"_Mon Dieu--mon Dieu--mon Dieu!_" "After promising my fair companion to be punctual, I walked as far as Notter Dam--" "I wish Mr. Dodge would be a little more distinct in his names," said Mademoiselle Viefville, who had begun to take an interest in the subject, that even valueless opinions excite in us concerning things that touch the affections. "Mr. Dodge is a little profane, mademoiselle," observed the captain; "but his journal probably was not intended for the ladies, and you must overlook it. Well, sir, you went to that naughty place--" "To Notter Dam, Captain Truck, if you please, and I flatter myself that is pretty good French." "I think, ladies and gentlemen, we have a right to insist on a translation; for plain roast and boiled men, like Mr. Monday and myself, are sometimes weeping when we ought to laugh, so long as the discourse is in anything but old-fashioned English. Help yourself, Mr. Monday, and remember, you _never_ drink." "_Notter Dam_, I believe, mam'selle, means our Mother, the Church of our Mother.--Notter, or Noster, our,--Dam, Mother: Notter Dam. 'Here I was painfully impressed with the irreligion of the structure, and the general absence of piety in the architecture. Idolatry abounded, and so did holy water. How often have I occasion to bless Providence for having made me one of the descendants of those pious ancestors who cast their fortunes in the wilderness in preference to giving up their hold on faith and charity! The building is much inferior in comfort and true taste to the commoner American churches, and met with my unqualified disapprobation.'" "_Est il possible que cela soit vrai, ma chere!_" "_Je l'espere, bien, mademoiselle_." "You may _despair bien_, cousin Eve," said John Effingham, whose fine curvilinear face curled even more than usual with contempt. The ladies whispered a few explanations, and Mr. Dodge, who fancied it was only necessary to resolve to be perfect to achieve his end, went on with his comments, with all the self-satisfaction of a provincial critic. "'From Notter Dam I proceeded in a _cabrioly_ to the great national burying-ground, Pere la Chaise, so termed from the circumstance that its distance from the capital renders chaises necessary for the _convoys_--" "How's this, how's this!" interrupted Mr. Truck; "is one obliged to sail under a convoy about the streets of Paris?" "_Monsieur Dodge veut dire, convoi_. Mr. Dodge mean to say, _convoi_" kindly interposed Mademoiselle Viefville. "Mr. Dodge is a profound republican, and is an advocate for rotation in language, as well as in office: I must accuse you of inconstancy, my dear friend, if I die for it. You certainly do not pronounce your words always in the same way, and when I had the honour of carrying you out this time six months, when you were practising the continentals, as you call them, you gave very different sounds to many of the words I then had the pleasure and gratification of hearing you use."