maniement positif: their hold on his attention

11. de quoi défrayer vingt romans-feuilletons: enough to furnish material for twenty stories. The roman-feuilleton^ or as it is more commonly called, the feuilletony is the lower third of the page of Parisian joumals, devoted to light literature.

12. faubourg Saint-Honoré. The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoé is one of the principal streets of Paris, leading westward from the center.