nus comme des petits saint Jean, penniless

1. 11. charité bien ordonnée commence par soi-même, prov.: Charity begins at home.

Page 11. 1. 25. tu mets toute ta fortune sur un coup de cartes, you stake your whole fortune on a game of cards.

1. 35. tu as lien mené ta harque, you hâve managed your affairs well.

Page 12. 1. 13. Héro et Léandre. Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite living on the shores of the Hellespont ; her lover Leander, who dwelt at Abydos on the opposite shore, swam across the Hellespont every night to visit her, until he was drowned during a severe storm. When Hero saw the body of her lover washed up on the beach, she threw herself down from the rocks into the sea and thus became united with him in death.

1. 20. feraient les cent coups, would give anything. Note the peculiar use of the definite article, where no article seems required. Analogous are such expressions as faire la sourde oreille, to lend a deaf ear.

1. 25. Vauquelin, celebrated French chemist (1768-1829), amongst whose numerous writings there is an Ancdijse des cheveux.

1. 38. se jetteraient là-dessus comme la pauvreté sur le inonde, they would pounce on it like poverty on the world.

Page 13. 1. 2. qui 'fait le gros,' who gives himself airs.