bonds of affection. A government office is, in short, a microcosm of
society, with its oddities and hatreds, its envy and its cupidity, its
determination to push on, no matter who goes under, its frivolous
gossip which gives so many wounds, and its perpetual spying.



CHAPTER V

THE MACHINE IN MOTION

At this moment the division of Monsieur de la Billardiere was in a
state of unusual excitement, resulting very naturally from the event
which was about to happen; for heads of divisions do not die every
day, and there is no insurance office where the chances of life and
death are calculated with more sagacity than in a government bureau.
Self-interest stifles all compassion, as it does in children, but the
government service adds hypocrisy to boot.

The clerks of the bureau Baudoyer arrived at eight o'clock in the
morning, whereas those of the bureau Rabourdin seldom appeared till
nine,--a circumstance which did not prevent the work in the latter
office from being more rapidly dispatched than that of the former.
Dutocq had important reasons for coming early on this particular
morning. The previous evening he had furtively entered the study where
Sebastien was at work, and had seen him copying some papers for
Rabourdin; he concealed himself until he saw Sebastien leave the
premises without taking any papers away with him. Certain, therefore,
of finding the rather voluminous memorandum which he had seen,
together with its copy, in some corner of the study, he searched