zation, which mistakes perpetual division and
redivision for progress, an unhappy civil service clerk, like Chazelle
for instance, is forced to dine for twenty-two sous a meal, struggles
with his tailor and bootmaker, gets into debt, and is an absolute
nothing; worse than that, he becomes an idiot! Come, gentlemen, now's
the time to make a stand! Let us all give in our resignations! Fleury,
Chazelle, fling yourselves into other employments and become the great
men you really are."

Chazelle [calmed down by Bixiou's allocution]. "No, I thank you"
[general laughter].

Bixiou. "You are wrong; in your situation I should try to get ahead of
the general-secretary."

Chazelle [uneasily]. "What has he to do with me?"

Bixiou. "You'll find out; do you suppose Baudoyer will overlook what
happened just now?"

Fleury. "Another piece of Bixiou's spite! You've a queer fellow to deal
with in there. Now, Monsieur Rabourdin,--there's a man for you! He put
work on my table to-day that you couldn't get through within this office
in three days; well, he expects me to have it done by four o'clock
to-day. But he is not always at my heels to hinder me from talking to my
friends."

Baudoyer [appearing at the door]. "Gentlemen, you will admit that if
you have the legal right to find fault with the chamber and the
administration you must at least do so elsewhere than in this office."
[To Fleury.] "What are you doing here, monsieur?"

Fleury [insolently]. "I came to tell these gentlemen that there was to
be a general turn-out. Du Bruel is sent for to the ministry, and Dutocq
also. Everybody is asking who will be appointed."

Baudoyer [retiring]. "It is not your affair, sir; go back to your own
office, and do not disturb mine."

Fleury [in the doorway]. "It would be a shameful injustice if Rabourdin
lost the place; I swear I'd leave the service. Did you find that
anagram, papa Colleville?"

Colleville. "Yes, here it is."

Fleury [leaning over Colleville's desk]. "Capital! famous! This is just
what will happen if the administration continues to play the hypocrite."
[He makes a sign to the clerks that Baudoyer is listening.] "If the
government would frankly state its intentions without concealments
of any kind, the liberals would know what they had to deal with. An
administration which sets its best friends against itself, such men as
those of the 'Debats,' Chateaubriand, and Royer-Collard, is only to be
pitied!"

Colleville [after