qui en usait librement avec lui, ' who made quite free

with him. '

60. 4. avait coûté les yeux de la tête, ' had been excessively

expensive. ' ( Figuratively : the eyes being the most precious possession of man. ) Cf. Engl. : ' He.was as dear to me as the apple of my eye.

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60. 13. ses amitiés, ' his good fellowship. ' ,. 25. causette, 'chit-chat.'

,. 26. conduite (the act of accompanying somebody part of the way out of respect or friendly feeling) : faire un bout de conduite à quelqu'un, ' to bear one company for part of the way. ' .. 29. la souscription : i.e. la liste de souscription, ,. 31. le nez : i.e. la figure, le visage. (The nose, being the most proniinent feature, of course showing first. )

61. 2. était seul à s'allonger : whenever one is disappointed in

one's exjjectations, the French say that the nose grows longer, from the expression the face then assumes. Cf. Engl. ' to pull a long face. ' 6. enfourché la chimère (Ht. ' sat astride the chimera ' ), ' given the rein to their imagination,' ' been riding their hobby-horse. ' se remettre à l'allxire de leur bidet de pays, ' to accustom theniselves again to the gait of their native hack ' : transi. ' to take kindly to the low levcl of their surroundings. '

,, 10. de = rttr^, au moyen de.

. . 17. prenant sur ses aises, ' encrôaching on his comforts ' (i.e. economising by giving up some of his comforts).

, , 24. de rivière, say ' by the river-side. '

€2. 7. jacasser (fam.), ' to talk idly, senselessly. ' The suffix -ajji? is generally péjorative : bonnasse, hoinmasse, paperasse. So hère: Jacques, 'a peasant,' 'a serf,' being the root. Cf. Jiuquot, ' a parrot. '

, , 14. et de trinquer et de rire : narrative propositions in the infinitive are preceded by de, and hâve generally their subject expressed. Hère, however, messieurs is so close at hand that it could elegantly Ije omitted. In such cases a principal verb raay be supposed to be understood. The complète sentence would run : Et ces messieiirs s empresserait de trinquer et de rire. (Cf. the Latin infinitive of narration, )

., 15. rxïéla.nc6\ie= la mélafuolie.

, . 1 8. un malin, ' a 'cute one. '

,. 21. M oussu = ^/<?«jîVar, in Southern dialect,

,, 22. à dérider : à before an infinitive complément of a substantive indicates purfwse, tendency, aptitude, obligation. Thus à dérider =qtii pourrait dérider, apte à dérider.

,, 23. riait de confiance, ' laughed on trust' (unable to hear, but confident, on seeing the others laugh, that the thing said was worth laughing at).

,, 24. comme une cor\>ei\le = comme un pot, comme une bécasse. Cf. Engl. ' dcaf as a post. '

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