cent mille écus comptant : here comptant is used ad

verbially, and consequently remains invariable ; but it is an adjective in the expression à beaux deniers co7nptants, which also means ' in cash,' 'ready money. '

17. la figure de son emploi : emploi is here a theatrical term meaning 'line of character,' ' part.' ,, 18. d'un air distrait : what is the French for ' distracted ' ?

, , 26. aristocratie : pronounce the t like a c, as in démocratie, diplomatie, prophétie, etc.

26. 9. remise (f.), (i) ' coach - house,' (2) ' remittance,' (3) 're-

mission,' (4) 'discount,' (5) 'delay.' remise [m.), 'fly,' ' job-carriage.' 16. à reprendre : cf. se reprendre, ' to correct one's self.'

, , 24. joyeux comme un renard : an allusion to La Fontaine's well-known line —

Honteux comme un renard qu'une poule aurait pris.

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27. 7. les chastes amours : though masculine in the singular,

amour is féminine in the plural, except in the sensé of Cupids, or as a term of enclearment or admiration. Like other abstract nouns derived from Latin nouns in -or, it had become féminine in Old French. The grammarians of the sixteenth century tried to make ail such nouns masculine, as in Latin, but their attempt was successful only in the case of honneur, labeur, and the singular of amour.

,, 9. la jeune Tarentine, who was drowned in going to meet her fiancé, and whose sad fate forms the subject of one of André Chénier's most touching élégies.

12. la piquait au jeu, ' piqued her pride,' 'put her on her mettle. '

15. les trois mots de César, by which he announced his victory at Zela, in Asia Minor, over Pharnacês, the son of Mithridates, who had given assistance to Pompey, — ve?ii, vidi, vici.

17. Laure avait changé trois fois de toilette : cf. J'ai changé d avis, ' I have changed my mind ' ; il battit des mains, ' he clapped his hands ' ; nous redoublâmes d efforts, ' we redoubled our efforts.'

20. comme ma sœur Anne: in Perrault's taie Bluebeard's wife, anxiously waiting for her brother's arrivai, keeps on asking her sister, who is on the watch, ' Anne, ma sœur Anne, ne vois-tu rien venir?'

, , 23. qu'il avait taon air : cf. il a bon air, ' he looks gentlemanly ' ; il a l'air bon, ' he looks kind. '

28. 2. la restauration, i.e. the sixteen years from the fall of

Napoléon to the Révolution of July 1830, during which, with the exception of the Hundred Days, the Bourbons reigned again over France.

, , 3. le quartier Saint-Denis : chiefly inhabited by tradesmen.

,, 18. son humeur: cf. avec humeur, ' peevishly '• ; avoir de l'humeur, ' to be out of temper.'

, , , , il n'avait pas failli attendre : an allusion to a saying attributed to Louis XIV., 'J'ai failli attendre.'

20. sans sou ni maille, 'penniless.' In this expression m^z7/<? = an old French coin of very small value. Cf. avoir maille à partir avec quelqu'un, ' to have a crow to pluck with some one.'

,, 25. Schubert, the Austrian composer, born in Vienna in 1797, died in 1828.

29. 2. tant que j'en voudrai : notice this idiomatic use of the

future in a comparison.

ijS Sacs et Parchemins

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29. 6. je ne me soucie pas mal de sa race ! ' very much indeed

do I care for his race ! ' lo. à la Daumont, ' with a postillion. '

14. de quel bois nous nous chauffons, ' what métal we are made of.'