Page:Sand - Marianne, Holt, 1893.djvu/92

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this case, is doubtless a relative pronoun ; and the use of the subj. can be traced directly to the Latin. Compare " Sextius non venit, quod sciam " (Cicero).

26.—12. Tiens. See here ! See now !

16. Traduisait. Discussed.

21. Eut. Experienced.

24. Coiffer sainte Catherine. To lead a single life, to become an old maid. —St. Catherine is the patroness of all unmarried women, and after they decide upon a single life they are supposed to dress their hair in the style of St. Catherine.

27.— 3. De pied ferme. Resolutely.

7. Convenable d’aller au-devant. Proper to meet half-way, to make advances.

18. Un étranger, un monsieur comme les autres. A stranger, a man whom you must treat with dignity and reserve.

21. Sans gêne. Without restraint.

26. Nous avons beau vivre. Although living, or it is no use our living. Avoir beau, now idiomatically used, meant originally to have a good opportunity. It then came to mean to have a good opportunity and not take advantage of it, or to have a useless opportunity ; then, to do a thing in vain.

28. Trouvât à redire. Trouver à redire, literally, to find (something) to say against (a thing) ; hence, to find fault with.

28.—11. Plaît-il ? What do you say ?

37. Sage par crainte du qu’en dira-t-on. Prudent through fear of what people will say.

29 — 4. Ah ! la province ! Alas ! the country !

9. Et au bout du compte… ! And, after all, what difference does it make ?

12. Quand le soleil les regarde de côté. When the sun sends its slanting rays upon them.

15. Un chez-soi, bien à soi. A home, all to one’s self. Soi is indefinite. The pronouns moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles, are used in a more definite sense.

28. Prévenue. (Lat. prœ-venire, to go before) here means to apprise, to inform.

29. Tout en dînant. While eating. En is the only preposition that governs the present participle ; all the others that admit of a verb for their complement require it in the infinitive.

30.— 5. Tu me fais une histoire. You are telling me a story.

9. "Souvent femme varie." Suggested by the Æneid, Book IV.