The genius of language in a living state, the future and past of French, that is what ought to have interested me in Françoise’s mistakes. Her “amender” for “mender” was not so curious as those animals that survive from remote ages, such as the whale or the giraffe, and show us the states through which animal life has passed. “And,” I went on, “since you haven’t managed to learn in all these years, you never will. But don’t let that distress you, it doesn’t prevent you from being a very good soul, and making spiced beef with jelly to perfection, and lots of other things as well. The hat that you think so simple is copied from a hat belonging to the Princesse de Guermantes which cost five hundred francs. However, I mean to give Mlle.