je n'avais jamais compris: / had never intended

32. — 17. au-devant de laquelle: cf. aller au-devant de quelqu^un, to go to meet some one.

33. — 15. ArySchcffer (1796-1858): a celebrated painter, especially of mystic and Biblical subjects. He was the uncle of Comélie,

34. — 3. courait. Note the peculiar use of the imperfect in this passage. In vivid and picturesque narrative it often thus usurps the place of the preterite. For an interesting discussion of this usage see Brunetière's Roman Naturaliste (1883), pp. 84, 85.