du carême : note

arriver com?ne marée en carême, ' to come in the nick of

time.' arriver comme mars en carême, ' to be sure to happen.'

,, 10. à voix basse : contrast à haute voix.

,, 14. bârine : a Russian word not yet to be found in French dictionaries, 'master. '

,, 17. qu'est-ce que tu deviendras? note the construction, and cf. que sont devenus mes livres f

,, 20. grand'place : cf. grand' chose, grand' faim, grand' soif, grand'peur, etc. The.se expressions are remnants of Old French, in which adjectives derived from Latin adjectives with two terminations only, had no distinct termination for the féminine. The apostrophe svas added towards the end of the sixteenth century by grammarians, who imagined that an e had been left out.

,, 21. gênera: the verb gêner, from gêne, 'gehenna,' formerly meant ' to torture,' but now only ' to impede," ' to inconvenience. ' For a siniilar weakening of the original meaning cf. étonner, déplaisir, ennui, etc.

Notes 99

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