heard that Jesuit of a Dutocq had got here before him."

"I have told him a dozen times,--for after all one ought to tell the
truth to an honest clerk, and what I call an honest clerk is one like
that little fellow who gives us 'recta' his ten francs on New-Year's
day,--I have said to him again and again: The more you work the more
they'll make you work, and they won't promote you. He doesn't listen
to me; he tires himself out staying here till five o'clock, an hour
after all the others have gone. Folly! he'll never get on that way!
The proof is that not a word has been said about giving him an
appointment, though he has been here two years. It's a shame! it makes
my blood boil."

"Monsieur Rabourdin is very fond of Monsieur Sebastien," said Laurent.

"But Monsieur Rabourdin isn't a minister," retorted Antoine; "it will
be a hot day when that happens, and the hens will have teeth; he is
too--but mum! When I think that I carry salaries to those humbugs who
stay away and do as they please, while that poor little La Roche works
himself to death, I ask myself if God ever thinks of the civil
service. And what do they give you, these pets of Monsieur le marechal
and Monsieur le duc? 'Thank you, my dear Antoine, thank you,' with a
gracious nod! Pack of sluggards! go to work, or you'll bring another
revolution about your ears. Didn't see such goings-on under Monsieur
Robert Lindet. I know, for I served my apprenticeship under Robert
Lindet. The clerks had to work in his day! You ought to have seen how
they scratched paper here till midnight; why, the stoves went out and
nobody noticed it. It was all because the guillotine was there!
now-a-days they only mark 'em when they come in late!"