I.— LA BARBE BLEUE— BLUEBEARD

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1. 1 . Il était, used hère irapersonally in tlie same sensé as ' il y avait,' tlicre was. Remember that il lias three difterent meanings — lie, it, and there, impersonal.

une fois, once, literally, one lime. When the word lime cornes after a numéral, that is, if it answers the question — how many tiraes ? it is, as a rule, rendered in French by fois (and not by 'temps'); as — tioice, deux fois; thriee or tlirec times, trois fois ; several limes, plusieurs fois ; une autre fois, anothcr lime, etc.

de belles maisons. Hère de is used instead of des (whieh is a contraction of de and les) because there is an adjective before the noun ; thus, for instance — le ]iain, the bread ; du pain, some (any) bread ; but de bon pain, some (any) good bread.

2. à, hère in, is a préposition, which answers not only to the

English io, but also to at, in, as hère, and to other prépositions of which we shall meet instances farther on.

d'or et d'argent, gold and sîlver, adj., or, word for word — of gold and of silver. In French most names of materials, collective nouns, take de or en, when they are used as adjectives ; as — a stcel peu (say in French — apcn of steeï), une plume d'acier ; a gold watch, une montre d'or, or en or.

3. le meuble, the article of furniture. Another noun denoting

furniturc coUectively is le mobilier, literally — the movahle jjroperty ; as distinguished from immobilier, imnwvable : as — land, bouses.

en broderie, cmhroidered ; broderie, embroidery, is hère used adjeclively, like ' d'or et d'argent.'

des carrosses. In modem French we generally say la voiture instead of le carrosse, which means especially a state coach.

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1. 3. tout (adv.) dorés (adj.) ; literally, quite fjilt, that is to say — gilt ail ovcr.