[85] CONFIDEMMENT. Confidentiellement the more common form.
[86] NE PRENDRE PAS GARDE. The modern construction of the negative with an infinitive requires both parts of the negative to precede the verb.
[87] EN FAVEUR DE = Dans l'intérêt de.
[88] MON PORTE-MANTEAU. Refers not to the valise, but to the crocheteur who carried it. The office of porte-manteau was an honourable one at the French court. Twelve officers of the household bore the title and discharged the duties of the office, which consisted in taking care of the king's hat, gloves, stick, and sword, and in handing them to his majesty when called for. One of these officers always accompanied the king when hunting, with a valise containing raiment. See A. Chéruel, Dictionnaire historique des institutions, moeurs et coutumes de la France.
[89] AUTANT VAUT, 'That's the same thing.' 'That's just as good.'
[90] LA BELLE. The use of the article is here indicative of familiarity. Used in this way towards inferiors.
[91] JE VAIS FAIRE DESCENDRE. On the part of a supposed servant, a somewhat free and easy expression.
[92] UN BEAU-PÈRE DE LA VEILLE OU DU LENDEMAIN, 'A man who is as good as my father-in-law.'
[93] AVANT QUE DE. Avant de is more modern.
[94] L'HÔTEL. In the meaning attached to the word in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that is, 'mansion,' 'residence.' Originally applied specifically to the king's residence, it soon was used of the mansions of the nobility in Paris or other towns. Later, the habit arose among the nobility of renting rooms and apartments within their mansions when the family was not in residence, and gradually the word assumed its present more extended meaning. But hôtel is still used to denote strictly a residence.