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sir, forget to go to sleep after dinner, and find yourself all of a sudden 2 (though you invariably lose) very fond of a rubber.3 What good dinners you have-game every day, Malmsey-Madeira and no end of 5 fish from London. Even the servants in the kitchen share in the general prosperity; and, somehow, during the stay of Miss Mac Whirter's fat coachman, the beer is grown much stronger, and the consumption of tea and sugar in the nursery (where her maid 7 takes her meals) is not regarded in the least.8 Is it so, or is it not so? I appeal to the middle classes. Ah, gracious 9 powers; I wish you would send me 10 an old aunt-a maiden aunt 11 -an aunt with a lozenge on her carriage, and a front of light coffee-coloured hair 12 --how my children should work workbags for her, and my Julia and I 13 would make her comfortable ! 14 Sweetsweet vision! Foolish-foolish 15 dream!-(THACKERAY, Vanity Fair.16)

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with the imperfect subjunctive (of envoyer, here), as directed at page 86, note 12; but here, we shall more elegantly translate by que ne m'envoyez-vous. Notice, by the way, that, with que, in the sense of pourquoi (why), pas, or point, is elegantly suppressed; and observe, moreover, that the imperfect, not the present, of the subjunctive, is used after a verb governing the subjunctive, which is in the conditional (p. 118, n. 3), as well as after one which is in the preterite or in the imperfect of the indicative, as seen at p. 22, n. 12. une tante fille.

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12 et un faux toupet couleur café clair.

13 comme ma Julia (or Julie, for the French have both names) et moi; see page 65, note 12.

14 serions aux petits soins pour elle!

15 O vain, trop vain.
16 La foire aux vanités.

REAL HAPPINESS.

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GEORGE was too humane or too much occupied with the tie1 of his neckcloth to convey at once all the news 2 to Amelia which his comrade had brought with him from London. He came into her room, however, holding the attorney's letter in his hand, and with so solemn and important an air that his wife, always ingeniously on the watch for calamity, thought the worst was about to befal, and running up to her husband, besought her dearest George to tell her everything-he was ordered abroad; there would be a battle next week-she knew there would.9

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Dearest George 10 parried the question about foreign service,11 and with a melancholy shake of the head said, No, Emmy; it isn't that it's not myself I care about: it's you.13 I have had bad news from my father. He refuses any communication with me; he has flung us off; and leaves us 14 to poverty. I can rough it well enough ;15

1 nœud.

2 nouvelle is used in French, in the plural as well as in the singular; une nouvelle is, a piece of news, of intelligence, and, des nouvelles, several pieces of news, or news in general.

3 See page 14, note 5.

4 See page 26, note 12, and page 22, note1.in,' here, d. qui avait le talent de toujours prévoir une foule de malheurs; or, simply, toujours en défiance de quelque malheur. The word talent is often so used, ironically, and here corresponds exactly to 'ingeniously,' used in a similar way.

6 que pour le moins toutes les calamités de la terre venaient de fondre (had just fallen) sur eux. A full stop here, and leave out 'and.' 7 Translate, She ran up to;' and see page 116, note 10.

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8 Simply cher, here, before the

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9 Son ordre de départ était-il venu? devait-on se battre la semaine suivante? Ce n'était rien moins que tout cela, elle en était sûre. We have used here suivante, not prochaine, as the adjective prochain means next to the present one-in which we speak (mois prochain, semaine prochaine, &c.), but not so the adjective suivant. 10 See page 117, note 13. 11 départ pour l'étranger. 12 mouvement de tête. secouer la tête (to shake one's head), but the substantive secousse (a shake) is not used in this sense.

13

We say

mes inquiétudes sont pour toi, non pour moi.

14 il me ferme sa porte, il nous livre.

15 I,' thus used emphatically: see page 43, note 12. -'can,' &c., puis (or, peux) bien l'endurer jusqu'au bout; or, 'I can,' &c., Elle ne me fait point peur, à moi.'

but you, my dear,1 how will you bear it? read here."2 And he handed her over the letter.

Amelia, with a look of tender alarm in her eyes, listened to her noble hero as he uttered the above generous sentiments, and sitting down on the bed, read the letter which George gave her with such pompous martyr-like air. Her face cleared up as she read the document, however. The idea of sharing poverty and privation in company with the beloved object, is far from being disagreeable to a warmhearted woman.5 The notion was actually pleasant to little Amelia. Then, as usual, she was ashamed of herself for feeling happy at such an indecorous moment, and checked her pleasure, saying demurely, "O, George, how your poor heart must bleed at the idea of being separated from your papa."

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"It does," said George, with an agonised countenance.s "But he can't be angry with you long," she continued.10 Nobody could,11 I'm sure. He must forgive you,13 my dearest, kindest husband. O, I shall never forgive myself if he does not." 14

"What vexes me, my poor tune, but yours," George said. poverty; and I think, without to make my own way."

1 ma chère femme-mon cher, and ma chère, are only used among intimate friends, and also among brothers and among sisters. Thus, Julia will address Harriet by, ma chère; and so will Dick say to Bob, mon cher.

2 Tiens, lis.- Tiens, and the plural, Tenez-' Hold,' are used in the sense of 'Here,' when handing anything to a person.

en se drapant dans une (or, d'une) orgueilleuse résignation de martyr.

4 à mesure qu'elle avançait dans sa lecture.

5 pour un cœur de femme vivement épris.

6 comme à l'ordinaire, elle fut prise d'un remors subit pour cette joie si intempestive.

Emmy, is not my misfor"I don't care for a little 15 vanity, I've talents enough

7 Ah! bien sûr !

8 d'un air de crucifié.

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9 contre ;-être fâché contre quelqu'un, is, to be angry with one,' whilst être fâché avec quelqu'un, 'to be on bad terms with one,' 'to have fallen out with him.' 10 See page 145, note 12. 11 See page 44, note 3.

12 We might translate elegantly these two sentences thus, literally, 'But his anger will not be able to hold against thee, continued she. Who would have the hard-heartedness (courage) to bear thee ill will (de t'en vouloir) long?'

13 Use the future.

14 'my dearest,' &c., cher ami, et, s'il ne le faisait pas, ce serait pour moi un chagrin de toute la vie.

15 Que m'importe à moi la.

"That you have,"1 interposed his wife, who thought that war should cease, and her husband should be made a general instantly.

"Yes, I shall make my way as well as another," Osborne went on; "but you, my dear girl,2 how can I bear your being deprived of the comforts and station in society which my wife had a right to expect? My dearest girl in barracks, the wife of a soldier in a marching regiment; subject to all sorts of annoyance and privation! It makes me miserable."5

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Emmy, quite at ease, as this was her husband's only cause of disquiet,7 took his hand,8 and with a radiant face and smile9 began to 10 warble that stanza from the favourite song of "Wapping Old Stairs," in which the heroine, after rebuking her Tom for inattention,12 promises "his trowsers to mend and his grog too to make," "13 if he will be 14 constant and kind, and not forsake her. "Besides," she said, after a pause,15 during which she looked as pretty and happy as any young woman need,16 "Isn't 17 two thousand pounds an immense deal of money, George?"

George laughed at her naïveté; and finally they went down to dinner, Amelia clinging on George's arm, still

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3 See page 21, note 3, and page note 15.

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4 de tes aises, de ce rang que ma femme était appelée à tenir dans le monde. 5 Penser que tu seras soumise à toutes les fatigues et les souffrances de la vie du soldat ah! cette idée m'accable et me tue !-Our saying... et les souffrances, is an exception to the rule mentioned page 49, note 8. Yet, this can hardly be called a deviation from the rule, for, toutes intervening, the case is not within the rule: if toutes was not there, we should say, aux fatigues et aux souffrances. 6" at ease,' joyeuse. see page 34, note 17.

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warbling the tune of "Wapping Old Stairs," and more pleased and light of mind than she had been for some days past.1 Thus the repast, which at length came off,2 instead of being dismal, was an exceedingly brisk and merry one.3 -(THACKERAY, Vanity Fair.)

RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND.

THE stranger who would form a correct opinion of the English character, must not confine his observations to the metropolis. He must go forth into the country;5 he must sojourn in villages and hamlets; he must visit castles, villas, farm-houses, cottages; he must wander through parks and gardens; along hedges and green lanes; he must loiter about country churches; attend wakes and fairs, and other rural festivals; and cope with the people in all their conditions, and all their habits and humours.8

In some countries the large cities absorb the wealth and fashion of the nation : 9 they are the only fixed abodes of elegant and intelligent society, and the country is inhabited almost entirely by boorish peasantry. In England, on the contrary, the metropolis is a mere gathering 10 place, or general rendez-vous, of the polite classes, 11 where they devote a small portion of the year to a hurry of gaiety and dissipation, 12 and having indulged this 13 carnival, return again to the apparently more congenial14 habits of rural

1 elle avait l'esprit bien plus allègre et bien plus satisfait que tous les jours précédents.

2 lorsqu'ils se furent enfin mis à table.

3 Leave out 'an' and 'one.' 4 See page 69, note 13.

5 See page 142, note 7.

6 fêtes villageoises.
7 See page 41, note 7.
8 caractère (singular).

9 donnent le ton à la nation et en absorbent toute l'opulence. See page 18, note 4.

10 See page 69, note 14.

11 classes élevées.

12 à la folie et au tourbillon des plaisirs.

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13 après s'être réjouies (page 40, note pendant cette espèce de. 'congenial;' translate this, at the end of the sentence, by, qui semblent mieux leur convenir (a few adverbs, such as bien, mieux, &c., elegantly precede the verb in the infinitive, contrary to the rule mentioned p. 19, note 3).

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