Le Petit Chose - Part 27
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Part 27

4. litanies, 'long files.'

14. de mon cote, 'for my own part.'

24. cocorico! 'c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo.'

26. les papiers maches, 'chewed paper pellets.'

30. en desespoir de cause, 'as a last shift.'

Page 65.

11. me faisait mauvais accueil, 'always received me coldly.

17. tenait beaucoup a cet eleve, 'thought a great deal of this pupil.'

Note- _il tient de sa mere_, 'he takes after his mother.'

28. j'avais affaire a forte partie, 'I had a difficult customer to deal with.' Note- _avoir affaire de_, 'to have need of.'

_avoir affaire avec_, 'to do business with.'

29. faquin de marquis, 'puppy of a marquis.'

30. en pleine etude: see note, p. 7 l. 3.

Page 66.

7. je m'engageais dans une mechante affaire, 'I was getting involved in rather a critical business.'

14. il fallait voir de quel air, 'you should have seen the air he put on.'

26. j'eus le geste de le prendre au collet, 'I stretched out my hand as if to seize him by the coat-collar.'

28. miserable, 'wretch.'

Page 67.

3. pour le coup: see note, p. 2 l. 17.

12. mis a la raison par ce gringalet de pion, 'brought to his senses by this slip of an usher.'

24. troublerent, 'disturbed.' See note, p. 12 l. 30.

Page 68.

1. j'en serais quitte pour la peur, 'I should get off with a good fright.'

12. j'etais perdu, 'it was all over with me.'

Page 69.

1. la-dessus le voila parti a . ., 'thereupon he began to . .'

12. requisitoire, 'indictment.'

21. On, 'Someone.'

22. qu'On se le tint pour dit, 'Someone must bear in mind that . .'

25. riaient sous cape, 'were laughing in their sleeves.'

Cf. _rire dans sa barbe_.

28. injures, 'insults': so _injurieux_, 'insulting.' What is the French for 'injury'?

31. ou aller? 'where could he go?' Interrogative infinitive, often used in deliberative sentences.

Page 70.

1. ils furent a sec d'eloquence, 'they were hard up for something more to say.'

5. me riaient au nez, 'laughed in my face.'

11. a faire dresser tes cheveux: for this use of it in the sense of _a.s.sez pour_ cf. p. 79 l. 8, _me serrant les poignets a les briser_; p. 84 l. 19, _les autres riaient a se tordre_.

Page 71.

4. je finis par ne plus m'occuper d'eux, 'after a time I no longer troubled about them'; cf. note, p. 14 l. 29.

(chapter ix. full=xi)

18. maitresse poutre, 'kingpost.'

Page 72.

12. les enfants auraient . ., que je ne m'en fusse pas apercu, 'if the boys had . . I should not have noticed.'

18. tu ne te doutais pas, hein? 'you had no idea, eh?'

24. M. le cure de Saint-Nizier, 'the vicar of Saint Nizier.'

Note _cure_='parson,' i.e. either the 'vicar' or 'rector'

of a parish, but _vicaire_='curate.'

27. memoires: note _le memoire_, 'memoir,' 'memorandum'; _la memoire_, 'memory.'

30. tout compte fait, 'after reckoning everything up.'

Page 73.

1. sur mes economies, 'out of my savings.'