ne, who had recently retired on a pension.

"Well, Laurent, how is your chief of division going on?"

"Oh, don't talk to me about him; I can't do anything with him. He
rings me up to ask if I have seen his handkerchief or his snuff-box. He
receives people without making them wait; in short, he hasn't a bit of
dignity. I'm often obliged to say to him: But, monsieur, monsieur le
comte your predecessor, for the credit of the thing, used to punch
holes with his penknife in the arms of his chair to make believe he
was working. And he makes such a mess of his room. I find everything
topsy-turvy. He has a very small mind. How about your man?"

"Mine? Oh, I have succeeded in training him. He knows exactly where his
letter-paper and envelopes, his wood, and his boxes and all the rest of
his things are. The other man used to swear at me, but this one is as
meek as a lamb,--still, he hasn't the grand style! Moreover, he isn't
decorated, and I don't like to serve a chief who isn't; he might be
taken for one of us, and that's humiliating. He carries the office
letter-paper home, and asked me if I couldn't go there and wait at table
when there was company."

"Hey! what a government, my dear fellow!"

"Yes, indeed; everybody plays low in these days."

"I hope they won't cut down our poor wages."

"I'm afraid they will. The Chambers are prying into everything. Why,
they even count the sticks of wood."

"Well, it can't last long if they go on that way."

"Hush, we're caught! somebody is listening."

"Hey! it is the late Monsieur Rabourdin. Ah, monsieur, I knew your step.
If you have business to transact here I am afraid you will not find any
one who is aware of the respect that ought to be paid to you; Laurent
and I are the only persons remaining about the place who were here in
your day. Messieurs Colleville and Baudoyer didn't wear out the morocco
of the chairs after you left. Heavens, no! six months later they were
made Collectors of Paris."

* * * * *

Note.--Anagrams cannot, of course, be translated; that is why three
English ones have been substituted for some in French. [Tr.]

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Baudoyer, Isidore
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons

Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincia