tariffs on some items, but retained the high customs duties on the import
of textile products}

"The duty!" repeated the woman, with an incredulous smile; "monsieur,
you are not so young as to pay any duty on a pocket-handkerchief! Ma
foi, I will bring twenty--oui, a thousand from England itself, and the
douaniers shall not stop one."

{douaniers = customs officials}

"Ay, but we don't smuggle in America," returned the colonel, with an
aplomb that might have done credit to Vidocq himself; "in our
republican country the laws are all in all."

{Vidocq = Francois Vidocq (1775-1857), a senior French police
official who was secretly a burglar, and who "investigated" his own
crimes for a long time before being exposed}

"Why do so many of your good republicans dress so that the rue de
Clery don't know them, and then go to the chateau?" demanded the
commissionaire, very innocently, as to appearance at least.

{chateau = palace}

"Bah! there are the five napoleons--if you want them, take them--if not,
I care little about it, my invoice being all closed."

Desiree never accepted money more reluctantly. Instead of making one
hundred and fifty-five francs out of the toil and privations, and self-
denial of poor Adrienne, she found her own advantages unexpectedly