But what do you make, then, of a customs officer ?" [Poiret shuffles his feet and tries to edge away; Bixiou twists off one button and catches him by another.] "He is, from the bureaucratic point of view, a neutral being.

The excise-man is only half a clerk; he is on the confines between civil and military service; neither altogether soldier nor altogether clerk--Here, here, where are you going ?" [Twists the button.] "Where does the government clerk proper end?
That's a serious question.

Is a prefect a clerk ?" Poiret [hesitating].

"He is a functionary." Bixiou.

"But you don't mean that a functionary is not a clerk?
that's an absurdity." Poiret [weary and looking round for escape].