It was quite an event his saying so much to me, his conversation being mostly confined to finding fault with us in the briefest monosyllables of the most pungent and forcible character; for, he seldom uttered a word, save with reference to some document that might be submitted for his approval and signature. During the entire time that I remained under his watchful leadership, he never spoke to me, but once again in this gracious manner. Indeed, when I mentioned the circumstance to all the fellows, they expressed considerable doubt as to his having spoken to me so at all, ascribing my account of our interview to the richness of my imagination; but, he really did say what I have related. I am rather proud of the fact than not. My comrades as a body were a nice, gentlemanly set; and we got on very well together. As a matter of course, we had one especial individual who was commonly regarded as the butt of the room--a good-natured, heavy man, with a dull face and a duller comprehension; but, he seemed proud and pleased always when singled out as a mark for our chaff:--he took it as an honour, I think, ascribing our fun to delicate attention. We had also a "swell," who was as irreproachable in his dress as Horner:--I remember, the whole office felt flattered when his name once appeared in the list of those attending the Queen's Drawing-room; while, his fashionable doings, as recorded in the columns of the _Morning Post_, caused our room to be envied by every other division of "the branch."--Young and old, "swell" and butt not excepted--we consorted on the friendliest of footings. We were knit together in the closest bonds of brotherhood; and were in the habit of looking down upon all other departments as not to be compared to that, of which our room, was, in our opinion, the acknowledged head. Generally speaking, men belonging to the public service are more gregarious, and stick to one another in a greater degree, imitating the clanship of Scotchmen and Jews, than those occupied in any other walk in life. Professionals move, as a rule, in petty cliques; city people find their interests clash too much for them to associate in such harmony as do those engaged in Government offices. They may be said, certainly, to form a clique, and to have strong party interests also; but then, their clique is so large a one that the prominent features of narrow- mindedness and utter selfishness, which distinguish smaller coteries, are lost in its more extended circle; while, its interests are self- centred, its members having nothing to fear or expect from the outside public. And yet, with all that good fellowship and staunch fidelity, as a class--when personal pique, and what I might call "promotion jealousy," does not interfere to mar the warm sympathies that exist between the units of this officially happy family--Government clerks are a very discontented set of men, grumbling from morning until night at their position, their prospects, their future.