Officers or officials employed in the Ministry, secretaries and under-secretaries in government offices, _especially those whose circumstances are low or whose affairs are in disorder_. If the varied nature of this work is borne in mind, and the many opportunities a woman would have for learning details of the personal side are considered, it will be seen that the work of the woman spy can be invaluable. As already remarked, Germany wants to know not only the things that are of immediate use, but also the little things that may be of use in certain contingencies--possibly useful as well as certainly useful and probably useful information is welcome. And, in the average French or English household of the official class, either in France or England, a German domestic, perfectly capable at her work and in every way above suspicion on the part of her employers, can render enormous service to the German secret service, simply by keeping her ears open. For the servant, whether spy or honest employee, knows nearly everything there is to be known about her employers. If the master's financial affairs are in such a state that bribery might be tried with a remote chance of success, she is aware of it; if the mistress has compromised herself in any way, and is open to blackmail, the domestic is more likely to know of it than any one else, for she has unquestioned access to letters where even the husband is ignorant of their existence--nobody thinks of suspecting her of more than mere curiosity, at the worst. The object of the system inaugurated by Stieber is to work along the lines of least resistance, to ensure safety and efficiency by choosing means so obvious as to be negligible--and that system has produced great results, past question. More especially is this method noticeable in the case of the German spy: it is not the adventuress of fiction who does most of the useful work, but the inconspicuous and apparently thoroughly trustworthy woman, who, whatever her station, has an obvious reason for occupying it, and is above reproach or suspicion. Not that the adventuress has not her share as well. A woman carried out most of the underground work connected with the Morocco loan; a woman stopped the clandestine marriage of one of the imperial princes, and another woman arranged a marriage between a Bourbon king and a member of the house of Hohenzollern. Yet another, according to Von Blowitz, brought off as skilful a coup in connection with the theft of documents as has ever been known. But these things are exceptions to the regular work of women spies, which is for the most part unromantic, petty, and mean--as is most espionage work, whether man or woman be concerned in its accomplishment.