SCENE IV

Madame de Bretteville, Charlotte* s aunt, is receiving her friends — old ladies and gentlemen of royalist opinions, They mourn over the miseries of the times, Afadame de Bretteville speaks of Charlottes beauty and virtues.

Stage directions,

tapissé, *hung.*

tenture, 'tapestry.'

en croisillons, * with cross-bars. *

jouant au hoston, Boston was a game of cards very popular after the American War of Independence, and took its name from the American city of that name. It was a game for four players not unlike modem solo whist.

Page 40.

1. 811. aïeule, literally a grandmother, but used also for any old woman.

1. 817. a juré qu^avant peu II guillotinerait. After the preterite indefinite we should expect the future rather than the conditional; but hère, as in 11. 663 — 675, the preterite indefinite is used in familiar narration instead of the preterite definite,

1. 820. Cest donc lui qui fait tout, que toujours on le nomme t Hère

we may understand Cest que âest lui ô*c. * So it is because it is he that

does everything that his name is always being mentioned?' or, more

freely, * he must do everything, to judge by the way one hears his name

mentioned? '