by Erskine Caldwell
Ever since her twenty-fifth birthday, which had been celebrated nearly fifteen years before while her parents were alive, it had been the general feeling 1 in Indianola 2 that Stella
Sibley was going to spend the remaining years of her life as an unmarried woman.
As far as anybody knew, Stella had never had a lover and, if somebody had been bold enough to ask her why she had never had a love affair, she probably would have said that it was a matter much too personal for her to discuss.
This was surprising, because ever since girlhood Stella had been.an attractive woman with gleaming chestnut hair and a slender figure and, now that she was approaching forty, she was still youthful and winsome 3 in appearance. More than that, Stella was an unusually good cook,4 and people who had once eaten her fried chicken said nobody in the world could cook it any better than she did.
Just the same, hardly a day passed without somebody in town shaking his head and saying it was too bad 6 that a fine-looking woman like Stella Sibley had to live without a husband. And Stella herself, even though she often had to endure a sharp pain of yearning, had resigned herself to living out her life as an old maid.8 But that was before Harry Rum- ford came to town and rented parking space for his caravan ' in Stella's back yard.
Nobody seemed to know for sure why it was that Stella Sibley — nearly everybody in town called her Miss Stella in her presence — anyway, nobody knew why she had lived all her life in Indianola without attracting somebody who seriously considered the prospect of having her for his wife. However, it was true that there had been one exception. Jake Carson, who had had the job of collecting trash 8 for the town ever since anybody could remember, and who had collected Stella's trash twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays all those years, asked her every time he had the opportunity if she would let him sit on the porch with her some late afternoon or early evening after his working hours. Jake, who was several years older than Stella and muscularly rugged in appearance, and who had the habit of shaving only on Sunday mornings and one other day of the week, would stand there at Stella's back porch rubbing the greying stubble on his face and begin by praising her for having the most respectable trash in Indianola.
"I wish you could just see some of the other people's trash, Miss Stella," he would say, shaking his head disapprovingly. "There've been a lot of times when I was almost ashamed to haul " it through town to the dump pile, it was that disgraceful.10 But I want you to know that I'm always proud to haul your trash, Miss Stella. You never have a lot of rattling old beer cans11 and empty wine jugs and those magazines filled from one end to the other with pictures of undressed girls."
"Of course, I wouldn't have such dreadful things in my trash box," she would say with a prim 12 expression as she stood erectly above him on the porch. "That's something that could never happen."
"Well, that's one of the reasons why I admire you so much, Miss Stella," he would say then. "Now, If you'd let me sit on the porch with you, it's something I'd remember as long as I live. If I could come and do that after working hours."
It was at that point that she always curtly interrupted him.
"I could never permit myself to have social intercourse 13 with somebody who collected trash."
Then without fail,14 and time after time, Stella would shake her head and go into the house and lock the door. The only thing left for Jake to do after that was to go back to his trash truck and hope she would change her mind the next time he asked her to let him sit on the porch with her.
In recent years some of the women in town had had the courage to ask her why she did not make more of an effort to give up her lonely life and, if only for the sake of16 companionship, get married,
"There's not a man in Indianola I'd have as a gift on a silver platter," Stella would answer with a disdainful toss of her head. "There isn't a man in the whole town with an iota of ambition. Every last one of them is satisfied to spend his life running a little filling station 14 or grocery store, or something like that. I've got too much pride to marry anybody but the finest type of man."
"Everybody knows that some of them are downright lazy and good for nothing," 17 one of the married women would say, "but sometimes even a lazy man is better than none at all."
"Maybe that's good enough for some women who aren't too particular," 13 Stella would tell them, "but I'll stay like I am for the rest of my life before I'll give up my pride."
It was not long after that when Harry Rumford drove up to Stella's house and said he had heard she had a large rear yard with a lot of shade trees growing in it and that she might be willing to rent him parking space for his caravan.
The caravan was long and shiny, and the bright curtains over the windows gave it a cosy, homelike atmosphere. Stella had never been inside a caravan before, and the sight of it immediately filled her with a desire to find out what it would be like to be in one. At first she had hesitated to let a strange man park his caravan in her back yard, but the two front rooms of her house, which she rented to some of the schoolteachers from September to June, were vacant during the summer, and she knew that she needed the rent that Harry Rumford offered to pay.
Besides, Stella felt an unfamiliarly pleasant excitement in her breast as she stood there on the porch that summer afternoon with Harry Rumford. He was a tall, tanned, dark- haired man who might have been any age between thirty and forty-five, and he had an ingratiating 19 smile and an intimate manner of talking that appealed to her 20 more and more. In fact, as soon as he told her that he was a construction engineer working for the company that was laying a natural-gas pipe line 21 through the country and erecting a pumping station a few miles from town, she knew that he was the type of man she had never thought she would have the good fortune to see in Indianola. Accidentally or not, his fingers touched her hand intimately when he gave her the money for the rent, and she found herself trembling so much that she had to hurry into the house and lock the door.
It was several days before she saw Harry Rumford again. He had been getting up and leaving his caravan home before dawn each morning and not returning until after dark in the evening. Then on the fifth day, for some reason, he came back in the middle of the afternoon.
Stella watched him from her kitchen window for a long time, wondering if he were going to find some excuse 22 to come to the back porch and knock on the door, but instead, he sat down in a small chair outside the caravan and read a book for an hour or longer. The sun was setting when she saw him close the book and go into the caravan and then a few minutes later he came out and got into his automobile and drove away. She told herself that he was only going downtown 23 to the café for his dinner, and not going to see some other woman, but there was so much uncertainty in her mind that she was restless and nervous until she heard his car in the back yard nearly two hours after. After that she went to bed and tried to go to sleep.
The next evening Harry Rumford came back just at dusk. Stella waited until he had gone into the caravan, and then she hurried across the yard with a large dish of fried chicken which she had cooked that afternoon. Timidly, but excited by the boldness of what she was doing, she knocked lightly on the caravan door. It was only a few moments until Harry Rumford was standing before her, and she was relieved to see that he was smiling pleasantly at her.
Stella held the plate of fried chicken between them.
"Is this for me?" he asked.
Stella nodded.
"Well, what a wonderful surprise from a charming lady," he said, his blue eyes sparkling. "It's exactly what I've been thinking about. Nobody could like fried chicken more than I do — especially in the company of a charming lady. And now, of course, we'll share it — you and I. Come on in,24 Stella."
She had not expected him to call her by her first name, at least not so soon, and she felt a blush come to her cheeks. He stepped backward invitingly and urged her with a motion of his hand to come inside. Holding her breath, but with no hesitation, she entered the caravan.
"Now, Stella, you make -yourself comfortable right here on the sofa-bed while I get some coffee started. Fried chicken and hot coffee — is there anything better, Stella?"
Smiling nervously, she sat down on the sofa-bed.
"We're going to get to know each other real well soon, aren't we, Stella?" she heard him say from the kitchenette at the end of the caravan.
"Yes — " she said excitedly, gripping her hands in her lap. "Yes — "
Before she had time to look at the furnishings around her, Harry Rumford was standing in front of her and holding two glasses and a bottle of whisky.
"You know something, Stella?" he was saying in his intimate manner. "I've been looking forward to this 25 ever since the first time I saw you, I didn't have to take a second look to know that you'd be my kind of girl."
Summer had passed and the first cool days of autumn had come to the Gulf Coast.26 Stella sat on the back porch waiting. She had put on her heavy coat to keep warm while she sat there, but even so she shivered in the late-afternoon breeze. It was already long past the time when Jake Carson usually came on Thursdays, and she rocked faster while she wondered if anything had happened to him.
Once she had begun to worry, she was unable to keep from imagining all the terrible things that could happen to him. He might have been run over by an automobile — his truck might have turned over and killed him — he might even have dropped dead.
Tense with worry by that time, she jumped to her feet when she heard the sound of the truck coming down the street. Gripping the porch railing with both hands, she waited anxiously. Then, at last, when she thought she could not endure the uncertainty another second, Jake Carson walked round the corner of the house in his calm, casual, unhurried manner and started across the yard towards the trash box.
"Jake!" she called in a loud voice.
Startled, Jake stopped in his tracks.
"Come here, Jake!" she said tensely.
He came as far as the porch steps, and there he stood looking up at her with a bewildered expression on his broad face.
"Miss Stella —" he said slowly, at the same time rubbing the stubble on his chin the way he did when he was deeply perplexed.
"Don't call me that," she said at once, shaking her head at him. "Just call me Stella."
"Why — " he began.
"Never mind why," she told him with a firm shake of her head. "It's just because I want you to call me Stella from now on."
Jake turned his head and looked across the yard.
"What happened to that engineering fellow who was renting caravan space from you out there under the trees?" he asked, turning around again and looking up at her. "Did he move on somewhere else?"
"Yes," she replied sharply.
"Well, I reckon 27 that's the way it is with people like him who go around the country laying down pipe lines,"
Jake remarked. "Just as soon as they finish at one place, they go somewhere else and start in again. I can see how living like that would get to be a habit. The only trouble is —"
"I don't want to talk about that," Stella told him brusquely. "I never want to talk about it again." She was shaking her head sternly. "And I don't want you talking about it, either."
"I don't exactly know for sure," he said, looking at her closely, "but it seems to me like you're mighty 28 upset about that. There's been some talk around town that maybe you were fixing to get married 29 to him — at least that's how the gossip went 80 — because of one good reason or another."
"Come on in the house, Jake," Stella said, going to the steps and beckoning to him. "I've cooked a big plate of fried chicken just for you."
Jake glanced at the trash box, and then he looked towards his truck in the street.
"I've heard about your fried chicken, and I sure would like to have some — Stella — but I haven't finished my rounds yet for the day. Thursdays always are my big days, anyway. Most people have a habit of —"
"That can wait," she told him urgently, leaning forward and reaching for his hand. "There'll be plenty of time for that tomorrow and the next day — and all the other days from now on. Right now it's more important for you to come into the house."
Jake looked at her searchingly for several moments.
"You sure do make it sound like something mighty urgent," he said presently, "and if it's all that urgent,81 I reckon I ought to—"
Stella nodded eagerly.
Going slowly up the steps, Jake took off his hat, slapping it noisily against his leg time after time in order to beat out as much of the dust as he could before going into the house.
"The one thing that bothers me most," he said as he followed her inside, "is that I never did get a chance to sit on the porch with you."
NOTES
1. 1 the general feeling — everybody's opinion; e.g. What is the general feeling on the films produced by the Lenfilm studio? (=» What do people think and say about them?)
2. Indianola — a small town in the USA, Mississippi
3. winsome — charming, attractive (e. g. winsome manner, smile, appearance)
4. was an unusually good cook — could cook very well
5. It was too bad (colloq.) — it was a pity
6. had resigned herself to living out her life as an old maid — had accepted without complaint the prospect of living all her life unmarried (of remaining single)
7. rented parking space for his caravan — occupied and paid for a place where he could keep his caravan for a time (caravan Am. =* a large covered wagon in which one can live, used by people who have to travel from place to place; Russ. Дом на колесах, дом-автоприцеп)
8. trash — rubbish, useless, broken-up things (Russ. хлам, мусор)
9. to haul — to pull or drag with effort (Russ. Тащить, волочить)
10. that disgraceful (colloq.) — so disgraceful
11. can — a metal container for holding liquids (e. g. milk-can, oil-can, beer-can, etc.)
12. prim — stiff (Russ. чопорный)
13. to have social intercourse — a formal phrase which means meeting people in a friendly way (Russ. Общаться, встречаться). Stella claims to be a "lady" and therefore speaks in a stiff and formal way.
14. without fail — for certain (Russ. Наверняка, непременно)
15. if only for the sake of— хотя бы ради
16. to run a filling station (Russ. бензоколонка), a grocery store, a school, a hotel, etc.— to manage (Russ. вести дело, управлять); e.g. It was the great ambition of his life to run a hotel.
17. good for nothing — worthless, and no good
18. " particular — not easily satisfied or pleased (Russ. разборчивый)
19. ingratiating — trying to win the favour of somebody (Russ. Льстивый, вкрадчивый, заискивающий); e.g. He looked at Sophia with an ingratiating smile. His manner was ingratiating.
20. he had an intimate manner of talking that appealed to her — he had... a manner of talking that is used by people who know each other very well, and she liked it (to appeal to somebody— to interest, to impress, to attract a person; e.g. Modern painting did not appeal to him, he liked only the old Masters. Does juzz music appeal to you?)
21. was laying a natural-gas pipe line — прокладывала газопровод для природного газа. to lay a cable, to lay bricks, to lay the linoleum (the carpet), etc.
22. to find some excuse — to invent a reason (Russ. Найти предлог); excuse |iks'kju:sj — a reason (true or invented) offered as an explanation; e.g. He hardly ever came in time and always had some excuse or other for being late; a lame excuse — a poor (unsatisfactory) excuse
23. downtown — the business part of the town
24. come on in (colloq.) — come in quick (come on — Russ. живей)
25. I've been looking forward to this — I've been expecting this with pleasure (Russ. предвкушал)
26. Gulf Coast — the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico
27. to reckon — to think, to suppose
28. mighty (colloq.) — extremely, very
29. fixing to get married — arranging to get married
30. that's how the gossip went — that's what people talked about (Russ. так люди болтали)
31. if it's ail that urgent (colloq.) — if it's as urgent as that
EXERCISES
Exercise I. Practise the pronunciation of the following a) words and b) word-combinations:
youthful, winsome, yearning, resign, caravan, disapprovingly, haul, erectly, intercourse, iota, curtain, atmosphere, vacant, breast, ingratiating, intimate, releaved, urge, kitchenette, casual, brusquely
Exercise II. A. Drills, a) Read and repeat; b) Use the structures in sentences of your own:
I. 1. As far as anybody knew, Stella had never had a love affair.
2. Is far as anybody knew, Stella was going to live out her life as an old maid.
1. As far as anybody knew, Jake Carson was the only man in the town who was seriously attracted by her.
2. Is far as anybody knew, Stella was eager to get married to Harry Rumford.
II. 1. Some of the women in town asked Stella if she would always live single.
2. He asked Stella if she would let him sit on the porch.
3. Harry Rumford asked her if she would rent him parking space for his caravan.
4. Stella asked him if he would like to have some fried chicken.
1. If somebody had been bold enough to ask Stella about it she would have said it was a matter much too personal for her to discuss.
2.If Stella hadn't had so mush pride she would have married somebody long ago.
3.If Harry Rumford hadn't been used to travelling from one place to another he would have, probably, stayed in Indianola.
1 I wish you could see some of the other people's trash!
2. I wish you would let me sit on the porch with you!
3. I wish you treated me to some of your fried chicken!
4. I wish you were not so proud!
5. I wish you told me all the truth!
6. I wish you didn't treat me the way you do!
I. She wondered what the caravan was like inside.
1. Jake wondered why Stella would never let him sit on the porch.
2. People in the town wondered if Stella would ever get married.
3. She wondered if Harry was going to find some excuse to knock on the door.
4. She wondered if he would be pleased to see her.
VI. I. She was relieved to see that he was smiling.
2. He was hurt to hear she didn't want him.
3. She was happy to learn he was coming.
4. I was disappointed to realize I had failed.
B. Additional drills:
I. 1. Stella saw him close the book.
2. She watched him enter the caravan.
a) She felt a blush come to her cheeks.
b) She heard, the truck rattle round the corner.
c) Jake Carson saw her reach for his hand.
a) 1. He might have been run over by an automobile.
2. His truck might have turned over.
3. He might have dropped dead.
4. Something terrible might have happened to him.
b) 1. It was too personal for her to discuss.
2. It was too unusual for them to understand.
3. It was too late for him to stay out.
4. It was too painful for her to think about it.
Exercise III. Replace the italicized parts of these sentences by equivalents from the text:
1. People in the town thought that Stella was going to remain an unmarried woman. 2. Now that Stella was in her late thirties she still looked young and attractive. 3. Stella could cook very well. 4. Jake used to shave only on Sunday mornings. 5. "If only you could see some of the other people's trash, Miss Stella," he used to say, shaking his head. 6. "/ am too proud to marry anybody but the finest type of man." 7. Harry Rumford was a tall sun-burnt man with dark hair. 8. Stella liked his manner of talking. 9. Stella knew at once that he was the type of man she had never thought she would be lucky to see in Indianola. 10. Stella watched him wondering if he were going to find some pretext to come to the back porch and knock on the door. 11. "We shall eat it together — you and I." 12. I've been expecting the pleasure of seeing you here, ever since the first time I saw you.
Exercise IV. Give English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own:
а) общее мнение; остаток жизни; иметь роман (с кем- либо); каштановые волосы; стройная фигура; привлекательная; моложавая; качать головой; знать наверняка; два раза в неделю; после работы; если бы вы только видели; я восхищаюсь вами; неизменно; чопорный; запирать дверь; единственное, что ему оставалось; передумать; отказаться от чего-либо; честолюбивый; никчемный; разборчивый
б) появиться из-за угла; непринужденный; смущенный (сбитый с толку); глубоко озадаченный; неважно; в том, что...; по крайней мере; махнуть (делать знак рукой); закончить обход; настойчиво; впредь; смотреть испытующе; что-то неотложное (срочное); кивать
Exercise V. Ask each other questions about the text.
Exercise VI. Construct 5 tall-questions that are not true to fact (see p. 147 Ex. VIII) and ask the students to correct them.
Exercise VII. Answer the following questions:
1. What sort of girl was Stella and what was she thought of by people in the town? 2. Why had she never had a love affair or an admirer with the exception of Jake Carson? 3. What attracted Jake Carson to Stella? How did she treat him? 4. What were the reasons that made Stella rent Harry Rum- ford parking space for his caravan? Why was it so easy for Harry Rumford to win Stella's heart? 5. Why was Stella so restless and worried, as she sat on the back porch waiting for Jake Carson? 6. How did Jake react to that unexpected invitation from Stella and what did his last words imply?
Exercise VIII. Retell the story according to the following plan:
1. Stella Sibley has resigned herself to living out her life as an old maid.
2. Jake Carson seriously considers the prospect of having Stella for his wife but fails.
3. Harry Rumford wins Stella's heart.
4. Jake Carson gets an unexpected invitation.
Exercise IX- Retell the story according to the suggested plan. Use the given vocabulary:
A. Stella Sibley's life before Harry Rumford came to town.
the general feeling; love affair; a matter much too personal; ever since; chestnut hair; slender figure; now that; youthful and winsome; unusually good cook; fried chicken; hardly a day passed; fine-looking woman; nobody seemed to know for sure; one exception; let him sit on the porch; prim expression; to stand erectly; to have social intercourse with; without fail; would shake her head; to give up her lonely life; with a disdainful toss; an iota of ambition; too much pride; better than none at all; not too particular; the rest of one's life
Stella Sibley rents parking space to Harry Rumford.
to drive up to; a large rear yard; to rent parking space; bright curtains; cosy; homelike atmosphere; the sight... filled her with a desire; to hesitate; vacant front rooms; to need the rent; unfamiliarly pleasant excitement; tall, tanned, dark-haired man; ingratiating smile; to appeal to; to lay a pipe line; to erect a pumping station; to have the good fortune to; accidentally; found herself trembling; several days; before dawn; after dark; for some reason; to watch for a long time; to wonder if; to find some excuse; to knock on the door; she saw him close the book; a few minutes later; to drive away; to go downtown; restless and nervous; just at dusk; to hurry across; large dish; timidly; to be relieved to see; what a wonderful surprise; nobody could like... more; to share something
C. Jake Carson gets a surprise.
to walk round the corner; calm; casual manner; started; tensely; as far as the porch steps; bewildered expression; rubbing the stubble on his chin; deeply perplexed; never mind why; firm shake; from now on; to move on somewhere else; sharply; that's the way it is (with); brusquely; to shake one's head sternly; to know for sure; mighty upset about; some talk around the town; to beckon (to); to glance at; would like to; to finish one's rounds; urgently; to reach for; plenty of time; to look searchingly; to nod eagerly; to slap noisily against; the one thing that bothers me is...
Exercise X. Complete the following sentences:
1. If Stella hadn't needed the rent that Harry Rumford offered to pay,... 2. If Stella had known life better,....3. If Harry Rumford hadn't appealed to her 4. If Stella hadn't been youthful and winsome ….5. If Stella hadn't
known for sure that...
Exercise XI. Add tail-questions to these sentences:
1. People were not bold enough to ask Stella personal questions,...? 2. He didn't have to look twice to see she was pretty,...? 3. Carson used to come twice a week,...? 4. There were two vacant rooms in her house,...? 5. I am too good for a common man,...? 6. You don't know it for sure,...? 7. Summer has passed,...?
Exercise XII. Choose the correct word from those in brackets:
(vacant — empty)
1. Are there any... classrooms on the ground floor? 2.'She hurriedly opened the bag and found it.... 3. There was a... seat in his car. 4. A loud cry coming from the... hall was singularly startling.
(still — yet)
1. Is she...waiting for him in the hall? 2. We haven't heard from him... but we are expecting a telegram one of these days. 3. Is he... ill? 4. "Are you ready?" "Not "
(young — youthful)
1. Mrs. Skewton was wearing a very... costume.
11 The old man still retains his... energy. 3. "I shall grow old but the picture will always remain...."
(close — lock)
1. Would you mind... the door? There is a draught here. 2. She wanted to... the door but couldn't find the key.
10 Please... the drawer and put the key on the mantel.
(lie— lay)
1. They... the cable before building the house. 2. He entered the room carrying a large parcel which he... on the table. 3. She... in bed till noon, reading and smoking.
(lonely — alone)
1. She was quite... in the room when somebody knocked at the door. 2. There was nobody in the house but she didn't feel.... Moreover, she enjoyed it. 3. "You... can help me," he said.
(older — elder)
1. John was five years... than his sisteri 2. The Clarktons have two children, if I'm not mistaken. The... boy is a pianist.
(habit — custom)
1. Unfortunately she has not got the... of tidying her room before she leaves it. 2. The... of the club is to wear full dress for dinner.
(reach — reach for)
1. When he at last... the stop it appeared he had missed the 8 o'clock bus. 2. He put out his hand to... the watch and found it was gone.
(offer — suggest)
I. He... going to the country for the week-end and... to give me a lift. 2. She... that we should go on with the work till dusk. 3. Who has... him the job? 4. She... to go there instead of me.
(share — divide)
1. She... her lunch with her school-mate. 2. He pared the apple and... it into four parts. 3. When they were kids they used to... a bedroom in their country cottage.
(common — general)
1. These text-books are the... property of our group. 2. He was given a good... education. 3. The... welfare is the main concern of the Soviet Government. 4. It is... knowledge that the climate has changed of late.
(give up — refuse)
1. He... to sell the portrait though he was badly in need of money. 2. I doubt it very much whether he will ever... smoking. 3. You must... the idea of going to the South. It's much too hot for you there.
Exercise XIII. Make up sentences using the following phrases:
never mind: (1) it doesn't matter, (2) don't worry about it
In the text: "Why—" he began, " Never mind why."
Examples: 1. Never mind, old chap. It will soon blow over.
2. Never mind what people say. You know you are in the right.
now that (now when is wrongl) Russ. òåïåðü, êîãäà
In the text: Now that she was approaching forty she was still youthful... in appearance.
Example: Now that she knew the truth she wished she had never learned it.
good (bold, strong) enough; also well (far, etc.) enough
In the text: If somebody had been bold enough to ask her...
Example: The room isn't large enough. He knows English well enough to go abroad without an interpreter.
Exercise XIV. Topics for discussion:
1. Outline the character of Stella Sibley (her appearance, way of life, tastes, etc.). Give your opinion of Stella.
2. Describe the type of man Harry Rumford was. Why did he appeal to Stella?
3. What was essentially wrong in Stella's judgement of people?
4. Compare Harry Rumford and Jake Carson and give your opinion of each of these characters.
5. Explain what brought about the change in Stella's attitude to Jake Carson.
6. Discuss the title of the story.
7. What kind of people appeal to you?
Exercise XV. Render in English:
Как известно из сказок, принцы бывают разные. Чаще всего принц влюбляется в принцессу и, успешно преодолев необходимые препятствия, быстро на ней женится. Такой принц представляется нам не только героем, но и счастливцем. Реже встречается другая разновидность принцев. Влюбившись, он либо получает обидный и, главное, совершенно немотивированный отказ, либо в ходе своего неудачного ухаживания (courtship) обнаруживает, что его избранница, кроме очевидных достоинств (merits), обладает хотя и менее заметными, но достаточно нежелательными недостатками (undesirable demerits). Сделав такое открытие, принц без промедления покидает предмет своего недавнего обожания. Подобная история описана Андерсеном в сказке «Свинопас» (swine-herd).
Один принц, живший в весьма захудалом королевстве, решил жениться. Полагая, что славное имя (noble ancestry) и приличный внешний вид (good looks) дают ему для этого достаточное основание, он послал единственное свое сокровище — прекрасную благоуханную розу и соловья, певшего необыкновенные песни,— дочери императора. Однако принцесса, обнаружив, что милые на вид подарки оказались настоящими, а не искусственными, отказалась даже принять принца. Тогда Сообразительный юноша нанялся свинопасом во дворец императора, а в свободное от работы время изготовлял различные забавные штучки (gadgets), которые отдавал принцессе в обмен на поцелуи. За этим занятием их и застал однажды папа-император. Он, естественно, разгневался и выгнал обоих из своего дворца, невзирая на проливной дождь. Но тут принц прозрел и справедливо рассудил, что ему вряд ли подойдет девушка, которая отвергла настоящую розу и живого соловья, но согласилась целоваться со свинопасом за какие-то безделушки. Со всей откровенностью изложив принцессе эти соображения, он с облегчением удалился в свое захудалое королевство, плотно закрыв за собой дверь.
Подводя итоги, можно сказать, что принцу повезло. Как гласит восточная пословица, сесть на тигра верхом хотя и трудно, но можно; слезть же с него совершенно невозможно.
* * *
1. What well-known American novel is based on English medieval legends?
2. What long voyage did a famous painting from the Louvres make in 1974? Name the picture and the painter.
3. Where is Manhattan? What is the origin of the name?
4. Who created the following characters: a) Rawdon Crawley, b) Peggotty, c) Tess Durbeyfield, d) Roberta Al- den?
PETER TWO
by Irwin Shaw
It was Saturday night and people were killing each other by the hour on the small screen.1 Policemen were shot in the line of duty," gangsters were thrown off roofs, and an elderly lady was slowly poisoned for her pearls, and her murderer brought to justice3 by a cigarette company after a long series of discussions in the office of a private detective. Brave, unarmed actors leaped at villains holding forty-fives,'and ingenues * were saved from death by the knife by the quick thinking of various handsome and fearless young men.
Peter sat in the big chair in front of the screen, his feet up over the arm,' eating grapes. His mother wasn't at home, so he ate the seeds and all as he stared critically at the violence before him. When his mother was around ' the fear of appendicitis hung in the air and she watched carefully to see that each seed was neatly extracted ' and placed in an ashtray. Too, if she were at home, there would be irritated little lectures on the quality of television entertainment for the young, and quick-tempered fiddling with the dials to find something that was vaguely defined as educational. Alone, daringly awake at eleven o'clock, Peter ground the seeds between his teeth, enjoying the impolite noise and the solitude and freedom of the empty house. During the television commercials 8 Peter closed his eyes and imagined himself hurling bottles at large unshaven men with pistols and walking slowly up dark stairways toward the door behind which everyone knew the Boss was waiting, the bulge of his shoulder holster unmistakable under 10 the cloth of his flannel jacket.
Peter was thirteen years old. In his class there were three other boys with the same given name, and the history teacher, who thought he was a funny man, called them Peter One, Peter Two (now eating grapes, seeds and all), Peter Three, and Peter the Great. Peter the Great was, of course, the smallest boy In the class. He weighed only sixty-two pounds, and he wore glasses, and in games he was always the last one to be chosen. The class always laughed when the history teacher called out "Peter the Great" and Peter Two laughed with them, but he didn't think it was so awfully funny.
He had done something pretty 11 good for Peter the Great two weeks ago, and now they were what you might call friends. All the Peters were what you might call friends, on account of that comedian of a history teacher." They weren't real friends, but they had something together, something the other boys didn't have. They didn't like it, but they had it, and it made them responsible for each other. So two weeks ago, when Charley Blaisdell, who weighed a hundred and twenty, took Peter the Great's cap at recess 13 and started horsing around with it,14 and Peter the Great looked as if he was going to cry, he, Peter Two, grabbed the cap and gave it back and faced Blaisdell.1* Of course, there was a fight, and Peter thought it was going to be the third defeat of the term, but a wonderful thing happened. In the middle of the fight just when Peter was hoping one of the teachers would show up 14 (they sure 17 showed up plenty of times when you didn't need them), Blaisdell let a hard one go.18 Peter ducked and Blaisdell hit him on the top of the head and broke his arm. You could tell right off 18 he broke his arm, because he fell to the ground yelling, and his arm just hung like a piece of string. Walters, the gym teacher, finally showed up and carried Blaisdell off, yelling all the time, and Peter the Great came up and said admiringly, "Boy,20 one thing you sure have to admit, you sure have a hard head."
Blaisdell was out of class two days, and he still had his arm in the sling and every time he was excused from writing 21 on the blackboard because he had a broken arm, Peter had a nice warm feeling all over. Peter the Great hung around him22 all the time, doing things for him and buying him sodas,23 because Peter the Great's parents were divorced and gave him all the money he wanted, to make up to him.24 And that was O.K."
But the best thing was the feeling he'd had since the fight. It was like what the people on the television must feel after they'd gone into a room full of enemies and come out with the girl or with the papers or with the suspect," leaving corpses and desolation behind them.
Blaisdell weighed one hundred and twenty pounds but that hadn't stopped Peter any more than the fact the spies all had two guns apiece 27 ever stopped the F.B.I." men on the screen. They saw what they had to do and they went in and did it, that was all. Peter couldn't phrase it for himself, but for the first time in his life he had a conscious feeling of confidence and pride in himself.
"Let them come," he muttered obscurely, munching grape seeds and watching the television set through narrowed eyes, "just let them come."
He was going to be a dangerous man, he felt, when he grew up, but one to whom the weak and the unjustly hunted could safely turn.2' He was sure he was going to be six feet tall, because his father was six feet tall, and all his uncles, and that would help. But he would have to develop his arms. They were just too thin. After all, you couldn't depend on people breaking their bones 30 on your head every time. He had been doing pushups 31 each morning and night the past month. He could only do five and a half at a time so far, but he was going to keep at it,32 until he had arms like steel bars. Arms like that could really mean the difference between life and death later on, when you had to dive under the gun and disarm somebody. You had to have quick reflexes, too, of course, and be able to feint to one side with your eyes before the crucial moment.*3 And, most important of all, no matter what the odds,'4 you had to be fearless. One moment of hesitation and it was a case for the morgue. But now, after the battle of Peter the Great's cap, he didn't worry about that part of it, the fearless part. From now on, it would just be a question of technique.
Comedians began to appear all over the dial, laughing with a lot of teeth, and Peter went Into the kitchen and got another bunch of grapes and two tangerines from the refrigerator. He didn't put on the light in the kitchen and it was funny how mysterious a kitchen could be near midnight when nobody else was at home, and there was only the beam of the light from the open refrigerator, casting shadows from the milk bottles onto the linoleum. Until recently he hadn't liked the dark too much and he always turned on lights wherever he went, but you had to practice being fearless, just like anything else.
He ate the two tangerines standing in the dark in the kitchen, just for practice. He ate the seeds, too, to show his mother.36 Then he went back into the living room, carrying the grapes.
The comedians were still on and still laughing. He fiddled with the dial, but they were wearing funny hats and laughing and telling jokes about the income tax on all the channels." If his mother hadn't made him promise to go to sleep by ten o'clock, he'd have turned off the set and gone to bed. He decided not to waste his time and got down on the floor and began to do pushups, trying to be sure to keep his knees straight. He was up to four and slowing down when he heard the scream. He stopped in the middle of a pushup and waited, just to make sure. The scream came again. It was a woman and it was real loud. He looked up at the television set. There was a man there, talking about floor wax, a man with a mustache and a lot of teeth, and it was a cinch 37 he wasn't doing any screaming.
The next time a scream came there was moaning and talking at the end of it, and the sound of fists beating on the front door. Peter got up and turned off the television, just to be sure the sounds he was hearing weren't somehow being broadcast.
The beating on the door began again and a woman's voice cried "Please, please, please..." and there was no doubt about it any more.
Peter looked around him at the empty room. Three lamps were lit and the room was nice and bright and the light was reflected off the grapes and off the glass of the picture of the boats on Cape Cod 38 that his Aunt Martha painted the year she was up there. The television set stood in the corner, like a big blind eye now that the light was out. The cushions of the soft chair he had been sitting in to watch the programs were pushed in and he knew his mother would come and plump them out before she went to sleep, and the whole room looked like a place in which it was impossible to hear a woman screaming at midnight and beating on the door with her fists and yelling "Please, please, please...."
The woman at the door yelled, ".Murder, murder, he's killing me" and for the first time Peter was sorry his parents had gone out that night.
"Open the door," the woman yelled. "Please, please open the door." You could tell she wasn't saying please just to be polite by now.
Peter looked nervously around him. The room, with all its lights, seemed strange, and there were shadows behind everything. Then the woman yelled again, just noise this time. Either a person is fearless, Peter thought coldly, or he isn't fearless. He started walking slowly toward the front door. There was a long mirror in the foyer :13 and he got a good look at himself. His arms looked very thin.
The woman began hammering once more on the front door and Peter looked at it closely. It was a big steel door, but it was shaking minutely, as if somebody with a machine was working on it. For the first time he heard another voice. It was a man's voice, only it didn't sound quite like a man's voice. It sounded like an animal in a cave, growling and deciding to do something unreasonable. In all the scenes of threat and violence on the television set, Peter had never heard anything at all like it. He moved slowly toward the door, feeling the way he had felt when he had the flu, remembering how thin his arms looked in the mirror, regretting that he had decided to be fearless.
"Oh, God!" the woman yelled. "Oh, God, don't do it!"
Then there was some more hammering and the low animal sound of the beast in the cave that you never heard over the air,10 and he threw the door open.
Mrs. Chalmers was there in the vestibule, on her knees, facing him, and behind her Mr. Chalmers was standing, leaning against the wall, with the door to his own apartment11 open behind him. Mr. Chalmers was making that funny sound and he had a gun in his hand and he was pointing it at Mrs. Chalmers.
The vestibule was small and it had what Peter's mother called Early American wall-paper and a brass lamp. There were only the two doors opening on the vestibule, and the Chalmers had a mat in front of theirs with "Welcome" written on it. The Chalmers were in their midthirties " and Peter's mother always said about them, "One thing about our neighbours, they are quiet." She also said that Mrs. Chalmers put a lot of money on her back.43
Mrs. Chalmers was kind of fat,44 and her hair was a pretty blond and her complexion was soft and pink and she always looked as though she had been in the beauty parlor 46 all afternoon. She always said, "My,44 you're getting to be a big boy" to Peter when she met him in the elevator,47 in a soft voice, as though she was just about to laugh. She must have said that fifty times by now. She had a good, strong smell of perfume on her all the time, too.
Mr. Chalmers wore pince-nez glasses most of the time and he was getting bald and he worked late at his office a good many evenings of the week. When he met Peter in the elevator he would say, "It's getting colder," or "It's getting warmer," and that was all, so Peter had no opinion about him, except that he looked like the principal of a school.
But now Mrs. Chalmers was on her knees in the vestibule and her dress was torn and she was crying and there were black streaks on her cheeks and she didn't look as though she'd just come from the beauty parlor. And Mr. Chalmers wasn't wearing a jacket and he didn't have his glasses on and what hair he had was mussed all over his head and he was leaning against the Early American wallpaper making this animal noise, and he had a big, heavy pistol in his hand and he was pointing it right at Mrs. Chalmers.
"Let me in," Mrs. Chalmers yelled, still on her knees. "You've got to48 let me in! He's going to kill me! Please."
"Mrs. Chalmers..." Peter began. His voice sounded as though he were trying to talk under water, and it was very hard to say the "s" at the end of her name. He put out his hands uncertainly in front of him, as though he expected somebody to throw him something.
"Get inside, you!" Mr. Chalmers said.
Peter looked at Mr. Chalmers. He was only five feet away and without his glasses he was squinting. Peter feinted with his eyes, or at least later in his life he thought he had feinted with his eyes. Mr. Chalmers didn't do anything. He just stood there, with his pistol pointed, somehow, it seemed to
Peter, at both Mrs. Chalmers and himself at the same time. Five feet was a long distance, a long, long distance.
"Good night," Peter said, and closed the door.
There was a single sob on the other side of the door and that was all.
Peter went in and put the uneaten grapes back in the refrigerator, turning on the light as he went into the kitchen and leaving it on when he went out. Then he went back to the living room 49 and got the stems from the first bunch of grapes and threw them into the fireplace, because otherwise his mother would notice and look for the seeds and not see them and give him four table-spoons of milk of magnesia 50 the next day.
Then, leaving the lights on in the living room, although he knew what his mother would say about that when she got home, he went into his room and quickly got into bed. He waited for the sounds of shots. There were two or three noises that might have been shots, but in the city it was hard to tell.
He was still awake when his parents came home. He heard his mother's voice, and he knew from the sound she was complaining about the lights in the living room and kitchen, but he pretended to be sleeping when she came into his room to look at him. He didn't want to start in with his mother 41 about the Chalmers, because then she'd ask when it had happened and she would want to know what he was doing up at twelve o'clock.
He kept listening for shots for a long time, and he got hot and damp under the covers and then freezing cold. He heard several sharp, ambiguous 62 noises in the quiet night, but nothing that you could be sure about; and after a while he fell asleep.
In the morning, Peter got out of bed early, dressed quickly, and went silently out of the apartment without waking his parents. The vestibule looked just the way it always did, with the brass lamp and the flowered wall-paper and the Chalmers doormat with "Welcome" on it. There were no bodies and no blood. Sometimes when Mrs. Chalmers had been standing there waiting for the elevator, you could smell her perfume for a long time after. But now there was no smell of perfume, just the dusty apartment house usual smell. Peter stared at the Chalmers' door nervously while waiting for the elevator to come up, but it didn't open and no sound came from within.
Sam, the man who ran the elevator and who didn't like him, anyway, only grunted when Peter got into the elevator, and Peter decided not to ask him any questions. He went out into the chilly, bright Sunday-morning street, half expecting to see the morgue wagon in front of the door, or at least two or three prowl cars." But there was only a sleepy woman in slacks airing a boxer " and a man with his collar turned up hurrying up from the corner with the newspapers under his arm.
Peter went across the street and looked up to the sixth floor, at the windows of the Chalmers' apartment. The Venetian blinds " were pulled shut in every room and all the windows were closed.
A policeman walked down the other side of the street, heavy, blue and purposeful, and for a moment Peter felt close to arrest. But the policeman continued on toward the avenue and turned the corner and disappeared and Peter said to himself: "They never know anything."
He walked up and down the street, first on one side, then on the other waiting, although it was hard to know what he was waiting for. He saw a hand come out through the blinds in his parents' room and slam the window shut, and he knew he ought to get upstairs quickly with a good excuse for being out, but he couldn't face them this morning, and he would invent an excuse later. Maybe he would even say he had gone to the museum, although he doubted that his mother would swallow 64 that. Some excuse. Later.
Then, after he had been patrolling the street for almost two hours, and just as he was coming up to the entrance of his building, the door opened and Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers came out. He had on his pince-nez and a dark-gray hat, and Mrs. Chalmers had on her fur coat and a red hat with feathers on it. Mr. Chalmers was holding the door open politely for his wife, and she looked, as she came out the door, as though she had just come from the beauty parlor.
It was too late to turn back or avoid them, and Peter just stood still, five feet from the entrance.
"Good morning," Mr. Chalmers said as he took his wife's arm and they started walking past Peter.
"Good morning, Peter," said Mrs. Chalmers in her soft voice, smiling at him. "Isn't it a nice day today?"
"Good morning," Pete said, and he was surprised that it came out and sounded 'like good morning.
The Chalmers walked down the street toward Madison Avenue, two married people, arm in arm, going to church or to a big hotel for Sunday breakfast. Peter watched them, ashamed. He was ashamed of Mrs. Chalmers for looking the way she did the night before, down on her knees, and yelling like that and being so afraid. He was ashamed of Mr. Chalmers for making the noise that was not like the noise of a human being, and for threatening to shoot Mrs. Chalmers and not doing it. And he was ashamed for himself because he had been fearless when he opened the door, but had not been fearless ten seconds later, with Mr. Chalmers five feet away with the gun. He was ashamed of himself for not taking Mrs. Chalmers into his apartment, ashamed because he was not lying now with a bullet in his heart. But most of all he was ashamed because they all had said good morning to each other and the Chalmers were walking quietly together, arm in arm, in the windy sunlight, toward Madison Avenue.
It was nearly eleven o'clock when Peter got back to the apartment, but his parents had gone back to sleep. There was a pretty good program on at eleven, about counterspies in Asia, and he turned it on automatically, while eating an orange. It was pretty exciting, but then there was a part in which an Oriental held a ticking bomb in his hand in a roomful of Americans, and Peter could tell what was coming. The hero, who was fearless and who came from California, was beginning to feint with his eyes, and Peter reached over and turned the set off. It closed down with a shivering, collapsing pattern. Blinking a little, Peter watched the blind screen for a moment.
Ah, he thought in sudden, permanent disbelief, after the night in which he had faced the incomprehensible, shameless, weaponed grown-up world and had failed to disarm it, ah, they can have that, that's for kids.
NOTES
1. the small screen — the screen of the television set
2. in the line of duty — while performing their duty
3. to bring to justice — to try a criminal and punish him (Russ. Привлечь к суду)
4. forty-fives — automatic guns
5. ingenue (Fr.) — an actress playing the part of a young girl {Russ. инженю)
6. arm — the arm of the chair
7. was around — was at home
8. neatly extracted — carefully taken out
9. television commercials — television programs advertising various goods
10. the bulge of his shoulder holster unmistakable under — the leather case of his pistol could be seen swelling under (to bulge — выдаваться, выпячиваться)
11. pretty (colloq.) — rather
12. that comedian of a history teacher — Peter's history teacher was a man who liked to talk in a funny way to make the pupils laugh (Russ. Шутник, комик). The construction comedian of (noun + of) is often used as an attribute. Ñîòð. villain of a boy — негодный мальчишка, toy of a flat — не квартира, а игрушка, etc.
13. at recess — during the interval between lessons (Russ. во время перемены)
14. started horsing around with It — began running about with it
15. faced Blaisdell — stood bravely against Blaisdell without showing any fear (Ñîòð. to face the enemy; to face danger, death, disgrace, etc.; Russ. Смело встретить, смотреть в лицо без страха)
16. to show up — to appear
17. sure (colloq.) — surely
18. let a hard one go (Am. colloq.) — Russ. Как размахнулся (как дал ему)
19. right off — at once
20. so boy! — an exclamation of admiration, surprise, etc.
21. was excused from writing — was allowed not to write
22. hung around him — kept close to him, followed him wherever he went
23. soda — soda-water (Russ. Газированная вода)
24. to make up to him — to make themselves pleasant to him
25. O.K. (colloq.) — all right; (here) good
26. suspect— a person suspected of a crime, believed to be guilty
27. apiece — each
28. F.B.I, (abbrev.) — Federal Bureau of Investigation (within the framework of US Department of Justice — Russ. ÔÁÐ — Федеральное бюро расследований), a permanent investigating force created in 1908, first named Bureau of Investigation, known by its present name since July 1935. Apart from investigating crimes, F.B.I, performs the functions of political police, persecuting persons politically undesirable, such as communists, people opposed to the Government policy and the like. F.B.I, includes, among other divisions, the Identification Division containing in its files over 120 000 000 fingerprint records and coordinates the activity of various agencies responsible for US national security.
29. could safely turn — could ask for help and be sure to get it
30. you couldn't depend on people breaking their bones — you couldn't expect that people would break their bones, you couldn't count on it
31. to do pushups (sport) — отжиматься
32. to keep at it — to go on doing it, to persist (Russ. Упорно заниматься этим)
33. to feint to one side with your eyes before the crucial moment — to look aside so as to deceive your opponent before the critical moment
34. no matter what the odds — whatever the chances in your favour
35. to show his mother — to challenge his mother, to prove he was not afraid of her
36. channel — (here) телевизионная программа (канал)
37. it was a cinch (Am. colloq.) —surely, there was no doubt about it
38. Cape Cod — a sandy peninsula in Massachusetts
39. foyer — a hall (Russ. передняя)
40. over the air — over the radio or the television (Russ. В эфире)
41. apartment— flat (Brit.)
42. were in their midthirties — were about thirty five or thirty six years old
43. put a lot of money on her back — spent very much money on her clothes, wore expensive clothes
44. kind of fat — plump, rather stout
45. beauty parlor (Am.) — a place where a woman may have her face massaged, her hair waved, etc.
46. My! — an exclamation of surprise
47. elevator (Am.) — lift (Brit.)
48. You've got to — You must
49. living room — a room for general use during the day