The late clerk then rubs his hands, now empty, and says to himself, "I always did foresee the success of the business." But nearly all these retired bureaucrats have to fight against their former habits.
"Some," Colleville used to say, "are victims to a sort of 'spleen' peculiar to the government clerk; they die of a checked circulation; a red-tapeworm is in their vitals.

That little Poiret couldn't see the well-known white carton without changing color at the beloved sight; he used to turn from green to yellow." Mademoiselle Thuillier was considered the moving spirit of her brother's household; she was not without decision and force of character, as the following history will show.

This superiority over those who immediately surrounded her enabled her to judge her brother, although she adored him.

After witnessing the failure of the hopes she had set upon her idol, she had too much real maternity in her feeling for him to let herself be mistaken as to his social value.
Thuillier and his sister were children of the head porter at the ministry of finance.

Jerome had escaped, thanks to his near-sightedness, all drafts and conscriptions.