Porter chapeau, It is qnite customary for French
working-girls to go to and f rom their places of work, especially if the distances are short, en cheveuxt i,e,, bareheaded; whereas a woman of higher social caste, une dame, would invariably appear in the streets coiffée. Thus in the mind of Reine the présence or the absence of the hat in the Street showed a marked différence of the social milieu of the person affected.
25. Qui va chercher de la laine, revient tondu. A wellknown French proverb: the would-be duper is himself duped.
63. 2. Mener rondement (une affaire) , i. e. , la conduire avec
activité, sans lenteurs.
11. Les apports respectifs; i.e., the amonnt of property brought by each one of the contracting parties to the ménage, the apport of the bride being called in France dot. It is customary for thèse property détails to be carefnlly arranged before marriage, in order to remove ail cause for future dispute or misunderstanding on that score. The spirit of such a usage as the dot, or marriage portion, is apt to be much misunderstood by Americans, being of ten interpreted as a marked indication of the social inferiority of the wife in respect to the husband, or of the lower personal dignity of the bride, who, not esteemed sufficiently for her mère Personal charms, must, it is alleged, bring a marriage portion with her in order to be able to commend herself fuUy to her future husband. The reverse of this interprétation is rather true, since her dowry puts her in possession of an important material factor for increasing her influence in the ménage and equalizing social conditions in her
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f avor ; it is thus a means of adding to her domestio dignity and personal independence.