubriand a royalist opposition, 
 that is to say, there are some royalists who have 
 gone over to the liberals; but let us not discuss 
 great political questions; these assassins of Charles X.
 
 266 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 have promised me their support in fixing, as the 
 price of your nomination, our support to one of their 
 amendments. All my batteries are arranged. If 
 they insist upon imposing Baudoyer on us, we will 
 be able to say to the Grand Almonry, ' such and such 
 a journal and such and such gentlemen will attack any 
 law you wish, and the entire press will be opposed 
 for the ministerial journals which I influence 
 will be deaf and dumb; they need not trouble to 
 become so, they are sufficiently so.' Is that not so, 
 Finot? ' Appoint Rabourdin and public opinion will 
 be with you.' Poor, artless, provincial people who 
 sit in state in their arm-chairs by the chimney- 
 corner, feeling very happy, and very independent 
 as to the mouth-piece of public opinion. Ah! ah!" 
 
 " Hi! hi! hi!" laughed Finot. 
 
 "So, keep quiet," said des Lupeaulx. "I have 
 arranged everything this evening. The Grand 
 Almonry will yield." 
 
 " I would rather have lost all hope and have had 
 you at dinner," whispered Celestine to him, while 
 looking at him with a grieved air which might have 
 passed for an expression of extravagant love. 
 i "Here is something that will obtain my pardon," 
 he said, as he showed her an invitation for Tues- 
 day's select reception. 
 
 Celestine opened the letter, and a flush of pleasure 
 suffused her face. No pleasure can compare with 
 that of gratified vanity. 
 
 " You know what the Tuesday evening will be," 
 continued des Lupeaulx, assuming a mysterious air;
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 267 
 
 " it bears the same relation to our ministry as the 
 Petit-chateau does to the court. You will be in the 
 heart of power! The Countess Feraud will be there; 
 she is always in favor, notwithstanding the death of 
 Louis XVIII.; Delphinede Nucingen, Madame de Lis- 
 tomre, the Marquise d'Espard, your dear de Camps, 
 for whom I have procured an invitation, so that you 
 might find a support in case the women there should 
 blackball you. I wish to see you in the midst of 
 that set." 
 
 Celestine threw back her head like a thorough- 
 bred before the race, and re-read the invitation, just 
 as Baudoyer and Saillard had re-read their articles in 
 the newspapers, without growing weary of it. 
 
 "There first; and some day to the Tuileries," she 
 said to des Lupeaulx. 
 
 Des Lupeaulx was startled by her words and her 
 attitude, because they expressed such great ambition 
 and security. 
 
 "Am I but a stepping-stone?" he said. 
 
 He rose and went into Madame Rabourdin's bed- 
 room, where she followed him, for she understood 
 by the gesture of the secretary-general that he 
 wished to speak with her privately. 
 
 "Well, tell me the scheme?" he said. 
 
 "Bah! The foolish dreamings of an honest man! 
 He wants to suppress fifteen thousand officials, and 
 retain only five or six thousand; you never heard of 
 such an absurdity. I will let you read his document 
 when the copy is finished. It is written in good 
 faith. His analytic list of the officials was dictated
 
 268 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 only by the most commendable thoughts. Poor, 
 dear man!" 
 
 Des Lupeaulx was all the more reassured by the 
 genuine laugh which accompanied these jestings 
 and contemptuous words, especially as he was a 
 judge of lying, and at this moment Celestine was 
 sincere. 
 
 "But still, what is at the bottom of it all?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Ah! well, he would suppress the land-tax and 
 substitute taxes on commodities." 
 
 " But it is over a year ago that Francois Keller 
 and Nucingen proposed a plan somewhat like this, 
 and the ministry is considering about lessening the 
 land-tax." 
 
 "There! I told him that his plan was not a new 
 one!" said Celestine, laughing. 
 
 "Yes, but he has come into collision with the great 
 financier of the age, a man who, I say it between 
 ourselves, is the Napoleon of finance; he ought at 
 least to have some ideas as to how his plan should 
 be executed." 
 
 " It is all commonplace," she said, with a disdain- 
 ful expression on her lips. "Imagine governing 
 France with five or six thousand officials; while, on 
 the contrary, there ought not to be one person in 
 France who is not interested in maintaining the 
 monarchy." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx appeared to be satisfied that he 
 had found that the man to whom he attributed 
 superior talents was only of mediocre ability.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 269 
 
 " Are you very sure of the nomination? Will you 
 take a woman's advice?" she said to him. 
 
 "You are more skilled than we in refined 
 treachery," said des Lupeaulx, shaking his head. 
 
 " Ah! well, speak for Baudqyer to the court and 
 to the Grand Almonry, so as to avert all suspicion 
 and put them off their guard; but at the last moment 
 write: Rabourdin." 
 
 " There are some women who say yes when they 
 need a man, and no when he has played his part," 
 replied des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " I know it," she said, laughing. " But they are 
 very foolish, for in politics, one always regains one's 
 position; that is good tactics with simpletons, but 
 you are a clever man. According to my opinion, the 
 greatest fault one can commit in life is to quarrel 
 with a clever man." 
 
 "No," said des Lupeaulx; "for he will pardon. 
 There is no danger except with little, spiteful natures 
 who have nothing to do but to revenge themselves, 
 and I pass my life at that." 
 
 After everyone had left, Rabourdin came into his 
 wife's room, and, after having for once exacted her 
 attention, he explained his plan, in making her 
 understand that it did not restrict, but, on the 
 contrary, that it increased the budget, by showing 
 her in what way the public funds were to be 
 employed, in explaining to her how the state would 
 increase ten-fold the circulation of money, by putting 
 its own in the proportion of a third or a fourth into 
 the expenditures which would be sustained by
 
 270 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 private or local interests. Thus he finally proved to 
 her that his plan was less a theoretical work than a 
 work fertile in methods of execution. Celestine 
 was very enthusiastic; she threw her arms around 
 her husband's neck and sat herself on his knee by 
 the chimney-corner. 
 
 "Thus I find in you my ideal husband," she 
 said. "The ignorance in which I have been in regard 
 to your worth has saved you from des Lupeaulx's 
 claws. I calumniated you to him wonderfully and 
 in good faith." 
 
 This man wept with joy. He now had his day 
 of triumph. After having undertaken everything to 
 please his wife, he had become great in his own 
 household! 
 
 "And to one who knows you to be so good, so 
 gentle, of such an even disposition, so loving, you 
 are ten times greater. But," she added, "a man 
 of genius is always more or less a child, and you are 
 a child, a much loved child." She drew forth her 
 invitation from that secret hiding-place which women 
 adopt and showed it to him. 
 
 " Here is what I want," she said. " Des Lupeaulx 
 has gained me admittance to the ministry, and, were 
 he of bronze, His Excellency shall for a time be my 
 servant."
 
 The next day Celestine was occupied with her 
 preparations for attending the minister's select 
 reception. It was her great day, her own! Never 
 courtesan took so much care of herself as this good 
 woman took of her person. Never was a dress- 
 maker more tormented than hers, and never did a 
 dressmaker realize more the importance of her art. 
 At last, Madame Rabourdin had everything ready. 
 She herself went to the livery-stable to choose a 
 coupe which was neither old, middle-class, nor 
 showy. Her servant, as is the case with servants 
 of well-ordered houses, had the dress and appearance 
 of a master. Then, toward ten o'clock in the 
 evening of that eventful Tuesday, she left home in a 
 charming mourning costume. Her hair was dressed 
 with bunches of jet grapes most beautifully made, 
 an ornament costing three thousand francs, which 
 had been ordered at Fossin's establishment by an 
 Englishwoman, who left without calling for it. The 
 leaves were of stamped iron-work, as light as real 
 vine leaves, and the artist had not forgotten the 
 graceful tendrils, which were intended to twine in 
 her curls, just as the natural ones catch on every 
 branch. Her bracelets, her necklace and ear-rings 
 were of what is called Berlin iron-work; but these 
 delicate arabesques came from Vienna, and seemed 
 as though made expressly by those fairies who, in 
 
 C2 7 I)
 
 272 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 stories, are condemned by a jealous Carabosse to 
 collect the eyes of ants, or to weave the pieces of 
 linen so fine that they can be placed in a nutshell. 
 Her figure made more slender by her black dress 
 was shown to advantage by a carefully-cut dress 
 which terminated at the shoulder in a curve without 
 shoulder-pieces. At each movement it seemed that 
 the woman, like a butterfly, was about to leave her 
 envelope; nevertheless, the gown was held on by an 
 ingenious invention of the dressmaker. The dress 
 was of mousseline de laine, a material which the 
 manufacturer had not as yet sent to the Paris 
 markets, a divine material which was destined to 
 become extremely fashionable. This success went 
 further than the French fashions themselves. The 
 real economy of the mousseline de laine, which 
 does not require laundering, caused it to take the 
 place of cotton fabrics to such an extent as to 
 ruin the factory at Rouen. Celestine's feet, clad in 
 stockings of fine mesh and Turkish satin slippers, 
 for, in deep mourning, silk satin is not permitted, 
 were elegantly shaped. Celestine, thus attired, 
 looked very beautiful. Her complexion, freshened 
 by a bran bath, had a soft brilliancy. Her eyes, 
 bathed by the waves of hope, shining with anima- 
 tion, justified her claims to the superiority of which 
 the happy and proud des Lupeaulx had spoken. She 
 entered the room well; women know how to appre- 
 ciate the meaning of this expression. She grace- 
 fully saluted the minister's wife, combining the 
 deference due to her with the maintenance of her
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 273 
 
 own self-respect, and thus gave no offence, while she 
 retained her own dignity, for every beautiful woman 
 is a queen. Thus, with the minister she assumed 
 that pretty air of impertinence which women permit 
 themselves with men, even if they chance to be 
 Grand Dukes. She examined the field while taking 
 her seat, and realized that she was now in one of 
 those select assemblages, few in number, where 
 women could observe each other, appreciate each 
 other, where the least word could be heard by all, 
 where each glance could take effect, where conver- 
 sation is a duel with witnesses, where all that is 
 mediocre seems more ordinary, but where every 
 merit is silently accepted, as though it were the 
 natural level of each person. Rabourdin had gone 
 into an adjoining room, where cards were being 
 played, and there he stood conspicuously, so as to 
 make himself noticed, which proves that he did not 
 lack cleverness. 
 
 "My dear," said the Marquise d'Espard to the 
 Countess Feraud, the last of the mistresses of 
 Louis XVIII. " Paris is unique! It produces, unex- 
 pectedly, and from no one knows where, women 
 like this one, who seem to be able to carry every- 
 thing before them." 
 
 " But she really accomplishes all that she wills to 
 do," said des Lupeaulx, with an air of importance. 
 
 At this moment the subtle Madame Rabourdin was 
 
 paying court to the minister's wife. Following the 
 
 instructions which she had received the previous 
 
 evening from des Lupeaulx, who knew the weak 
 
 18
 
 274 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 points of the countess; she was flattering her with- 
 out seeming to do so. Then she remained silent at 
 the proper moment, for des Lupeaulx even as much 
 in love with this woman as he was knew her 
 faults, and had said to her the previous night: "Above 
 everything, avoid talking too much! " A great proof 
 of his love. Bertrand Barrere left this sublime 
 maxim: " Never interrupt a woman, while dancing, to 
 give her advice;" to which this may be added: 
 "Never blame a woman for strewing her pearls!" 
 completing thus this chapter on the female code. 
 Conversation became general. From time to time 
 Madame Rabourdin joined in it just as a tame cat 
 places her paws on her mistress's laces with velvety 
 touch, her claws concealed. As to his heart, the 
 minister had few emotions. There was not a 
 statesman under the Restoration who was less 
 inclined to gallantry than he; and even the opposi- 
 tion papers, the Miroir, Pandore, and Figaro, could 
 not find the least flutter of the heart with which to 
 reproach him. His mistress was I'Etoile, and, strange 
 to say, she remained faithful to him in misfortune, 
 which will, without doubt, be ultimately to her gain. 
 Madame Rabourdin knew this; but she also knew 
 that ghosts return to old castles. She therefore con- 
 ceived the idea of making the minister jealous of the 
 good fortune, still conditional, which des Lupeaulx 
 appeared to enjoy. At this moment des Lupeaulx 
 was refreshing himself with the name of Celestine. 
 In order to launch his intended mistress, he used 
 every exertion to persuade the Marquise d'Espard,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 275 
 
 Madame Nucingen and the countess in a coterie of 
 four that they ought to admit Madame Rabourdin 
 into their set, and Madame de Camps agreed with 
 him. At the end of an hour the minister had become 
 duly impressed; Madame Rabourdin's cleverness 
 pleased him; she had already won over his wife, who, 
 quite enchanted with the siren, had just invited her 
 to come whenever she wished. 
 
 "For, my dear," said the minister's wife to 
 Celestine, "your husband will soon be director; the 
 minister intends uniting the two divisions and 
 placing them under one director; you will then be 
 one of us." 
 
 His Excellency gave Madame Rabourdin his arm 
 and escorted her out of the room to show her a room 
 of his apartments which had become famous on 
 account of the supposed luxury which the opposition 
 papers had reproached him with lavishing on it, and 
 to demonstrate the absurdities of journalism. 
 
 " Truly, Madame, you must give us, the countess 
 and myself, the pleasure of seeing you here often " 
 
 And he tendered to her many compliments appro- 
 priate in a minister. 
 
 " But, Monseigneur," she replied, as she gave him 
 one of those glances which women keep in reserve, 
 " it seems to me that that depends upon you." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " But you can give me that right." 
 
 " Explain your words." 
 
 " No. When 1 came here I said to myself that I 
 would not have the bad taste to solicit anything."
 
 276 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 " Speak! Places sought in this way are never out 
 of place," said the minister, laughing. 
 
 There is nothing like these trifles for amusing 
 serious men. 
 
 " Ah! well, it is ridiculous for the wife of a head- 
 clerk to be seen here so often, whereas the wife of 
 a director would not be out of place." 
 
 "Do not trouble yourself about that," said the 
 minister, "your husband is an indispensable man; 
 he is appointed." 
 
 " Are you speaking the strict truth?" 
 
 " Will you go to my office and see his nomina- 
 tion? The papers are all made out." 
 
 "Ah! well," she said, as she was seated in a 
 corner alone with the minister, whose devotion was 
 becoming very noticeable, " let me tell you that I 
 can recompense you " 
 
 She was about to divulge her husband's plan, 
 when des Lupeaulx, who had come up on tip-toe, 
 uttered an angry ejaculation, which meant that he 
 did not wish to appear to have heard all that he had 
 listened to. The minister threw an ill-humored 
 glance at the old fop, taken in the trap. Impatient 
 of conquest, des Lupeaulx had pressed, beyond 
 measure, the work of the staff. He had carried the 
 paper to the minister, and he desired to take the 
 nomination the following morning to the woman 
 who passed for his mistress. At this moment the 
 minister's valet de chambre came in with a mys- 
 terious air, and said to des Lupeaulx that his valet 
 de chambre had begged him to deliver this letter as
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 277 
 
 soon as possible, at the same time telling him of its 
 great importance. 
 
 The secretary -general went near a lamp and read 
 a note, thus worded: 
 
 Contrary to my custom, I am waiting in an antechamber, 
 and there is not an instant to lose if you wish to come to 
 terms with 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 The secretary shuddered when he saw this signa- 
 ture, which it would be a pity not to give in 
 autograph, for it is rare on 'Change, and would be 
 very valuable for those who think they can read the 
 character from the writing of a signature. If ever 
 a hieroglyphic sign looked like any animal, it was 
 assuredly this name, in which the first and the final 
 letter made the outline of the voracious jaw of a 
 shark, insatiable, always open, grasping, and de- 
 vouring everything, both strong and weak. It has 
 been found impossible to reproduce the hand-writing; 
 it was too small, too minute, too cramped, although 
 neat. This can be very well imagined when the 
 sentence only took the space of one line. The 
 spirit of usury alone could have inspired a sentence 
 so insolently imperative and so cruelly irreproach- 
 able, so clear, and at the same time telling so little, 
 saying everything and betraying nothing. If Gob- 
 seek had been unknown to you, at the sight of that
 
 278 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 line which compelled one to go and yet was not an 
 order, you would readily have divined the implacable 
 money-lender of Rue des Ores. Thus, like a dog 
 which the hunter has called, des Lupeaulx at once 
 left the chase and went home, meditating his com- 
 promised position. Imagine a general-in-chief to 
 whom his aide-de-camp has just said: " The enemy 
 has been reinforced by thirty thousand fresh troops, 
 and they are attacking us on our flank." 
 
 One word will explain the arrival of Messieurs 
 Gigonnet and Gobseck on the field of battle, for 
 they were both at des Lupeaulx's residence. At 
 eight o'clock that evening, Martin Falleix had come 
 on the wings of the wind thanks to three francs, to 
 the guides and to the courier who went in advance 
 and had brought back with him the title-deeds 
 dated the evening before. The securities, which 
 Mitral took at once to the Cafe Themis, had passed 
 into the hands of the two usurers, who hastened to 
 take them to the ministry, even going on foot. 
 Eleven o'clock struck. Des Lupeaulx trembled 
 when he saw the two sinister faces animated by 
 a glance as direct as that of a pistol-shot, and as bril- 
 liant as the flash itself. 
 
 "Well, what is it, my masters?" 
 
 The usurers remained cold and motionless. Gi- 
 gonnet pointed by turns to his documents and to the 
 valet de chambre. 
 
 " Let us go into my study," said des Lupeaulx, 
 dismissing his valet by a wave of his hand. 
 
 "You understand French perfectly, " said Gigonnet.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 279 
 
 "Have you come here to torment a man who 
 has put it in the way of each of you to make two 
 hundred thousand francs?" he said, as he involun- 
 tarily made a haughty gesture. 
 
 " And who will help us to make more, I hope," 
 said Gigonnet. 
 
 "Some business?" replied des Lupeaulx. "If 
 you have need of me, I can remember." 
 
 " And as for us, we have your acccounts," an- 
 swered Gigonnet. 
 
 " My debts will be paid," said des Lupeaulx, dis- 
 dainfully, to prevent himself from being attacked. 
 
 " True?" said Gobseck. 
 
 "Come to the point, my son," said Gigonnet. 
 " Do not pose like that, your chin down in your 
 cravat; with us it is useless. Take these deeds and 
 read them." 
 
 The two usurers took an inventory of des Lu- 
 peaulx's office while he read with amazement and 
 stupefaction these deeds, which seemed to him to 
 have been thrown from the clouds by angels. 
 
 " Do you not find us to be intelligent business 
 men?" said Gigonnet. 
 
 " But to what do I owe such able co-operation?" 
 said des Lupeaulx, anxiously. 
 
 "We knew a week ago a fact that without us 
 you would only know to-morrow: the President of 
 the Chamber of Commerce, a deputy, feels himself 
 obliged to resign." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx's eyes dilated and grew as large as 
 daisies.
 
 280 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 " Your minister has been deceiving you about it," 
 said the concise Gobseck. 
 
 " You are my masters," said the secretary -general, 
 bowing with profound respect which amounted al- 
 most to mockery. 
 
 "True," said Gobseck. 
 
 " But do you wish to strangle me?" 
 
 " Possibly." 
 
 "Well, go to work, executioners!" said the 
 secretary-general, smilingly. 
 
 "You see," replied Gigonnet, "your debts are 
 registered with the money borrowed for the pur- 
 chase." 
 
 "Here are the titles," said Gobseck, as he drew 
 the legal documents from the pockets of his green- 
 ish overcoat. 
 
 " You shall have three years to pay up every- 
 thing," said Gigonnet. 
 
 " But," said des Lupeaulx, frightened by so much 
 consideration and by such a peculiar arrangement, 
 " what do you want of me?" 
 
 "La Billardiere's position for Baudoyer," said 
 Gigonnet, quickly. 
 
 " That is a very little thing, although it will be 
 next to impossible for me to accomplish it. My 
 hands are tied," replied des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " Bite the cords with your teeth," said Gigonnet. 
 
 "They are sharp!" added Gobseck. 
 
 " Is that all?" said des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " We will keep the documents until your debts 
 are paid," said Gigonnet, as he placed an account
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 38l 
 
 under the eyes of the secretary-general; " if they 
 are not acknowledged by the commission in six 
 days, your name on this deed will be replaced by 
 mine." 
 
 " You are shrewd," cried the secretary -general., 
 
 " True," said Gobseck. 
 
 " This is all?" said des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " True," said Gobseck. 
 
 " Do you agree to it?" asked Gigonnet. 
 
 Des Lupeaulx bowed. 
 
 "Well, sign this power of attorney," said Gigon- 
 net. " In two days Baudoyer is to be nominated; 
 in six your debts will be paid, and " 
 
 "And what?" said des Lupeaulx. 
 
 "We will guarantee " 
 
 "What?" said des Lupeaulx, more and more 
 astonished. 
 
 " Your nomination," replied Gigonnet, with atone 
 of authority. " We will secure the majority with the 
 vote of fifty-two farmers and mechanics, who will 
 obey the one who lends you the money." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx pressed Gigonnet's hand. 
 
 " It is only between us that disputes are impos- 
 sible," he said; "that is what might be called busi- 
 ness! Besides, I will make you return the gift." 
 
 " True," said Gobseck. 
 
 " What is it?" asked Gigonnet. 
 
 "The Cross of the Legion of Honor for your 
 imbecile nephew." 
 
 " Good," said Gigonnet; "you are well acquainted 
 with him."
 
 282 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Then the usurers saluted des Lupeaulx, who 
 escorted them to the stairs. 
 
 "They must be secret messengers from some 
 foreign powers," said the two valets de chambre to 
 each other. 
 
 Once in the street, the two usurers saw each 
 other by the light of the street-lamp, and laughed. 
 
 " He will owe us nine thousand francs interest 
 yearly, and the estate scarcely brings him in five, 
 net," said Gigonnet. 
 
 " He is in our hands for some time," said Gobseck. 
 
 " He will build, he will commit follies," replied 
 Gigonnet; " Falleix will get his land." 
 
 " His wish is solely to become deputy, the surly 
 wolf laughs at the rest," said Gobseck. 
 
 "Hey! Hey!" 
 
 "Hey! Hey!" 
 
 These little dry exclamations made the two usurers 
 laugh, as they wended their way on foot to the 
 Cafe Themis. 
 
 Des Lupeaulx returned to the drawing-room and 
 found Madame Rabourdin under full sail; she was 
 charming, and the minister, who was usually so sad, 
 wore a smooth and gracious countenance. 
 
 "She works miracles," said des Lupeaulx. 
 " What a valuable woman! I must fathom even to 
 the depth of her heart." 
 
 "She is decidedly attractive, your little lady," 
 said the marquise to the secretary -general; "she 
 lacks but taking your name." 
 
 "Yes, her only misfortune is that she is the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 283 
 
 daughter of an auctioneer. She will fail by the 
 accident of birth," replied des Lupeaulx, with a 
 cold manner, which was a great contrast to the ardor 
 of his remarks about Madame Rabourdin a moment 
 before. 
 
 The marquise regarded des Lupeaulx with a fixed 
 expression. 
 
 "You threw them a look which has not escaped 
 my observation," she said, looking toward the 
 minister and Madame Rabourdin; "it pierced the 
 glasses of your spectacles. You both furnish amuse- 
 ment by quarreling over that bone." 
 
 As the marquise passed out of the door, the minis- 
 ter ran toward her and brought her back. 
 
 "Well," said des Lupeaulx to Madame Rabour- 
 din, "what do you think of our minister?" 
 
 " He is charming. Truly," she replied, raising 
 her voice so as to be heard by the minister's wife. 
 "These poor ministers should be known to be 
 appreciated. The small newspapers and the calum- 
 nies of the opposition distort the characters of political 
 men to such an extent that one is at last influenced 
 by the articles; but these prejudices turn to their 
 advantage when one sees the men themselves." 
 
 "He is very good looking," said des Lupeaulx. 
 
 "Well, I can assure you that he is lovable," she 
 said, good-naturedly. 
 
 "Dear child," said des Lupeaulx, in his turn 
 assuming a friendly and coaxing manner, " you have 
 accomplished the impossible." 
 
 "What?" she said.
 
 284 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 " You have brought the dead to life. I thought 
 he had no heart; ask his wife! He has just enough 
 to gratify a fancy: but let us turn it to your advan- 
 tage. Come here. Do not be astonished." 
 
 He led Madame Rabourdin into the boudoir, and 
 sat down on the sofa by her. 
 
 " You are very shrewd, and I love you more for 
 it. Between ourselves, you are a superior woman. 
 Des Lupeaulx has gained your admittance here, 
 and that is all he is needed for; is it not so? Be- 
 sides, when one makes up one's mind to love for 
 selfish ends, it is better to take a sexagenarian 
 minister than a quadragenarian secretary -general: 
 there is more profit in it, and it is less tiresome. I 
 am a man who wears spectacles, whose hair is turn- 
 ing gray, who is satiated with pleasure. What a 
 fine picture of a lover! Oh! I have said that to 
 myself! Although it may be necessary to admit 
 that I am useful, I can never be agreeable; is that 
 not so? One must be a dunce not to know how to 
 reason about himself. You may tell me the truth, 
 and show me the depth of your heart We are 
 two partners, and not two lovers. If I have some- 
 times shown a tenderness for you, you are too 
 superior a woman to pay any attention to such 
 nonsense, and you will forgive me, that is, if you 
 have not the ideas of a young school-girl or of a 
 bourgeoise of Rue Saint-Denis! Bah! We are better 
 brought up than that, you and I. See, the Marquise 
 d'Espard is leaving; do you believe that she does 
 not reason thus? We came to an understanding
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 285 
 
 nearly two years ago the flirt! Ah, well! she has 
 only to write me a word, a short line: 'My dear des 
 Lupeaulx, you will oblige me by doing so and so !' and 
 it is done at once; we are just now trying to have 
 her husband declared incapable of managing his 
 own affairs. You women, it costs you only a few 
 smiles to obtain what you want. Ah! well, then, 
 turn the head of the minister, dear child; I will help 
 you to do it; it is to my interest to do so. Yes, I 
 wish that there might be a woman who could in- 
 fluence him. He would then not escape me; he 
 escapes me now sometimes, and that can well be 
 imagined; I only hold him by his reason; in con- 
 necting myself with a pretty woman, I would be 
 able to hold him by his folly, and that is a stronger 
 grasp. Thus let us remain good friends, and let us 
 divide the advantages of the conquest you are 
 making." 
 
 Madame Rabourdin listened in the greatest amaze- 
 ment to this singular profession of rascality. The 
 artlessness of this crafty politician excluded every 
 idea of surprise. 
 
 " Do you believe that he thinks of me?" she 
 asked, caught in the trap. 
 
 " I know it, I am sure of it." 
 
 "Is it true that Rabourdin's nomination is 
 signed?" 
 
 " I gave him the papers this morning. But it is 
 nothing to be director; he ought to t* maitre de 
 requites." 
 
 "Yes,"sh8oid.
 
 286 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "Ah! well, re-enter the drawing-room and flirt 
 with His Excellency." 
 
 " Truly, I have only really known you this even- 
 ing. There is nothing commonplace about you." 
 
 " Well, then," des Lupeaulx replied, " we are two 
 old friends, and we will suppress all tender senti- 
 ments, tiresome love-making, to take the question 
 as it was taken under the Regency, when people 
 were sufficiently clever." 
 
 " You are really strong, and you have my admira- 
 tion," she said, as she smiled and stretched forth 
 her hand. " You know that one will do more for 
 one's friend than for one's " 
 
 She re-entered the drawing room without finishing 
 her sentence. 
 
 " Dear little one," said des Lupeaulx to himself, 
 as he saw her approach the minister, "des Lu- 
 peaulx has no longer any remorse in turning against 
 you! To-morrow evening, in offering me a cup of 
 tea, you will be offering me what I no longer wish 
 all is over! Ah! When we are forty years old 
 women can always entrap us, but we can no longer 
 be loved." 
 
 He entered the drawing-room after having looked 
 at himself from head to foot in the glass, and he 
 recognized himself as a fine-looking politician, but 
 perfectly incapacitated by the Cytherean Venus. 
 At this moment Madame Rabourdin was collecting 
 her ideas. She contemplated going, she wished to 
 leave in the mind of each person present a last 
 graceful impression, and she succeeded. Contrary
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 287 
 
 to the usual custom in drawing-rooms, every one 
 exclaimed, after she had left: " That charming 
 woman!" and the minister himself led her to the 
 outer door. 
 
 " I am very sure that you will think of me to- 
 morrow," he said, as he turned back, alluding to the 
 nomination. " So few of the wives of the high 
 functionaries are agreeable, that I am delighted with 
 this acquisition," said the minister, as he re-entered. 
 
 " Do you not find her a little encroaching?" said 
 des Lupeaulx, with a piqued air. 
 
 The women present exchanged expressive glances, 
 for the rivalry between the minister and his secre- 
 tary-general amused them. Then took place one 
 of those pretty comedies which Parisians know so 
 well how to comprehend. The women encouraged 
 the minister and des Lupeaulx to talk about Madame 
 Rabourdin; one found her too affected and too 
 anxious to appear clever; another compared the 
 graces of the bourgeoisie with the manners of this 
 high society, so as to criticise Celestine; and des 
 Lupeaulx defended his supposed mistress as one 
 would defend one's enemy in a drawing-room. 
 
 " Let us do her justice, ladies! Is it not extra- 
 ordinary that the daughter of an auctioneer should 
 appear so well! Look where she came from, and 
 see where she is; she will go to the Tuileries; she 
 intends to accomplish that; she told me as much." 
 
 "If she is the daughter of an auctioneer," said 
 Madame d'Espard, smilingly, " how can that hinder 
 her husband's advancement?"
 
 388 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "In these days, do you not mean?" said the 
 minister's wife, biting her lips. 
 
 "Madame," said the minister to the marquise, 
 sternly, "with such words when unhappily the 
 court spares no one revolutions are brought about. 
 You cannot imagine how much the thoughtless con- 
 duct of the aristocracy displeases certain clear- 
 sighted personages at the palace. If I were a great 
 lord, instead of a mere country-gentleman, who 
 appears to be placed where he is to transact your 
 business, the monarchy would not be so badly off 
 as I see it now. What will become of a throne 
 which does not share its dignity with those who 
 represent it? We are far from the days when the 
 king aggrandized men by the force of his will alone 
 such as Louvois, Colbert, Richelieu, Jeannin, 
 Villeroy and Sully yes, Sully, when he first 
 became prominent was no greater than I. I speak 
 to you thus because we are among ourselves, and 
 that I really would amount to very little if I were 
 offended by such trifles. It lies with ourselves, and 
 not with others, whether or not we shall be great." 
 
 " You are appointed, my dear," said Celestine, as 
 she pressed her husband's hand. " If des Lupeaulx 
 had not prevented me I would have developed your 
 plan to the minister; but I will do it next Tuesday, 
 and you can thus all the sooner become maitre de 
 requites!" 
 
 In the life of all women, there is one day when 
 they will appear at their very best, and this day 
 leaves them an eternal memory to which they will
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 289 
 
 return with pleasure. When Madame Rabourdin 
 took off, one by one, the ornaments of her apparel, 
 she thought over the evening, and counted it as 
 among her times of triumph and happiness: all her 
 graces had been envied, she had been flattered by 
 the minister's wife, who was glad to compare her 
 with her friends. Above everything, all her vanities 
 had shown to the profit of conjugal love. Rabourdin 
 was nominated! 
 
 "Did I not look well this evening?" she said to 
 her husband, just as though he needed stirring up. 
 
 At this moment, Mitral, who was at the Cafe 
 Themis, awaiting the two usurers, perceived them 
 enter and saw no emotion depicted on these two 
 immobile faces. 
 
 "How do we stand in regard to it?" he said to 
 them when they were seated at table. 
 
 "Ah! well, same as ever," said Gigonnet, 
 rubbing his hands, " victory due to gold." 
 
 "True," said Gobseck. 
 
 Mitral took a hack and hunted up the Saillards 
 and Baudoyers, who were still playing boston; but 
 no one else was there except the Abbe Gaudron. 
 Falleix, all but dead with fatigue, had gone to 
 bed. 
 
 " You will be nominated, my nephew, and there 
 is a surprise in reserve for you." 
 
 "What?" said Saillard. 
 
 " The Cross of the Legion of Honor!" said Mitral. 
 
 " God protects those who remember His altars!" 
 said Gaudron. 
 19
 
 290 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Thus the Te Deum was sung in the two camps 
 with equal joy. 
 
 The following day, Wednesday, Monsieur Rabour- 
 din was to transact business with the minister, for 
 he had filled the late La Billardiere's place since the 
 illness of the deceased. On these days the clerks 
 were there on time, the office-boys were very 
 attentive, for on such occasions, when documents 
 were signed, all was excitement in the offices, and 
 why ? No one knew. The three servants were then 
 at their posts, and anticipated a few fees, for the rumor 
 of Monsieur Rabourdin's nomination had been spread 
 abroad the evening before by des Lupeaulx. Uncle 
 Antoine and the porter Laurent were there in full 
 uniform when, at a quarter before eight, the 
 secretary's servant came and begged Antoine to 
 deliver privately to Monsieur Dutocq a letter that 
 the secretary-general had told him to take to the 
 principal clerk at seven o'clock. 
 
 " I do not know how it happened, my old fellow; I 
 slept, I slept, and I have only just awakened. He 
 would lead me the devil's dance if he knew that the 
 letter had not been delivered ; whereas, as it is, I will 
 say that I am positive that I carried it myself to 
 Monsieur Dutocq's residence. A famous secret, 
 Father Antoine, do not mention a word about it to 
 the clerks; on your honor! he would dismiss me. I 
 should lose my place should I utter a single word, so 
 he said!" 
 
 "What can be inside this letter?" said Antoine. 
 
 "Nothing; I have looked through it, like that. See!"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 29! 
 
 And he made the letter gape open, and only blank 
 paper could be seen. 
 
 " This is your great day, Laurent," said the 
 secretary's office-boy; " you are going to have a new 
 director. Undoubtedly, economy will be practised, 
 the two divisions will be united under one director. 
 Take care, boys." 
 
 "Yes, nine clerks will be dismissed," said Dutocq, 
 who came in just then. " How did you hear that?" 
 
 Antoine presented the letter to Dutocq, who 
 rushed down stairs, opened it, and ran to the 
 secretary's office. 
 
 After having gossiped much since the death of de 
 la Billardiere, the two offices of Rabourdin and Bau- 
 doyer had resumed their accustomed aspect, and 
 their habits of administrative dolce far niente. 
 Nevertheless, the close of the year brought about a 
 sort of studious application in the offices, just as 
 servants become then more servile. Every one 
 arrived punctually and a greater number remained 
 after four o'clock, for the distribution of fees 
 depends upon the last impressions which one leaves 
 on the chiefs at that season. The previous evening 
 the rumor of the reunion of the two divisions of La 
 Billardiere and Clergeot, with one chief, under a new 
 title, had agitated both divisions. The number of 
 the clerks discharged was known, but their names 
 were withheld. It was well conjectured that Poiret 
 would not be replaced; they intended economizing 
 by dispensing with his position. Little La Billardiere 
 had gone. Two new supernumeraries had arrived;
 
 292 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 and, what was an alarming sign, they were the sons 
 of deputies. The news told the previous evening in 
 the offices, at the time the clerks were leaving, had 
 filled their minds with terror. Thus for the first 
 half-hour after their arrival they stood in groups 
 around the stove and talked. But before any one 
 arrived, Dutocq had seen des Lupeaulx at his toilet; 
 and, without laying down his razor, the secretary- 
 general had looked at him in the same manner that 
 a general would have done in issuing an order. 
 
 " Are we alone?" he said to him. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Very well, march on Rabourdin, forward and 
 steady! You have no doubt kept a copy of his 
 document?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You understand me: Inde irce! There must be 
 a general outcry. Try to invent something to raise 
 a clamor " 
 
 "I can get a caricature made of him, but I have not 
 five hundred francs to give " 
 
 "Who will make it?" 
 
 "Bixiou." 
 
 " He shall have a thousand francs, and shall be 
 made assistant under Colleville, who will arrange 
 with him." 
 
 " But he will not believe me." 
 
 " Do you wish to compromise me by an accident? 
 Go, or else nothing, do you understand? If Monsieur 
 Baudoyer were director, he might lend the sum " 
 
 " Yes, he will be director. Leave me. Hurry,
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 293 
 
 and do not appear to have seen me; go down by the 
 small stairway." 
 
 While Dutocq was returning to the clerk's office, 
 his heart beat with joy, and he asked himself how 
 he could excite the rumor against his chief, without 
 compromising himself too much. Bixiou went to 
 Rabourdin's office to wish the clerks good-day. This 
 great joker, believing that he had lost the bet, found 
 it agreeable to pose as having gained it. 
 
 BIXIOU Imitating Phellion's voice. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I salute you by wishing you good- 
 day, collectively. And 1 appoint next Sunday for a 
 dinner at the Rocker de Cancale; but a serious question 
 presents itself: What shall we do about asking the 
 dismissed clerks?" 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " And those who are about to retire." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " It is all the same to me, for it is not I who pays. 
 General consternation. Baudoyer is appointed; 1 think 
 I already hear him calling Laurent. He mimicked Bau- 
 
 4 Laurent, lock up my hair-shirt and also my scourge ' 
 
 They all roared with laughter. Ris cTaboyeUT d'OJe/ Col- 
 
 leville is right in his anagrams, for you know 
 the anagram of Xavier Rabourdin, chief of bureau, 
 is: D'abord reva bureaux, e, u, fin riche. If ! 
 were named Charles X., par la grace de Dieu, roi de 
 France et de Navarre, \ should tremble at having the
 
 294 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 sad fate that my anagram thus arranged would 
 prophesy." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 " Ah! you are joking!" 
 
 BIXIOU laughing In bis face. 
 
 "Ris au laid (rice with milk). That is pretty, 
 that, Papa Thuillier, for you are not good-looking. 
 Rabourdin resigns; he is so angry that Baudoyer 
 should be appointed director." 
 
 VIMEUX entering. 
 
 "What nonsense! Antoine, to whom I have just 
 paid thirty or forty francs, told me that Monsieur 
 and Madame Rabourdin were received yesterday at 
 the private reception of the minister, and that they 
 remained there until a quarter to twelve. His Ex- 
 cellency escorted Madame Rabourdin to the stairs. 
 It seems she was divinely dressed. In short, there 
 is no doubt that he is appointed director. Riffe, the 
 secretary's copying-clerk, sat up all night to finish 
 the papers as soon as possible; it is no longer a 
 secret. Monsieur Clergeot has been retired. After 
 thirty years of service, that is no disgrace. Mon- 
 sieur Cochin, who is rich " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "According to Colleville, he dealt in cochineal." 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 " Why he is in the cochineal business, for he is a 
 partner in the firm of Matifat, Rue des Lombards. 
 Ah! well, he has been retired. Poiret has been
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 295 
 
 retired. Neither of them is replaced. That is 
 certain; the rest is not yet known. The nomination 
 of Monsieur Rabourdin is to be announced this morn- 
 ing; they are afraid of intrigues." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "What intrigues?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Baudoyer's. Zounds! The clerical party upholds 
 him; and see, here is a new article in the liberal 
 journal; it only consists of two lines, but it is 
 
 droll." He read*. 
 
 " Certain persons spoke last night in the foyer of the Opera 
 House of the return of Monsieur de Chateaubriand to the 
 ministry, and settled on their choice of Monsieur Rabourdin 
 the protege of the friends of the noble viscount to fill the 
 place which was first destined for Monsieur Baudoyer. The 
 clerical party will scarcely withdraw unless in deference to 
 the great writer." 
 
 " Rascals!" 
 
 DUTOCQ entering after having heard everything. 
 
 "Who, a rascal? Rabourdin. So you have heard 
 the news?" 
 
 FLEURY rolling his savage eye*. 
 
 "Rabourdin! a rascal? Are you mad, Dutocq,. 
 and do you want a ball in your brains to give them 
 weight?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " I have said nothing against Monsieur Rabourdin; 
 only it has just been secretly confided to me, in the 
 court-yard, that he has denounced many of the 
 clerks, taken notes, in fact; that his interest in the
 
 296 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 ministries has been promoted by the work, in which 
 each one of us is severely dealt with." 
 
 PHELLION in a loud voice. 
 
 " Monsieur Rabourdin is incapable " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " That is all right enough ! Tell us then Dutocq ? " 
 
 They whispered a word to each other, and then went Into the corridor. 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " What is going on, now?" 
 
 DUTOCQ 
 " Do you remember about the caricature?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Yes; well?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "Make it and you shall be chief-assistant and 
 have an extraordinary salary. Do you see, my 
 boy, there is discord in the higher ranks. The 
 minister is pledged to Rabourdin; but if he does not 
 appoint Baudoyer, he will get into trouble with the 
 clergy. Do you not see? the King, the Dauphin 
 and the Dauphiness, the Grand Almonry, in fact, 
 the Court, wish Baudoyer, while the minister desires 
 to appoint Rabourdin." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Good" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " In order to bring about a reconciliation for the 
 minister has seen the necessity of giving way he 
 wishes to obviate the difficulty. An accusation
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 297 
 
 must be made which will result in Rabourdin's 
 overthrow. For that purpose an old document of 
 his has been unearthed, which he wrote on the 
 administrations for the purpose of purifying them, 
 and of which he has circulated some copies. At 
 least this is how I succeeded in explaining matters to 
 myself. Make the drawing and you will enter into 
 the game with the highest dignitaries; you will 
 at the same time serve the minister, the court, in 
 fact everyone, and you will be appointed. Do you 
 understand?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " 1 do not understand how you came to know all 
 that, or perhaps you invented it." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " Do you wish me to show you the article about 
 yourself?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Yes." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "Very well, come to my house, for I must 
 replace this document in safe hands." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Go there alone. Hs re-entera Rabourdin's offlc*. There 
 
 can be no question in regard to what Dutocq has 
 told you, word of honor. Monsieur Rabourdin must 
 have given very unflattering accounts of the clerks 
 he wished to reform. The secret of his elevation 
 lies in this. We live in a time when no one is
 
 298 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 astonished at anything. He drapes his cloak after the fashion of 
 Talma. 
 
 'You have seen the most Illustrious heads fall, 
 And you are astonished, senseless that you are I* 
 
 to find a case of this kind by favor of a man? My 
 Baudoyer is too much of a fool to succeed by such 
 means! Accept my congratulations, gentlemen; you 
 are under an illustrious chief." He departs. 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " I will yet leave the ministry before I understand 
 one word which that gentleman says. What does 
 he mean by his heads that fall?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 "Zounds! the four sergeants of la Rochelle, 
 Berton, Ney, Caron, the brothers Faucher and all 
 the massacres!" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " He advances thoughtlessly on hazardous prop- 
 ositions." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " Say, then, that he lies, that he is joking! and 
 %iat, in his mouth, truth takes the form of verdigris." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 "Your words exceed the bounds of politeness 
 and courtesy due to colleagues." 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 " It seems to me that, if what he says is false, the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 299 
 
 proper name for it is calumny, defamation, and that 
 one who defames should be horsewhipped." 
 
 FLEURY becoming animated. 
 
 " And the government offices are public places; 
 they should be under the supervision of the police-! 
 courts." 
 
 PHELLION wishing to avert a quarrel, tries to turn the conversation- 
 
 " Gentlemen, calm yourselves. I am at work on 
 a new little treatise on moral philosophy, and I am 
 in the very midst of it " 
 
 FLEURY Interrupting him. 
 
 "What are you saying about it, Monsieur 
 Phellion?" 
 
 PHELLION reading 
 
 " Question. What is the soul of man?' 9 
 
 " Answer. // is a spiritual substance which thinks 
 
 and reasons" 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 " Answer. A spiritual substance, that is Just the 
 
 same as saying immaterial stone" 
 
 POIRET. 
 " Let him say on " 
 
 PHELLION continuing. 
 
 " Question. Whence comes the soul?" 
 " Answer. // comes from God, who has created it 
 of a simple and indivisible nature, which we conse- 
 quently can not imagine as destructible, and He has 
 said"
 
 300 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 POIRET stupefied. 
 
 "God?" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " Yes, sir. The tradition is just what I have 
 narrated." 
 
 FLEURY toPolret 
 
 fl Do not interrupt, yourself!" 
 
 PHELLION resuming. 
 
 "And He has said that He created it immortal; 
 
 that is to say that it will never die.' 3 
 " Question. Of what use is the soul?" 
 " Answer. To comprehend, to will and to remem~ 
 
 ber; these constitute judgment, volition, memory." 
 " Question. Of what use is understanding?" 
 " Answer. To know. It is the eye of the soul. " 
 
 FLEURY. 
 " And the soul is the eye of what?" 
 
 PHELLION continuing 
 
 " Question. What does the understanding 
 know?" 
 
 "Answer. Truth." 
 
 " Question. Why does man possess a will- 
 power?" 
 
 "Answer. In order to love good and to hate 
 aril." 
 
 " Question. What is good?" 
 
 " Answer. That which makes one
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 3OI 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 "And you are writing that for the young ladies?" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 "Yes." continuing "Question. How many kinds 
 of good are there ?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 "All this is trifling!" 
 
 PHELLION Indignant 
 
 " Oh! sir! calming himself But here is the reply. I 
 am writing it now." He reads. 
 
 "Answer. There are two kinds of good, eternal 
 good and temporal good." 
 
 POIRET with a look of contempt 
 
 " And it will have a great sale." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " I dare to hope so. It is necessary to concentrate 
 one's mind greatly to carry on a system of questions 
 and answers; that is why I beg you to let me think, 
 for the answers " 
 
 THUILLIER Interrupting 
 
 " Besides, the answers might be sold sepa 
 rately " 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " I have committed a great fault by interrupting 
 
 yOU. He dives his head Into his portfolio; then continues to say to him- 
 self. But now they will think no more about 
 Rabourdin."
 
 At this moment a scene was taking place between 
 des Lupeaulx and the minister which decided 
 Rabourdin's fate. Before breakfast the secretary- 
 general went to seek His Excellency in his office, 
 assuring himself that La Briere was not within 
 hearing. 
 
 "Your Excellency does not play fairly with 
 me" 
 
 " We are, then, about to quarrel," thought the 
 minister, " because his mistress flirted with me last 
 evening. I thought you less of a child, my dear 
 friend," he replied in a loud voice. 
 
 The minister gazed haughtily at des Lupeaulx. 
 
 "We are alone, and we can explain ourselves. 
 The deputy of the district where my estate of des 
 Lupeaulx is situated " 
 
 " It is, then really an estate!" laughingly replied 
 the minister, in order to hide his surprise. 
 
 " Increased by a recent purchase of two hundred 
 thousand francs," des Lupeaulx replied, carelessly. 
 " You knew the resignation of this deputy ten days 
 ago; but you have not told me about it. You need 
 not have done it, but you knew very well that I am 
 exceedingly desirous of taking my seat in the Centre. 
 Have you imagined that 1 am capable of throwing 
 the weight of my influence in the politics which 
 will work your destruction, yours and that of the 
 
 (303)
 
 304 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 monarchy, if this party is allowed to recruit itself 
 by taking in men of unrecognized abilities? Do 
 you know that there are not more than fifty or sixty 
 dangerous heads in a nation, whose abilities are in 
 proportion to their ambitious schemes ? To know how 
 to govern, is to find these heads, so that they can be 
 cut off or bought off. I do not know if I have any 
 talent, but I am ambitious, and you are committing 
 the fault of not being on good terms with a man 
 who only wishes you well. The coronation dazzles 
 for a moment, but what follows? Then the war of 
 words and discussions wil recommence more bitterly 
 than ever. Ah! well, for your own sake, take care 
 that you do not find me in the Left Centre, believe 
 me! Notwithstanding the manoeuvres of your pre- 
 fect who, doubtless, has heard some confidential 
 instructions against me I will have the majority. 
 The moment has come for us to understand one 
 another. After a slight falling out, people some- 
 times become all the better friends. 1 would be 
 made count, and receive the grand cordon of the 
 Legion of Honor for my services. But I care less 
 for these two things than for one in which your 
 interests are concerned. You have not yet nomi- 
 nated Rabourdin. I have had news this morning; 
 you will give more general satisfaction by appoint- 
 ing Baudoyer " 
 
 " Appointing Baudoyer!" cried the minister. " Do 
 you know him?" 
 
 "Yes," said des Lupeaulx; "but when his in- 
 capacity shall be proved, you can get rid of him by
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 305 
 
 begging his protectors to employ him themselves. 
 You will thus gain for your friends an important 
 post, and it may facilitate some transaction by getting 
 rid of ambitious persons." 
 
 " I have promised it to Rabourdin!" 
 
 " Yes, but I do not ask you to change your mind, 
 this very day. I know the danger of saying yes 
 and no in the same day. Postpone the nominations; 
 you can sign them the day after to-morrow. Ah! 
 well, the day after to-morrow, you must recognize 
 that it is impossible to retain Rabourdin, from whom, 
 moreover, you will receive a courteously and beau- 
 tifully worded resignation." 
 
 "His resignation?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "He is the tool of a secret power for which he 
 has carried on a system of spying on a large scale 
 in all the ministries, and this thing has been dis- 
 covered by chance. Every one is speaking about 
 it, and the clerks are furious. For goodness sake, 
 do not transact business with him to-day. Let me 
 find a way for you to dispense with him. Go to the 
 king's palace. I am sure that you will find there 
 many who will be pleased with your concession in 
 regard to Baudoyer; you can obtain something as 
 an equivalent. Then your position will be stronger 
 later, when you dismiss this fool, because he will 
 have been, so to speak, thrust upon you." 
 
 " Who has caused you to change thus on the score 
 of Rabourdin?" 
 
 20
 
 306 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "Would you aid Monsieur de Chateaubriand in 
 writing an article against the ministry? Ah! well, 
 see how Rabourdin has treated me in his document," 
 he said, as he gave his paper to the minister. " He 
 would organize an entire government, without doubt 
 in the interests of a party unknown to us. I will 
 remain his friend, so that I can watch him; I believe 
 I will be able to render some great service which 
 will lead me to be made a peer, for the peerage is 
 the only object of my desires. Know well, that I 
 wish neither the ministry nor anything else, which 
 might thwart your career; I am looking toward 
 the peerage, which will enable me to marry some 
 banker's daughter, with two hundred thousand 
 francs income. So, permit me to render you 
 some great service, which will cause to be said to 
 the king that I have saved the throne. A long time 
 ago I said: Liberalism will not offer us pitched battle. 
 It has given up conspiracies, Carbonarism, and 
 fighting with weapons; instead, it undermines and 
 makes preparation to say: " Out of this, that I may 
 enter!" Do you imagine that I have been courting 
 Rabourdin's wife for my own pleasure? No, I have 
 gained information! Thus there are two things to- 
 day: the postponement of the appointment, and your 
 sincere support of my election. You will see if, 
 toward the end of the session, I shall not have 
 liberally paid my debt to you." 
 
 The only answer the minister gave was that he 
 took the report on the staff and handed it to des 
 Lupeaulx.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 307 
 
 " I will go and tell Rabourdin," said des Lupeaulx, 
 "that you will put off the matter until Saturday." 
 
 The minister consented by a nod of his head. 
 The secretary's office-boy soon hurried into the 
 court-yard to Rabourdin 's office to tell him that the 
 matter was postponed until Saturday, a day when 
 the Chamber of Deputies would only be occupied 
 considering petitions, and when the minister would 
 have the entire day free. Just at this moment, 
 Saillard was saying his sentence to the minister's 
 wife, who replied to him, with dignity, that she never 
 interfered with affairs of state, and that, moreover, 
 she had heard it said that Rabourdin had been 
 appointed. Saillard, terrified, rushed up to Bau- 
 doyer's office, where he found Dutocq, Godard and 
 Bixiou in a state of exasperation difficult to describe, 
 for they were reading the terrible paper which Ra- 
 bourdin had written about the clerks. 
 
 BIXIOU putting his finger on a passage. 
 
 " Here is as to you, Papa Saillard: ' SAll LARD. 
 The cashier to be done away with in all the min- 
 istries, and the account of their current expenses 
 given over to the treasury. Saillard is rich and has 
 no need of a pension.' Do you want to see what is 
 said about your son-in-law? He turns the page. See: 
 'BAUDOYER. Totally incapable. To be retired 
 without pension because he is rich.' And see what 
 
 iS Stated abOUt Godard! He turns a new leaf. ' GODARD. 
 
 To be dismissed! A pension of one-third of his 
 salary.' In short, we are all mentioned in this arti- 
 cle. As for me, I am described as ' an artist to be
 
 308 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 employed by the civil list, at the Opera, at the 
 Menus-Plaisirs, or the Museum. A great deal of 
 ability, but very little stability; incapable of applying 
 himself, and of a restless disposition.' Ah! I will let 
 you have a taste of my artistic abilities!" 
 
 SAILLARD. 
 
 "To suppress the cashiers? What a monster!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " What does he say about our mysterious Des- 
 
 Toys?" He turn another leaf and reads: ' DESROYS. A dan- 
 
 gerous man, inasmuch as he cannot be moved from 
 his principles, which are directly opposed to mon- 
 archical power. He is the son of a Conventional, 
 and so he admires the Convention. He may be- 
 come a very dangerous publicist.' " 
 
 BAUDOYER. 
 " The police are not so clever as he!' 
 
 GODARD. 
 
 "I shall go to the secretary-general and enter a 
 formal complaint; we shall all have to resign en 
 masse if such a man is appointed." 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "Listen to me, gentlemen! Be prudent. If you 
 rise up at once, we shall be accused of vengeance 
 and self-interested motives! No, let the news spread 
 abroad quietly. When the entire administration is 
 aroused, the step you take will meet with general 
 approval."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 309 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 4t Dutocq believes in the principles of the great air 
 composed by the sublime Rossini for Basilio, which 
 proved that this great composer is a politician! That 
 seems to me to be just and reasonable. I intend to 
 leave my card at Monsieur Rabourdin's to-morrow 
 morning, and I shall only have BIXIOU engraved on 
 it; then, instead of a title I shall write, underneath, 
 this quotation from his article about me: very little 
 stability, incapable of applying himself and of a restless 
 disposition." 
 
 GODARD. 
 
 " A good idea, gentlemen. Let us all have our 
 cards engraved with his sentiments about us, and 
 leave them at Rabourdin's to-morrow morning." 
 
 BAUDOYER. 
 
 "Monsieur Bixiou, suppose you take charge of 
 this little detail, and make the engraver destroy the 
 plates after taking the first proof." 
 
 DUTOCQ taking Bixiou apart. 
 
 " Very well; will you design the caricature now?" , 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " I understand, my dear, that you have been in 
 this secret for the last ten days. He looked into the white* 
 of his eyes. Will I be chief-assistant?"
 
 310 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 bonus you will have, just as I have told you. You 
 do not know what service you are rendering to these 
 powerful personages." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "You know them, then?" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 "Yes." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Ah! well! I would like to speak to them." 
 
 DUTOCQ dryly. 
 
 "Make the caricature or else do not make it, as 
 you wish; you will in one case be deputy -chief , in 
 the other case, not." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Ah, well! Let us see the thousand francs!" 
 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 "I will give them to you when the design is com- 
 pleted." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Forward! That caricature shall go the rounds 
 of the offices to-morrow. Let us go and tease the 
 
 RabOUrdinS. Speaking to Salllard. to Godard. and to Baudoyer, who 
 
 are talking together in a low voice. We are going to inform the 
 
 neighbors. He goes out with Dutocq and walks to Rabourdin's office. 
 On his approach, Fleury. Thuillier. and Vimeux talk in a more animated 
 
 manner. Ah! well, what is the matter, gentlemen? 
 What I have told you is so true, that you can see 
 the proof of the most infamous of accusations at the 
 office of the virtuous, honest, estimable, upright and
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE $11 
 
 pious Baudoyer, who certainly is quite incapable, at 
 least, of doing anything of that description. Your 
 chief has invented a kind of guillotine for the clerks, 
 that is certain; go and see, follow the crowd; you 
 need not pay if not satisfied, you will enjoy your 
 misfortune, GRATIS! The appointments are also 
 postponed. All the offices are talking about it, and 
 Rabourdin has just been informed that the minister 
 will not work with him to-day. Let us go now!" 
 
 Phellion and Poiret lived alone. The first thought 
 too much of Rabourdin to hasten to give credence 
 to any tale which would destroy a man whom he 
 did not wish to judge; the second had only five 
 days more to remain in office. At this moment 
 Sebastien came down to hunt for those whom he 
 expected to sign the papers. He was astonished 
 enough, though he did not show it, on finding the 
 office deserted. 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 "My young friend He arose, which was rather unusual. do 
 
 you know what is occurring, what means all this 
 talk about, Monsieur Rabourdin, whom you love 
 
 and He lowered his voice and approached the ear of Slbastien. whom 
 
 I love as much as I esteem? It is said that he has 
 committed the imprudence of leaving a work treating 
 of the clerks, lying carelessly about. At these words 
 
 Phellion stops; he Is obliged to sustain In his strong arms, young Sebastien. 
 who becomes as pale as a white rose and faints In the chair Put a key 
 
 down his back, Monsieur Poiret! Have you a 
 key?"
 
 312 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 "I always have that of my domicile." The old 
 Poiret Junior put his key down Sebastien's back, 
 while Phellion made him drink a glass of cold water. 
 The poor youth only opened his eyes to weep 
 violently. He rested his head on Phellion's desk, 
 overwhelmed; his body was as limp as though 
 struck by lightning, and his sobs were so penetrating, 
 so genuine, so frequent, that Poiret was, for the first 
 time in his life, moved by another's suffering; then, 
 
 speaking in a louder voice he Said, "Come, my yOUttg 
 
 friend, take courage! On such great occasions, it is 
 necessary. You are a man. What is the matter? 
 Why should this move you so terribly?" 
 
 SEBASTIEN between his sobs. 
 
 " It is through me that Monsieur Rabourdin is lost! 
 I left the document that I copied; I have killed my 
 benefactor. I shall die of it. Such a great man! a 
 man who would have been minister!" 
 
 POIRET blowing his nose. 
 
 " It is then true that he wrote reports?" 
 
 SEBASTIEN between his sobs. 
 
 " But it was to let me stop, for I was just now 
 about to tell his secrets! Ah! that wretch of a 
 Dutocq! It is he who stole it " 
 
 He recommenced to weep and sob so frantic- 
 ally that Rabourdin, in his office, heard the noise, 
 recognized the voice and hurried up stairs. The
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 313 
 
 chief 'ound Sebastien almost in a fainting condition, 
 like a Christ, resting in the arms of Phellion and 
 Poiret, who represented rather grotesquely the 
 attitude of the two Marys, and whose faces were 
 contracted by emotion. 
 
 RABOURDIN. 
 "What is the matter, gentlemen?" s*bastien rise* to 
 
 his feet and then kneels before Rabourdln. 
 
 SEBASTIEN. 
 
 " I have been the cause of your ruin, sir! The 
 document; Dutocq, the monster, he has doubtless 
 taken it." 
 
 RABOURDIN calmly. 
 "I knew it. He raises Sebastien and leads him out. YOU are 
 
 a child, my friend. He addresses Pheiiion. Where are 
 these gentlemen?" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " Sir, they have gone into Monsieur Baudoyer's 
 office to see a paper which it is said " 
 
 RABOURDIN. 
 
 ' ' Enough . ' ' He goes out. taking Sebastien with him. Poiret and 
 Phellion look at each other In the greatest surprise and do not know what to say. 
 
 POIRET to Phellion. 
 
 "Monsieur Rabourdin! " 
 
 PHELLION to Poiret 
 
 "Monsieur Rabourdin!" 
 
 POIRET. 
 "For example, Monsieur Rabourdin! "
 
 314 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " Have you seen how, notwithstanding all this, he 
 remained calm and dignified " 
 
 POIRET with a cunning expression which resembled a grimace. 
 
 " I would not be surprised if there was something 
 beneath that." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 " A man of honor; pure and stainless " 
 
 POIRET. 
 "And this Dutocq?" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " Monsieur Poiret, your opinion of Dutocq is the 
 same as mine; do you not understand me?" 
 
 POIRET striking his head two or three times. 
 " YeS." All the clerks now enter. 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " A severe blow! and even after having read it I 
 cannot believe it. Monsieur Rabourdin, the king 
 of men! My faith, if there are spies among such 
 men, it is enough to disgust one with virtue. I 
 placed Rabourdin among Plutarch's heroes." 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 "Oh! it is true!" 
 
 POIRET reflecting that he Is only to remain in office five days. 
 
 " But, gentlemen, what do you say about the man 
 who stole the paper, who laid the trap for Monsieur 
 
 Rabourdin?" Dutocq left the room.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 315 
 
 FLEURY. 
 " He is a Judas Iscariot! Who is he?" 
 
 PHELLION significantly. 
 
 " Surely he is not among us." 
 
 VIMEUX with animation. 
 
 " It is Dutocq." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " I have not seen the proof, sir. While you were 
 absent, this young man, Monsieur de la Roche, very 
 nearly died. Look, see his tears on my desk! " 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 "We held him fainting in our arms and the 
 key of my house! My, my, it is still down his 
 
 back." Poiret goes out 
 
 VIMEUX. 
 
 " The minister did not wish to transact business 
 with Monsieur Rabourdin to-day; and Monsieur 
 Saillard, to whom the chief -of -staff has said a few 
 words, came to tell Baudoyer to apply for the Cross 
 of the Legion of Honor. On New Year's Day there 
 is one accorded to the division, and that one is given 
 to Monsieur Baudoyer. Do I make it clear? Mon- 
 sieur Rabourdin is sacrificed by the very clerks who 
 make use of him. That is what Bixiou says. We 
 were all to be dismissed, except Phellion and 
 Sebastien." 
 
 DU BRUEL entering. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, is it true?"
 
 316 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 'To the last syllable." 
 
 DU BRUEL putting on his hat 
 
 "Adieu, gentlemen." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 
 " He finds no amusement in brilliant repartee, the 
 vaudevillist! He goes to the Due de Rhetore, to the 
 Due de Maufrigneuse, but he may run! It is said 
 that Colleville will be our chief." 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 " He nevertheless seemed to love Mfisieur 
 Rabourdin." 
 
 POIRET re-entering. 
 
 " I have had a world of trouble to get back the 
 key of my domicile! That boy is bathed in tears, 
 and Monsieur Rabourdin has disappeared com- 
 
 pletely." Dutocq and Bixlou enter. 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, strange things happen in 
 
 your Office! Du Bruel! He looks in his private office. 
 
 Gone?" 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 "Out on business." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "And Rabourdin?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 "Disappeared, distilled! a gone coon! To say 
 that a man, the king of men! "
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 317 
 
 POIRET to Dutocq. 
 
 "In his sorrow, Monsieur Dutocq, the little 
 Sebastien accuses you of having taken the paper 
 ten days ago " 
 
 BIXIOU looklne at Dutocq. 
 
 " You must clear yourself from this reproach, my 
 
 friend." All the clerks look steadily at Dutocq. 
 DUTOCQ. 
 
 " Where is he, this little asp, who copied it?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " How do you know that he copied it? My dear 
 friend, only a diamond will polish a diamond!" 
 
 Dutocq goes. 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " Listen, Monsieur Bixiou, I have only five and 
 a-half days to remain in office, and I wish for once, if 
 only for once, to have the pleasure of understanding 
 what you mean! Be so kind as to explain in what 
 way a diamond would be useful in this case." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "That means, papa, for I wish, for once, to 
 descend to your level, that just as it takes a dia- 
 mond to cut a diamond, so it takes a spy to catch a 
 spy." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 " A spy is put here to spy." 
 
 POIRET. 
 " I do not understand "
 
 3l8 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Well, let it be for another time." 
 
 Monsieur Rabourdin ran to the minister's house. 
 The minister was at the Chamber of Deputies. 
 Rabourdin presented himself at the Chamber of 
 Deputies, where he wrote a message to the minister. 
 The minister was in the tribune, engaged in a heated 
 discussion. Rabourdin waited, not in the conference 
 hall, but in the court-yard, and decided, notwith- 
 standing the cold, to take a position in front of His 
 Excellency's carriage, so that he could speak to him 
 as he entered. The usher told him that the minis- 
 ter was engaged in the midst of a controversy raised 
 by the nineteen members of the extreme Left, and 
 that there was a stormy session. Rabourdin walked 
 up and down the length of the palace court-yard a 
 prey to feverish agitation and there he waited for 
 five mortal hours. At half-past six o'clock the 
 people began to file out; but the minister's footman 
 came up to hunt for the coachman. 
 
 "Hi! Jean," he called, "Monseigneur has gone 
 off with the minister of war; they are going to the 
 king's, and afterwards they will dine together. We 
 are to go for him at ten o'clock. There is to be a 
 meeting of the Council." 
 
 Rabourdin walked slowly home, in a state of 
 despondency which can readily be imagined. It 
 was seven o'clock, and he had scarcely time to dress. 
 
 "Well, you are appointed," said his wife to him 
 joyously, as he entered the parlor.
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 319 
 
 Rabourdin raised his head in a very melancholy 
 way, and replied: 
 
 " I have good cause to fear that I shall never 
 more set foot in the ministry." 
 
 " What!" said his wife, agitated by extreme 
 anxiety. 
 
 "My memorandum on the officials has gone the 
 rounds of the offices, and 1 have found it impossible 
 to see the minister." 
 
 Celestine had a rapid vision, in which, by one of 
 those infernal flashes, the demon showed her the 
 meaning of her last conversation with des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " If I had conducted myself like a common 
 woman," she thought, "we would have had the 
 position." 
 
 She looked at Rabourdin with sorrow. Silence 
 fell upon them both, and dinner passed amid mutual 
 meditations. 
 
 "And this is our Wednesday reception!" she 
 said. 
 
 " Everything is not lost, my dear Celestine," said 
 Rabourdin, as he kissed his wife's forehead. " Per- 
 haps I can speak to the minister to-morrow, when 
 everything will be explained. Sebastien has spent 
 all last night in finishing and arranging the copies, 
 and I shall beg the minister to read them, by placing 
 them all on his desk. La Briere will assist me. 
 A man is never condemned without first being 
 heard." 
 
 " I am curious to know if Monsieur des Lupeaulx 
 will call on us to-day."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "He? Surely he will not be absent," said Ra- 
 bourdin. " There is a tiger in him; he loves to lick 
 the blood of the wound he has made!" 
 
 " My poor dear," replied his wife, as she took his 
 hand, "1 do not know why the man capable of 
 conceiving so noble a reform did not see that it 
 ought not to be communicated to any one. It is 
 one of those ideas that a man keeps to himself, for 
 he alone can apply it. You must do in your sphere 
 as Napoleon did in his; he yielded, writhed, cringed! 
 Yes, Bonaparte cringed! To be made general-in- 
 chief, he married Barras's mistress. You should 
 have waited, got yourself appointed deputy, fol- 
 lowed the waves of politics, sometimes at the 
 depths of the sea, then again on the top of the 
 waves, and you, like Monsieur de Villele, should 
 take the Italian motto: Col tempo, which trans- 
 lated means: Everything comes to him who waits. 
 That orator sought for the power during seven 
 years; he began in 1814 by making a protestation 
 against the Charter at the same age you are now. 
 See your fault! You are kept down, when you are 
 born to rule." 
 
 The entrance of the painter, Schinner, imposed 
 silence on the wife and her husband, whom these 
 words set meditating. 
 
 "Dear friend," said the painter, as he pressed 
 the administrator's hand, " the devotion of an artist 
 is very useless to you, but, under these circum- 
 stances, we remain faithful, we artists! I have 
 bought the evening journal. Baudoyer is nominated
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 321 
 
 director and decorated with the Cross of the Legion 
 of Honor" 
 
 " I am the longest there, for I have been in the 
 service twenty -four years," said Rabourdin, smil- 
 ingly. 
 
 " I am well enough acquainted with the Count de 
 Serizy, the Minister of State; if you wish him to 
 come to your assistance, I can go to see him," said 
 Schinner. 
 
 The drawing-room was soon filled with people to 
 whom the government proceedings were unknown. 
 Du Bruel did not come. Madame Rabourdin re- 
 doubled her gaiety and her gracefulness, like a horse, 
 which, wounded in battle, still finds strength to 
 carry his master. 
 
 "She is exceedingly brave," said some women, 
 who were very polite to her, knowing her misfor- 
 tunes. 
 
 " She has, however, done a great deal to attract 
 des Lupeaulx," said the Baronne de Chalelet to the 
 Vicomtesse de Fontaine. 
 
 "Do you think that ?" asked the vicomtesse. 
 
 " But Monsieur Rabourdin should at least have 
 had the Cross of the Legion of Honor!" said Madame 
 de Camps, defending her friend. 
 
 About eleven o'clock des Lupeaulx appeared, and 
 the best way to describe him is to say that his spec- 
 tacles were sad and his eyes gay, but the glasses 
 hid the expression of his eyes so effectively that it 
 would have required a physiognomist to discover 
 their diabolical expression. He went up to press 
 
 21
 
 322 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Rabourdin's hand, who was forced to let him 
 take it. 
 
 " We have much to talk over together," he said, 
 as he seated himself near the beautiful Madame 
 Rabourdin, who received him admirably. " Eh!" 
 he said, throwing her a side glance, "you are a 
 grand woman, and I find you just what I imagined, 
 sublime in defeat. Do you know that it is very 
 rare that one finds a superior woman, one who ful- 
 fils the idea formed of her? Does not the defeat 
 dishearten you? You are right; we shall triumph," 
 he whispered in her ear. " Your fate is always in 
 your hands, while you have for an ally a man who 
 adores you. We will take counsel together " 
 
 " But is not Baudoyer appointed?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes," said the secretary-general. 
 
 "Has he received the decoration?" 
 
 "Not yet; but he will." 
 
 "Ah, well!" 
 
 "You do not understand politics." 
 
 During this evening, which seemed eternal to 
 Madame Rabourdin, another scene was occurring 
 in the Place Royale one of those comedies which 
 are played in seven drawing-rooms in Paris at every 
 change of ministry. Saillard's salon was crowded. 
 Monsieur and Madame Transon arrived at eight 
 o'clock; Madame Transon embraced Madame Bau- 
 doyer, nee Saillard. Monsieur Bataille, captain of the 
 National Guard, came accompanied by his wife and 
 the Curate of Saint-Paul. 
 
 "Monsieur Baudoyer," said Madame Transon, "I
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 323 
 
 wish to be the first to congratulate you. Your talents 
 have been appreciated; you have well earned your 
 promotion!" 
 
 " And you are really director/' said Monsieur 
 Transon, rubbing his hands; " that is very flattering 
 to this district." 
 
 " And we can truly say that it has been accom- 
 plished without any intrigue," said Papa Saillard. 
 " We are none of us intriguers! We never frequent 
 the select evenings at the minister's!" 
 
 Uncle Mitral rubbed his nose and smiled. He 
 looked at his niece, Elisabeth, who was talking with 
 Gigonnet. Falleix did not know what to think of 
 the obtuseness of Papa Saillard and Baudoyer. 
 Messieurs Dutocq, Bixiou, Du Bruel, Godard and 
 Colleville who was appointed chief entered. 
 
 "What a set!" said Bixiou to Du Bruel; "what 
 a fine caricature they would make drawn as gold- 
 . fish, dolphins and claquarts the vulgar name for 
 shell -fish all dancing a sarabande!" 
 
 " Director," said Colleville, " I come to congratu- 
 late you, or rather we congratulate ourselves that 
 we have you at the head of the direction, and we 
 have come to assure you of the zeal with which we 
 will co-operate with you in your work." 
 
 Monsieur and Madame Baudoyer, father and 
 mother of the new director, were present, rejoicing 
 in the honors which their son and daughter-in- 
 law had gained. Uncle Bidault, who had dined at 
 home, had a somewhat impatient air, which worried 
 Kxtou.
 
 324 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "There is one!" said the artist to Du Bruel, as 
 he pointed out Gigonnet, " there is one who would 
 make a good character in a vaudeville! How much 
 can he be got for? Such a scarecrow as he ought 
 to serve as the sign of the Deux Magots. And 
 what an overcoat! I thought that Poiret was the 
 only one who could show such a one as this after 
 ten years' exposure to the inclemencies of Paris 
 weather." 
 
 " Baudoyer is magnificent," said Du Bruel. 
 
 "Dazzling," answered Bixiou. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Baudoyer, addressing them, 
 " here is my own uncle, Monsieur Mitral, and my 
 great-uncle, on my wife's side, Monsieur Bidault." 
 
 Gigonnet and Mitral threw a penetrating glance 
 at the three clerks, which left the impression of 
 wealth, and so awed the two laughers. 
 
 "Hey!" said Bixiou, when they had gained the 
 interior of the arcades of the Place Royale, "did 
 you take a good look at those two uncles? Two 
 copies of Shylock. They lend, I bet, in the market 
 their money at a hundred per cent a week. They 
 lend on security, they sell coats, gold-lace, cheese, 
 women and children; they are Arabs-German- 
 Jews-Genoese-Greeks-Genevese-Lombards and Pa- 
 risians, suckled by a wolf, and born of a Turkish 
 mother." 
 
 " I also think that Uncle Mitral used to be a 
 sheriff's officer," said Godard. 
 
 "Do you understand?" said Du Bruel. 
 
 "I am going to see the proof of my caricature,"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 325 
 
 Bixiou replied, "but I want very much to study what 
 is going on in Madame Rabourdin's drawing-room: 
 you are very fortunate to be privileged to go there, 
 Du Bruel." 
 
 " I?" said the vaudevillist. " What do you wish 
 me to do there? My face does not lend itself to 
 expressions of condolence. Besides, it is very vulgar 
 nowadays to go and see people who are down." 
 
 By midnight, Madame Rabourdin's drawing-room 
 was deserted; there only remained two or three 
 persons, des Lupeaulx and the host and hostess. 
 After Schinner and Monsieur and Madame Octave 
 de Camps had left, des Lupeaulx arose with a 
 mysterious air, placed his back to the clock and 
 looked by turns at the wife and her husband. 
 
 " My friends," he said, " nothing is lost, for the 
 minister and I remain on your side. Dutocq, 
 placed between two powers, has chosen the side he 
 thought the stronger. He has served the Grand 
 Almonry and the court, he has betrayed me; that is 
 in the nature of things; a politician never complains 
 of treachery. Even Baudoyer will be dismissed in 
 a few months, and will doubtless be placed in the 
 prefecture of police, for the Grand Almonry will not 
 desert him." 
 
 Then he delivered a long speech about the Grand 
 Almoner and the dangers the government ran in 
 relying upon the church, upon the Jesuits, etc. But it 
 is not useless to observe that the court and the Grand 
 Almonry, to whom the liberal journals accorded 
 an enormous influence over the administration,
 
 326 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 were very little concerned in the Baudoyer affair. 
 These petty intrigues died in the high sphere in 
 the presence of the great interests which were at 
 stake. If a few words were extracted by impor- 
 tunity from the Curate of Saint-Paul and Monsieur 
 Gaudron, the application would be killed by the first 
 remark of the minister. Passions, alone, would 
 detect any wrong in the Society of Jesuits by in- 
 ducing the members to denounce each other. The 
 occult power of this association, readily permitted in 
 presence of the bold society of the doctrine entitled 
 "Heaven helps him who helps himself," became 
 formidable only through the action with which its 
 subordinates, in a spirit of emulation, endowed it 
 gratuitously while threatening each other with it. 
 The liberal scandal lovers delighted in representing 
 the Grand Almonry as a political, administrative, 
 civil and military giant. Fear always makes for 
 itself idols. At this moment, Baudoyer had firm 
 faith in the Grand Almonry, while in reality the 
 only almoner who had furthered his interests was 
 seated in the Cafe Themis. At certain periods there 
 are names, institutions and powers on whom all 
 misfortunes are fastened, whose talents are not 
 appreciated, and who serve as co-efficient reasoning 
 to fools. Just as Monsieur de Talleyrand was sup- 
 posed to hail every event by a bon mot, so, in 
 this time of the Restoration, the Grand Almonry 
 ordered and countermanded everything. Unhappily, 
 it did not do or undo anything. Its influence was 
 neither in the hands of a Cardinal Richelieu nor a
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 327 
 
 Cardinal Mazarin; but in the hands of a sort of 
 Cardinal de Fleury, who hesitated during five 
 years, then one day made a bold stroke, which, 
 however, was in the wrong direction. Later, the 
 doctrine did with impunity at Saint-Merri more 
 than Charles X. pretended to do in July, 1830. 
 Without the article on the censorship so foolishly 
 inserted in the new charter, journalism would 
 also have had its Saint-Merri. The Younger 
 Branch would have legally executed the plans of 
 Charles X. 
 
 " Remain chief of bureau under Baudoyer, have 
 that much courage," des Lupeaulx replied; "be a 
 true politician; thrust aside generous thoughts and 
 actions, absorb yourself in your official duties; do 
 not say a word to your director, give him no advice, 
 do nothing without an order from him. In three 
 months, Baudoyer will be obliged to leave the 
 ministry; he will either be dismissed or transported 
 to another administrative shore. Perhaps he will be 
 given a place in the king's household. Twice in my 
 life it has happened that I have been thus crushed 
 under an avalanche of foolery. I have let it pass 
 over me." 
 
 "Yes," said Rabourdin, "but you were not 
 calumniated, your honor was not attacked, com- 
 promised." 
 
 " Ah! ah! ah!" said des Lupeaulx, interrupting 
 the head of the office with Homeric laughter, " but 
 that is the daily bread of every remarkable man in 
 this beautiful country of France; and there are two
 
 328 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 ways of meeting it; to succumb to it by packing up 
 and retiring to the country, or to rise above it and 
 march forward, fearlessly, not even turning your 
 head." 
 
 " For me, there is but one way of untying the 
 slip-knot which espionage and treason have placed 
 around my neck," Rabourdin replied, "and that is 
 to offer an immediate explanation to the minister, 
 and if you are as sincerely attached to me as you say, 
 you will place me face to face with him to-morrow." 
 
 " You wish to explain to him your plan of admin- 
 istration?" 
 
 Rabourdin bowed in assent. 
 
 "Well, then, confide to me your plans, your 
 memoranda, and I swear to you that he will pass 
 the night examining them." 
 
 "Let us go to him, then," quickly replied 
 Rabourdin, " for it is the least that can be expected 
 that, after six months of work on my part, I should 
 have the satisfaction of possessing two or three 
 hours, when the king's minister might be forced to 
 give his approval of all this perseverance." 
 
 Compelled by Rabourdin's tenacity to no longer 
 beat about the bush where his ruse might have 
 taken shelter, 'des Lupeaulx hesitated for a moment 
 and regarded Madame Rabourdin while he said to 
 himself: 
 
 " Which will win, my hatred for him or my 
 liking for her?" 
 
 "If you have no confidence in me," he said to 
 the chief of the office, after a pause, " I see that for
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 329 
 
 me you will always be the man who keeps his own 
 counsel. Adieu, Madame." 
 
 Madame Rabourdin bowed coldly. Celestine and 
 Xavier retired, going their separate ways, without 
 saying a word, so much were they oppressed by 
 misfortune. The wife dreamed of the dreadful 
 situation in which she stood toward her husband. 
 The chief of the bureau, who was making up his 
 mind never again to put his foot in the ministry, 
 and resolving to send in his resignation, was 
 lost in the magnitude of his reflections. This 
 meant that he would have to change his life and 
 follow some new pursuit. He remained all night 
 before his fire, without perceiving Celestine, who 
 came in several times on tip-toe, in her night- 
 dress. 
 
 " As I must go one last time to the ministry to 
 bring away my papers and to assist Baudoyer to 
 become acquainted with the routine, let us try the 
 effect of my resignation," he said to himself. 
 
 He wrote his resignation, and thought out the 
 phraseology of the letter containing it, which is as 
 follows: 
 
 " Monseigneur : I have the honor to enclose to Your Ex- 
 cellency my resignation in this envelope; but I dare to believe 
 that you remember having heard me say that I have placed 
 my honor in your hands, and that that honor depends upon 
 an immediate explanation. I have vainly sought it, and 
 now it may perhaps be useless, for a fragment of my work 
 relating to the administration, stolen and distorted, is going 
 the rounds of the offices, is interpreted amiss by malice, and 
 forces me to retire before the tacit condemnation of those in
 
 330 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 power. Your Excellency may have thought that on the 
 morning I wished to speak to you, I sought promotion, 
 when, in reality, I sought only the glory of your ministry 
 and the public good. It is important that 1 should rectify 
 your impression in this matter." 
 
 Then followed the usual forms of respect.
 
 It was half-past seven, when this man had con- 
 summated the sacrifice of his ideas, for he had 
 burned his whole work. Fatigued by his reflections, 
 and overcome by nervous strain, he fell asleep, his 
 head resting on his arm-chair. He was awakened by 
 a curious sensation; he found that his hands were 
 covered by the tears of his wife, who was kneeling 
 before him. Celestine had just read the resignation. 
 She had measured the depth of his fall. She and 
 Rabourdin would now be reduced to an income of 
 four thousand francs. She had summed up her 
 debts, and they amounted to thirty-two thousand 
 francs! This was the most ignoble of all disasters. 
 And that noble and confiding man had no idea how 
 she had misspent the fortune confided to her care. 
 She was sobbing at his feet, as beautiful as Mag- 
 dalen. 
 
 "Our unhappiness is complete," said Xavier, in 
 his terror; " I am dishonored before the ministry, 
 and dishonored " 
 
 The light of pure honor shone in Celestine's eyes, 
 she sprang up like a startled horse, and cast a 
 withering glance at Rabourdin. 
 
 "I! //" she said, in two sublime tones. "Am I 
 a common woman? Would you not have been 
 appointed if I had been false? But," she added c 
 " it is' ea^fet td btelteve that than the truth."
 
 332 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 "What is it?" said Rabourdin. 
 
 "All can be told in two words," she replied. 
 "We owe thirty thousand francs." 
 
 Rabourdin seized his wife with a fond gesture, and 
 seated her joyfully on his knee. 
 
 " Console yourself, my dear," he said, in a tone 
 of voice so exceedingly kind as to change the bitter- 
 ness of her tears into inexpressible tenderness. " I, 
 too, I have committed faults! I have worked to no 
 purpose for my country, or at least I thought that I 
 was making myself useful to it. Now I am going 
 to walk along another path. If I had sold groceries, 
 instead, we would have been millionaires. Ah, well, 
 let us be grocers. You are only twenty-eight years 
 old, my angel! Well, ten years from now, industry 
 will bring you the luxury you love so well, and 
 which we must renounce for awhile. I, also, dear 
 child, I am not an ordinary husband. We will sell 
 our farm! It has gained in value these seven years. 
 This increased value added to the sale of our furni- 
 ture will pay my debts." 
 
 She embraced her husband a thousand times in a 
 single kiss, for having spoken so generously to her. 
 
 " We will have," he replied, " a hundred thousand 
 francs to put into some business. In less than a 
 month I shall have chosen some enterprise. Fate, 
 which gave Saillard a Martin Falleix, will not desert 
 us. Wait breakfast for me. I will return from 
 the ministry with my neck free from the yoke of 
 misery." 
 
 Celestine pressed her husband in her arms with
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 333 
 
 a force which men do not possess even in their most 
 impassioned moments, for woman is stronger in her 
 emotions than man is by his power. She wept, 
 laughed, sobbed and spoke altogether. 
 
 When Rabourdin departed at eight o'clock, the 
 porter handed him the satirical cards of Baudoyer, 
 Bixiou, Godard and others. Nevertheless he went 
 to the ministry and found Sebastien waiting for him 
 at the door, for the purpose of entreating him not to 
 enter the offices, where an infamous caricature of 
 him was going the rounds. 
 
 " If you wish to sweeten the bitterness of my 
 fall, bring me this drawing/' he said, "for I am now 
 carrying my resignation myself to Ernest de la 
 Briere, so that it will not be distorted while passing 
 through the administrative routine. I have my own 
 reasons for asking you for the caricature." 
 
 When, after making sure that the letter was in 
 the hands of the minister, Rabourdin returned to the 
 court-yard, he found Sebastien in tears, and he pre- 
 sented him (Rabourdin) with the lithograph, the prin- 
 cipal feature of which can be seen on the next page. 
 
 " It is very cleverly done," said Rabourdin, while 
 presenting a serene front toward the supernumerary, 
 just as the Saviour did when the crown of thorns 
 was placed upon His head. 
 
 He entered the offices with a calm air, and went 
 first to Baudoyer's office to beg him to come in the 
 office of the division to receive from him the instruc- 
 tions relative to the business that this man of 
 routine was henceforth to direct.
 
 334 
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 335 
 
 "Tell Monsieur Baudoyer that this brooks no 
 delay," he added, before Godard and his clerks; 
 "my resignation is in the hands of the minister, 
 and I do not wish to remain even five minutes longer 
 than necessary in the offices!" 
 
 Perceiving Bixiou, Rabourdin went straight up 
 to him, showed him the lithograph, and, to the 
 great astonishment of everyone, said to him: " Am 
 I not right in saying you are an artist? It is only a 
 pity that you have directed the point of your pencil 
 against a man who cannot be judged in this way, 
 nor by the administrative bureaus, but everything 
 causes a laugh in France, even God!" 
 
 Then he led Baudoyer into the office of the late 
 La Billardire. At the door were Phellion and 
 Sebastien, the only ones who, in this particularly 
 distressing crisis, had dared to remain openly faithful 
 to the accused. Rabourdin saw that Phellion's eyes 
 were wet, and he could not withstand pressing his 
 hand. 
 
 "Sir," said the good man, "if we can be of ser- 
 vice to you in any way, make use of us " 
 
 " Enter, then, my friends," said Rabourdin, with 
 a noble grace. "Sebastien, my child, write your 
 resignation and send it by Laurent; you should be 
 enveloped in the calumny which has overturned me. 
 But I shall have a care over your future; we shall 
 not be separated." 
 
 Sebastien was bathed in tears. 
 
 Monsieur Rabourdin shut himself up in the late 
 La Billardiere's office with Monsieur Baudoyer, and
 
 
 336 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 Phellion assisted him in placing before the new chief 
 of division all the administrative difficulties. At 
 each package of papers which Rabourdin explained, 
 at each portfolio opened, Baudoyer's small eyes 
 grew as large as saucers. 
 
 " Adieu, sir," Rabourdin said at last, with a man- 
 ner both solemn and satirical. 
 
 Meanwhile, Sebastien had made a parcel of the 
 papers belonging to the chief of the office, and had 
 taken them off in a cab. Rabourdin passed out 
 through the minister's large court-yard, where all 
 the clerks were at the windows; he waited there a 
 moment for orders from the minister. The minister 
 did not move. Phellion and Sebastien accompanied 
 Rabourdin. Phellion bravely escorted the fallen 
 man to Rue Duphot, and showed him a respectful 
 admiration. Then he returned, satisfied with him- 
 self, and took his place, after having paid the funeral 
 honors to unappreciated administrative talent. 
 
 BIXIOU seing Phellion enter. 
 
 "yfctrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni" 
 
 PHELLION. 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 POIRET. 
 "What does that mean?" 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " That the priests' party has triumphed, and that 
 Monsieur Rabourdin has the respect of men of 
 honor."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 337 
 
 DUTOCQ piqued. 
 " You did not say that yesterday." 
 
 FLEURY. 
 
 " If you speak to me again, you will have my fist 
 in your face, you! It is certain that you have stolen ' 
 Monsieur Rabourdin's papers. Dutocq leaves. Go, com-, 
 plain to your Monsieur des Lupeaulx, spy!" 
 
 BIXIOU laughing and making grimaces like a monkey. 
 
 " I am curious to know how the division will get 
 along? Monsieur Rabourdin was such a wonderful 
 man that he must have had an especial purpose in 
 writing that work. The ministry loses, in him, a 
 
 famOUS Chief." He rubs his hands. 
 LAURENT. 
 
 " Monsieur Fleury is requested at the secretary's 
 office." 
 
 THE CLERKS OF TWO OFFICES. 
 " Done for." 
 
 FLEURY leaving. 
 
 "It is all the same to me, I have a position as 
 responsible editor. I shall have the whole day to 
 myself to amuse myself or to fill some sparkling 
 page in the daily paper." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Dutocq has already dismissed poor Desroys, 
 accused of trying to cut off heads." 
 
 THUILLIER. 
 "Of Kings?" 
 
 22
 
 338 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Receive my compliments. That is a fine saying, 
 thatl" 
 
 COLLEVILLE entering joyously. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I am your chief " 
 
 THUILLIER embracing ColIevlHe. 
 
 " Ah! my friend, were I in your place, I would not 
 be so well pleased." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " It is his wife's doings, and has been well 
 
 planned." Roars of laughter. 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " Let some one tell me the meaning of what has 
 happened to-day?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Do you really want to know? The ante- 
 chamber of the administration will be a chamber, 
 the court its boudoir, the usual entrance will be 
 through the cellar, and the bed is more than ever 
 the private path of communication." 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " Monsieur Bixiou, I pray you to explain your- 
 self." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " I will paraphrase my words. In order to be 
 something, one must begin by being everything. 
 Evidently, an administrative reform is needed; for, 
 on my word of honor, the state robs its officials as
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 339 
 
 much as the officials rob the state as regards hours; 
 but we work little because we receive next to 
 nothing. There are too many of us for the work to 
 be done, and my Virtuous- Rabourdin saw that! 
 Gentlemen, this great official foresaw what would 
 happen, what these idiots call the working of our 
 admirable liberal institutions. The Chamber of 
 Deputies will want to administrate, and the admin- 
 istrators will desire to become legislators. The 
 government will try to administrate and the admin- 
 istration will aspire to govern. Thus the laws will 
 become mere regulations, and the ordinances will 
 become the laws. God made this epoch to create 
 laughter. I live in the admiration of the spectacle 
 which the greatest wit of modern times, Louis XVIII., 
 has prepared for us. General consternation. Gentlemen, 
 if France, the best ruled country of Europe, is thus, 
 judge what must be the condition of the others? 
 Unhappy countries, I ask myself how they can exist 
 without two Chambers, without the liberty of the 
 press, without the reports or memoranda, without 
 circulars, without an army of clerks! Ah! dear! 
 How do they maintain armies and navies? How do 
 they exist without discussing at every breath they 
 draw, and at every mouthful they eat? Can these 
 be called governments, nations? I am upheld in my 
 opinion travelers' tales that these people pretended 
 to have a system of politics, and that they wield a 
 certain influence; but I pity them! They have not 
 enlightened progress, they cannot start an idea, 
 they have no independent tribunes, they are yet in
 
 340 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 a state of barbarism. The French people alone have 
 ideas. You understand, Monsieur Poiret, Poiretwas 
 tunned as by a blow, how a nation can dispense with 
 chiefs of divisions, directors-general, and the beau- 
 tiful staff, the glory of France and of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, who had sufficient reason for creating 
 positions. See how these nations have the audacity 
 to exist, and that in Vienna there can be counted 
 nearly a hundred clerks in the war department, 
 while with us the salaries and the pensions amount 
 to the third of the budget, a thing that was not 
 thought of before the Revolution. I will resume by 
 saying that the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles- 
 Lettres, which has very little to do, should offer a 
 prize for the man who can solve this question: 
 ' Which State is the letter organised, the one that 
 accomplishes great things with few officials, or the one 
 which accomplishes little with many officials?'" 
 
 POIRET. 
 " Is that your last word?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Yes, sir! Ya, mein herrl Si, signor! Da! I will 
 'excuse you from hearing this same sentiment 
 expressed in the remaining languages." 
 
 POIRET lifting his bands to heaven. 
 
 "My God, and people say that you are witty!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "You have not, then, understood me?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 341 
 
 PHELLION. 
 
 "Your last remark was, however, quite sen- 
 sible" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Just like the budget, as complicated as it 
 appeared to be simple. I place it before you as a 
 beacon, at the edge of this hole, this abyss, this 
 volcano called by The Constitutionnel, ' the politi- 
 cal horizon.' " 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 " I would prefer an explanation within my under- 
 standing " 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Long live Rabourdin! there is my opinion. 
 Are you satisfied?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE seriously. 
 
 " Monsieur Rabourdin had but one defect." 
 
 POIRET. 
 "What?" 
 
 COLLEVILLE. 
 
 "That of being a statesman instead of a head- 
 clerk." 
 
 PHELLION standing before Blxlou. 
 
 "Why, sir, did you, who understood Monsieur 
 Rabourdin so well, why did you make that ign 
 that inf that hideous caricature?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " And our bet? Do you forget that I was playing 
 the devil's part, and that your bureau owes me a 
 dinner at the Rocker de Caticale?"
 
 342 . THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 POIRET very much annoyed. 
 
 " It is then settled that I am to leave the office 
 without ever having been able to understand a 
 sentence, a word, a thought uttered by Monsieur 
 Bixiou." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "That is your own fault! Ask these gentlemen 
 Gentlemen, have you understood the purport of my 
 remarks? Were they true? Were they clear?" 
 
 ALL. 
 " Alas, yes!" 
 
 MINARD. 
 
 "And the proof is that I have just written my 
 resignation. Adieu, gentlemen; I shall plunge into 
 trade" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Have you invented mechanical corsets or babies' 
 feeding-bottles, fire-engines or dashboards, chimneys 
 which consume no fuel, or ranges which cook cutlets 
 with three sheets of paper?" 
 
 MINARD leaving. 
 
 1 1 shall keep my secret." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Ah! well, young Poiret, junior, you see all 
 these gentlemen understand me." 
 
 POIRET humiliated. 
 
 " Monsieur Bixiou, will you do me the honor for 
 once of descending to my level sufficiently to speak 
 in a way I can understand?"
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 343 
 
 BIXIOU casting a side glance at the clerks. 
 if Cheerfully. He catches Poiret by the button of his overcoat. 
 
 Before you leave this place, perhaps you would be 
 glad to know what you are " 
 
 POIRET quickly. 
 
 "An honest man, sir." 
 
 BIXIOU shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 " To define, to explain, to fathom, to analyze 
 what a government clerk is? Do you know what he 
 is?" 
 
 POIRET. 
 " I believe 1 do." 
 
 BIXIOU twisting the button. 
 
 "I doubt it." 
 
 POIRET. 
 
 "He is a man paid by the government to do 
 work." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 " Evidently; thus a soldier is a clerk?" 
 
 POI RET embarrassed. 
 
 "But, no." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Nevertheless, he is paid by the government to 
 mount guard and pass in review. You would tell 
 me that he has a great desire to leave his place, that 
 he is too rarely in his place, that he works too hard 
 and generally touches too little metal, always ex- 
 cepting the metal of which his gun is made."
 
 344 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 POIRET sunn*. 
 
 "Ah! well, sir, a government clerk is, speaking 
 more logically, a man who depends on his salary for 
 his livelihood, and who, therefore, is not free to leave 
 his position, for he does not know how to do any- 
 thing else than to draw up papers." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " Ah! we are about to arrive at a solution: thus 
 the office is the clerk's shell. There could be no clerk 
 without the office, no office without the clerk. But 
 what, then, do you call the custom-house officer? 
 
 Polret begins to fidget, and tries to escape Bixlou, who has twisted off one of 
 his buttons, and catches him by another. Bah! he is, from the 
 
 bureaucratic point of view, a neutral being. The 
 custom-house officer is only half a clerk; he is on 
 the confines between the offices and the army, as 
 on the frontiers; neither altogether a soldier, nor 
 yet altogether a clerk. But, papa, where are we 
 now? He twists a button When does the government 
 clerk cease to exist? A grave question! Is a pre- 
 fect a clerk?" 
 
 POIRET tlmkUy. 
 
 "He is a functionary." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Ah! you make the mistake of stating that a 
 functionary is not a clerk!" 
 
 POIRET fatigued, glances at all the clerks. 
 
 " Monsieur Godard looks as though he had some- 
 thing to say."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 345 
 
 GODARD. 
 " The clerk is the order, the functionary is a 
 
 species." 
 
 BIXIOU smiling. 
 
 "I did not believe you capable of making this 
 ingenious distinction, brave subordinate." 
 
 POIRET. 
 "How much further are we going?" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "There! there! old man, do not step on your 
 tether! Listen, and we will ere long understand 
 each other. See, let us lay down a maxim which I 
 bequeath to the bureaus. Where the clerk ends, 
 the functionary begins; where the functionary ends, 
 the statesman begins. There are, however, few 
 statesmen among the prefects. The prefects in that 
 case would represent a neutral, but superior, class. 
 They would find themselves half-way between the 
 statesman and the clerk, just as the custom-house 
 officer is placed between the civil and military 
 departments. Let us continue to explain these 
 important questions. Poiret blushes. Cannot this be 
 formulated on this theory worthy of a Rochefou- 
 cauld: Those who receive over twenty thousand 
 francs salary cease to be clerks. We can deduce 
 mathematically this first corollary: the statesman 
 is apparent in the matter of superior salaries, and 
 this not less important and logical second corollary! 
 directors-general may become statesmen. Perhaps 
 it is in this sense that more than one deputy says to
 
 346 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 himself: 'It is a fine thing to be director-general!' 
 But in the interest of the French language and the 
 Academy " 
 
 POIRET magnetized by the steadiness of Blxlou's glance. 
 
 "The French language! The Academy! " 
 
 BIXIOU He twists off a second button and seizes an upper button. 
 
 " Yes, in the interest of our beautiful language, it 
 should be observed that, if the chief of a bureau 
 may occasionally be a clerk, the head of a division 
 must be a bureaucrat. These gentlemen, he turns 
 
 toward the clerks, as he shows them a third button twisted off Poiret's coat 
 
 these gentlemen will appreciate this delicate shade of 
 meaning. Thus, Papa Poiret, the government clerk, 
 ends by becoming chief of the division. This is the 
 question well settled, there no longer remains any 
 uncertainty; the government clerk who has seemed 
 undefmable is defined." 
 
 POIRET. 
 " That seems to me to be beyond doubt." 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 "Nevertheless, do me the kindness to answer 
 .'this question: A judge being irremovable, and con- 
 sequently debarred from being, according to your 
 subtle distinction, a functionary, and not having a 
 salary in proportion to his work, should he be in- 
 cluded in the class of clerks?" 
 
 POIRET looking at the cornice. 
 
 "Sir, I do not understand you."
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 347 
 
 BIXIOU twisting off a fourth button. 
 
 " I am trying to prove to you, sir, that nothing is 
 simple; but, above all, and what I am going to say 
 is meant for philosophers if you will allow me to 
 travesty a saying of Louis XVIII. I wish to show 
 that, apart from the necessity of definitions, one is 
 often led into quarrels." 
 
 POIRET wiping his forehead. 
 
 "Pardon, sir, I have a pain in my heart. He tries 
 to button ws coat. Ah! you have cut off all my buttons!" 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 "Ah! well, do you understand?" 
 
 POI RET discontentedly. 
 
 " Yes, sir, yes, I understand that you have tried 
 to play a very bad joke on me by cutting off my 
 buttons, without my knowledge." 
 
 BIXIOU seriously. 
 
 " Old man, you are mistaken. I desired to engrave 
 in your brain the most vivid image possible of the 
 
 Constitutional government. AH the clerks regard Blxlou; Poiret. 
 stupefied, gazes at him restlessly. And SO tO keep my WOrd 
 
 with you. I have spoken in parables just as savages 
 do! Listen. While the ministers start discussions in 
 the Chambers, about as conclusive as this, and 
 about as useful as ours, the administration cuts the 
 buttons off the tax-payers." 
 
 ALL. 
 " Bravo! Bixiou." 
 
 POIRET who now understands. 
 
 " I do not grieve over the loss of my buttons."
 
 THI CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 BIXIOU. 
 
 " I shall follow the example of Minard; I shall not 
 trouble myself to sign a receipt for such a little 
 amount, and I shall deprive the ministry of my 
 
 ' He leaves amidst the laughter of all the clerks. 
 
 In the minister's reception room there was passing 
 another scene more instructive than this, for by it 
 we learn how great thoughts perish in high places, 
 and in what way they console themselves there for 
 misfortunes. At this moment des Lupeaulx was 
 presenting Baudoyer, the new director, to the min- 
 ister. In the drawing-room were two or three 
 ministerial deputies, some influential men, and Mon- 
 sieur Clergeot, to whom His Excellency gave the 
 assurance of a fine salary. After the exchange of 
 a few common -place sentences, the business of the 
 day was on the carpet. 
 
 A DEPUTY. 
 "You will no longer have Rabourdin?" 
 
 DES LUPEAULX. 
 "He has resigned." 
 
 CLERGEOT. 
 
 " It is said that he wished to reform the adminis- 
 tration." 
 
 THE MINISTER reeardlnethe deputies. 
 
 " Perhaps the salaries are not in proportion to the 
 services exacted." 
 
 DE LA BRIERE. 
 " According to Monsieur Rabourdin a hundred
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 349 
 
 clerks at twelve thousand francs would accomplish 
 more work and do it faster than a thousand clerks 
 with a salary of twelve hundred francs." 
 
 CLERGEOT. 
 
 "Perhaps he is right." 
 
 THE MINISTER. 
 
 "But how can you change this! The machine is 
 set up that way, it must be broken to pieces before 
 it can be reformed; but who, then, would have the 
 courage, in the presence of the tribunal, under the fire 
 of the foolish outcries of the opposition, or the terri- 
 ble articles in the newspapers? It follows that there 
 will one day be a damaging solution of continuity 
 between the government and the administration." 
 
 THE DEPUTY. 
 
 "In what way?" 
 
 THE MINISTER. 
 
 "A minister should wish for the public good with- 
 out having the power of bringing it about. You 
 would create interminable delays between things 
 and their results. If you have made the theft of a 
 shilling truly impossible, you will not be able to 
 prevent collusions in the sphere of self-interest. 
 Certain operations will only be conceded by secret 
 stipulations, which it will be difficult to detect. 
 Moreover, the clerks, from the lowest to the chief- 
 clerk of the office, will have opinions of their own; 
 they will no longer be the hands to one brain, they 
 will no longer represent the opinions of the govern- 
 ment; the opposition tends to give them the right to
 
 350 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 speak against the government, to vote against it, to 
 criticise it." 
 
 BAUDOYER n a low voice, but so as to be heard. 
 
 " Monseigneur is sublime." 
 
 DES LUPEAULX. 
 
 " It is certain that bureaucracy has its defects; I 
 find it slow and insolent; it hampers ministerial 
 action a little too much; it stifles many projects and 
 arrests progress; but the French administration is 
 exceedingly useful " 
 
 BAUDOYER. 
 " That is so." 
 
 DES LUPEAULX. 
 
 " If only to sustain the paper and stamp factories. 
 If, like excellent housekeepers, it is rather fussy, it 
 can, at any moment, render an account of its expen- 
 ditures. Where is the shrewd merchant who would 
 not gladly throw, in the gulf of some insurance 
 company, five per cent of the entire gain of his 
 working capital, so as not to have any leakage?" 
 
 THE DEPUTY manufacturer. 
 
 " The industries of two worlds would subscribe 
 with joy to such an arrangement with this bad genius 
 called leakage." 
 
 DES LUPEAULX. 
 
 "Ah! well, although statistics are the childish 
 resources of modern states, who mistake figures 
 for calculation, one must make use of figures to be
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 351 
 
 able to calculate. Let us calculate, then. Figures 
 are, moreover, the tried argument of societies based 
 on self-interest and on money; that is the sort of 
 society the charter has given us! in my opinion, at 
 least. Then, nothing convinces the intelligent masses 
 like figures. All things, say our statesmen of the 
 Left, are in fact solved by figures. Let us calcu- 
 late. Theministergoesofflnacornertotalklnalowvolcewithadeputy. 
 
 There are about forty thousand government clerks 
 in France, as shown by the salaries, not counting a 
 workman, for a road-maker, a street-sweeper, a 
 roller of segars, are not clerks. The average salary 
 is fifteen hundred francs. Multiply forty thousand 
 by fifteen hundred, and you have sixty millions. 
 Now, in the first place a publicist would call the 
 attention of China and of Russia, where all the 
 clerks steal, also that of Austria, of the American 
 republics, of the world, to the fact that for this 
 price France possesses the most ferreting, critical, 
 scribbling, paper-blotting, cataloguing, fault-finding, 
 inspecting, painstaking, in other words, the most 
 shrewd old housekeeper of all known administrations. 
 There is not spent, or hoarded, in France even so 
 much as a centime which is not ordered by a note, 
 proved by vouchers, produced and reproduced on 
 balance-sheets, receipted when paid; then the 
 orders and receipts are all registered, checked and 
 verified by spectacled men. At the slightest defect 
 in form the clerk is alarmed, for he lives on these 
 technicalities. Many nations would be satisfied with 
 this state of affairs, but Napoleon did not stop there.
 
 352 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 This great organizer re-established supreme magis- 
 trates of a court unique in the world. These magis- 
 trates pass their days in verifying money-orders, 
 documents, lists, registers, permits, payments, 
 moneys received and moneys expended, etc., which 
 are all written down by the clerks. The severe 
 judges encourage over-scrupulousness, the talent of 
 research, the sharp-sightedness of the lynx, the 
 perspicacity of accounts, to the point of going over all 
 the additions to find possible deficiencies. These 
 great martyrs to figures, return, two years later, to 
 an army commissary, some account in which the 
 error has amounted to only two centimes. Thus 
 the French administration, the purest of all on the 
 globe, has, just as His Excellency has told you, 
 rendered robbery impossible in France, and pecula- 
 tion a myth. Ah! well, what fault can one find? 
 France possesses a revenue of twelve hundred 
 million francs, and she spends it, that is all. 
 Twelve hundred million francs enter her treasury 
 and twelve hundred million francs leave it. She 
 then handles two thousand four hundred millions, 
 and pays only sixty millions, two and a half per 
 cent, so as to make sure that there has been no 
 leakage. Our political-kitchen account costs sixty 
 millions, but the gendarmerie, the courts of law, the 
 prisons and the police cost as much and give us no 
 return. Moreover, we employ men incapable of 
 doing any but this one kind of work. Consider this 
 well. The waste, if there is any, can only be moral 
 and legislative; the Chambers of Deputies are their
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 353 
 
 accomplices, and waste becomes legal. Leaking 
 consists in ordering public works which are neither 
 urgent nor necessary, in ordering new uniforms 
 and gold-lace for the troops, in sending vessels out 
 without inquiring if they have on board sufficient 
 fuel, and then by paying too high a price for the 
 same, in making preparations for war which is never 
 declared, in paying the debts of a state, without 
 requiring reimbursements or security, etc., etc. 
 
 BAUDOYER. 
 
 " But this leakage in high places has nothing to do 
 with the clerk. This bad management of the 
 nation's affairs concerns the statesman who guides 
 the ship." 
 
 THE MINISTER who has finished his conversation. 
 
 " There is some truth in what des Lupeaulx has 
 just said; but let me tell you to Baudoyer, director, 
 that no one sees things from the same standpoint as 
 a statesman. To order every kind of expenditure, 
 even if useless, does not constitute bad management 
 Does this not contribute to the circulation of money, 
 the stagnation of which becomes, especially in 
 France, disastrous in consequence of the avaricious 
 and exceedingly illogical habits of mind prevalent in 
 the provinces, which bury cups of gold " 
 
 THE DEPUTY who has been listening to des Lupeaulx. 
 
 " But it seems to me that, if Your Excellency were 
 right just now, and if our clever friend takings 
 Lupeauix by the arm is not mistaken, what conclusion 
 shall we come to?" 
 23
 
 354 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 DES LUPEAULX after having glanced at the minister. 
 
 " No doubt that something needs to be done." 
 
 DE LA BR1ERE timidly. 
 "Monsieur Rabourdin, then, was in the right?" 
 
 THE MINISTER. 
 "I will see Rabourdin." 
 
 DES LUPEAULX. 
 
 " This poor man unfortunately constituted him- 
 self the chief judge of the administration, and of 
 the men who compose it; he only wishes three 
 ministers." 
 
 THE MINISTER interrupting. 
 
 " He is then a crank?" 
 
 THE DEPUTY. 
 
 " How could you represent in this way the heads 
 of the parties composing the Chamber of Deputies?" 
 
 BAUDOYER with an air which he thought was smart 
 
 " Perhaps Monsieur Rabourdin would also change 
 the constitution given by a legislative sovereign." 
 
 THE MINISTER becoming thoughtful, takes de la Briere's arm and 
 leads him away. 
 
 " I would like to see the work Rabourdin has 
 written; and as you know about it " 
 
 DE LA BRIERE In the office. 
 
 " He has burned it all. You permitted him to be 
 dishonored, and so he has resigned from the ministry. 
 Do not think, Monseigneur, that he ever had the
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 355 
 
 foolish thought as des Lupeaulx would make you 
 believe of changing anything in the admirable 
 centralization of power." 
 
 THE MINISTER to himself. 
 "I have Committed a fault. Helssllentforamoment 
 
 What matter? We shall never lack plans for 
 reform " 
 
 DE LA BRIERE. 
 
 "It is not ideas that we want, but men of 
 execution." 
 
 Des Lupeaulx, that great advocate of abuses, 
 entered the office. 
 
 " Monseigneur, I start off for my election." 
 "Wait," said His Excellency, leaving his private 
 secretary and taking the arm of des Lupeaulx, with 
 whom he walked into the recess of the window. 
 "My friend, let me have this arrondissement; in that 
 case you shall be made count, and I will pay your 
 debts. At last, if after the new chamber is elected, 
 I should remain in office, I will find the opportunity 
 of having you among others named peer of France. 
 "You are a man of honor, I accept." 
 It was in this way that Clement Chardin des 
 Lupeaulx, whose father, ennobled under Louis XV., 
 bore quartered on the first argent, a wolf ravissant 
 de sable bearing a lamb gules ; second, purpure of 
 three mascles argent; two and one; third, paly of 
 gules and argent of twelve pieces; fourth, of gold, 
 on a paly of gules flying and twisted in sinople, 
 supported by four griffin's claws, jessant from the
 
 356 THE CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 sides of the escutcheon, with the motto EN LUPUS 
 IN HISTORIA, was able to surmount this rather 
 satirical escutcheon with the coronet of a count. 
 
 In 1830, toward the end of December, Monsieur 
 Rabourdin had some business to transact which 
 required him to go to his old ministry, where the 
 offices had been much agitated by dismissals 
 reaching from the lowest to the highest. This 
 revolution weighed chiefly on the office boys, who 
 do not like new faces too well. Rabourdin having 
 arrived early at the ministry, whose officials he well 
 knew, chanced to overhear the following dialogue 
 between Laurent's two nephews, for their uncle had 
 been pensioned. 
 
 " Ah! well. How is your chief of division getting 
 on?" 
 
 " Do not speak to me about him; I can do nothing 
 with him. He rings for me to ask me if I have seen 
 his handkerchief or his snuff-box. He receives 
 people without keeping them waiting; in fact, he has 
 not the slightest dignity. As for me, I am obliged 
 to say to him: 'But, sir, your predecessor, the count, 
 in the interest of power, hacked his arm-chair with 
 his pen-knife, to make believe he was working.' In 
 addition he disarranges everything. I find every- 
 thing in chaotic confusion. He has a very small 
 mind and now tell me about your minister?" 
 
 " Mine? Oh! I have at last tamed him; he knows 
 now where his letter-paper and envelopes, his wood, 
 and all his belongings are kept. My former master 
 used to swear, this one is mild, but he has not an
 
 THE CIVIL SERVICE 357 
 
 aristocratic air; then he wears no decoration. I do 
 not like to see a chief without a decoration; he 
 might be mistaken for one of us, which would be 
 humiliating. He carries off the office letter-paper, 
 and he asked me if I could goto his house and assist 
 the servants when receptions were to be given." 
 " Ah! what a government, my friend." 
 "Yes, everyone connected with it economizes." 
 " Provided they do not curtail our poor salaries!" 
 " I am afraid they will. The chambers are very 
 watchful. They find fault with us for using too 
 much wood." 
 
 "Ah! well, that will not last long, if they take 
 this course." 
 
 "We are caught; some one is listening to us." 
 " Ah! It is the defunct Monsieur Rabourdin. Ah! 
 sir, I recognize you by your way of announcing 
 your presence. If you have business here, no one 
 will be cognizant of the respect due to you, for we 
 are the only ones who remain of those who were 
 here in your time Messrs. Colleville and Baudoyer 
 have not used the morocco of their arm-chairs since 
 your departure. Oh! my God, six months later 
 they were made tax-collectors in Paris," 
 
 Paris, July, 1836.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA
 
 TO HEINRICH HEINE 
 
 MY DEAR HEINE: I dedicate this study to you; to 
 you who represent in Paris the spirit and poetry of 
 Germany, as in Germany you represent the vivacity 
 and wit of French criticism; to you who understand 
 better than anybody how much criticism, humor, 
 love, and truth this may contain. 
 
 DE BALZAC.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 "My dear friend," said Madame de la Baudraye,' 
 drawing out a manuscript from under the cushion of 
 her sofa, " will you forgive me if, in our present 
 straits, I have been induced to make a story of what 
 you told us the other day?" 
 
 " Everything is fair prey nowadays; have you 
 not seen authors who, for lack of invention, serve 
 up their own hearts, and often those of their mis- 
 tresses, to the public? It will become the fashion, 
 my dear, to run in search of adventures, less for 
 the sake of being the hero of them than for the 
 pleasure of relating them." 
 
 " After all, you and the Marquise de Rochefide 
 will have paid our rent; and I do not think, by the 
 way things are going here, that I shall ever pay 
 yours." 
 
 " Who can tell ? Perhaps you may have the same 
 good luck as Madame de Rochefide." 
 
 " Do you think it good luck to return to one's 
 husband?" 
 
 "No; only it is uncommon luck. Come, I am 
 listening to you." 
 
 Madame de la Baudraye read as follows: 
 
 The scene is laid in a gorgeous salon in the Rue 
 de Chartres-du-Roule. One of the most celebrated 
 authors of his time is seated upon a sofa beside a 
 (363)
 
 364 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 very noble marquise, with whom he is on the inti- 
 mate terms of a man whom a lady honors with her 
 favor; a hanger-on whom she keeps for her con- 
 venience rather than for lack of somebody better. 
 
 " Well," said she, " have you found those letters 
 which you spoke of yesterday, and without which 
 you were unable to tell me all that concerns him?'* 
 
 "I have them." 
 
 "It is your turn; I am listening as a child does 
 to his mother when she tells him the story of the 
 Great Green Serpent." 
 
 " I count the young man in question among those 
 persons of my acquaintance whom I am in the habit 
 of calling my friends. He is a gentleman of infinite 
 wit, but infinitely unfortunate; full of excellent in- 
 tentions, and delightful in conversation. Though 
 young, he has already seen a great deal of the world; 
 and while waiting for better things, he belongs to 
 Bohemia. JBohemia, as we must call the theory of 
 life current in the Boulevard des Italiens, is made 
 up of young men between the ages of twenty and 
 thirty, all of them men of genius in their way; little 
 known as yet, but to be known hereafter, when 
 they are sure to be distinguished. They already cut 
 a figure in the times of the carnival, when they let 
 off the effervescence of their spirits too tightly 
 bottled up during the rest of the year in pranks that 
 are more or less ludicrous. What a time we are living 
 in, and how preposterous that the immense forces of 
 such a power should be idly dissipated! There 
 are in Bohemia diplomats capable of overturning
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 365 
 
 the plans of Russia, if they could feel themselves 
 supported by the power of France. There are 
 writers, administrators, soldiers, journalists, artists; 
 in short, capacity and intelligence of all kinds are 
 represented there. It is a little world in itself. 
 If the Emperor of Russia bought Bohemia for 
 twenty millions, provided that he could remove it 
 from the asphalt of the boulevards and set it down 
 in Odessa, in a year Odessa would be Paris. There 
 in Bohemia is withering useless the flower of that 
 admirable French youth so much sought after by 
 Napoleon and Louis XIV., but which has been neg- 
 lected for the last thirty years by the senile gov- 
 ernment under which everything in France decays; 
 that noble youth of which Professor Tissot a man 
 who can be trusted was saying only yesterday: 
 ' The Emperor employed the young men in all direc- 
 tions, and found them worthy of himself; in his 
 councils, in general administration, in negotiations 
 bristling with difficulties or full of perils, and in the 
 government of conquered countries; and everywhere 
 they fulfilled his expectations! Young men were 
 for him the missi dominici of Charlemagne.' The 
 one word ' Bohemia ' explains everything. Bohemia 
 owns nothing, and yet lives on what it has. Hope 
 is its religion, faith in itself its code, and charity is 
 supposed to be its finance. All its young men are 
 greater than their misfortunes; they are beneath 
 prosperity, but above destiny. Always astride on 
 an if, witty as the column of jests in a newspaper, 
 they are gay as only debtors can be, and oh! they
 
 366 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 are as deep in debt as in drink! Finally, this is 
 what I am leading up to, they are all in love, over 
 head and ears in love! Imagine Lovelace, Henry IV., 
 the Regent, Werther, Saint-Preux, Rene, and Mare- 
 chal Richelieu all rolled into a single man, and you 
 may have some idea of their love. And what lovers 
 they make! Above all, they are eclectics in love, 
 and serve you up such a passion as might please any 
 woman; their heart is like the bill of fare at a res- 
 taurant. They have unconsciously put Stendhal's 
 book of Lome into practice, perhaps without even 
 having read it, and are familiar with its sections on 
 love as a taste, as a passion, as a caprice, crystallized 
 love, and especially transient love. Everything is 
 acceptable to them, and they have created the bur- 
 lesque axiom that all women are equal in the sight of 
 man. This is vigorously expressed; but as I think 
 the spirit of it false, 1 do not care for the letter. 
 Madame, the name of my friend is Gabriel-Jean- 
 Anne-Victor - Benjamin-Georges-Ferdinand-Charles- 
 ddouard Rusticoli, Count de la Palferine. The 
 Rusticoli came into France with Catherine de Me- 
 dici, having just been dispossessed of a very small 
 sovereignty in Tuscany. They were distantly re- 
 lated to the house of Este, and intermarried with the 
 Guises. They killed a great many Protestants at 
 the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and Charles IX. 
 gave one of them in marriage an heiress of the 
 county of La Palferine, which had been confiscated 
 from the Due de Savoy. Henry IV. took it away 
 from them again, although he left them the title.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 367 
 
 That great king committed the folly of returning the 
 fief to the Due de Savoy, but in exchange two offices 
 of the crown and one governorship were given to 
 the Comtes de la Palferine. Before the Medici pos- 
 sessed armorial bearings the La Palferines had worn 
 a silver cross, branded with an a^ure fleur-de-lys 
 the fleur-de-lys was added by letters patent of 
 Charles IX. surmounted by a count's coronet, and 
 flanked by two peasants, with IN HOC SIGNO VIN- 
 CIMUS for a motto. They played a brilliant part 
 under the Valois and until the quasi-reign of Riche- 
 lieu; then they declined under Louis XIV., and were 
 ruined under Louis XV. The grandfather of my 
 friend squandered what remained of his princely 
 fortune upon Mademoiselle Laguerre, whom he, first 
 of all and before Bouret, brought into fashion. The 
 father of Charles-6douard, who was in 1789 a pen- 
 niless officer, had the good sense, with the aid of the 
 Revolution, to call himself Rusticoli. He married, 
 during the Italian wars, one of the Capponi, a god- 
 daughter of the Countess Albani; thence his son's 
 last Christian name! He was one of the best col- 
 onels in the army, and the Emperor named him 
 commander of the Legion of Honor and made him 
 count. The colonel's spinal column was slightly 
 crooked, and his son used to say, laughing, that he 
 was a count made over. General Count Rusticoli 
 for he had become a brigadier-general at Ratis- 
 bonne died at Vienna after the battle of Wagram, 
 where he was named general of the division on the 
 field of battle. His name, his Italian celebrity, and
 
 $68 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 his merit would have won a marshal's staff for him 
 sooner or later. Under the Restoration he would 
 have built up again the great and splendid house of 
 La Palferine, distinguished as far back as noo under 
 the name of Rusticoli for the Rusticoli had then 
 already furnished a pope and made two revolutions 
 in the Kingdom of Naples; that house that was so 
 illustrious and so able under the Valois that the 
 La Palferines, although determined members of the 
 Fronde, still existed under Louis XIV.; and Mazarin 
 had liked them, for he recognized in them a relic of 
 Tuscany. To-day, when Charles-douard de la 
 Palferine is spoken of, there are not three people in 
 a hundred who know what the house of La Palferine 
 is; but the Bourbons have indeed left a Foix-Grailly, 
 living by his brush! Ah! if you knew the courage 
 with which douard de la Palferine has accepted 
 this obscure position! And how he mocks the bour- 
 geois of 1830! What attic salt! If Bohemia could 
 tolerate a king, he would be King of Bohemia. His 
 spirit is inexhaustible. We owe to him the map 
 of Bohemia and the names of the seven castles that 
 Nodier could not discover." 
 
 "That," said the marquise, "is the only thing 
 wanting in one of the cleverest burlesques of our 
 time." 
 
 " A few characteristics of my friend La Palferine 
 will put you in a position to judge him," answered 
 Nathan. " La Palferine happened to find one of his 
 friends, a fellow-Bohemian, engaged in an alterca- 
 tion on the boulevard with a bourgeois who thought
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 369 
 
 himself insulted. Bohemia is very high-handed with 
 the modern power. There was talk of a duel. 
 
 " ' One moment/ said La Palferine, immediately 
 becoming a perfect Lauzun ' one moment! Sir, do 
 you exist?' 
 
 " 'What, sir?' asked the bourgeois. 
 
 " ' Yes, do you exist? What is your name?' 
 
 "'Godin.' 
 
 "'Eh? Godin!' exclaimed La Palferine's friend. 
 
 " ' One moment, my dear sir,' said La Palferine, 
 stopping his friend. ' Perhaps you belong to the 
 Trigaudin family?' 
 
 " Astonishment on the part of the bourgeois. 
 
 " ' No? Then you belong to the new ducal house 
 of Gae'ta an imperial creation? No? Well, how 
 can you expect to fight with my friend, who will be 
 a secretary of the embassy and an ambassador, and 
 to whom you will one day owe respect? Godin! 
 There is no such thing; you are nobody. Godin! 
 My friend cannot fight in the air. When a man is 
 somebody, he will not fight with a nobody. Come, 
 my dear sir, good-bye.' 
 
 " ' My respects to your wife,' added the friend. 
 
 " One day La Palferine was walking with a friend 
 of his, who threw the end of his cigar into the face 
 of a passer-by. That gentleman had the bad taste 
 to lose his temper. 
 
 '"You have been exposed to the fire of your 
 adversary,' said the young count, ' and the witnesses 
 declare that your honor is satisfied.' 
 
 " He owed a thousand francs to his tailor, who, 
 24
 
 370 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 instead of going in person, sent his head clerk, one 
 morning, to La Palferine. The fellow discovered 
 the unhappy debtor in the sixth story of a building 
 at the bottom of a court at the head of the Faubourg 
 du Roule. There was no furniture in the room 
 except a bed, and what a bed! and a table, and 
 what a table! La Palferine listened to the clerk's 
 ridiculous demand, which, as he told us, he considered 
 unlawful, made at seven o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "'Go tell your master,' answered he, with the 
 gesture and pose of Mirabeau, 'the situation in 
 which you found me.' 
 
 " The clerk fell back, excusing himself profusely. 
 La Palferine caught sight of the young man at the 
 top of the stairs, and rising with a solemnity ex- 
 emplified in the verses of Britannicus, called to him: 
 
 " ' Please notice my staircase! Pay particular 
 attention to my staircase, so that you may not forget 
 to tell him about my staircase.' 
 
 " In whatever circumstances he has been thrown 
 by chance, La Palferine has never been found below 
 the mark, without ready wit, or in bad taste. He 
 invariably shows the genius of Rivarol and the 
 subtlety of a great French noble. It is he who 
 invented the delightful story of the friend of the 
 banker Lafitte, who went to the office of the national 
 subscription proposed for the purpose of allowing the 
 banker to keep his palace, in which the Revolution 
 of 1830 had been plotted. 
 
 "'Here are five francs,' said he; 'give me a 
 hundred sous in change.'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 371 
 
 " There was a caricature made of it. 
 
 " La Palferine had the misfortune, as an indict- 
 ment would put it, to make a young girl a mother. 
 The girl was no novice, and confessed her fault to 
 her mother, who, good bourgeoise as she was, rushed 
 off to La Palferine to ask what he proposed to do. 
 
 " ' Madame, I am neither a doctor nor a nurse.' 
 
 " She was thunderstruck; but she returned to the 
 charge three or four years later, and insisted upon 
 knowing what he expected to do. 
 
 " ' O, madame,' he answered, ' when the child is 
 seven years old at which age children pass from 
 the hands of women into those of men' a motion 
 of assent from the mother ' if the child is indeed 
 mine' gesture on the part of the mother, ' if he is 
 strikingly like me, if he promises to be a gentleman, 
 if I recognize in him my own species of wit, and, 
 above all, the air of a Rusticoli, oh! then,' another 
 gesture, ' on my honor as a gentleman, I will give 
 him a stick of barley-sugar!' 
 
 " All this, if you will allow me to make use of the 
 style Monsieur de Sainte-Beuve employs in his 
 biographies of men unknown to fame, is the spor- 
 tive, jocular side of a strong race; but it is already 
 corrupt. It reminds one more of the Parc-aux-Cerfs 
 than the H6tel de Rambouillet. The race is not a 
 gentle one, and I fear that it is more inclined to 
 debauchery than I should wish in generous, gifted 
 natures; but its gallantry is after the style of Riche- 
 lieu gay almost to buffoonery; it belongs to the 
 excesses of the eighteenth century; it goes back
 
 372 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 to the time of the mousquetaires," and outdoes 
 Champcenetz; but this fickleness seems part of 
 the arabesques and ornaments of the old court of 
 the Valois. In a time as moral as our own, we 
 should indignantly protest against such audacity; 
 but the stick of barley-sugar may serve to show 
 young maidens the danger of such intimacies, at 
 first full of deceptive dreams and delights, rose- 
 colored and overgrown with flowers, but the down- 
 ward slopes of which are left unwatched, and lead 
 to extravagant excess, to errors attended with hurt- 
 ful excitements and too agitating results. This 
 anecdote shows the vivacious and consummate in- 
 telligence of La Palferine, for, as Pascal recom- 
 mended, he is between two extremes: he is both 
 tender and pitiless, and, like Epaminondas, he is 
 equally great in either direction. Besides, this jest 
 of his marks the period; in old times there were no 
 accoucheurs; so this witticism of his, which will 
 endure, explains the refinements of our civilization." 
 
 " Come now, my dear Nathan, what nonsense is 
 this?" asked the marquise, in surprise. 
 , " Madame la Marquise," answered Nathan, " you 
 are ignorant of the value of these elaborate phrases. 
 I am now talking the new French of Sainte-Beuve. 
 I shall continue. One day, as La Palferine was 
 walking along the boulevard, arm in arm with some 
 of his friends, he saw approaching one of the most 
 ferocious of his creditors, who addressed him with: 
 
 " ' Are you thinking of me, sir?' 
 
 " ' Not the least in the world!' replied the count.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 373 
 
 " Observe how difficult his position was. Under 
 similar circumstances Talleyrand had said, ' You are 
 very inquisitive, my friend.' And La Palferine 
 could not try to imitate the inimitable Talleyrand. 
 The young count is as generous as Buckingham, and 
 cannot endure to be taken unawares; so one day 
 that he had nothing to give to a chimney-sweep, he 
 plunged his hand into a cask of grapes lying at the 
 door of a grocer's shop, and filled the cap of the 
 little boy, who ate the grapes with great relish. 
 The grocer began by laughing and ended by shaking 
 hands with La Palferine. 
 
 " ' Oh, fie, sir!' said the count; ' your left hand 
 should not know what my right hand has just 
 given.' 
 
 " Charles-6douard is of an adventurous disposi- 
 tion; he neither seeks nor avoids a quarrel, but he 
 has an intelligent daring. On seeing, in the lobby 
 of the opera, a man who had spoken of him in un- 
 flattering terms, he nudged him as he passed, and 
 then, turning back, nudged him again. 
 
 " 'You are awkward,' said the man. 
 
 " ' On the contrary, I did it on purpose.' 
 
 " The young man presented his card. 
 
 " ' It is very dirty,' returned La Palferine; ' you' 
 have kept it too long in your pocket. Be so good as 
 to give me another,' added he, throwing it away. 
 
 " He received on the spot a cut from the sword of 
 his adversary, who, on seeing the blood flow, was 
 anxious to end it there, and exclaimed: 
 
 " ' You are wounded, sir.'
 
 374 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 " M refuse to acknowledge the blow/ he replied, 
 with as much coolness as if he were in a fencing- 
 school. 
 
 " And he returned a similar thrust, only a much 
 deeper one, adding: 
 
 " ' There is the proper thrust, sir.' 
 
 " His adversary went to bed for six months. All 
 this is in the style of Monsieur Sainte-Beuve, that 
 makes one think of the wits of the palmy days of 
 the monarchy, and of their ingenious jests. The 
 life is free and unfettered, but without steadfastness 
 of purpose; and the gaiety of imagination only such 
 as is vouchsafed to earliest youth. The bloom has 
 left the flower, but there remains the dried grain, 
 abundant and fruitful, to provide for the winter 
 season. Do not you think this is an unsatisfied, 
 restless state of things, indescribable and impossible 
 to analyze, yet self-comprehending, and ready to 
 burst into flames far and wide when the moment for 
 action arrives? It is like the asperity of the cloister: 
 there is a vague, obscure melancholy about it an 
 acrid fermentation caused by the idle stagnation of 
 the forces of youth." 
 
 "That is enough," said the marquise; "you are 
 giving me a shower-bath." 
 
 " It is like the tedium of a long afternoon. The 
 young people have no occupation, and rather than 
 do nothing at all they get into mischief, as will 
 always happen in France. Just now they have two 
 sides the studious side of the misunderstood, and 
 the ardent side of the passionate."
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 375 
 
 "Enough!" repeated Madame de Rochefide, with 
 a decided gesture; "you make me nervous." 
 
 " In order to complete my description of La Pal- 
 ferine I shall hasten to enter the domain of gallan- 
 try; for I want you to understand the particular 
 genius of this young man. He is admirably char- 
 acteristic of a portion of that wanton youth that is 
 strong enough to laugh at the situation in which it 
 has been placed by the folly of its rulers, calculating 
 enough to observe the uselessness of work and to do 
 nothing, and eager enough to cling to pleasure, the 
 only thing of which it has not been robbed. But a 
 policy that is at once bourgeois, commercial and 
 bigoted goes on stopping up the outlets through 
 which so much ability and talent might flow and 
 spread themselves. Nothing for these young poets 
 and scholars! To make you understand the stupid- 
 ity of the new government I shall tell you something 
 that happened to La Palferine. There is on the civil 
 list an agent of a charity organisation. This agent 
 heard one day that La Palferine was in extreme 
 distress; he reported him, and carried fifty francs to 
 the assistance of the heir of the Rusticoli. La 
 Palferine received this gentleman with perfect grace, 
 and entered into conversation with him about the 
 personages at court. 
 
 "Ms it true,' asked he, 'that Mademoiselle 
 d'Orleans is to contribute so large a sum to the 
 noble work undertaken in behalf of her nephew? It 
 is very noble of her.' 
 
 " La Palferine whispered to a little ten-year-old
 
 376 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 boy who served him for nothing. He called him 
 Father Anchise, and had once said of him: 
 
 " * I never saw so much simplicity and so much 
 intelligence united. He would go through fire for 
 me; he understands everything, and yet he cannot 
 understand that I can do nothing for him.' 
 
 " Anchise brought back from a livery-stable a 
 magnificent coupe, with a footman behind it. By 
 the time La Palferine heard the noise of the carriage, 
 he had cleverly led up the conversation to the 
 occupation of his visitor, whom he has since nick- 
 named a charity man-of-all-work. He had inquired 
 as to his business and his salary. 
 
 " 'Do they give you a carriage to go about the 
 city with?' he asked. 
 
 " 'Oh, no!' said the clerk. 
 
 " Whereupon La Palferine and a friend who 
 happened to be with him went downstairs with the 
 poor man and forced him to get into the carriage, as 
 the rain was falling in torrents. La Palferine had 
 arranged everything, and offered to drive the clerk 
 wherever he wished to go. After the alms-giver had 
 finished his next visit, he found the equipage waiting 
 for him at the door, and the footman handed him the 
 following note, written in pencil: 
 
 " ' This carriage has been paid for, for three days, by the 
 Count Rusticoli de la Palferine, who is only too happy to 
 assist the charities of the court by lending wings to its 
 benevolence. 1 
 
 " La Palferine now calls the civil list an uncivil 
 list.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 377 
 
 " He was passionately loved by a woman whose 
 conduct was of a light nature. Antonia lived in 
 Rue du Helder, and was well known there, though 
 at the time of her intimacy with the count she had 
 not as yet become notorious. She had plenty of 
 that old-time impertinence which the women of 
 to-day have carried to the pitch of insolence. After 
 two weeks of unmixed happiness the woman was 
 obliged to return, in the interest of her civil list, to a 
 less exclusive system of passion. On discovering 
 that her dealings with him were lacking in frankness, 
 La Palferine wrote to Madame Antonia this letter 
 that made her famous: 
 
 " ' MADAME: Your conduct is as amazing as it is dis- 
 tressing. Not only have you torn my heart by your scorn, 
 but you are so wanting in delicacy as to retain possession of 
 my toothbrush, which my means do not permit me to replace, 
 as my property is already mortgaged beyond its value. 
 
 " ' Farewell, too lovely and too ungrateful friend! May we 
 meet again in a better worldl 
 
 " ' CHARLES-DOUARD.' 
 
 "Certainly I continue to use the learned style of 
 Monsieur Sainte-Beuve this far surpasses the 
 raillery of Sterne in his Sentimental Journey; it is 
 Scarron without his coarseness. I am not sure, 
 even, that Moliere, in a good humor, might not have 
 said, 'This is mine,' as he did of Cyrano's best 
 things. Richelieu was not more consummate when 
 he wrote to the princess who was waiting for him in 
 the kitchen-court of the Palais Royal, ' Stay there.
 
 378 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 my queen, and charm the scullions.'' But Charles- 
 douard's wit is less bitter. I am not sure whether 
 the Greeks and Romans knew this kind of humor. 
 Perhaps, on a narrower inspection, I might say that 
 Plato approached it, but on the severe and harmoni- 
 ous side " 
 
 "Stop talking that jargon," said the marquise; 
 "you may print it, if you choose, but I do not 
 deserve to be punished by having my ears tortured 
 with it." 
 
 " It was in this manner that he made the acquaint- 
 ance of Claudine," Nathan went on. " It was one 
 of those listless days when young men find life a 
 burden, and, like Blondet in the time of the Res- 
 toration, only rouse themselves from the despond- 
 ency to which the presumption of old men has 
 condemned them, to attempt some mischief, or to 
 undertake one of those huge pieces of buffoonery 
 the sole excuse for which lies in the boldness with 
 which they are conceived, La Palferine was saunter- 
 ing along the pavement, cane in hand, between Rue 
 de Grammont and Rue de Richelieu. In the distance 
 he saw a woman dressed in the height of fashion. 
 She wore her costly garments so negligently, he said, 
 as to mark her as a princess of the court or of the 
 Opera; but after July, 1830, according to him no mis- 
 take was possible, and he knew the princess be- 
 longed to the Opera. The young count hastened to 
 her side, as if a meeting had been agreed upon 
 between them; he pursued her with obstinate polite- 
 ness and gentlemanlike persistence, and turning
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 379 
 
 upon her an authoritative glance that was most 
 effective, he obliged her to suffer his escort. Any 
 other man would have been chilled by the reception 
 he met with, and disconcerted by her behavior 
 by the provoking coolness of her manner and the 
 severity of her answers; but La Palferine addressed 
 to her one of those humorous remarks against which 
 no serious resolution can stand. In order to rid 
 herself of him the lady entered her dressmaker's. 
 Charles-douard went in, too; he sat down, gave 
 advice and offered his opinion as if he were ready 
 to pay the bill. The lady was annoyed by his cool- 
 ness, and took her leave. On the stairs she said to 
 La Palferine, her persecutor: 
 
 " ' Sir, I am going to call on an old lady, a cousin 
 of my husband's, Madame de Bonfalot ' 
 
 " ' Oh! Madame de Bonfalot?' said the count. 
 ' I am delighted; I will go, too ' 
 
 " The couple made their way there, and as Charles- 
 douard entered with the lady, it was naturally 
 supposed that she had brought him with her. He 
 joined in the conversation, and was lavish of his 
 unusual and distinguished wit. The visit lasted 
 longer than he had bargained for, so he said to his 
 new friend: 
 
 " ' Madame, you must not forget that your hus- 
 band is waiting for us; he only gave us a quarter of 
 an hour's grace.' 
 
 " She was confounded by such boldness which, 
 as you know, is always attractive and carried away 
 by his triumphant look and the inscrutable candor
 
 380 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 of the expression he can assume at will; so, on 
 rising, she was forced to accept the arm of her cava- 
 lier and go downstairs with him. On the threshold 
 she said: 
 
 " ' Sir, I like a joke' 
 
 " ' And so do I,' he answered. 
 
 "She laughed. 
 
 " ' But it only depends on you to make this 
 serious,' he added. ' I am the Count of La Palfer- 
 ine, and I should be charmed to place my heart and 
 fortune at your feet.' 
 
 " This happened in 1834, and La Palferine was 
 twenty-two years old. By good luck it chanced 
 that on that day he was elegantly dressed. I am 
 going to describe him to you briefly: he is the living 
 likeness of Louis XIII.; he has the same white fore- 
 head and delicately moulded temples; the same olive, 
 Italian complexion, white in the high lights; the same 
 brown hair, worn long, and the black imperial; his ex- 
 pression is serious and melancholy, for his person and 
 his character are in striking contrast. As Claudine 
 looked at him and heard his name, a shudder came 
 over her. It did not escape La Palferine, and he 
 threw her a look from his deep, black, almond- 
 shaped eyes, that revealed from beneath their slightly 
 creased and yellow-tinted lids a capacity for enjoy- 
 ment equal to the endurance of any fatigue. Under 
 the influence of this look she asked for his address. 
 
 " ' What maladresse!' he answered. 
 
 " ' Oh, bah!' said she, with a smile. ' You are a 
 bird upon the wing, then?'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 381 
 
 " ' Farewell, madame; you are a woman that I 
 could love, but my fortune is far from keeping pace 
 with my desires ' 
 
 " He bowed and left her abruptly, without looking 
 back. Two days afterward, by one of those fatalities 
 only possible in Paris, he went into a pawnbroker's 
 shop to sell one of the superfluities of his wardrobe. 
 He appeared dissatisfied with the price, and had 
 been haggling a long time, when his new friend 
 passed and recognized him. 
 
 "M have made up my mind not to take your 
 trumpet,' he called to the amazed pawnbroker, 
 pointing to an enormous dented trumpet hanging 
 up outside in plain relief against some hunting- 
 liveries that had once belonged to the lackeys of 
 ambassadors and generals of the Empire. Then he 
 turned to follow the young woman with fierce im- 
 petuosity. After that great day of the trumpet they 
 agreed admirably. 
 
 " Charles-douard has most accurate ideas on the 
 subject of love. He thinks that no man can love 
 twice in his life; love comes but once, and is deep 
 as a shoreless sea. At any age this love may burst 
 upon you as grace burst upon Saint Paul; yet a man 
 may live to be sixty without having felt it. Accord- 
 ing to a fine expression of Heine, love is perhaps the 
 secret malady of the heart a mingling of our feeling 
 of the infinite with the ideal of beauty revealed in 
 visible form. In short, love embraces at one and 
 the same time the creature and the creation. As 
 long as there is no question of this great poem, we
 
 382 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 must trifle with those loves that are perishable, and 
 give them that place that we give in literature to 
 light verse as compared with an epic. In his new 
 connection Charles-douard experienced neither the 
 thunderburst that declares the advent of true love, 
 nor that gradual unveiling of attractions and recog- 
 nition of qualities hitherto unknown, that bind to- 
 gether two beings with an ever-growing power. 
 True love may come in only two ways. It is either 
 love at first sight which is probably an effect of 
 Scotch second sight or it is the slow fusion of two 
 natures that realize the Platonic idea. But Claudine 
 loved Charles-douard to distraction; she felt love, 
 ideal and physical, in its completest form. In short, 
 her passion for La Palter ine was a real one; but to 
 him she was only a charming mistress. The devil 
 himself, who is certainly a mighty magician, could 
 have changed nothing in the order of these two 
 unequal passions. I might even say that Claudine 
 often bored Charles-douard. 
 
 "'After three days I like to throw out of the 
 window the woman I don't care for, and the fish 
 that has been too long in the pantry,' he used 
 to say. 
 
 " In Bohemia there is little secrecy about such airy 
 love-affairs. La Palferine often spoke to us of Clau- 
 dine; but we never saw her, and her real name was 
 never mentioned. Claudine was almost a myth, 
 yet she was familiar to us; and we thus reconciled 
 the laws of good taste with the exigencies of our 
 life in common. We had a formula composed of
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 383 
 
 such names as Claudine, Hortense, the baroness, 
 the bourgeoise, the empress, the lioness, the Spanish 
 lady, etc., and this gave each of us a vent for his 
 joys, his cares, his griefs, and his hopes, and allowed 
 us the means of communicating our discoveries to 
 one another. We went no farther than this. There 
 is an example in Bohemia of an accidental discovery 
 made concerning the identity of a person of whom 
 we were talking; by unanimous accord she was 
 never mentioned again. This may serve to show 
 that the young have a sense of what true delicacy 
 is. Persons of discrimination understand marvel- 
 ously the exact limits of a joke and the proper 
 exercise of the French quality known as blague a 
 soldier-like word which we hope will be eliminated 
 from the language, but which alone can describe 
 the spirit of Bohemia. So it happened that we often 
 jested about Claudine and the count. It was 'What 
 are you doing with Claudine? And how is your 
 Claudine? Is it still a Claudine?' sung to Rossini's 
 air of 'Toujours Gessler!' etc. 
 
 " ' I wish my worst enemy just such a mistress,' 
 said La Palferine to us one day. * No terrier, no 
 greyhound, no poodle can be compared with her for 
 her absolute sweetness, submission, and tenderness. 
 At times I reproach myself and call myself to 
 account for my harshness. Claudine obeys me with 
 the docility of a saint. She comes to see me, I send 
 her away; she goes, but lingers weeping in the 
 court-yard. I may not wish to see her for a whole 
 week, and then I appoint her a certain time on the
 
 384 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 next Tuesday say at midnight or at six o'clock in 
 the morning, at ten or at five; at the most incon- 
 venient hours, at breakfast or dinner time; early in 
 the morning or late at night and she is sure to 
 come, resplendent, lovely, beautifully dressed, at 
 the exact moment! And she is married entangled 
 in all the obligations and duties of a household. I 
 should not like to have to invent all the stratagems 
 and excuses she must think of in order to conform to 
 my caprices. Nothing wearies her; she is always 
 faithful! I tell her that it is not love, but obstinacy. 
 She writes me every day, and I do not read her 
 letters; she has found it out, but she keeps on 
 writing. Look, there are two hundred letters in that 
 chest. She begs me to take one of her letters every 
 day to wipe my razors on, and I do so! She is right 
 in thinking that a glimpse of her handwriting makes 
 me think of her.' 
 
 " La Palferine was dressing as he said this. I 
 took the letter of which he was about to make use; 
 I read it and kept it, as he did not ask it back; here 
 it is, for I found it, as I promised you I should: 
 
 "' MONDAY, MIDNIGHT. 
 
 " 'Well, my friend, are you satisfied with me? I 
 did not ask you to let me take your hand, that I was 
 longing to press to my lips and heart, and yet it 
 would have been so easy for you to give it to me. 
 No, I did not ask you, for I was too much afraid 
 of displeasing you. Know one thing! although I 
 am painfully aware how entirely indifferent my
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 385 
 
 behavior is to you, I am nevertheless extremely 
 careful of my conduct. A woman who belongs to 
 you, under whatsoever title and however secretly, 
 must avoid incurring the slightest censure. My love 
 for you is as pure as that of the angels of heaven, 
 who have no secrets; wherever I am, I think I am 
 still in your presence, and I wish to do you honor. 
 " ' All you said to me about my manner of dressing 
 struck me and made me understand how superior 
 people of high birth are to others. I had still some 
 trace of the/ opera-dancer in the cut of my gowns 
 and my bonnets. In a moment I recognized how far 
 I was from good taste, and when I go to you dressed 
 like a duchess, you will hardly recognize me. Oh, 
 how kind you have been to your Claudine, and how 
 I thank you for all you have taught me! How much 
 interest you showed in those few words! You must 
 have given some thought to that little thing that 
 belongs to you named Claudine! My stupid husband 
 would never have enlightened me; he is pleased 
 with all I do; and besides, he is too domestic, too 
 prosaic, to know what is beautiful. Tuesday is a 
 long time for me to wait! Tuesday I shall be with 
 you for hours! Ah! on Tuesday I shall try to 
 imagine that hours are months, and that they will 
 go on forever. I live in the hope of that morning, as 
 later on, when it is passed, I shall live on the recol- 
 lection of it. Hope is a memory of desire that is to 
 come, and remembrance is a memory of joy that has 
 gone. How sweet this life of thought is to me! I 
 try to devise expressions of my affection for you 
 25
 
 586 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 that shall be mine alone, and the secret of which no 
 other woman shall ever guess. I turn cold when I 
 think something may happen to prevent our meet- 
 ing. Oh! I would gladly break with him if it were 
 necessary; but no obstacle can ever arise here. It 
 is you who may wish to go into society, perhaps to 
 call upon another woman. Oh! spare me Tuesday! 
 If you took it away from me, Charles, you do not 
 know what trouble you would cause him; for I 
 should make his life miserable. If you don't wish 
 to see me, if you will go into society, let me come all 
 the same, while you are dressing; only let me see 
 you I ask no more than that; and let this prove to 
 you how purely I love you. Since the day you 
 gave me permission to love you, and as I am yours, 
 you must have given me that permission, I have 
 loved you with all the strength of my soul, and I 
 shall love you always; for having once loved you, I 
 cannot and must not love any other man. So, when 
 you are within sight of those eyes that will look upon 
 no one but you, you will feel in your Claudine the 
 existence of some divine spark that you have called 
 into being. Alas! with you I am no coquette; I am 
 like a mother with her son. I endure everything 
 from you, I who was once so haughty and imperious. 
 I who played fast and loose with dukes and princes, 
 and with the aides-de-camp of Charles X. who 
 were of more importance than all the rest of the 
 court treat you as a spoiled child. But what good 
 would coquetry do? It would be a dead loss; and 
 yet without coquetry, I can never make you love me,
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 387 
 
 sir. I know it, I f eel it; I am borne along by the 
 influence of an irresistible power; and yet I think 
 that this entire self-abandonment will win me from 
 you that feeling which he says all men have for their 
 own property.' 
 
 " ' WEDNESDAY. 
 
 " ' Oh! what dark sadness filled my heart when I 
 heard that I must give up the happiness of seeing 
 you yesterday! One thought alone prevented me 
 from running into the arms of death; it was your 
 desire! Not to go to you was to carry out your 
 will, to obey your commands. O, Charles, I looked 
 so pretty! You would have found me more attrac- 
 tive than that lovely German princess whom you 
 wished me to copy, and whom I studied at the Opera. 
 But perhaps you would have thought I was not 
 myself. You have robbed me of all my self-con- 
 fidence, and perhaps I may be ugly. Oh! I hate 
 myself, and I am crazy when I think how radiant 
 you are. I shall surely lose my senses. Do not 
 laugh at me, and never speak to me of the fickle- 
 ness of women. If we are fickle, you men must 
 be very strange people! To take away from a poor 
 creature those hours of bliss the anticipation of 
 which had filled her last ten days with happiness, 
 and had made her kind and sweet to all who came 
 to see her! It was because of you that I was good 
 to him; but now you do not know the harm you do 
 him. I wonder what new thing 1 must think of so 
 as not to lose you, or at least to have the right of
 
 388 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 seeing you sometimes. When I reflect that you 
 have never been willing to come here! I should 
 have waited upon you with such exquisite pleasure. 
 There are women who are more favored than I; 
 there are some to whom you say, ' / love you;' but 
 to me you have only said, ' You are a good girl.' 
 Although you do not know it, there are certain 
 words of yours that gnaw at my heartstrings. 
 Some clever people occasionally ask me for my 
 thoughts; I am thinking of my abject condition, 
 which is that of the most wretched sinner in presence 
 of her Saviour.' 
 
 " There are, as you see, three pages more. La 
 Palferine let me take this letter, and yet it was 
 blotted with tears that seemed still hot! This letter 
 proved to me that La Palferine had spoken the truth. 
 Marcas, who is shy enough with women, was in 
 ecstasies over a similar letter that he had just been 
 reading in another corner of the room, and then 
 used to light his pipe. 
 
 " ' Every woman who is in love can write like 
 that,' exclaimed La Palferine. 'Love makes them 
 all clever, and gives them a good style; this shows 
 that in France style is the result of ideas and not of 
 words. See how well thought out it is, and how 
 logical is the sentiment!' 
 
 " He then read us another letter, superior in every 
 way to those artificial, labored letters that we novel- 
 writers are always trying to produce. 
 
 " One day poor Claudine heard that La Palferine
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 389 
 
 was in an extremely dangerous position on account 
 of a bill of exchange, and unfortunately took it into 
 her head to carry him an exquisitely embroidered 
 purse that contained a considerable sum of money. 
 
 " ' How do you dare to meddle in my affairs?' ex- 
 claimed La Palferine, angrily. ' Darn my socks and 
 embroider slippers for me if you choose. But 
 Ah! you want to play the part of a duchess, and 
 you are turning the fable of the Danae against the 
 aristocracy!' 
 
 "As he said this he emptied the purse into his 
 hand, and made a gesture as if he were about to 
 throw the contents in Claudine's face. Claudine 
 was too terrified to take the joke, and, drawing back, 
 she stumbled against a chair and struck her head 
 against a sharp corner of the mantel-piece. The 
 poor woman thought she was dying; and when she 
 found herself stretched on the bed and able to speak, 
 all she said was: 
 
 " ' It was my fault, Charles.' 
 
 " For one moment La Palferine was in despair, 
 and his despair brought back Claudine to life. She 
 was thankful for her accident, and profited by it to 
 make La Palferine accept the gift that was to free 
 him from embarrassment. It was just the reverse of 
 La Fontaine's fable, in which a husband returns 
 thanks to some robbers for having drawn an outburst 
 of tenderness from his wife. The rest of the story 
 will give you an insight into La Palferine's character. 
 Claudine went home and invented the best fiction 
 she could to account for her wound. Then she fell
 
 390 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 dangerously ill, and an abscess appeared upon her 
 head. The doctor Bianchon, I think yes, it was 
 he was anxious to cut off Claudine's hair. Her 
 hair is as beautiful as that of the Duchess de Berri 
 and she refused, telling Bianchon in confidence that 
 she could not have it cut without the permission of 
 the Comte de la Palferine. Bianchon went to 
 Charles-douard, who listened gravely while the 
 doctor explained the case at length and showed that 
 it was absolutely necessary to cut Claudine's hair in 
 order t^ perform the operation in safety. Then he 
 exclaimed peremptorily: 
 
 " ' Cut Claudine's hair! No; I should rather lose 
 her!' 
 
 " It is now four years ago, and yet Bianchon still 
 talks about that speech of La Palferine, and-we have 
 laughed over it by the half-hour. When Claudine 
 heard the decree she took it as a proof of affection, 
 and believed that she was loved. In spite of her 
 relations in tears and her husband on his knees, she 
 was inexorable, and kept her hair; but the inner 
 power given her by the consciousness of being loved 
 aided the operation, which turned out perfectly suc- 
 cessful. There are emotions stronger than the sur- 
 geon's skill and the laws of medicine. Claudine 
 wrote a misspelled, unpunctuated, yet charming 
 letter to La Palferine to acquaint him with the happy 
 result of the operation, telling him that love could do 
 more than science. 
 
 " ' Now,' said La Palferine to us one day, 'how 
 shall I get rid of Claudine?'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 391 
 
 " 'She is not in your way,' said I ; 'she leaves 
 you perfectly free.' 
 
 " ' That is true,' said La Palferine; ' but I do not 
 wish anything to slip into my life without my 
 consent.' 
 
 " From that time on he began to torment Clau- 
 dine. He had the deepest horror of a bourgeoise, of 
 a woman without a name; he wanted a woman with 
 a title. It was true that Claudine had improved; 
 she dressed like the most distinguished women of 
 the Faubourg Saint-Germain; she had acquired an 
 elegance of gait, and walked with chaste, inimitable 
 grace; but that was not enough. Claudine swal- 
 lowed all he said because of the praise he gave her. 
 
 " ' Well,' said La Palferine to her one day, ' if you 
 wish to continue the mistress of poor, penniless, 
 futureless La Palferine, you must at least represent 
 him worthily. You must set up a carriage, footmen 
 in livery, and a title. You must give to my vanity 
 the satisfaction I cannot procure for myself. The 
 woman whom I honor with my notice must never go 
 on foot; if she is splashed with mud, it reflects upon 
 me. That is the way I feel about it. My mistress 
 must be admired by all Paris, and I want all Paris to 
 envy my good luck. When a young fellow sees a 
 brilliant countess roll by in a brilliant equipage, I 
 want him to say, ' Who is the happy man who can 
 call this divine creature his?' and then fall to 
 thinking. It will double my pleasure.' 
 
 " La Palferine has confessed that after having 
 hurled this programme at Claudine's head for the
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 purpose of getting rid of her, he was overcome for 
 the first and probably the only time in his life. 
 
 " ' Very well, my friend,' said she, and her voice 
 betrayed the inward tremulousness of her whole 
 being; ' I will accomplish all you require, or die ' 
 
 " She kissed his hand and dropped a few happy 
 tears upon it. 
 
 "'I am glad,' she continued, 'that you have 
 explained to me what I must be to remain your 
 mistress.' 
 
 "'Then,' La Palferine told us, 'she went out 
 with the light, airy gesture of a happy woman. She 
 stood upon the threshold of my garret, tall and 
 stately as an antique sibyl.' 
 
 " All this must give you a sufficient idea of the 
 manners of Bohemia, of which this young condotti&re 
 is one of the distinguished figures," Nathan went on, 
 after a pause. " Now, I am going on to tell you how 
 I discovered who Claudine really was, and how I 
 was able to understand the terrible truth of part of 
 her letter, which perhaps you did not observe." 
 
 The marquise was too much absorbed in thought 
 to laugh, and only said, " Go on." This convinced 
 Nathan that she was much struck by his strange 
 tale, and especially interested in La Palferine. 
 
 "Among all the dramatic authors of Paris, in 
 1829, one of the most noted, intelligent, and respec- 
 table was Du Bruel. His name is unknown to the 
 public, as it is given as De Cursy on the playbills. 
 At the time of the Restoration he was in possession 
 of the place of head-clerk in the office of one of the
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 393 
 
 ministries, but as he was strongly attached to the 
 elder branch of the royal family, he valiantly sent 
 in his resignation. Since then he has written twice 
 as many plays, to compensate for the deficit in his 
 income caused by his noble conduct. Du Bruel was 
 then forty years old, and his life is known to you. 
 Like some other authors, he was in love with an 
 actress, and it was one of those affections that no 
 one can explain, yet which are well known to the 
 whole literary world. The woman, as you are aware, 
 is Tullia, who used to be one of the first dancers at 
 the Royal Academy of Music. Tullia is not her real 
 name, any more than De Cursy is Du Bruel's. For 
 ten years from 1817 to 1827 this girl shone con- 
 spicuously on the boards of the Opera. Her accom- 
 plishments were not of a high order, and her talent 
 was mediocre; but she was pretty, and cleverer than 
 dancers usually are; she refused to join in the vir- 
 tuous reform that ruined the ballet, and continued 
 the Guimard dynasty. She owed her ascendancy, 
 also, to her distinguished protectors: to the Due de 
 Rhetore, son of the Due de Chaulieu; to the influ- 
 ence of a celebrated director of the fine arts; to 
 diplomats and rich foreigners. During the zenith of 
 her fame she had a little house in Rue Chauchat, and 
 lived after the manner of the opera nymphs of those 
 days. Du Bruel fell in love with her, toward 1823, 
 when the passion of the Due de Rhetore was on the 
 wane. As he was but a deputy head-clerk, he was 
 forced to tolerate the director of the fine arts, and 
 he believed himself the favored one. This new
 
 394 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 connection became, after six years, almost a mar- 
 riage. Tullia carefully concealed her origin, and it 
 was only known that she came from Nanterre. One 
 of her uncles, who was formerly a plain carpenter 
 or mason, had become, it was said, a rich master 
 builder, thanks to her recommendations and gener- 
 ous loans. Du Bruel once committed the indiscre- 
 tion of saying that Tullia would be sure to inherit a 
 fine property sooner or later. The master builder 
 was not married, and had a weakness for his niece, 
 to whom he was under obligations. 
 
 " ' He has not wit enough to be ungrateful,' she 
 used to say. 
 
 " In 1829 Tullia retired of her own accord. She 
 was thirty years old, and knew that she was growing 
 stouter; she had tried in vain to act in pantomime, 
 but she only knew how to make her skirts fly out 
 well, and display her person to the public, as she 
 pirouetted in the style of Noblet. Old Vestris had 
 said to her in the beginning that when this trick was 
 well executed, and the dancers sufficiently denuded, 
 it was worth all imaginable talents. It is to the 
 dancer what the chest-tone is to the singer. There- 
 fore, he said, the celebrated dancers, Camargo, 
 Guimard, and Taglioni, who were all dark, thin, and 
 ugly, needed genius to succeed. Tullia had the 
 wisdom to withdraw, in her full glory, before the 
 younger girls who were more agile than herself; and 
 as she had but slightly departed from her aristocratic 
 standard in the connections she had formed, she was 
 unwilling to defile her shoes in the mire of the July
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 395 
 
 government. The proud and beautiful Claudine 
 carried away with her fine souvenirs and little 
 money; but she had also magnificent jewels and 
 some of the finest furniture in Paris. She who was 
 then so famous, though forgotten to-day, left the 
 Opera possessed with but one idea, and that was to 
 make Du Bruel marry her. You must know that 
 she is now Madame du Bruel, although the marriage 
 has not been made public. How does a woman of 
 that sort make a man marry her after seven or eight 
 years of intimacy? What springs does she push, 
 and what machinery does she set in motion? But 
 however amusing such an interior drama may be, it 
 is no concern of ours. It is a fact that Du Bruel 
 married her secretly. Before his marriage, Cursy's 
 friends thought him a good fellow: he did not 
 invariably go home at night, and was somewhat of 
 a Bohemian in his habits; he was always ready 
 for a supper or a party of pleasure, and enjoyed 
 going to rehearsals at the Opera-Comique, and he 
 used to turn up, without knowing exactly how, at 
 Dieppe, Baden, and Saint-Germain. He gave 
 dinners, lived the influential, extravagant life of 
 most authors, journalists, and artists, asserted his 
 rights as an author in all the green-rooms of Paris, 
 and belonged to our own set. Finot, Lousteau, Du 
 Tillet, Desroches, Bixiou, Blondet, Couture, and 
 des Lupeaulx upheld him in spite of the dull pedantic 
 air and bureaucratic habits that hung about him. 
 But, once married, Tullia made a slave of Du Bruel. 
 What else can you expect? The poor devil loved
 
 396 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 her. Tullia told him that she had left the Opera so 
 that she might be all his, and make him a sweet and 
 faithful wife. She succeeded in securing a reception 
 from the most rigid of the Jansenist ladies of the Du 
 Bruel family. She passed long, dull hours at Madame 
 de Bonfalot's, though nobody, at first, could guess 
 why; she made valuable presents to the old and 
 miserly Madame de Chisse, her great-aunt, and 
 even spent a whole summer with this lady, never 
 missing a single mass. There in the country, under 
 her aunt's eyes, she confessed, received absolution 
 and the sacrament. The next winter she said to us: 
 'You understand? I shall have aunts who are 
 really mine.' 
 
 " She was so overjoyed to become a bourgeoise, 
 and to give up her independence, that she found 
 means to lead up to her end. She flattered the old 
 people. She went every day, on foot, to sit for two 
 hours with Du Bruel's mother,vvhen she was ill. Du 
 Bruel was dazzled by wiles that were worthy of 
 Madame de Maintenon, and his admiration for his 
 wife never flagged. He was so securely bound that 
 he never felt his chains. Claudine gave him to 
 understand that the elastic system of a bourgeoise 
 government, dynasty, and court alone reconciled a 
 Tullia who had become Madame du Bruel to taking 
 part in society, which she had formerly had the 
 good sense to refuse to enter by force. She was 
 satisfied with being received at the houses of 
 Madame de Bonfalot, Madame de Chisse, and 
 Madame du Bruel, where she posed most consistently
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 397 
 
 as a sober, simple, and virtuous woman. Three 
 years later she was also received by their friends. 
 
 " ' Yet I cannot believe that the young Madame 
 du Bruel ever displayed her legs and arms to all 
 Paris, before the footlights!' was the artless remark 
 of Madame Anselme Popinot. 
 
 "The monarchy of July, 1830, in this respect 
 resembles the Empire; for Napoleon used to receive 
 at court a woman who had once been a chambermaid, 
 and was then Madame Garat, wife of the great judge. 
 Our ex-dancer had broken off completely with 
 her former companions, as you may imagine, and 
 she never recognized any one of her old acquaint- 
 ances who might compromise her. After her mar- 
 riage she had hired, in Rue de la Victoire, a charming 
 little house with a court-yard and garden, which she 
 fitted up with reckless extravagance, and filled with 
 the finest bits of her own and Du Bruel's furniture. 
 She sold everything she thought ordinary or common- 
 place. To find an example of luxury bewildering as 
 hers, we must return to the times of Guimard, 
 Sophie Arnould, and Duthe, who devoured princely 
 fortunes in their day. How far did this luxurious 
 Jife at home influence Du Bruel? The question, 
 delicate to put, is yet more delicate to answer. 
 I shall tell you of a single circumstance that will 
 give you some idea of Tullia's whims. The cov- 
 erlet of her bed was made of English point-lace, 
 and was worth ten thousand francs. It came to 
 Claudine's ears that a famous actress had one like 
 it, and after that she invited a magnificent Angora
 
 398 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 cat to get up on her bed. This anecdote shows 
 what kind of woman she was. Du Bruel dared 
 not interfere, and, moreover, received orders to pub- 
 lish this challenge that was offered to the luxury of 
 the other women. Tullia thought much of the Due 
 de Rhetore's gift; but one day, five years after her 
 marriage, she romped so violently with her cat that 
 the coverlet was torn, and she was obliged to cut 
 it into veils, flounces, and other trimmings. She 
 replaced it by a common-sense coverlet that was 
 really a coverlet, and not merely a proof of the 
 madness peculiar to those women who, as a journalist 
 once said, revenge themselves by insane extrava- 
 gance for having lived on raw apples in their child- 
 hood. The day that the coverlet was rent in shreds 
 marked a new era in the household. Cursy was 
 distinguished by his fierce activity. Nobody sus- 
 pects to what Paris owes the vaudeville of the 
 eighteenth century that invaded its theatres tricked 
 out in powder and patches. The real origin of the 
 thousand and one plays, with which the critics have 
 found so much fault, lies in the express determina- 
 tion of Madame du Bruel, who insisted that her 
 husband should buy the house on which she had 
 spent so much money, and which contained furni- 
 ture to the value of five hundred thousand francs. 
 For what reason? Tullia never explains; she is 
 perfect mistress of a woman's sovereign answer, 
 because. 
 
 " ' De Cursy has been much laughed at,' said she; 
 ' but, after all, he owes this house to the rouge box,
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 399 
 
 the powder-puff and the tinseled dresses of the 
 eighteenth century. He would never have thought 
 of it but for me,' she added, sinking back into her 
 cushions beside the fire. 
 
 "She said this after our return from a first per- 
 formance of one of Du Bruel's plays, which had been 
 successful, and which she foresaw would receive an 
 avalanche of criticism. Tullia was receiving her 
 friends. She gave a tea every Monday, and her 
 company was the most select she could get. She 
 neglected nothing that could make her house at- 
 tractive: there were card-tables in one room, and 
 conversation in another; and in a third and larger 
 drawing-room she sometimes gave concerts, which 
 were always short, and to which she admitted only 
 the most eminent artistes. Her good sense ena- 
 bled her to acquire exquisite tact a quality which 
 probably gave her great ascendancy over Du Bruel; 
 and, moreover, the playwright felt for her the 
 kind of love that habit gradually renders indispen- 
 sable to a man's existence. Every day adds a 
 link to that fine, strong, irresistible chain, which 
 imprisons in its coils the most airy inclinations and 
 fleeting affections, and, binding them together, keeps 
 a man tied hand and foot, heart and soul. Tullia 
 understood De Cursy perfectly; she knew where to 
 wound him, and how to heal the wound she had 
 made. To any observer even to one as proud of 
 his experience as 1 a passion of this sort is a bot- 
 tomless abyss, the depths of which are lost in mys- 
 tery, and even the best-lighted parts of which are
 
 400 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 dim. De Cursy, an old author worn out by his life 
 in the green-room, loved his ease; he loved his 
 luxurious, profuse, and easy life; he liked being a 
 king at home, and receiving his literary friends in a 
 house that was furnished sumptuously as a palace, 
 and filled with choice works of modern art. Tullia 
 allowed Du Bruel to hold sway over a crowd of people, 
 among whom were journalists that were easy to con- 
 ciliate; and, thanks to her receptions and his own 
 judicious loans, Cursy was not too violently assailed 
 by the critics, and his plays were a success. He 
 would not have separated from Tullia for a kingdom. 
 He might even have forgiven her a breach of faith, 
 provided that he met with no diminution in his accus- 
 tomed comforts; but, strange to say, he had no fears 
 for Tullia on this score. It was not known that the 
 former danseuse had had any fancies; and, if it had 
 been so, she would have kept up appearances. 
 
 " ' My dear sir,' said Du Bruel to us, on the boule- 
 vard, with the gravity of a doctor, ' there is nothing 
 like marrying a woman who has been cured of her 
 passions by the very abuse she has made of them. 
 Women like Claudine have sown their wild oats; 
 they have tasted their fill of pleasure, and they make 
 the most adorable wives a man could wish; they are 
 well trained; they know everything, and are inured 
 to everything; they are no prudes, and consequently 
 are indulgent to others. So I advocate marrying a 
 remnant of a thoroughbred. I am the happiest man 
 on earth!' 
 
 " Du Bruel told me this before Bixiou.
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 401 
 
 " ' My dear fellow,' said Bixiou to me, ' perhaps 
 he is better off for being in the wrong.' 
 
 " A week later Du Bruel begged us to come and 
 dine with him on a Tuesday. I went, on the morn- 
 ing of the same day, to consult him on some business 
 connected with the theatre, that had been entrusted 
 to us by a committee of dramatic authors. We were 
 about to go out together; but he first asked per- 
 mission to enter Claudine's apartment, into which 
 he never penetrated without knocking. 
 
 "'We live like great people,' said he, smiling. 
 ' Everybody's liberty is respected here.' 
 " We were admitted. Du Bruel said to Claudine: 
 " ' I have invited some friends for to-day ' 
 " ' There!' cried she; ' you invite people without 
 consulting me, and treat me like a mere nobody. 
 Wait a moment,' said she, and her look appealed to 
 me to judge between them. 'When a man has 
 been foolish enough to marry a woman like me, for, 
 after all, I was an opera-dancer and though every- 
 body else forgets it, I must never forget it well, 
 such a man, if he is clever, will raise his wife in 
 public esteem by pretending to acknowledge her 
 superiority, and he will justify his course by recog- 
 nizing her remarkable qualities. The best means of 
 making others respect her is to pay her respect at 
 home, and allow her to be absolute mistress there. 
 Oh! it is enough to cure me of my conceit to see 
 how much afraid he is of appearing to listen to me! 
 I must be extraordinarily in the right for him to 
 make me a single concession. 1 
 a6
 
 402 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 " Every sentence of hers was contradicted by a 
 gesture from Du Bruel. 
 
 " ' No, no,' she continued, warmly, as she caught 
 sight of her husband's gestures. ' Du Bruel, my 
 dear, I know what I am talking about, for I was 
 queen in my own house all my life long, before I 
 married you. Every desire I had was watched for, 
 and immediately fulfilled. After all, I am thirty-five 
 years old, and a woman who is thirty-five cannot 
 expect to be loved. Oh, if I were only sixteen 
 again, and had the beauty that sells so dear at the 
 Opera, how devoted you would be to me, Monsieur 
 du Bruel! 
 
 " ' I have a sovereign contempt for a man who 
 boasts of loving a woman and yet is not attentive 
 to her little wants. Look here, Du Bruel; you are 
 mean and wretched, and you like to torment a 
 woman because you cannot show your power over 
 anybody else. Napoleon may be subject to his 
 mistress, and he loses nothing of his greatness; but 
 you would think yourself a nobody if you allowed 
 yourself to be ruled. Thirty-five years old, my 
 dear,' said she, turning to me 'that is the key to 
 the riddle. You see he will not give in yet.-- You 
 know that I am really thirty-seven; and I am very 
 sorry, but you must tell your friends that you will 
 take them to the Rocker de Cancale. I could give 
 them a dinner, but I don't wish to do so, and they 
 must not come. My poor little soliloquy will impress 
 upon your memory the salutary precept of every- 
 body's liberty being respected. That is our charter,'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 403 
 
 she added, with a smile, and a return to the gay and 
 capricious manner of an opera-dancer. 
 
 " ' Very well, my dear little pet,' said Du Bruel; 
 'there, there; don't be angry. We know how to 
 get on together.' 
 
 " He kissed her hand, and went out with me in a 
 fury. This is what he said to me as we walked 
 from the Rue de la Victoire to the boulevard, if 
 there be expressions which can be printed strong 
 enough, and oaths violent enough to represent the 
 outrageous words and malignant thoughts that 
 streamed from his mouth as a waterfall issues from 
 a mighty torrent: 
 
 " ' I tell you, sir, I will leave that low, infamous 
 dancer; that old top that has spun under the whip 
 of all the operatic airs that ever were made; that 
 vixen; that wanton vagabond! You, too, have fallen 
 in love with an actress; but never take it into your 
 head to marry your mistress. I tell you it is a pun- 
 ishment that Dante forgot to put in his hell! 1 will 
 beat her; I will give her such a thrashing! I will 
 tell her what she is. She is the poison of my life; 
 she keeps me bobbing like a jumping-jack.' 
 
 " He had reached the boulevard, and was in such 
 a state of wrath that the words stuck in his throat. 
 
 " ' I should like to stamp upon her!' 
 
 "'Why?' I asked. 
 
 " 'My dear sir, you could never guess the thous- 
 and myriad whims the hussy has! When I want 
 to stay at home, she wants to go out; when I 
 want to go out, she wants me to stay at home. She
 
 404 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 overwhelms me with reasons, reproaches, argu- 
 ments, invectives, and a flood of words fit to drive 
 me mad. She thinks her caprices all right and mine 
 all wrong. I may cut her short with a word, and 
 she stops and looks at me as if I were a dead dog. 
 Any peace I may have had can only be accounted 
 for by my absolute servility, and by my fawning 
 on her like a pet spaniel. She asks too high prices 
 for the little she has to sell me. The devil! I will 
 leave her everything and go and bury myself in an 
 attic. Oh! for an attic and freedom! It is five years 
 since I have dared to have my own way!' 
 
 " Instead of going to notify his friends of the 
 change of plan, Cursy kept striding along the asphalt 
 of the boulevard, from the Rue de Richelieu to 
 the Rue du Mont-Blanc, giving way to the most 
 furious curses and ludicrous exaggerations. He was, 
 in the street, a victim to a paroxysm of rage that 
 contrasted strongly with the calmness of his manner 
 at home. His walk gradually soothed the irritation 
 of his nerves and lulled the tempest in his soul. To- 
 wards two o'clock, yielding to one of his ungoverned 
 impulses, he exclaimed: 'Those damned women 
 don't know their own minds. I lay my head to 
 wager that if I go home and tell her that I have let 
 my friends know we are to dine at the Rocherde Can- 
 cale, she will be no longer pleased with her own ar- 
 rangement. But,' he went on, 'she will have already 
 decamped. Perhaps there is an engagement on foot 
 with some coxcomb or other. No, I don't think so, 
 for she really loves me at heart.'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 405 
 
 "Ah! Madame," said Nathan, with a shrewd 
 glance at the marquise, who could not help smiling, 
 "women and prophets alone can make a true use of 
 faith." 
 
 " Du Bruel," he continued, " took me home with 
 him. We walked slowly, and it was three o'clock 
 when we reached there. Before we went upstairs 
 he noticed that somebody was stirring in the kitchen; 
 he entered it, and saw preparations there that made 
 him wink at me as he questioned the cook. 
 
 " ' Madame ordered dinner,' she answered; 'after- 
 wards she dressed and called a carriage; then she 
 changed her mind and sent away the carriage, order- 
 ing it to come back in time for the play.' 
 
 " ' Well,' cried Du Bruel, 'what did I tell you?' 
 
 "We entered the apartment on tip-toe. There 
 was nobody there. We passed from room to room, 
 till we came to a boudoir, where we caught Tullia 
 weeping. She dried her tears quite openly, saying 
 to Du Bruel: 
 
 " ' Send to the Rocker de Cancale to let your guests 
 know that they are to dine here.' 
 
 " She was dressed in a gown which no actress 
 could have invented: elegant and harmonious in 
 color and shape, simply cut, and made of some well- 
 chosen stuff that was neither too expensive nor too 
 common. It had nothing of that showy exagger- 
 ation that fools are prone to call artistic. In short, 
 she had a refined air. At the age of thirty-seven, 
 Tullia had reached the most attractive phase of a 
 Frenchwoman's beauty. The admirable oval of her
 
 406 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 face was, at that moment, divinely pale; she had 
 taken off her hat, and I observed the light down, 
 like the bloom of a fruit, that softened the tender 
 and delicate outlines of her cheek. Her face, framed 
 in its braids of blond hair, had a melancholy grace 
 about it. Her sparkling gray eyes were dimmed 
 with a mist of tears. I read some violent emotion 
 in the quivering nostrils of the little nose, that was 
 beautiful as a perfect Roman cameo; in the slightly 
 swollen veins of her long and queen-like throat; in 
 the small mouth, still child-like in its expression. 
 The momentary reddening of her chin told of her 
 secret despair; her ears burned at the tips, and her 
 gloved hands were trembling. The nervous con- 
 traction of her eyebrows betrayed her anguish. 
 She was sublime. Du Bruel was crushed by her 
 speech to him. She turned on us the piercing, 
 inscrutable, and cat-like gaze that none but women 
 of fashion and actresses possess; then she stretched 
 out her hand to Du Bruel. 
 
 "'Poor fellow!' said she; 'you had no sooner 
 gone than I reproached myself a thousand times. I 
 accused myself of base ingratitude, and I saw how 
 unkind I had been. Was I very wicked?' she 
 asked, turning to me. ' Why should I not receive 
 your friends?' she resumed. ' Are you not in your 
 own house? Should you like to know the secret of 
 all this? To tell the truth, I was afraid that you did 
 not love me. I was wavering between repentance 
 and the mortification of giving in. Then I read the 
 papers and saw there was to be a first performance
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 407 
 
 at the Varietes, so it occurred to me that you wanted 
 to entertain a colleague. Left to myself, I was 
 very silly, and dressed, so that I might go after you 
 poor dear!' 
 
 " Du Bruel threw me a victorious glance; he had 
 entirely forgotten his harangue against Tullia. 
 
 "'Well, my angel,' said he, 'I never told any- 
 body of the change of plan.' 
 
 " ' How well we understand each other!' she 
 cried. 
 
 " As she was uttering these gracious words I 
 remarked a little note she wore tucked in her belt; 
 but I needed no such token to satisfy myself that 
 Tullia's vagaries were occasioned by occult causes. 
 I believe that, next to a child, a woman is the most 
 logical being that exists. They both present the 
 sublime phenomenon of the constant triumph of a 
 single idea. A child's idea changes from minute to 
 minute; but he is interested solely and so passion- 
 ately in that one idea that everybody gives way 
 before him, fascinated by the ingenuousness, and 
 persistence of his desire. A woman is less variable; 
 to call her capricious is an ignorant affront. She 
 always acts under the mastery of some passion, and 
 it is wonderful how she makes of that passion the 
 centre of society and the whole universe. 
 
 " Tullia exerted her fascinations on Du Bruel, and 
 drew him into her toils; the sky cleared, and the 
 evening was delightful. The clever playwright 
 never knew the secret sorrow that lurked in his 
 wife's heart.
 
 408 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 " ' My dear sir,' he said to me, ' such is life: con- 
 tradictions, contrasts!' 
 
 "'Especially when they are all genuine,' I an- 
 swered. 
 
 " ' I think so,' he resumed. ' I should die of dul- 
 ness without some violent emotion. Ah! that woman 
 has power to move me!' 
 
 " After dinner we went to the Varietes; but before 
 leaving, I slipped into Du Bruel's room and found 
 on a shelf, among some waste papers, a number of 
 an advertising-sheet which contained the announce- 
 ment required for paying off a mortgage of the 
 contract for the house Du Bruel had bought. A 
 light burst upon me as I read these words: ' At the 
 request of jean-Francois du Bruel and of Claudine 
 Chaffaroux, his wife;' I understood it all. I gave 
 Claudine my arm, and allowed everybody to pass 
 on their way downstairs before us. When we were 
 alone I said: 
 
 " ' If I were La Palferine, I should always keep 
 my appointments.' 
 
 " She placed her finger gravely on her lips, and 
 pressed my arm as we went down together. I saw 
 in her eyes that she was pleased to think that I 
 knew La Palferine. Can you guess what her first 
 idea was? She wanted to make a spy of me; but I 
 answered her with a repartee from Bohemia. 
 
 " A month later I happened to be with her as we 
 were coming out from the first performance of one 
 of Du Bruel's plays; it was raining, and I ran to call 
 a cab. We had lingered a few minutes at the
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 409 
 
 theatre, and there were no more carriages to be had 
 at the entrance. Claudine scolded Du Bruel; and 
 when we finally rolled off in a carriage on our way 
 to Florine to whose house she was taking me 
 she kept up the quarrel, and rated him in the most, 
 humiliating terms. 
 
 " ' What is the matter?' I asked. 
 
 " ' My dear fellow, she is finding fault with me for 
 letting you run after the cab, and makes that an 
 excuse for wanting to set up a carriage.' 
 
 " ' When I was the first dancer at the opera,' said 
 she, ' my feet never touched anything but the 
 boards. If you had the slightest feeling, you would 
 write four plays more a year. You would be sure 
 of their success if you thought what you could do 
 with the proceeds, and that your wife need no longer 
 wade through the mud. It is a shame that I have 
 to ask for such a thing; you should be able to guess 
 the perpetual annoyance I have suffered for the last 
 five years that I have been married!' 
 
 " ' I am willing,' answered Du Bruel, ' but we shall 
 be ruined.' 
 
 "'If you get into debt,' said she, ' you can pay 
 everything with my uncle's property.' 
 
 " ' It would be like you to leave me the debts and 
 to keep the property.' 
 
 " ' If that is the way you take me,' said she, ' I 
 have nothing further to say. Such a speech from 
 you will keep my mouth shut.' 
 
 " Du Bruel immediately launched into excuses 
 and professions of affection, but she would not
 
 410 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 answer him. She let him take her hands, but 
 they were cold as a dead woman's. Tullia was a 
 proficient in playing the corpse-like role women some- 
 times assume when they wish to prove to you that 
 they will never consent to your wishes, that they 
 have shut you out from their soul, heart, and life, 
 and think themselves treated like beasts of burden. 
 No policy is more successful in wounding a loving 
 heart; but a woman can only employ it against a 
 man that adores her. 
 
 "'Do you suppose,' she asked me, contempt- 
 uously, * that a count would have offered me such 
 an insult, even if it came into his head to do so? 
 Unfortunately for me, I have lived with dukes, 
 ambassadors, and noblemen, and I know their ways. 
 That makes this middle-class life intolerable to me! 
 After all, a playwright cannot be like Rastignac or 
 Rhetore ' 
 
 " Du Bruel turned pale. Two days afterwards he 
 and I met in the lobby of the Opera; we strolled 
 about together, and fell to talking of Tullia. 
 
 " ' You must not take seriously all the nonsense I 
 talked on the boulevard,' said he; 'I have a quick 
 temper.' 
 
 " The next two winters I went often to Du Bruel's 
 house, and watched Claudine's tactics with particular 
 attention. She had a well-appointed carriage, and 
 Du Bruel threw himself into politics. She made him 
 abjure his royalist views; he recanted, and obtained 
 a position in the administration to which he had 
 formerly belonged. She made him canvass for the
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 411 
 
 votes of the National Guard, and he was elected 
 chief of a battalion. He behaved with so much 
 spirit in a riot that he rose to the rank of an officer 
 in the Legion of Honor; he was appointed maitre des 
 requestes and chief of a division. Tullia's uncle old 
 Chaffaroux died, leaving forty thousand francs a 
 year, nearly his whole fortune, to his niece. Du 
 Bruel was made deputy; but in order to avoid a 
 re-election, he managed first to get himself named 
 Counselor of State and director. He republished 
 his treatises on archaeology, his works on statistics, 
 and two political pamphlets, which became the pre- 
 text for his nomination to one of the obliging acad- 
 emies of the Institute. At present he is commander 
 of the Legion of Honor, and has been so actively 
 engaged in the intrigues of the Chamber of Deputies 
 that he has just been named peer of France and 
 made a count. He has not ventured as yet to make 
 use of his title, but his wife puts on her cards 
 La Comtesse du Bruel. The former playwright has 
 received the Order of Leopold, the Order of Isabelle, 
 the Cross of Saint-Wladimir, of the Second Class, 
 the Order of Civil Merit of Bavaria, the Papal Order 
 of the Golden Spur; in fact, he has the great Cross 
 and all the lesser ones besides. Three months ago 
 Claudine drove up to La Palferine's door in her 
 superb carriage emblazoned with armorial bearings. 
 Du Bruel is the grandson of a farmer of the revenue 
 who was ennobled toward the end of the reign of 
 Louis XIV.; his coat of arms has been composed by 
 Cherin, and the count's coronet is not amiss in his
 
 412 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 insignia, which bear no trace of imperial vulgarity. 
 Thus, in three years' time, Claudine had fulfilled 
 the conditions of the programme imposed by the gay 
 and charming La Palferine. One day, a month 
 later, in all her glory, and dressed like a true count- 
 ess of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, she climbed 
 the stairs of the wretched house where her lover 
 lodged. When she reached our friend's attic, he 
 said to her: 
 
 " ' I know that you have been made a peeress, 
 but it is too late, Claudine. Everybody tells me of 
 the Southern Cross, and I want to see it.' 
 
 " ' I will get it for you,' said she. 
 
 " La Palferine burst into a Homeric laugh. 
 
 " ' I am sure I don't want a mistress who is stupid 
 as an owl, and who flaps her wings from the green- 
 room to the court. I should rather see you at court 
 without a title.' 
 
 " ' What is the Southern Cross ?' she asked me, 
 with sad humility. 
 
 " 1 was overcome with admiration for the daunt- 
 lessness of true love, that, in real life, no less than 
 in the realms of an artless fairy-tale, is ready to 
 clamber over precipices to obtain the singing flower 
 or the roc's egg. I explained to her that the South- 
 ern Cross was a mass of nebulous matter, in the 
 shape of a cross, and more brilliant than the Milky 
 Way, which was only to be seen from the southern 
 seas. 
 
 "'Very well, Charles,' she said to him, 'let us 
 go there.'
 
 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 413 
 
 " In spite of his cruel disposition, La Palferine's 
 eyes filled with tears ; but how touching were the 
 look and accent of Claudine ! I never knew any- 
 thing that could be compared to her behavior, in 
 the most remarkable performances of the great 
 actors I have seen. As she caught sight of La 
 Palferine's eyes, usually so inexorable, but now 
 filled with tears, she fell upon her knees and kissed 
 the hand of her merciless lover. He raised her 
 and assuming his grand manner, that he called the 
 manner of the Rusticoli, he said to her : 
 
 " ' Come, my dear, I will do something for you. 
 I will put you in my will! ' " 
 
 " Now," said Nathan to Madame de Rochefide, in 
 conclusion, " I cannot make out whether Du Bruel 
 is deceived or not. There can certainly be nothing 
 droller or stranger than to see a reckless young man 
 controlling a house and family. His slightest caprices 
 rule the household, and countermand its most serious 
 resolutions. You may be sure that the circumstance 
 of the dinner has been repeated a thousand times, 
 and in concerns of a far more important nature. Yet, 
 without his wife's whims, Du Bruel would still be De 
 Cursy, one among five hundred other playwrights; 
 whereas he is now in the Chamber of Peers " 
 
 "You will change the names, I hope," said 
 Nathan to Madame de la Baudraye. 
 
 " I should think so! I gave the characters names 
 for you only. My dear Nathan," whispered she in 
 the poet's ear, " I know another family in which 
 the wife acts the part of Du Bruel."
 
 414 A PRINCE OF BOHEMIA 
 
 " And what is the catastrophe? " asked Loustcau, 
 who came in just as Madame de la Baudraye was 
 finishing her story. 
 
 " I do not believe in catastrophes," said Madame 
 de la Baudraye, "though it is sometimes necessary 
 to invent them to prove that art is strong as chance; 
 but, my dear friend, we only read a story on account 
 of its details." 
 
 " Still, there is a catastrophe," said Nathan. 
 
 " What is it? " asked Madame de la Baudraye. 
 
 " The Marquise de Rochefide is fascinated with 
 Charles-Edouard. My tale has aroused her curi- 
 osity." 
 
 "Oh, poor thing! how unlucky! " cried Madame 
 de la Baudraye. 
 
 " No, not so unlucky," said Nathan, " for Maxime 
 de Trailles and La Palferine have made the marquis 
 quarrel with Madame Schontz, and are going to 
 reconcile Arthur and Beatrix." See Beatrix. 
 
 183^-1845.
 
 GAUDISSART 11
 
 TO MADAME LA PRINCESSE CR1STMA DE BELGIOJOSO 
 NEE TRIYULCE
 
 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 To know how to sell, to be able to sell, and to 
 sell! The public is not aware how much Paris owes 
 its greatness to these three phases of the same 
 question. The display at the stores as rich as the 
 salons of the nobility before 1789, the splendor of 
 the cafes, which often surpasses, easily, those of the 
 new Versailles; the poems in display, destroyed 
 each evening and reconstructed each morning; the 
 elegance and grace of the young men when talking 
 with the purchasers, the piquant faces and the 
 toilets of the young girls who endeavor to attract the 
 shoppers, and lastly, in more recent times, the 
 recesses, the immense spaces and Babylonian 
 luxury of the passages where the merchants bring 
 together their specialti >s, all this is nothing it still 
 remains to please the most greedy and blase organ 
 of man since Roman days the requirements of 
 which has developed beyond all bounds, thanks to 
 the most refined civilization. This organ is the eye 
 of the Parisian! This eye sees fireworks which cost 
 a hundred thousand francs, palaces five-eighths of a 
 mile in length by a height of sixty feet, in many colored 
 glasses, fairylands at fourteen theatres every even- 
 ing, renewed panoramas, continual expositions of 
 master-pieces, people both sad and gay promenading 
 (419)
 
 420 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 on the boulevards or going to and fro in the streets, 
 encyclopedias of carnival rags, twenty illustrated 
 works a year, a thousand caricatures, ten thousand 
 pictures, lithographs and engravings. This eye sees 
 by fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas every 
 evening; and lastly, to satisfy it, the city of Paris 
 expends annually some millions in observatories and 
 cultivated spaces. Arid this is not enough! this is 
 only one side of the question. This is yet, we 
 believe, little in comparison to the intelligence, and 
 diplomacy worthy of Moliere, employed by the 
 sixty thousand clerks and forty thousand young 
 women who beset the shoppers' purse, as myriads 
 of whitebait would seize upon pieces of bread float- 
 ing on the waters of the Seine. 
 
 Gaudissart at his place of business is at least equal 
 in capacity, intellect, wit and philosophy to the 
 illustrious traveling salesman who has become the 
 type of his class. Away from his store he is like a 
 balloon without gas; and only owes his greatness to 
 his surroundings, the same as an actor who is only 
 sublime in his theatre. Although compared with 
 other merchant clerks of Europe, the French sales- 
 man is better instructed, as it is necessary for him to 
 speak about asphalt, the ball Mabille, the polka, 
 literature, the most noted books, railways, politics, 
 the news of the Chamber of Deputies and Revolu- 
 tions. He is so much confused when he leaves his 
 springing-board, his yard-stick and his trade and his 
 politeness to order; but, there, governed by the rigid 
 rules of the store, he talks glibly with an eye to
 
 GAUDISSART II. 421 
 
 business, and, with the shawl in his hand, he eclipses 
 the great Talleyrand; he has more wit than 
 Desaugiers, more finesse than Cleopatra, equals 
 Monrose, and outdoes Moliere. At home Talleyrand 
 would have played Gaudissart, but in his shop, 
 Gaudissart would have played Talleyrand. 
 
 Let us explain this paradox by an instance: 
 
 Two pretty duchesses chatted at the side of an 
 illustrious prince; they wished a bracelet. They 
 awaited a clerk, with bracelets, from one of the 
 most celebrated jewelers of Paris. He arrives bring- 
 ing three marvelous samples; in comparing them 
 the two women hesitated to choose! It is the flash 
 of intelligence. Hesitate you are lost. Taste has 
 not two inspirations. Finally, after ten minutes, 
 the prince is consulted; he sees the two duchesses 
 struggling with a thousand uncertainties between 
 the two finest of these, because at the outset one 
 had been laid aside. The prince, without ceasing his 
 reading, does not look at the bracelet; he examines 
 the clerk. 
 
 " Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" 
 he asks. 
 
 The young man points to one of the jewels. 
 
 " In that case take the other; you will gain the 
 good-will of two women," said the most finished of 
 modern diplomats; "and, young man, give it in my 
 name to your happy sweetheart." 
 
 The two pretty ladies smiled and the clerk retired, 
 as much flattered by the present the prince had 
 given him as by the good opinion he has of him.
 
 422 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 A woman descends from a handsome equipage, 
 which stops at the Rue Vivienne, before one of 
 those sumptuous stores where shawls are sold; she 
 is accompanied by another woman. There are 
 usually two together on these expeditions. Almost 
 always, as in this instance, they walk through ten 
 stores before buying, and amuse themselves, when 
 going from one to another, with the efforts of the 
 clerks. Let us find out which is the smarter, the 
 buyer or the seller? which of the two comes out 
 the better in this farce? 
 
 When an attempt is made to depict the greatest 
 triumph of Parisian trade, the sale! it is necessary 
 to give an example to illustrate the subject. Now 
 in this case the shawl or chatelaine worth three thou- 
 sand francs would cause more excitement than the 
 price of batiste, or the dress worth three hundred 
 francs. But, oh, strangers to both sides! however 
 much you may believe of this statement, know that 
 this scene is enacted in the fashionable stores for 
 barege at two francs as well as for muslin at four 
 francs a yard! 
 
 i Princesses and ordinary people, how can you dis- 
 trust this fine young man, with cheeks like velvet 
 and the color of a peach, two honest eyes, and who 
 is nearly as well dressed as your your cousin, 
 and endowed with a voice as soft as the fleecy 
 wool he shows you? There are three or four like 
 him. One, with black eyes, says to you: "See 
 there!" with an imperial air. The other has timid 
 and submissive blue eyes which make you say to
 
 GAUDISSART II. 423 
 
 yourself: " Poor fellow! he is not born for busi- 
 ness." A'third has light chestnut hair, a yellow, 
 laughing eye, pleasant manners, is gifted with 
 activity and southern jollity. A fourth, with a fawn- 
 colored, fan-shaped beard, is stiff as a communist, 
 severe, imposing, with a frightful cravat, and of few 
 words. 
 
 These different kinds of clerks, who respond to 
 the principal characters of women, are the strength 
 of their employer, a large, good-natured, generous 
 person, whose forehead runs far back, and who has 
 a paunch like a ministerial delegate, and is some- 
 times decorated with the badge of the Legion of Honor 
 received for maintaining the supremacy of French 
 trade, who presents an outline of pleasing round- 
 ness, has a wife, children, a house in the country 
 and a bank account. This personage descends in 
 the workshop as the Deus ex machina, when any 
 disturbances need to be adjusted. Thus the women 
 are surrounded by good nature, youth, graciousness, 
 smiles, pleasantries, all that civilization can offer 
 the most simple, the most specious, and all arranged 
 by delicate gradations suiting every taste. 
 
 A word about the physical effects of optics, of 
 architecture, of decoration; a brief word, decisive, 
 terrible; a word which has made for itself a place in 
 history. The book within which you read this 
 instructive page is sold at No. 76 in the Rue de 
 Richelieu, in an elegant shop, white and gold, hung 
 with red velvet, and which has a room in the entresol 
 where the broad daylight comes in through Rue
 
 424 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 de Menars, as it would in a studio, clear, pure and 
 unobstructed, always the same. What passer-by has 
 not admired le Persan, that King of Asia, which is 
 situated at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and 
 Rue de Richelieu, charged with saying urbi et arbi: 
 " I reign more tranquilly here than at Lahore." 
 During five hundred years this carving at the 
 corner of these two streets might have occupied 
 archaeologists without this immortal analysis, in 
 making illustrated quarto volumes about it, like those 
 by Monsieur Quatremere on the Olympian Jupiter, 
 which would show that Napoleon had been a small 
 personage in some country of the East before being 
 Emperor of the French. Be that as it may, this 
 elegant store laid siege to this poor little entresol 
 and by force of bank notes become possessed of it. 
 LA COMEDIE HUMAINE has yielded the place to the 
 Comedie of Cashmeres. Le Persan has sacrificed 
 some diamonds from his crown to obtain all this 
 necessary light. This ray of sunlight increases the 
 sales a hundred per cent, because of its effect on 
 colors; its brings in relief all the beauties of the 
 shawls, this bewitching light, this golden ray! By 
 this fact, judge of the attention given to arranging 
 the stores of Paris! 
 
 Let us return to these young people, to this 
 decorated quadragenarian, entertained at the table 
 of the King of France, to this head-clerk with the 
 reddish beard, with the aristocratic air. These 
 accomplished Gaudissarts deal with a thousand 
 caprices a week, they know all the vibrations of the
 
 GAUDISSART II. 425 
 
 purse-strings in the hearts of women. When a 
 lorette, a quiet lady, a young matron, a fashionable 
 woman, a duchess, a middle-class person, a boldfaced 
 dancer, a pure young girl, or a very innocent stranger 
 appears, each is immediately analyzed by these 
 seven or eight men who have studied them from 
 the moment of their entrance, and who station them- 
 selves at the windows, at the counter, at the door, 
 at a corner, and in the centre of the store, with a 
 holiday air, as if contemplating a free-and-easy Sun- 
 day: which makes one ask one's self, " Of what 
 are they thinking?" A woman's purse, her wishes, 
 her intentions, her fancies are better found out there 
 in one moment than the custom-house officers could 
 search a suspected coach on the frontier in seven 
 quarters of an hour. These intelligent dogs play 
 seriously the staid old man, having seen everything 
 in detail; the almost invisible imprint of a muddy 
 boot, the least shabbiness, a mussed or badly chosen 
 hat ribbon, the cut and fashion of a dress, the new- 
 ness of the gloves, a dress cut by the skilful scissors 
 of Victorine IV., the jewel of Froment-Meurice, the 
 fashionable trinket, and finally all that goes to show 
 in a woman, her station, her fortune, and her char- 
 acter. Tremble, then! Never has this sanhedrim 
 of Gaudissarts, directed by its employer, been mis- 
 taken. Then the thoughts of each are transmitted 
 by glances from one to the other with the quickness 
 of the telegraph, by means of a nervous twitching, 
 smiles, movements of the lips, which, observing, you 
 would say that their thoughts lighted up the clerk's
 
 426 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 eyes, like the sudden lighting of the Champs-Elysees, 
 where the gas flies from candelabra to candelabra. 
 
 And, if it is an English lady, immediately the 
 solemn, mysterious and unlucky salesman advances, 
 like one of Lord Byron's romantic characters. 
 
 If it is a middle-class person, the most experienced 
 clerk is sent to her; he shows her a hundred shawls 
 in a quarter of an hour, and bewilders her with the 
 colors and designs; he unfolds as many shawls as 
 a hawk makes curves before descending upon a 
 rabbit; and at the end of half an hour she is so 
 troubled that she does not know what to choose, 
 and the worthy bourgeoise, humored in all her 
 fancies, refers to the clerk, who places her on the 
 horns of the dilemma by the equal beauties of two 
 shawls. 
 
 " This one, madame, is very fine; it is apple- 
 green, the fashionable color, but the fashion changes; 
 so much so that this one the black and white which 
 is in great demand will last you much longer, and 
 it will go with all toilets." 
 
 This is the A B C of the profession. 
 
 It is almost impossible to believe how much elo- 
 quence is necessary in this wretched business. 
 Finally the chief salesman of the establishment said, 
 while speaking with two of his friends, Duronceret 
 and Bixiou, who had come to have him select a 
 shawl for them, " Stay, you are discreet artists; 
 you can cater to the tastes of our employer, who 
 certainly is the most difficult man to please whom I 
 have seen. I do not speak as a merchant. Monsieur
 
 GAUDISSART IF. 427 
 
 Fritot is the first; for, as a dealer, he has in- 
 vented the Selim shawl, a shawl impossible to sell, 
 and which we always dispose of. We keep in a 
 cedar-wood box loosely, but folded in satin, a shawl 
 of five or six hundred francs, a shawl sent by 
 Selim to the Emperor Napoleon. This shawl is our 
 treasure, we show it as a last resort: if it sells there 
 are yet more." 
 
 At this moment an English lady descends from 
 her cab and appears in all the stolidity peculiar to 
 England and to anything from there which is sup- 
 posed to be alive. She looked like the statue of a 
 commander walking by sudden lurches. 
 
 "The Englishwoman," he whispered to Bixiou. 
 " This is our Battle of Waterloo. We have women 
 who slip through our fingers like eels, and who, 
 having got as far as the stairs, are persuaded to 
 return; the dashing women who joke with us, one 
 laughs at them and takes them on credit; indescrib- 
 able strangers who have shawls sent to their houses 
 and whom it is necessary to flatter. But the 
 English! It is like attacking the bronze statue of 
 Louis XIV. These women make shopping an occu- 
 pation and take pleasure in bargaining. They 
 make us alert! " 
 
 The romantic clerk comes forward. 
 
 " Does madame wish an Indian or French shawl; 
 high-priced or ? " 
 
 "I will see." 
 
 "What amount does madame wish to spend? " 
 
 " I will see."
 
 428 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 Returning to get the shawls and lay them on a 
 rail, the clerk throws a glance to his colleagues, 
 signifying "What a bore!" accompanied by an im- 
 perceptible movement of the shoulders. 
 
 " These are our best quality in Indian red, in blue 
 and in orange; all are ten thousand francs. These are 
 five thousand, and those others three thousand." 
 
 The Englishwoman, in a gloomily indifferent 
 manner, gazes at first all around her before looking 
 at the three specimens exhibited, without giving the 
 slightest sign of approval or disapproval. 
 
 "Have you others?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes, madame. But perhaps madame has not 
 decided to buy a shawl to-day?" 
 
 "Fully decided." 
 
 And the clerk departs to find shawls of less price; 
 but he shows them solemnly as things of which one 
 seems to say: " Look at these magnificent crea- 
 tions!" 
 
 " These are much dearer," said he; " they have 
 not been used; they have come by couriers, and 
 bought directly from the makers at Lahore." 
 
 "Oh! I understand," she said; "they suit me 
 very much better." 
 
 The clerk remained serious, notwithstanding his 
 interior irritation, which prepossessed Duronceret 
 and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, always cool as 
 water-cress, seemed happy in her stolidity. 
 
 "How much is it?" she asked, showing a shawl 
 of heavenly blue, covered with birds nestling in the 
 pagodas.
 
 GAUDISSART II. 429 
 
 " Seven thousand francs." 
 
 She took the shawl and put it around her, and 
 looking in the glass said, in returning it: 
 
 "No, I do not like it." 
 
 Fully a quarter of an hour passed in these fruit- 
 less efforts. 
 
 "We have nothing more, madame," said the 
 clerk, looking at his employer. 
 
 "Madame, like all persons of taste, is difficult to 
 please," said the head of the establishment advanc- 
 ing with all the graces of the shopkeeper, and 
 agreeable mixture of pretentiousness and coaxing. 
 
 The Englishwoman surveyed him, through her 
 glass, from head to foot, without wishing to see that 
 this man was an eligible person and dined at the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 "There is yet one shawl, but I never show it," 
 he said; " no one has found it to her taste; it is very 
 odd; and this morning, I thought of giving it to my 
 wife: we have had it since 1805; it belonged to the 
 Empress Josephine." 
 
 " Let us see it, sir." 
 
 "Get it!" said the employer to a clerk; "it is 
 at my house." 
 
 " I should be very much better satisfied to see it," 
 replied the Englishwoman. This reply was a tri- 
 umph, because this exasperating woman seemed on 
 the point of going. She appeared not to see the 
 shawls, she was so occupied looking at the clerks 
 and the two buyers hypocritically, while shading her 
 eyes with the handle of her eye-glass.
 
 430 GAUDISSART II. 
 
 "It cost sixty thousand francs in Turkey, 
 madame." 
 "Oh!" 
 
 " It is one of seven shawls sent by Selim, before 
 his disasters, to the Emperor Napoleon. The 
 j Empress Josephine, a Creole, who, as my lady knows, 
 was very capricious, exchanged it for one brought 
 over by the Turkish ambassador and which my 
 predecessor had bought; but I have never found 
 anyone willing to give its price; because, in France, 
 our ladies are not rich enough; it is not here as it is 
 in England. This shawl is worth seven thousand 
 francs, which really represents fourteen or fifteen 
 compound interest." 
 
 "Compounded of what?" said the English- 
 woman. 
 
 " Here it is, madame." 
 
 And the shopkeeper, having taken those precau- 
 tions which the leaders of the Green Vaults of Dresden 
 would have admired, opened with a very small key 
 a box of carved cedar-wood, the effect of which 
 produced a deep impression on the Englishwoman. 
 From this box, lined with black satin, he brought out 
 a shawl worth about fifteen hundred francs, of a 
 golden yellow with black figures, whose splendor 
 could only be surpassed by the eccentricity of the 
 Indian invention. 
 
 "Splendid!" cried the Englishwoman; "it is 
 indeed beautiful. This is my ideal shawl ! it is very 
 magnificent " 
 
 The rest was lost in a Madonna-like pose which
 
 GAUDISSART II. 431 
 
 she took in order to show her cold eyes, which she 
 considered handsome. 
 
 " The Emperor Napoleon liked it very much; he 
 used it" 
 
 "Very well," she replied. 
 
 She took the shawl, wrapped it around her and! 
 examined herself. The owner took the shawl, and 
 seeing at last light through this problem, the hobby, 
 made it show to good advantage; he played with it 
 as Liszt played the piano. 
 
 "This is very fine, beautiful, sweet!" said the 
 Englishwoman, with a perfectly tranquil air. 
 
 Duronceret, Bixiou, and the clerks exchanged 
 looks of delight which signified: 
 
 "The shawl is sold." 
 
 "Well, madame?" asked the merchant, seeing the 
 Englishwoman absorbed in lengthy contemplation. 
 
 " I prefer a carriage," she said, on thinking it 
 over. 
 
 The silent and attentive clerks started as if 
 touched by electricity. 
 
 " I have a very beautiful one, madame," quietly 
 replied the shopkeeper, "which came to me from a, 
 Russian Princess, the Princess Narzicof, who left it 
 with me in payment for furniture; if madame cares 
 to see it, she will be surprised: it is new, having 
 only been put away ten days, and it has not its 
 equal in Paris." 
 
 The amazement of the clerks was only held in 
 check by their admiration. 
 
 " I would much like to see it," she replied.
 
 432 GAUD1SSART II. 
 
 "If madame would keep the shawl on," said 
 the shopkeeper, "she can see the effect in the 
 carriage." 
 
 He then took his gloves and his hat. " How will 
 it end?" said the chief clerk, seeing his employer 
 offering his hand to the Englishwoman and going 
 away with her in the cab. 
 
 This savored of a romantic finish to Duronceret 
 and Bixiou, beyond the interest attached to all con- 
 tests, even small ones, between England and France. 
 
 Twenty minutes later the employer returned. 
 
 "Go to the H&tel Lawson, here is the card: 
 ' Mrs. Noswell.' Carry this bill I will give to you, 
 and receive six thousand francs." 
 
 "And how have you done it?" said Duronceret, 
 saluting this king of invoices. 
 
 "Eh! sir, I have seen this kind of eccentric 
 woman; she likes to be remarked: when she saw 
 everyone looking at her shawl, she said to me, 
 ' upon reflection, keep your carriage, sir; I take the 
 shawl.'" 
 
 "While Monsieur Bigorneau," said he, pointing to 
 the romantic clerk, " was showing her the shawls, I 
 studied my customer; she was much more interested 
 in discerning your opinion of her. She thought 
 more of you than of the shawls. The Englishwoman 
 has a particular distaste because it cannot be 
 called taste in not knowing what she wants 
 and is determined to buy as soon as she finds a 
 bargain. I have known such women to tire of their 
 husbands, their children, sadly conscientious, in
 
 GAL'DISSART II. 433 
 
 search of sensations, and always posing as weeping 
 willows.''' 
 
 That is literally what the chief of the establish- 
 ment said. 
 
 This proves that a shopkeeper in other countries 
 is not so much of a shopkeeper as in France, and 
 above all in Paris; he is a man from the royal 
 college, educated, loving the arts, or fishing, or the 
 theatre, or filled with the desire to be the successor 
 to Monsieur Cunin-Gridaine, or colonel of the 
 National Guard, or member of the Council General 
 of the Seine, or president of the Tribune of Com- 
 merce. 
 
 " Monsieur Adolphe," said the wife of the manu- 
 facturer to his little blond clerk, " go order a box of 
 cedar-wood at the toy makers " 
 
 "And," said the clerk while escorting out Du- 
 ronceret and Bixiou, who had chosen a shawl for 
 Madame Schontz, " we will go to see among our old 
 shawls one which will take the place of the shawl 
 of Selim." 
 
 Paris, November, 1844.
 
 
 
 
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