Passive obedience is as well known in a
Government department as in the army itself; and the administrative
system silences consciences, annihilates the individual, and ends
(give it time enough) by fashioning a man into a vise or a thumbscrew,
and he becomes part of the machinery of Government. Wherefore, M.
Gondureau, who seemed to know something of human nature, recognized
Poiret at once as one of those dupes of officialdom, and brought out
for his benefit, at the proper moment, the _deus ex machina_, the
magical words "His Excellency," so as to dazzle Poiret just as he
himself unmasked his batteries, for he took Poiret and the Michonneau
for the male and female of the same species.
"If his Excellency himself, his Excellency the Minister . . . Ah! that
is quite another thing," said Poiret.
"You seem to be guided by this gentleman's opinion, and you hear what
he says," said the man of independent means, addressing Mlle.
Michonneau. "Very well, his Excellency is at this moment absolutely
certain that the so-called Vautrin, who lodges at the Maison Vauquer,
is a convict who escaped from penal servitude at Toulon, where he is
known by the nickname _Trompe-la-Mort_.
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