St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-09-04
Struggling With French.

SHo ndilS lEoHi CLlCdSO. ono di Ay 70
interlards her conversation with alleged
gives her ''distin-goo" air. Com
bien far est. il la shop de Madame Du-
crong, le French modest 7" L heard her
ask the porter in the hotel the first time
/ ever saw her. She was evidently act
ing as interpreter to a California friend,
| for when the porter replied, with be-
wildered shrug of the shoulders, "Je ne
comprends pas, madame" she transala-
ted his reply as "It's very far madame"
| SO she hailed a cab, and handing the
milliner's card to the driver, she direct
ed him to caller there" An English
spoken" sign on the Corso allured Mrs.
Doodle into dry goods shop. "Parlez
vous English ?" she said to the first man
she saw, who happened to be a gentle
man who, with his hat in his hand and
his hand behind his back, was talking
to lady. After several desperate eff
forts he managed to make Mrs. B. un-
derstand that he was not a salesman.
80 excusez- me-" she said, "Je vous
took for une garcon de lie store" 10
the first man she espied behind a coun-
ter she repeated her inquiry
"Parlez- English p
"Yees. madame said the yardstick
man. "We spoke zee English lei.
| What will madame dayzeer 2"
"Avez-vous lie silk stockings z"
| He showed her some. She wanted
them with clocks. He didn't under
stand. Her French came to her in good
stead.
"Avec horloge". said she.
He looked at his customer, then at
| the stockings, then at space, but he
couldn't extract suggestion from any
of these objects He pointed to the
clock. Mrs Doodle bobbed her head
with satisfied air. He was more mys-
tilted than ever. He finally resolved
that the lady was crazy, so he shifted
her to fellow tradesman who spoke
the same sort of English, but the new
man understood what madame wanted.
Il see by Harper's Bazaar that the f.
nest black silk stockings, with thin
yellow clock are Comme il Faut, are
these Faults p
81 do not comprends madame"
"Yes You do; you comprennez all
right. | want. to know if these are
CONNIE il Faults"
80! Certainment, madame. Tees are
CONNIE il fault"
"Wen, where's his name or trade
mark don't see it,"
They settled that question somehow
or other. Then Mrs. Doodle came to
talk of the price, and she had an oppor-
tunity of using her favorite word Com
bien''
"Quinze francs la paire."
II think that means twenty-five
francs" she said solilnquizingly. Give
into twenty-five goes FIVE times. Dear
me that's five dollars. o! they're too
high"
Comment, madame"
"They're too high trop haut."
"Ah Zay are too high. Will madame
see somesing lower?"
Yes: she wanted to see something
mnch lower, the lowest they had in
silk. So he took down from shelf q
green box. which he introduced will
this observation
"Tees are zee lowest we have !; but gay
are for de genteelmen," thereupon ex'
h;hiting to her some mems socks. II
required several minutes to pacify Mrs
Bnndle, who at first considered herself
insulted, and kept frequently remark.
ing,"to think would wear stockings
that come no higher than my ankles y
Mrs. B. tells me that she doesn't care
much for Rome, and that she is goin
to hurry back to Paris, where every:
thing is so gay and "mOryay." 80,
love Paris. They call it Paris the bell.
: suppose because it's always ringing
5 with noise."-Rome Letter to Philadel
phia Telegraph.