A Start in Life [64]
This future
magistrate, actuated by a laudable desire to understand his vocation
in its smallest details, had put himself in Desroches' office for the
purpose of studying legal procedure, and of training himself to take a
place as head-clerk in two years. He hoped to do his "stage" (the
period between the admission as licentiate and the call to the bar) in
Paris, in order to be fully prepared for the functions of a post which
would surely not be refused to a rich young man. To see himself, by
the time he was thirty, "procureur du roi" in any court, no matter
where, was his sole ambition. Though Frederic Marest was cousin-german
to Georges Marest, the latter not having told his surname in
Pierrotin's coucou, Oscar Husson did not connect the present Marest
with the grandson of Czerni-Georges.
"Messieurs," said Godeschal at breakfast time, addressing all the
clerks, "I announce to you the arrival of a new jurisconsult; and as
he is rich, rishissime, we will make him, I hope, pay a glorious
entrance-fee."
"Forward, the book!" cried Oscar, nodding to the youngest clerk, "and
pray let us be serious."
The youngest clerk climbed like a squirrel along the shelves which
lined the room, until he could reach a register placed on the top
shelf, where a thick layer of dust had settled on it.
"It is getting colored," said the little clerk, exhibiting the volume.
We must explain the perennial joke of this book, then much in vogue in
legal offices. In a clerical life where work is the rule, amusement is
all the more treasured because it is rare; but, above all, a hoax or a
practical joke is enjoyed with delight. This fancy or custom does, to
a certain extent, explain Georges Marest's behavior in the coucou. The
gravest and most gloomy clerk is possessed, at times, with a craving
for fun and quizzing. The instinct with which a set of young clerks
will seize and develop a hoax or a practical joke is really
marvellous. The denizens of a studio and of a lawyer's office are, in
this line, superior to comedians.
In buying a practice without clients, Desroches began, as it were, a
new dynasty. This circumstance made a break in the usages relative to
the reception of new-comers. Moreover, Desroches having taken an
office where legal documents had never yet been scribbled, had bought
new tables, and white boxes edged with blue, also new. His staff was
made up of clerks coming from other officers, without mutual ties, and
surprised, as one may say, to find themselves together. Godeschal, who
had served his apprenticeship under Maitre Derville, was not the sort
of clerk to allow the precious tradition of the "welcome" to be lost.
This "welcome" is a breakfast which every neophyte must give to the
"ancients" of the office into which he enters.
Now, about the time when Oscar came to the office, during the first
six months of Desroches' installation, on a winter evening when the
work had been got through more quickly than usual, and the clerks were
warming themselves before the fire preparatory to departure, it came
into Godeschal's head to construct and compose a Register
"architriclino-basochien," of the utmost antiquity, saved from the
fires of the Revolution, and derived through the procureur of the
Chatelet-Bordin, the immediate predecessor of Sauvaguest, the
attorney, from whom Desroches had bought his practice. The work, which
was highly approved by the other clerks, was begun by a search through
all the dealers in old paper for a register, made of paper with the
mark of the eighteenth century, duly bound in parchment, on which
should be the stamp of an order in council. Having found such a volume
it was left about in the dust, on the stove, on the ground, in the
kitchen, and even in what the clerks called the "chamber of
deliberations"; and thus it obtained a mouldiness to delight an
antiquary, cracks of aged dilapidation, and broken corners
magistrate, actuated by a laudable desire to understand his vocation
in its smallest details, had put himself in Desroches' office for the
purpose of studying legal procedure, and of training himself to take a
place as head-clerk in two years. He hoped to do his "stage" (the
period between the admission as licentiate and the call to the bar) in
Paris, in order to be fully prepared for the functions of a post which
would surely not be refused to a rich young man. To see himself, by
the time he was thirty, "procureur du roi" in any court, no matter
where, was his sole ambition. Though Frederic Marest was cousin-german
to Georges Marest, the latter not having told his surname in
Pierrotin's coucou, Oscar Husson did not connect the present Marest
with the grandson of Czerni-Georges.
"Messieurs," said Godeschal at breakfast time, addressing all the
clerks, "I announce to you the arrival of a new jurisconsult; and as
he is rich, rishissime, we will make him, I hope, pay a glorious
entrance-fee."
"Forward, the book!" cried Oscar, nodding to the youngest clerk, "and
pray let us be serious."
The youngest clerk climbed like a squirrel along the shelves which
lined the room, until he could reach a register placed on the top
shelf, where a thick layer of dust had settled on it.
"It is getting colored," said the little clerk, exhibiting the volume.
We must explain the perennial joke of this book, then much in vogue in
legal offices. In a clerical life where work is the rule, amusement is
all the more treasured because it is rare; but, above all, a hoax or a
practical joke is enjoyed with delight. This fancy or custom does, to
a certain extent, explain Georges Marest's behavior in the coucou. The
gravest and most gloomy clerk is possessed, at times, with a craving
for fun and quizzing. The instinct with which a set of young clerks
will seize and develop a hoax or a practical joke is really
marvellous. The denizens of a studio and of a lawyer's office are, in
this line, superior to comedians.
In buying a practice without clients, Desroches began, as it were, a
new dynasty. This circumstance made a break in the usages relative to
the reception of new-comers. Moreover, Desroches having taken an
office where legal documents had never yet been scribbled, had bought
new tables, and white boxes edged with blue, also new. His staff was
made up of clerks coming from other officers, without mutual ties, and
surprised, as one may say, to find themselves together. Godeschal, who
had served his apprenticeship under Maitre Derville, was not the sort
of clerk to allow the precious tradition of the "welcome" to be lost.
This "welcome" is a breakfast which every neophyte must give to the
"ancients" of the office into which he enters.
Now, about the time when Oscar came to the office, during the first
six months of Desroches' installation, on a winter evening when the
work had been got through more quickly than usual, and the clerks were
warming themselves before the fire preparatory to departure, it came
into Godeschal's head to construct and compose a Register
"architriclino-basochien," of the utmost antiquity, saved from the
fires of the Revolution, and derived through the procureur of the
Chatelet-Bordin, the immediate predecessor of Sauvaguest, the
attorney, from whom Desroches had bought his practice. The work, which
was highly approved by the other clerks, was begun by a search through
all the dealers in old paper for a register, made of paper with the
mark of the eighteenth century, duly bound in parchment, on which
should be the stamp of an order in council. Having found such a volume
it was left about in the dust, on the stove, on the ground, in the
kitchen, and even in what the clerks called the "chamber of
deliberations"; and thus it obtained a mouldiness to delight an
antiquary, cracks of aged dilapidation, and broken corners