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In one of the plays of the time, a marquis, very fashionable and a well-known courtier, was made to say: "Il faut trois mois de Valognes pour achever un homme de cour." One can quite imagine "la grande vie d'autrefois" in the hotel of the Florians. Their garden is enchanting quantities of flowers, roses particularly.
Massenet's "Elegie," as I afterwards learned a hush fell over the room and we three men sat staring at the sweet upturned profile, as her lovely throat gave forth the tender sad refrain: "Oh doux printemps d'autrefois, vertes saisons ou Vous avez fui pour toujours Je ne vois plus le ciel bleu Je n'entends plus les chants joyeux des oiseaux En emportant mon bonheur, O bien aimé tu t'en es allé Et c'est en vain que revient le printemps."
"I swear it," he answered. "It is the piece of writing that I found in the hidden cubby-hole of the old cabinet in the Oak Parlour. It is written in French, you know." "Yes, I know, I know," she assented absently. For a moment she was quite still, and then, with a strange exclamation, she put the paper to her lips. "Quels souvenirs, d'autrefois!" she murmured. "Ah, mon Dieu, mon Dieu!"
From her natural endowments and her long familiarity with Courts, she has acquired a capacity for combining, controlling, entertaining social "circles" which recalls les salons d'autrefois, the drawing-rooms of an Ancelot, a Le Brun, a Recamier.
Our friend looked about and hesitated; observed, on the evidence of a table charged with purchases and other matters, that Sarah had become possessed by no aid from HIM of the last number of the salmon-coloured Revue; noted further that Mamie appeared to have received a present of Fromentin's "Maitres d'Autrefois" from Chad, who had written her name on the cover; and pulled up at the sight of a heavy letter addressed in a hand he knew.
But the chiefest among all the painters alive and dead, one who shines and will continue to shine when his canvases are faded and they are fading is Eugène Fromentin, whose Maîtres d'autrefois is a classic of criticism. Since his day two critics, who are also painters, have essayed both crafts, George Clausen and D.S. MacColl.
Je fus si frappe des liens qui unissent le francais moderne au francais ancien, j'apercus tant de cas ou les sens et des locutions du jour ne s'expliquent que par les sens et les locutions d'autrefois, tant d'exemples ou la forme des mots n'est pas intelligible sans les formes qui ont precede, qu'il me sembla que la doctrine et meme l'usage de la langue restent mal assis s'ils ne reposent sur leur base antique."
We three men smoked I, too, for I had lately fallen from grace with the ladies' permission in the drawing-room where Una played upon the piano and sang. I don't think that Jerry had known about her music for he had said nothing of it to me, and when her voice began softly: "Oh doux printemps d'autrefois"
Permettez-moi d'esperer que le bonheur que j'ai de vous connaitre n'aura pas ete un accident dans une vie, et que des causes plus heureuses que d'autrefois vous rameneront bientot encore dans ce pays; et, en attendant, veuillez me garder une petite place dans votre faveur, comme vous etes toujours vivant dans le mien. Je suis, avec la plus affectueuse consideration, Votre devoue serviteur et ami,