“That’s so,” replied the Superintendent, with an ironical and yet grateful smile, “and it’s the most important. And as for Brunswick; if we could exclude him from the council we would almost all be glad, and Lasemann not least. But at that time Brunswick gained some influence, he’s not an orator of course, but a shouter; but even that can do a lot. And so it came about that I was forced to lay the matter before the Town Council; however, it was Brunswick’s only immediate triumph, for of course the Town Council refused by a large majority to hear anything about a Land Surveyor. That too was a long time ago, but the whole time since, the matter has never been allowed to rest, partly owing to Sordini’s conscientiousness, who by the most painful sifting of data sought to fathom the motives of the majority no less than the opposition, partly owing to Brunswick’s stupidity and ambition, who had several personal acquaintances among the authorities whom he set working with fresh inventions of his fancy. Sordini, at any rate, didn’t let himself be deceived by Brunswick⁠—how could Brunswick deceive Sordini?⁠—but simply to prevent himself from being deceived a new sifting of data was necessary, and long before it was ended Brunswick had already thought out something new; he’s very very versatile, no doubt of it, that goes with his stupidity. And now I come to a peculiar characteristic of our administrative apparatus. Along with its precision it’s extremely sensitive as well. When an affair has been weighed for a very long time, it may happen, even before the matter has been fully considered, that suddenly in a flash the decision comes in some unforeseen place that, moreover, can’t be found any longer later on, a decision that settles the matter, if in most cases justly, yet all the same arbitrarily. It’s as if the administrative apparatus were unable any longer to bear the tension, the yearlong irritation caused by the same affair⁠—probably trivial in itself⁠—and had hit upon the decision by itself, without the assistance of the officials. Of course a miracle didn’t happen and certainly it was some clerk who hit upon the solution or the unwritten decision, but in any case it couldn’t be discovered by us at least, by us here, or even by the Head Bureau,