est-ce que je me gênais : did I scrupU

23. lui. Note the emphatic use of the oblique case for the nominative.

24. des exemples tout neufs: entirely new copies. Engraved writing-books had not yet reached this village.

25. cela faisait comme: they looked like. The tringle is a rod fastened to the front of the desk a few inches above it.

26. bâtons: strokes; the straight, sloping Unes made by children just learning to write.

27. depuis quarante ans il était : for forty years he had been. Note hère and elsewhere that the imperfect tense with depuis is translated by the pluperfect, and the présent by the perfect