faisait . . . causette : ' Liked a bit of a gossip

17.8. la loge : i.e. ' la loge de concierge.' She was the door-keeper and house-attendant.

17.9. le faubourg Saint-Honoré : A fashionable district close to the Champs-Elysées. The officiai résidence of the Président

and numerous foreign embassies are situated in this part of Paris.

18.1. une grosse commère : ' A f at (old) wife.' The word properly means a godmother (Lat. cum and mater) ; but a commoner meaning is ' a rough, vigorous woman, fond of gossiping,' Scotch has ' borrowed ' the word under the form ' kimmer.'

18.2. raisiné : Jam made with the juice of grapes along with other fruits such as apples and pears.

18.3. le jour de la Fédération: The i4th of July 1790, the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. The célébrations were held on the Champ de Mars (where the Tour Eiffel stands today), and the popular enthusiasm was extraordinary, ail classes, from the King, Louis XVI, to the humblest, taking their part.