And then she returned to the house with slow steps,
only stopping to cough, for she had remained out too
long and she was cold, a little cold.
She finds a letter from her husband. She opens
it, still smiling, and she reads:
“My dear love:
I hope you are well, and that you do not regret too
much our beautiful country. For some days last
we have had a good frost, which presages snow.
For my part, I adore this weather, and you my believe
that I do not light your damned furnace.”
She ceases reading, quite happy at the thought that
she had her furnace put in. Her right hand, which
holds the letter, falls slowly on her lap, while she
raises her left hand to her mouth, as if to calm the
obstinate cough which is racking her chest.
Preparations for
the excursion
M. Patissot, born in Paris, after having failed in
his examinations at the College Henri IV., like many
others, had entered the government service through
the influence of one of his aunts, who kept a tobacco
store where the head of one of the departments bought
his provisions.
He advanced very slowly, and would, perhaps, have
died a fourth-class clerk without the aid of a kindly
Providence, which sometimes watches over our destiny.
He is today fifty-two years old, and it is only at
this age that he is beginning to explore, as a tourist,
all that part of France which lies between the fortifications
and the provinces.
The story of his advance might be useful to many employees,
just as the tale of his excursions may be of value
to many Parisians who will take them as a model for
their own outings, and will thus, through his example,
avoid certain mishaps which occurred to him.
In 1854 he only enjoyed a salary of 1,800 francs.
Through a peculiar trait of his character he was unpopular
with all his superiors, who let him languish in the
eternal and hopeless expectation of the clerk’s
ideal, an increase of salary. Nevertheless he
worked; but he did not know how to make himself appreciated.
He had too much self-respect, he claimed. His
self-respect consisted in never bowing to his superiors
in a low and servile manner, as did, according to
him, certain of his colleagues, whom he would not
mention. He added that his frankness embarrassed
many people, for, like all the rest, he protested against
injustice and the favoritism shown to persons entirely
foreign to the bureaucracy. But his indignant
voice never passed beyond the little cage where he
worked.
First as a government clerk, then as a Frenchman and
finally as a man who believed in order he would adhere
to whatever government was established, having an
unbounded reverence for authority, except for that
of his chiefs.
Each time that he got the chance he would place himself
where he could see the emperor pass, in order to have
the honor of taking his hat off to him; and he would
go away puffed up with pride at having bowed to the
head of the state.
