position for their daughters.

Graslin, another Sauviat in an upper sphere, did not spend more than
forty sous a day, and clothed himself no better than his under-clerk.
Two clerks and an office-boy sufficed him to carry on his business,
which was immense through the multiplicity of its details. One clerk
attended to the correspondence; the other had charge of the accounts;
but Pierre Graslin was himself the soul, and body too, of the whole
concern. His clerks, chosen from his own relations, were safe men,
intelligent and as well-trained in the work as himself. As for the
office-boy, he led the life of a truck horse,--up at five in the
morning at all seasons, and never getting to bed before eleven at
night.

Graslin employed a charwoman by the day, an old peasant from Auvergne,
who did his cooking. The brown earthenware off which he ate, and the
stout coarse linen which he used, were in keeping with the character
of his food. The old woman had strict orders never to spend more than
three francs daily for the total expenses of the household. The
office-boy was also man-of-all-work. The clerks took care of their own
rooms. The tables of blackened wood, the straw chairs half unseated,
the wretched beds, the counters and desks, in short, the whole
furniture of house and office was not worth more than a thousand
francs, including a colossal iron safe, built into the wall, before
which slept the man-of-all-work with two dogs at his feet.

Graslin did not often go into society, which, however, discussed
him constantly. Two or three times a year he dined with the
receiver-general, with whom his business brought him into occasional
intercourse. He also occasionally took a meal at the prefecture; for