ACTE II, SCÈNE II
1: c'est tout coeur, tout feu: _he is so warm-hearted, so impulsive!—ça ne sait pas vivre: he doesn't know what's what! Lit., «he doesn't understand life,» what is important in life (e.g. coffee after meals) and what is not. Ça still patronizing, if not contemptuous, acte I, scène VI, note 9.
2: ça ne lui a pas réussi: he didn't make a success of it, i.e. it made him feel sick.
3: en plein soleil: in the blazing sun. Cf. en plein air, en pleine mer, «in the open air,» «in mid ocean.»
4: nous avons: supply: as a precedent. The allusion is to the well-known story of the race won by the slow tortoise against the swift hare.
5: si haut: at such an elevation, with possibly a play on the word haut, which also means «loud.»
6: la belle écriture: the excellent penmanship (of special advantage in business) and the inane remark of Mr. Malaquais, show him up as an uncultivated tradesman.—Rentier: after his name is the technical term for a business man who has retired and lives on his income. Tr., no profession.