roll.

After trying to get a few reasonable ideas into this foolish head,
Rabourdin had finally given up the attempt as hopeless. Adolphe (his
family name was Adolphe) had lately economized on dinners and lived
entirely on bread and water, to buy a pair of spurs and a riding-whip.
Jokes at the expense of this starving Amadis were made only in the
spirit of mischievous fun which creates vaudevilles, for he was really
a kind-hearted fellow and a good comrade, who harmed no one but
himself. A standing joke in the two bureaus was the question whether
he wore corsets, and bets depended on it. Vimeux was originally
appointed to Baudoyer's bureau, but he manoeuvred to get himself
transferred to Rabourdin's, on account of Baudoyer's extreme severity
in relation to what were called "the English,"--a name given by the
government clerks to their creditors. "English day" means the day on
which the government offices are thrown open to the public. Certain
then of finding their delinquent debtors, the creditors swarm in and
torment them, asking when they intend to pay, and threatening to
attach their salaries. The implacable Baudoyer compelled the clerks to
remain at their desks and endure this torture. "It was their place not
to make debts," he said; and he considered his severity as a duty
which he owed to the public weal. Rabourdin, on the contrary,
protected the clerks against their creditors, and turned the latter
away, saying that the government bureaus were open for public
business, not private. Much ridicule pursued Vimeux in both bureaus
when the clank of his spurs resounded in the corridors and on the
staircases. The wag of the ministry, Bixiou, sent round a paper,
headed by a caricature of his victim on a pasteboard horse, asking for
subscriptions to buy him a live charger. Monsieur Baudoyer was down
for a bale of hay taken from his own forage allowance, and each of the