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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: statesman is benign and affable. To the minister's inquiry as to what
brings him there, he replies with the bank-notes,--informing his
Excellency that he hastens to pay him the customary indemnity.
Moreover, he explains the matter to the minister's wife, who never
fails to draw freely upon the fund, and sometimes takes all, for the
"outfit" is looked upon as a household affair. The cashier then
proceeds to turn a compliment, and to slip in a few politic phrases:
"If his Excellency would deign to retain him; if, satisfied with his
purely mechanical services, he would," etc. As a man who brings
twenty-five thousand francs is always a worthy official, the cashier
is sure not to leave without his confirmation to the post from which
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