SCÈNE PREMIÈRE
1: Montanvert: on the slopes of Mont Blanc, in French Switzerland, and close to the famous glacier known as the Mer de Glace.
2: Ces messieurs; see acte I, scène III, note 3.
3: opérations: a military metaphor kept up in his next speech.
4: wagon: (pronounced vagon), is only used of railroad cars, or even of«compartments,» i.e. divisions of coaches, on the European plan, eachcompartment to carry from six to ten passengers (according to the «class»), seated facing each other.
5: prévenances… petits soins: the former anticipate a person's needs or desires, the latter are «attentions» in general.
6: Dijon: a station a little more than halfway between Paris and Lyons, some four or five hours' journey from the latter.
7: la mécanique: the spring. It does not appear whether Armand held down a shade that would fly up, or held up a shade that would come down.—a dû: note the use of the indicative of devoir to express necessary sequence: it «must have.»
8: vous vous… nourrir: You got your board out of them.
9: Chamouny: the nearest village to Mont Blanc, about 3500 feet above the sea level.—le Perrichon: the use of the article is humorous: old man Perrichon.—de s'écrier: the narrative infinitive of the Latin, giving greater vividness to the story.
10: gentilhomme: «nobleman,» not «gentleman.» 'Twas nobly done!
11: Merci: in answer to any offer, is very generally No, thank you.
12: Châlon (sur-Saône): about halfway between Dijon and Lyons.
13: le: i.e. sérieux.
14: vont tout seuls: a play on the expression aller tout seul, used oftoys, etc., that are worked by machinery, and need no drawing with a string, and also of undertakings that are easy and require little or no effort. Daniel's tug-boats need no pushing by him.
15: j'ai associé… personne: i.e. he is, as it were, a silent partner, a sort of «amateur banker.» An amateur in music, painting, etc., practices his art as a hobby, for his personal satisfaction, and not as a profession.
16: Il n'y a… blondes: fair complexions are getting very scarce.
17: Comme… aimons: Just the shade we dote on, and not «How we love them!»
18: c'est qu'il est: this c'est que, often omitted in English, introducesa reason or explanation; in this case, for his exclamation of alarm.
19: Ferney: four or five miles northwest of Geneva, and for twenty years the residence of the great French writer, Voltaire.—Lausanne: some thirty-three miles northeast of Geneva.
20. Je ne tiens pas en place: I can't sit still.—J'ai envie de: I have half a mind to.