faut, elliptically for il faut

3. Je TOUS demande, etc., say now, what ideas they do hâve, thèse cursed females! Ça is hère used collectively and contemptuously. For its anticipatory use, see page 12, note 1. The following vous is an ethical dative. See page 117, note 1.

Page 132* — i. comme ça, see vocabulary, ça.

2. tout ce qu'ils voyaient, etc., everything they saw done by their mother, or everything they saw their mother do. When a verb of perception is followed by a dépendent infinitive, if the infinitive has a direct object, the personal object of the verb of perception is often expressed indirectly, analogous to the faire construction.

Page 133 — 1. Comment c'est, un mort? A child's way of saying comment est-ce* un mort? See page 12, note I.

Page 139. — x. voulut partir, started togo.

Les Prisonniers is one of the collection of stories which Maupassant published in 1886 under the title of Toine. The scène of it is laid during the Franco-Prussian war which f urnished the Naturalisée writers so many subjects for their taies, The very thème out of which Zola produced a tragedy in F Attaque du moulin, is hère turned by Maupassant into a farce.

Page 141. — t. Aucun, see vocabulary.

2. faut rentrer, etc., popular for il faut rentrer, voilà la nuit, il y a peut-être, etc.

3. y a pas, popular for il n'y a pas. The impersonal subject *7, and ne are frequently omitted in popular speech.

Page 142. — i. ça n'est pas fort, they don't amount to muck. Another case of ça used collectively and depreciatively. Cf. page 131, note 3.