12. me tient au fait de tout: ‘keeps me informed about everything’.
19. Ce que j’y gagne? In repeating a question just asked by another person, the French put it in the indirect form.
20. la petite fille de Sobieski. See note to page 5, line 16.
26. une infidélité d’une haute portée et d’un grand rapport: ‘an infidelity of high import and great advantages.’
[8], 4. rien autre chose: ‘nothing else.’
6. Si: ‘Yes.’ Si is used instead of oui as an affirmation in contradiction to a preceding negation.
11. vous ne vous en doutez pas: ‘you do not suspect it.’
22. je suis de toutes ses parties: ‘I join in all his pleasure parties.’
23. l’Opéra. The grand opera house was from 1683 to 1787 at the Palais Royal, later at the Porte St. Martin, and from 1821 to 1874 in the rue Le Peletier. The present splendid edifice, at the Place de l’Opéra, was begun in 1861 and completed in 1874.
24. l’Académie des Sciences: one of the five academies of the Institut de France. These five “academies” or associations of savants include the Académie Française, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.