r purpose.

Bixiou (pronounce it Bisiou) was a draughtsman, who ridiculed Dutocq
as readily as he did Rabourdin, whom he nicknamed "the virtuous woman."
Without doubt the cleverest man in the division or even in the ministry
(but clever after the fashion of a monkey, without aim or sequence),
Bixiou was so essentially useful to Baudoyer and Godard that they upheld
and protected him in spite of his misconduct; for he did their work when
they were incapable of doing it for themselves. Bixiou wanted either
Godard's or du Bruel's place as under-head-clerk, but his conduct
interfered with his promotion. Sometimes he sneered at the public
service; this was usually after he had made some happy hit, such as the
publication of portraits in the famous Fualdes case (for which he drew
faces hap-hazard), or his sketch of the debate on the Castaing affair.
At other times, when possessed with a desire to get on, he really
applied himself to work, though he would soon leave off to write a
vaudeville, which was never finished. A thorough egoist, a spendthrift
and a miser in one,--that is to say, spending his money solely on
himself,--sharp, aggressive, and indiscreet, he did mischief for
mischief's sake; above all, he attacked the weak, respected nothing and
believed in nothing, neither in France, nor in God, nor in art, nor
in the Greeks, nor in the Turks, nor in the monarchy,--insulting and
disparaging everything that he could not comprehend. He was the first
to paint a black cap on Charles X.'s head on the five-franc coins. He
mimicked Dr. Gall when lecturing, till he made the most starched of
diplomatists burst their buttons. Famous for his practical jokes, he
varied them with such elaborate care that he always obtained a victim.
His great secret in this was the power of guessing the inmost wishes of
others; he knew the way to many a castle in the air, to the dreams about
which a man may be fooled because he wants to be; and he made such men
sit to him for hours.

Thus it happened that this close observer, who could display unrivalled
tact in developing a joke or driving home a sarcasm, was unable to use
the same power to make men further his fortunes and promote him. The
person he most liked to annoy was young La Billardiere, his nightmare,
his detestation, whom he was nevertheless constantly wheedling so as
the better to torment him on his weakest side. He wrote him love letters
signed "Comtesse de M----" or "Marquise de B--"; to