Olivia, now about eighteen,1 had that luxuriancy of beauty, with which painters generally draw 2 Hebe-open, sprightly, and commanding. Sophia's features were not so striking at first,3 but often did more certain execution; for they were soft, modest, and alluring. The one vanquished by a single blow, the other by efforts successively repeated. My eldest son, George, was bred 5 at Oxford, as I intended him for one of the learned professions. My second boy, Moses, whom I designed for business, received a sort of miscellaneous7 education at home. But it is needless to attempt describing the particular characters of young people that had seen but very little of the world. In short, a family likeness prevailed through all; 10 and, properly speaking, they had but one character, that of being all equally generous, credulous, simple and inoffensive. (GOLDSMITH.) 11 THE SPELL OF WEALTH. WHAT a dignity it gives an old lady, that balance at the 12 banker's! How tenderly we look 13 at her faults, if she is a 14 relative (and may every reader have a score of such); 15 what a kind, good-natured old creature we find her !1 How the junior partner 2 of Hobbs and Dobbs leads her, smiling to the carriage with the lozenge upon it,3 and the fat wheezy coachman ! How, when she comes to pay us a visit, we generally find an opportunity to let our friends know her station 6 in the world! we say (and with perfect truth), I wish I had Miss Mac Whirter's signature to a cheque for five thousand pounds. She wouldn't miss it,9 says your wife. She 10 is my aunt, say you, in an easy careless way,11 when your friend asks if Miss Mac Whirter is 12 any relative? Your wife is perpetually sending her little testimonies of affection; your little girls work endless worsted baskets, cushions, and foot-stools for her. 13 What a good fire there is in her room when she comes to pay you a visit,14 although your wife laces her stays without one! 15 The house during her stay assumes a festive, neat, warm, jovial, snug appearance not visible at 16 other seasons. 1 Qui de nous ne la juge une bonne et excellente vieille ! 2 nouvel associé. 3 sa voiture blasonnée. 4 garnie du gros cocher asthma tique. 5 Turn, 'How we know, when she. how (not expressed here, in French, as mentioned p. 124, n. 1) to find the opportunity of.'-'to pay,' here, rendre, without any article after it; -rendre (or, faire) visite à quelqu'un, is, to visit one, and rendre à quelqu'un sa visite, is, to return one a visit which we have received from him (or her). 6 to let know,' faire savoir (see page 108, note 1); or, apprendre.. Je voudrais avoir. You yourself, dear putting the conjunction et between 'would not be' ..... 13 font pour elle (page 22, note 1) un nombre infini de &c. 14 demeurer pour quelque temps chez vous, in this sense. 15 s'en passe quand elle &c.-'stays; use the singular, in French; so with 'trowsers,' the French say un pantalon (sing.), in the sense of a pair of trowsers.' 16 un air propre ('neat'), cossu ('warm,' in this particular sense), confortable ('snug'), joyeux—or, gai (jovial'), un air de jête (* iestive') qu'elle n'a point en. 1 نا 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. 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) 1 Turn, 'Yourself, (p. 86, n. 1, and p. 2, n. 5) my dear sir, you forget.' 2 tout d'un coup; this expression must be used, instead of tout à coup, when we wish to indicate that a fact, which might have happened gradually, has taken place at once, immediately; whereas, if we wish to express that a fact has happened, also at once, but unexpectedly, we must then use tout à coup in preference to tout d'un coup. 3 très amoureux du whist. 4 du madère-malvoisie. 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. 9. une tante fille. 11 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. REAL HAPPINESS. 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 66 6 Dearest George 10 parried the question about foreign service,11 and with a melancholy shake of the head 12 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 singu lar; une nouvelle is, a piece of news, of intelligence, and, des nouvelles, several pieces of news, or news in general. 3 See page 10, note 3. 4 See page 27, note 3, and page 22, note.-in,' here, à. 5 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. 8 Simply cher, here, before a noun. 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. mouvement de tête. secouer la tête (to shake one's head), but the substantive secousse (a shake) is not used in this sense. 13 mes inquiétudes sont pour toi, non pour moi. 12 We say 14 il me ferme sa porte, il nous livre. 15 I,' thus used emphatically: see page 43, note can," &c., puis (or, peux) bien l'endurer jusqu'au bout; or, 'I can,' &c., Elle ne me fait point peur, moi. but you, my dear, And he handed her how will you bear it? read here."2 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.3 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. ד "It does," said George, with an agonised countenance.8 "But he can't be angry with you long," she continued. 10" Nobody could,11 I'm sure.12 He must forgive you, my dearest, kindest husband. O, I shall never for 13 give myself if he does not.”1 "I don't care for a little 15 vanity, I've talents enough "What vexes me, my poor Emmy, is not my misfortune, but yours," George said. poverty; and I think, without to make my own way." 1 ma chère femme-mon cher, and ma chère, are chiefly used among intimate friends, and also among brothers and among sisters. Thus, Kate will address Bess 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. + à mesure qu'elle avançait dans sa lecture. 3 pour un cœur de femme vivemeni épris. 6 comme à l'ordinaire, elle fut prise d'un remords subit pour cette juie si intempestive. 7 Ah! bien sûr ! 9 contre-être fâché contre quelqu'un, is, 'to be angry with one,' whilst être faché avec quelqu'un, is, 'to be on bad terms with one,' 'to have fallen out with him.' 10 See page 145, note 12. 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. |