ministère : The father was a clerk in the War Office
15.3. mémoires : Distinguish ' le mémoire,' note, mémorandum, memoir, irom ' la mémoire,' memory, remembrance. The mother added to the family income by keeping tradesmen's books,
15.4. Cicis : Evidently a diminutive from ' Francis,' which was the original form of the author's name.
15.5. un caban: An overcoat with hood, a cloak worn in bad weather.
16.1. le bureau de bienfaisance: A charitable institution for the benefit of the needy, who receive assistance in kind — food, clothing, fuel, etc.
16.2. bourgeoisie : The terms ' bourgeoisie ' and * bourgeois ' properly describe simply burghers and whatever pertains to them, but they are used especially with référence to that very numerous and heterogeneous class of the population that is neither of the aristocracy nor of those who earn a livelihood by the labour of their hands. That is, the ' bourgeoisie ' corresponds to our ' middle-class ' in the widest sensé. But thèse terms hâve an endless variety of shades of meaning, and it is necessary to know not only who the person is that employs them, but on what occasion. Thus they may connote ail that is most admirable in * middle-class ' life, or they may be used as expressions of dislike and contempt to emphasize some of the more unpleasant qualities ascribed to the class. So the sensé may be at various times ' not an aristocrat ' (c/. Molière's ' Bourgeois gentilhomme '), ' not a workman,' ' not an artist,' ' philistine,' ' médiocre,' ' commonplace,' ' stodgy,' ' very respectable,' ' conventional,' ' inaccessible to ideas,' etc.
As a matter of fact the French ' bourgeois ' is, on the average, a sensible, practical person, certainly not inclined to be romantic, but at least as quick-witted as the ordinary run of men in other lands.
16.3. devaient . . . l'effet de : ' Must hâve appeared to her.'
16.4. tiré à quatre épingles: ' Neatly arranged.' The phrase is often applied to the gênerai efïect of a woman's dress. ' Elle est toujours tirée à quatre épingles ' means ' She is always
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perfectly dressed, spick and span, looks as if she had stepped out of a bandbox, etc.
16.5. le peuple : Hère used, as is often the case, with the meaning of ' prolétariat,' ' working people.'
16.6. s'entendait à merveille à : ' Knew ail about,' ' was perfectly compétent in,' ' had a thorough knowledge of.'
16.7. Invalides : The spacious esplanade, ' Hôtel,' and church, forming a very prominent feature on the south or left bank of the Seine and looking toward the two Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Champs-Elysées on the right bank. The ' Hôtel des Invalides ' is the counterpart of Chelsea Hospital, a home for military vétérans. Under the dôme of the church is the tomb of Napoléon.
17. 1. réverbères à potence: ' Gibbet-like street lamps,' the oldfashioned type with the lamp suspended from an arm projecting horizontally from a wall. During the stormy days of the French Révolution, when lynch law too often prevailed, many an aristocrat was actually hanged on thèse lamp-posts, or rather brackets, the mob expressing its detestation of the victim, and calling for his doom by the cry : ' A la lanterne ! ' C/. note 38.7.
