the theatre. In the first room as you enter you will find the office
servant; in the second, the under-clerks; the private office of the
second head-clerk is to the right or left, and further on is that of
the head of the bureau. As to the important personage called, under
the Empire, head of division, then, under the Restoration, director,
and now by the former name, head or chief of division, he lives either
above or below the offices of his three or four different bureaus.

Speaking in the administrative sense, a bureau consists of a
man-servant, several supernumeraries (who do the work gratis for a
certain number of years), various copying clerks, writers of bills and
deeds, order clerks, principal clerks, second or under head-clerk, and
head-clerk, otherwise called head or chief of the bureau. These
denominational titles vary under some administrations; for instance,
the order-clerks are sometimes called auditors, or again,
book-keepers.

Paved like the corridor, and hung with a shabby paper, the first room,
where the servant is stationed, is furnished with a stove, a large
black table with inkstand, pens, and paper, and benches, but no mats
on which to wipe the public feet. The clerk's office beyond is a large
room, tolerably well lighted, but seldom floored with wood. Wooden
floors and fireplaces are commonly kept sacred to heads of bureaus and
divisions; and so are closets, wardrobes, mahogany tables, sofas and
armchairs covered with red or green morocco, silk curtains, and other
articles of administrative luxury. The clerk's office contents itself
with a stove, the pipe of which goes into the chimney, if there be a
chimney. The wall paper is plain and all of one color, usually green
or brown. The tables are of black wood. The private characteristics of
the several clerks often crop out in their method of settling