[136] COMME VOTRE AVERSION M'ACCOMMODE, 'How cruelly your aversion treats me.' _Accommoder_ (Littre, 4 deg.), antiquated. [137] DIFFICILE. The text of 1740 gives _different_, which would make no sense here. _Difficile_, moreover, is the general rendering. [138] DE RESTE, 'Only too well.' Notice the difference in meaning between this expression and _du reste_ or _au reste_ ('moreover'). [139] CE QUE JE PENSE. Some of the later editions give the more complete expression, _ce que j'en pense_. [140] AUX. The use of the preposition _a_ after _avoir regret_ is less frequent to-day than that of _de_. LES FAUSSES CONFIDENCES [1] ARAMINTE. A young widow of independent character, in whose mind the prejudice of rank and wealth is not so great as to be insurmountable. One of Marivaux's favourite types. [2] MONSIEUR REMY. The uncle of Dorante, a man of rough exterior and crusty humour, frank to an extreme, overbearing with his nephew, but ready to take his part, a regular _burbero benefico_ (with which character of Goldoni's comedy, compare). [3] PROCUREUR. See _le Legs_, note 126. [4] MADAME ARGANTE. An imperious, selfish, vain, old woman, of the type Marivaux generally chooses for the mothers in his comedies. [5] ARLEQUIN. When this play passed to the stage of the Comedie-Francaise, the name of _Arlequin_, familiar to the Italian comedy, was changed to _Lubin_, and his dress modified to suit the new role. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 2. [6] DUBOIS. A "real creation" among the valets of Marivaux. Like Lepine of _le Legs_, he is quite above the station of the traditional valet, and may well be called _Monsieur_ Dubois. The intrigue of the piece is entirely in his hands, and is carried out with the shrewdness and dexterity of an able man of affairs. [7] JOAILLIER. One who works in, or sells, _joyaux_ ('jewels'), 'a jeweller.' [8] DETOURNEZ. Used in the sense of _derangez_ (Littre, 10 deg.). [9] N'EN FAITES PAS DE FACON. The _en_ nowadays would be considered superfluous, and _facon_ would be put in the plural. The use of _en_ is peculiar in this case, for it refers to the idea partly expressed by Dorante. It stands for _Ne faites pas de facons parce que je me derange pour vous_. [10] HONNETE, 'Polite,' 'civil.' Notice the use of the singular, following the rule that after the pronouns _nous_ and _vous_, when these pronouns designate a single person, even if the verb is plural, the adjective remains singular. [11] QU'IL. A _laquelle_ would be better than _que_, in modern French. The construction of the sentence is somewhat awkward, and betrays the lingering influence of the Latin forms, still so evident in many of the best seventeenth century authors, such as Bossuet, whose use of _qui_ and _que_ is very striking. In the eighteenth century the language was acquiring greater freedom, but it is not until the nineteenth that it rids itself of much of the old syntax. [12] PROCUREUR. See _le Legs_, note 126.