se rongeait les sdings^fretted over it

Page 38. — i. Paris était bloqué. Paris was besieged by the Germans in 1871.

2. pantouflard, a name given during the siège of 1871 to Parisians serving in the " Garde nationale sédentaire,^'' whose duties were to keep guard within the city.

3. Argenteuil, on the right bank of the Seine, a small and ancient town.