A ce qu'il n'est pas coupé, By Us not being cut

4. le savant à la mode, the fashionable savant. See Introduction.

5. abbés gallants probably refers to that class of men whom the French kings from the beginning of the i6th century were allowed to nominate for the office of abbé (abbot) in excess of the church's demand for them, so that they drew a salary without having any charge. Many sons of the aristocracy sought these sinecures, and were through this means installed as priests in almost every family of distinction, where they led lives of idleness and luxury.

6. Ecole Normale. The highest literary school in France, to enter which one must have the degree Bachelier es Lettres, Bachelier es Sciences, and Licencié es Lettres, and which confers, upon the applicant's having passed satisfactory final examinations, the degree Docteur es Lettres. Its members are popularly spoken of as rather pedantic and self-satisfied.

Page 28, — i. la haute femellerie . . . Vadius. La haute femellerie is quite impossible of adequate translation ; femelle applies to the female of animals, and the collective noun is used here to express the speaker's contempt for the " womenkind " who make up the circle of Mme de Céran. — Vadius. Character in Molière's play. Les Femmes Savantes, the type of a pedant.

2. pupille, ward. — 3. voilà ! there you have the whole story.

4. allons donc! . . . cette gamine? nonsense ! — this little girl? See n. 6, p. II. and n. i, p. 22.

5. pour passer femme, to become skilled in woman^s ways. Compare passer maître.

6. Enfin, voilà . . . prétend, in short this is what your mother maintains.

7. qui n'en est encore qu'à l'inconvenance, which as yet is no further than impropriety.

Page 29. — i. tu es bien . . . par exemple I // is easy to see that you are your mother's own son, I must say.