ll at
the theatre turning the Wheel of Fortune, don't we, du Bruel? Why do I
care who gets the place? simply because if Baudoyer does he will make me
under-head-clerk" [goes out].

Poiret. "Everybody says that man is clever, but as for me, I can never
understand a word he says" [goes on copying]. "I listen and listen; I
hear words, but I never get at any meaning; he talks about the environs
of Paris when he discusses the human heart and" [lays down his pen and
goes to the stove] "declares he backs the devil's game when it is a
question of Russia and Boulogne; now what is there so clever in that,
I'd like to know? We must first admit that the devil plays any game at
all, and then find out what game; possibly dominoes" [blows his nose].

Fleury [interrupting]. "Pere Poiret is blowing his nose; it must be
eleven o'clock."

Du Bruel. "So it is! Goodness! I'm off to the secretary; he wants to
read the obituary."

Poiret. "What was I saying?"

Thuillier. "Dominoes,--perhaps the devil plays dominoes." [Sebastien
enters to gather up the different papers and circulars for signature.]

Vimeux. "Ah! there you are, my fine young man. Your days of hardship are
nearly over; you'll get a post. Monsieur Rabourdin will be appointed.
Weren't you at Madame Rabourdin's last night? Lucky fellow! they say
that really superb women go there."

Sebastien. "Do they? I didn't know."

Fleury. "Are you blind?"

Sebastien. "I don't like to look at what I ought not to see."

Phellion [delighted]. "Well said, young man!"

Vimeux. "The devil! well, you looked at Madame Rabourdin enough, any
how; a charming woman."

Fleury. "Pooh! thin as a rail. I saw her in the Tuileries, and I much
prefer Percilliee, the ballet-mistress, Castaing's victim."

Phellion. "What has an actress to do with the wife of a government
official?"

Dutocq. "They both play comedy."

Fleury [looking askance at Dutocq]. "The physical has nothing to do with
the moral, and if you mean--"

Dutocq. "I mean nothing."

Fleury. "Do you all want to know which of us will really be made head of
this bureau?"

All. "Yes, tell us."

Fleury. "Colleville."

Thuillier. "Why?"

Fleury. "Because Madame Colleville has taken the shortest way to
it--through the sacristy."

Thuillier. "I am too much Colleville's friend not to beg you, Monsieur
Fleury, to speak respectfully of his wife."

Phellion. "A defenceless woman should never be made the subject of
conversation here