Английский язык. Агабек (Агабекян И. П.), страница 36

Parker would take you to look at Mr.Skidder's large room on the third floor. Mr. Skidder'sr o o m w a s n o t v a c a n t . H e w r o t e plays and s m o k e dcigarettes in it all day long. But every person who waslooking for a room was made to v i s i t his room to have alook at his curtains. After each v i s i t Mr. Skidder, afraidof being turned out, would pay a small part of his rent.Then — oh, then — if y o u still stood there, w i t h onlythree dollars in your pocket, Mrs.- Parker would cryloudly the word «Clara!*, show you her back and walkdownstairs. Then Clara, the coloured maid, would takey o u up and show you the Skylight Room.The room was very small.

In it was an iron bed, awash-stand and a chair. A shelf was the cupboard. Itsfour bare walls seemed to close in upon y o u like the300301Приложение 2Английский языкsides of a coffin. For a moment you felt you could notbreathe. Then y o u looked up as from a well — andbreathed once more. Through the g l a s s of the l i t t l eskylight you could see the blue sky. *Two dollars, sir*,Clara would say. One day Miss Leeson came to look for aroom, She carried a typewriter which was made for amuch larger lady. She was a very little girl, with eyesand hair that kept on growing after she had stopped.Mrs.

Parker showed her the double parlours. «In t h i scloset you could keep a skeleton or anaesthetic or coal*.•But I am neither a doctor nor a dentist*, said MissLeeson. Mrs. Parker gave her the cold look she kept forthose who were neither doctors nor dentists, and movedto the second floor back room.«Eight dollars?* said Miss Leeson. «Dear me! I'm justa poor little working girl. Show me something higherand lower*.Mr. Skidder jumped up and dropped his cigaretteswhen he heard the knock on the door.•Excuse me, Mr. Skidder*, said Mrs.

Parker, withher demon's smile. Л didn't know you were in*. «I askedthe lady to have a look at your curtains*. — «They arebeautiful*, said Miss Leeson with a sweet smile.After they had gone, Mr. Skidder began to replace histall, black-haired heroine from his latest play by a small,fair, long-haired girl with big eyes.Soon the call •Clara* was heard. The coloured maidtook Miss Leeson up the ladder to the Skylight Room andsaid: •Two dollars!*•I'll take it», sighed Miss Leeson, sinking down uponthe iron bed.Every day Miss Leeson went out to work. At nightshe brought some papers with handwriting on them and302made copies w i t h her typewriter. Sometimes she had nowork in the evening, and she would sit on the steps ofthe porch with the other lodgers. Miss Leeson was asweet, gay creature.

She was kind to everybody. Onceshe let Mr. Skidder read to her three acts of his great(unpublished) comedy.The gentlemen lodgers were always pleased when MissLeeson had time to sit on the steps for an hour or two.But Miss Longnecker, the tall blonde who taught at schooland said, •Well, really!* to everything you said, sat onthe top step and sniffed. And Miss Dorn, who worked ina department store, sat on the bottom step and sniffed.Miss Leeson sat on the middle step and the men wouldquickly group around her.Especially Mr.

Skidder. And especially Mr. Hoover,who was forty-five, fat, red-faced and foolish. And es­pecially y o u n g Mr. Evans. The men said she was thefunniest and jolliest girl they had ever seen, but theladies on the top step and the lower step kept on sniffing*.***One summer evening Mrs. Parker's lodgers were sit­t i n g on the porch when Miss Leeson looked up into thesky and cried gaily:•Oh, there is Billy Jackson! I can see him from here,too*.All looked up, thinking there was a plane guided bysome pilot Jackson.

But there was no plane in the sky.•It's that star*, explained Miss Leeson, pointing witha thin finger. I can see it every night through my sky­light. I named it Bill Jackson*.•Well, really I» said Miss Longnecker. *l didn't knowyou were an astronomer, Miss Leeson*, •Yes, I am*, saidMiss Leeson.303Приложение 2Английский язык• Well, really!* said Miss Longnecker. •The star youare pointing to is Gamma, of the constellation Cassio­peia* .• 0 h » , said Mr. Evans, ^1 think Billy Jackson is amuch better name for it*.•You can't see him very well from down here*, saidMiss Leeson.

•You must see him from my room. Youknow y o u can see stars even in the day-time from thebottom of a well. At night my room is like a well, and itmakes Billy Jackson look like the big diamond pin thatNight fastens her gown with*.***There came a t i m e after t h a t w h e n M i s s L e e s o nbrought no papers home to copy. And when she lefthome in the morning, instead of working, she went fromoffice to office and g o t cold refusals from office boys.This went on for many days.One evening she wearily climbed Mrs. Parker's porchat the hour when she always returned from her dinnerat the restaurant.

But she had had no dinner.As she entered the hall, Mr. Hoover came up to her.He was pleased there was nobody in the hall. He askedher to marry him. She moved away from him, and caughtthe balustrade. He tried to take her by the hand and sheraised it and struck him weakly on the face. Step by stepshe went up. She passed Mr. Skidder's door.

At last shecrawled up the ladder and opened the door of the skylightroom. She was too weak to light the lamp or to undress.She fell upon the iron bed, s l o w l y raised her h e a v yeyelids, and smiled. For Billy Jackson was shining downon her, calm and bright, through t h e skylight.ч As she lay on her back she tried twice to raise herarm. The third time she touched her lips with two thin304fingers and blew a kiss out pf the black well.

Then herarm fell back.• Good-bye, Billy*, she murmured faintly. •You aremillions of miles away. But you kept where I could seeyou most of the time, when there wasn't anything elsebut darkness around me. Millions of miles... Good-bye,Billy Jackson*.Clara, the coloured maid, found the door locked at tenn e x t morning, and they forced it open. The girl wasunconscious and someone ran to phone for an ambulance*.Soon it arrived, and a young doctor, in his w h i t e linencoat, quick and active, climbed the steps. •Ambulancecall to 4 9 » , he said.

«What's the trouble?*. «Oh, y e s ,doctor*, sniffed Mrs. Parker. She was not pleased thatthere was trouble in the house. «I can't understand whatcan be the matter with her. She is unconscious and wecan't bring her to. It's a young woman, Miss Elsie Lee­son. Never before in my house—»•What room?* cried the doctor in a terrible voice.Mrs. Parker had never heard such a voice before. «The1skylight room.

It —»Evidently the ambulance doctor knew the way to sky­light rooms. He ran up the stairs, four at a time*. Mrs.Parker followed slowly; she was not used to hurrying.On the first landing she met the doctor who was comingback. He was carrying the astronomer in his arms. Hestopped for a moment and said something to Mrs. Parkerthat was evidently not very pleasant to hear.The ambulance doctor walked with his burden throughthe crowd of curious gapers that had gathered in thestreet. H i s face was pale and grave.They noticed that he did not lay down the girl up thebed in the ambulance, and that all he said to the driverwas: •Drive like hell!*305Английский языкПриложение 2That is all.

In the next morning's newspaper I saw alittle item, and the last sentence of it may help you (asit helped me) to understand the story better.«A young woman has been brought to Bellevue Hospi­tal from No. 4 9 . . . Street. She is suffering from debilitycaused by starvation. The ambulance doctor W i l l i a mJackson who attended the case, says the patient willrecover*.WALTER SCOTTThe famous English writer Walter Scott (1771-1832)isthefounderofthehistoricalnovelinEnglishliterature. He was greatly interested in the past of hiscountry and studied it by documents, history and legends.Among the historical novels of Walter Scott Ivanhoeis one of the .best.

It describes the events of the 12thcentury during the reign of Richard I the Lion-Hearted.The power in England at that time was in the hands ofthe Normans,who oppressedthenative Anglo-Saxonpopulation.Therewere serious conflictsbetweentheAnglo-Saxon nobility and the Normans.

In his novelWalter Scott wanted to show how, as years passed, theAnglo-Saxons and the Normans became one nation.rvanhocIn that pleasant district of merry England which lieson both sides of the river Don, in old times there was alarge forest. Parts of this forest still exist. It was thehome of the brave outlaws, who were so popular.Our story describes the time towards the end of thereign of Richard I, when he was abroad. The barons, inthe king's absence, strengthened their castles and actedlike little kings. Prince John, the king's brother, withthe help of the barons, tried to seize t h e throne.

Commonpeople were cruelly oppressed.307Английский языкA hundred years had passed since the Conquest ofEngland by Duke William of Normandy. But in thesehundred years the language and the interests of theNormans and Anglo-Saxons were not yet united. Thesetwo peoples remained enemies. Only a few of the Saxonprinces were still masters of the land which had belongedto their fathers. After the Conquest, William the Conquerorhad taken the greater part of the land from its Saxonowners and given it to the Norman barons. At court andin the castles of the great nobles Norman-French was theonly language spoken.

Anglo-Saxon was spoken only bycommon people and the few remaining Saxon nobles whohad not yet bent under the Norman rule.The sun was setting upon one of the glades of thatforest which we have spoken about. There were two menin the glade. The elder of these men had a serious look.He was wearing a long shirt made of the skin of someanimal, and reaching down to his knees.