he 'd dutifully got on with the tasks assigned to him and noticed only vaguely that there did n't seem to be quite as many high-ranking members of the civil service as there used to be , and then one day a lot of senior mandarins - most of them a lot more senior than he was , it occurred to him later - had rushed up to him while he was trying to find a rhyme for 'orange blossom ' and congratulated him on being the new master .