{"du tout" = not at all; "tout bonnement" = simply; "emeute" = riot; "rappel" = call to arms (French)} "What did you think it was?" "An emeute, sans doute, say I to myself. It was un tintamarre epouvantable." {"un tintamarre epouvantable" = a frightful uproar (French)} "Emeute; pray, what is that?" "Emeute? A little revolution, as we have in Paris constamment." "Why, my dear sir, our revolutionary war took place more than fifty years ago. Did you expect to find us fighting now?" "Certainement; I thought the wheel I hear was cannon. But mon ami Eel-SUN tell me next day, there is incendie every night somewhere in New York. Un drole de divertisement, vraiment. It is a great desagrement, of a city otherwise so beautiful, with so many charming ladies." {"un drole de divertisement, vraiment" = truly, a strange form of entertainment. "desagrement" = unpleasant feature (French)} "Thank you, sir; you are very polite. I believe, Miss Wyllys, that French gentlemen, no matter what they talk about, always find an opportunity to pay a compliment." "C'est tout naturel; cela va sans dire; it is only our devoir, Madame, to exprimer to the ladies some of the many agreeable things they inspire." {"C'est tout naturel..." = it's only natural; it goes without saying; it is only our duty, Madame, to express to the ladies... (French)} "Worse and worse," said Mrs. Hilson, laughing. "How different you are from Captain Kockney; he never said a civil thing to me, all the time he was in New York." "Le capitaine Coquenais was an Anglais, who cannot feel the true politesse Francaise." "He used to say it is not aristocratic to be polite to other people; he belongs to the English aristocracy, you know." "L'aristocratie! Oh, that is a vile state of things. La vieille aristocratie of France, Madame, was the cause of our revolution. But in France now, and in America, those happy countree, the spirit of aristocracy is extinct." "I beg your pardon, Monsieur Bonnet," said Mrs. Hilson, quite indignantly. "It is true there are many plebeians in this country; but we have also many people of the highest aristocracy." "Ah, vous plaisantez avec tant de grace, Madame!" {"vous plaisantez...." = You joke so gracefully, Madame (French)} "It is pleasant, certainly, to me; though some people may not appreciate it. I am a very aristocratic spirit." "Ah, sans doute, Madame; you have so much esprit, you laugh at me," said the Frenchman, who took Mrs. Hilson's protestation as a joke. {"esprit" = wit (French)} "No, indeed; I never was more serious in my life. I should suppose you would have been struck with the high state of aristocracy at our boarding-house, for instance." Monsieur Bonnet could only shrug his shoulders, being quite at a loss for the lady's meaning.