ocher de Cancale. But a serious question presents itself. Is that
dinner to include the clerks who are dismissed?"

Poiret. "And those who retire?"

Bixiou. "Not that I care, for it isn't I who pay." [General
stupefaction.] "Baudoyer is appointed. I think I already hear him
calling Laurent" [mimicking Baudoyer], "Laurent! lock up my hair-shirt,
and my scourge." [They all roar with laughter.] "Yes, yes, he laughs
well who laughs last. Gentlemen, there's a great deal in that anagram of
Colleville's. 'Xavier Rabourdin, chef de bureau--D'abord reva bureaux,
e-u fin riche.' If I were named 'Charles X., par la grace de Dieu roi
de France et de Navarre,' I should tremble in my shoes at the fate those
letters anagrammatize."

Thuillier. "Look here! are you making fun?"

Bixiou. "No, I am not. Rabourdin resigns in a rage at finding Baudoyer
appointed director."

Vimeux [entering.] "Nonsense, no such thing! Antoine (to whom I have
just been paying forty francs that I owed him) tells me that Monsieur
and Madame Rabourdin were at the minister's private party last night and
stayed till midnight. His Excellency escorted Madame Rabourdin to the
staircase. It seems she was divinely dressed. In short, it is quite
certain that Rabourdin is to be director. Riffe, the secretary's copying
clerk, told me he sat up all the night before to draw the papers; it is
no longer a secret. Monsieur Clergeot is retired. After thirty years'
service that's no misfortune. Monsieur Cochlin, who is rich--"

Bixiou. "By cochineal."

Vimeux. "Yes, cochineal; he's a partner in the house of Matifat, rue des
Lombards. Well, he is retired; so is Poiret. Neither is to be replaced.
So much is certain; the rest is all conjecture. The appointment of
Monsieur Rabourdin is to be announced this morning; they are afraid of
intrigues."

Bixiou. "What intrigues?"

Fleury. "Baudoyer's, confound him! The priests uphold him; here's
another article in the liberal journal,--only half a dozen lines, but
they are queer" [reads]:

"Certain persons spoke last night in the lobby of the Opera-house
of the return of Monsieur de Chateaubriand to the ministry, basing
their opinion on the choice made of Monsieur Rabourdin (the
protege of friends of the noble viscount) to fill the office for
which Monsieur Baudoyer was first selected. The clerical party is
not likely to withdraw unless in deference to the great writer.

"Blackguards!"

Dutocq [entering, having