1. When did the Loisels leave the ball? Where did Mme. Loisel find her husband at that hour?
2. How did they get home?
3. What did they discover when they arrived home? What was their reaction?
4. What happened at the shop at the Palais Royal?
5. How did Loisel get the money to pay the jeweler?
6. How did they repay their debts? How long did it take?
7. What did Mme. Loisel and Mme. Forestier say to each other when they met after ten years?
8. Many of de Maupassant's stories have "messages." What do you think the message of this story was?
9. Do you know people who think the way Mme. Loisel did at the beginning of the story? What are they like?
10. Have you ever lost or damaged something which you had borrowed from someone else? What did you do about it?
Exercises
A. Use each of the following terms in a sentence:
destiny, distinguished, proper station, elegant, instinct, disdain, impatiently, filled with anguish, colleague, to waltz, at a distance, no longer, cloak, thunderstruck, the whole route, to be worth (a sum of money), before the end of, merchant, suddenly.
B. Circle the term in the right column that has a SIMILAR meaning to the term on the left.
Example: impoverished ill / poor / rich / old
1. tear rip / mend / wear / use
2. askew neat / happy / messy / new
3. astonish bring / shock / hear / recognize
4. naïve old / pretty / cynical / unsophisticated
5. dreadful expensive / horrible / mysterious / suspicious
6. annoy bother / please / worry / humiliate
7. attaché servant / taxi driver / diplomat / dancer
8. sum household / amount / necklace / linen
9. colleague maid / fellow worker / Cabinet official / cabman
10. precious silver / inexpensive / ancient / valuable
C. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in parentheses.
Example: She had him ___________ (search) the route thoroughly.
She had him search the route thoroughly.
1. The loss made her _____________ (feel) very sad.
2. It wasn't easy, but her husband got her _____________ (go) to the ball.
3. He wants us _____________ (lend) him the money.
4. She had a necklace _____________ (give) to her.
5. She had her dress _____________ (deliver) by the store.
6. They had their house _____________ (sell) by an agent.
7. They had their manuscripts _____________ (copy) by Loisel.
8. She got her friend _____________ (loan) her a necklace.
9. I get my suits _____________ (clean) by that store.
10. We make the dog _____________ (run) in the field for his exercise.
D. Place the adjective in parentheses in its proper position in the sentence.
Example: They live in a big house. (brick)
They live in a big brick house.
1. I have something to tell you. (pleasant)
2. She just bought a new dress. (silk)
3. He prefers to use heavy pots for cooking. (copper)
4. My sister has a new sports car. (red)
5. There is something happening at the corner. (strange)
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6. He knew something was going to happen to him. (bad)
7. Something was blocking their way. (heavy)
8. A merchant sold them the jewels. (agreeable)
9. Do you want to buy a dark coat? (blue)
10. There is no longer a fence around their house. (white)
Unit 7: David Swan
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) wrote many short stories, but he is mostly known for his novels, which include The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. He also served as an American diplomat in London under President Franklin Pierce.
PART ONE
We know very little about the events which influence our course through life. Some of these eventsif such they can be called come very close to us but pass us by without apparent result and often without any indication of their coming or going. If we knew all the possible changes in our fortune, life would be too full of hopes and fears, of surprises and disappointments, to permit us a single hour of peace. This idea may be illustrated by a page from the history of David Swan.
We have nothing to do with David Swan until we find him at the age of twenty on the main road from his home to the city of Boston where his uncle, a businessman, is going to give him work in the store which he owns. It is enough to say that David was a native of the state of New Hampshire, that he was born of good parents, and that he had received an ordinary school education. After traveling on foot from early morning until noon on a summer day, he felt tired and warm, and he decided to sit down in the first convenient shady place and wait for the coming of the stagecoach in order to ride the remaining distance. Thus he soon came upon a pleasant spot near a spring of water surrounded by a group of shady trees. The place was quiet and cool. He kneeled down at the spring and drank deeply of the fresh water. Then he lay on the soft earth and, resting his head upon a pair of trousers and some shirts which he carried with him in a small package, he fell into a deep sleep.
While he lay asleep in the shade, other people were wide awake and passing along the road, some in one direction, some in the opposite direction; some traveled on foot, others on horseback and in various kinds of vehicles. Some did not look to the right or left; others, when they passed where David was sleeping, glanced in his direction but did not notice him. Some laughed when they saw how deeply he slept. A middle-aged widow, when nobody else was near, stopped and looked at him tenderly and said to herself that the young fellow looked charming in his sleep. A minister, who was very much opposed to strong drink, saw him and thought he was drunk. The next Sunday he mentioned poor David in his church sermon as an awful example of the results of strong drink.
David had slept only a short time when a rich-looking carriage, drawn by two fine horses, stopped directly in front of where he slept. One of the horses had injured his leg and the driver wished to let the horse rest for a while. An elderly businessman and his wife got out of the carriage and decided to rest during this time under the shade of the trees. There they noticed the spring and David asleep alongside of it. They tried to walk lightly and to make as little noise as possible in order not to wake him.
"How deeply he sleeps," said the old gentleman. "How quietly and easily he breathes. If I could sleep as deeply as that, I would be very happy, for such sleep, without the help of sleeping medicines, indicates good health and a mind without troubles."
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"And youth besides," said his wife. "Old people like us never sleep like that."
The old couple became more and more interested in the unknown youth who lay there sleeping so peacefully.
"It seems to me," said the woman at last to her husband, "that he strongly resembles our own dear son. Shall we wake him up?"
"For what purpose?" said the husband. "We know nothing of his character."
"That honest face," answered his wife in a quiet voice. "This innocent sleep!"
While the conversation was going on, David did not move, nor did the features of his face indicate that he knew that two people were looking at him with great interest. Nevertheless, fortune was standing very close to him, for the old man and his wife were very rich. Their only son had recently died, and there was no one in their family to whom they wanted to leave all their money. In such cases, people sometimes do stranger things than to wake up a young man, accept him as their own son, and later make him the heir to all their riches.
"Shall we wake him up?" repeated the lady.
But suddenly the driver of the coach said, "We are ready now, sir. The horse is rested."
The old couple stopped speaking suddenly, looked at each other with some surprise, and then hurried toward the coach. Once inside the coach, the whole idea of making David their son now seemed to them quite ridiculous, and they were surprised that such a strange thought could have come to their minds. Soon the man began to tell his wife about a plan he had to leave all his money, when he died, for the establishment of a large charitable institution. Meanwhile, David went on enjoying his quiet sleep.
Comprehension
1. Do you agree with the thoughts in the first paragraph? What do you think about this?
2. Who was David Swan? What do we know about him?
3. When he got tired, what did he do?
4. What did the minister do when he saw David asleep?
5. Why did the carriage stop near David?
6. Who got out of the carriage? What did they do?
7. What was David doing while the couple were talking about him?
8. Why were they interested in David?
9. Why did they leave when they did? What had they decided?
10. What did the couple decide to do instead?
PART TWO
Not more than five minutes passed when a young girl came along. She had a light and easy step which showed at once the happiness of her spirit. She was very pretty. She stopped to drink at the spring and was naturally surprised to find David sleeping there. At first she felt as if she had entered, without permission, into a gentleman's bedroom, and she was about to leave quietly when she saw an enormous bee buzzing around the head of the sleeper. Quickly but quietly, she attacked the bee with her handkerchief and drove him away. How sweet a picture! This good act completed, the girl looked tenderly for a moment at David. "He is handsome," she said to herself.
But David did not move, nor did he smile. No look of appreciation or of welcome appeared upon his face. Perhaps the girl was the girl of his dreams, the girl with whom he might spend a life of happiness, if only he could awake and speak to her. "How deeply he sleeps," said the girl.
She left, but she appeared thoughtful, and now she did not seem as light or happy as she had a few moments ago.
She walked slowly back to the nearby village where she had a thriving dry goods store. It's too bad, she thought. He might be just the sort of young man I'm looking for to help out in the store. I wonder if I would have fallen in love with him and married him, she silently thought, a dreamy look in her eye.
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The girl was hardly out of sight when two men turned from the road to stop a moment in the shade. Both had dark faces, and both wore caps which they pulled down well over their eyes. They wore old clothes. These men were robbers who were ready to steal anything they found and to kill anyone who might try to stop them. Seeing David asleep alongside the spring, one of them said to his companion, "Look, do you see that package under his head?"
"Yes, perhaps it has a wallet or some money hidden inside of it," said the other. "Or perhaps he has some money in one of his pockets."
"But what if he wakes up?" said the first.
His companion pulled out a long knife from his belt and pointed it at David.
"This will take care of him," he said.
They approached the sleeping David and prepared to remove the package from under his head. David continued to sleep tranquilly.
"You take the package. If he moves, I'll strike," said the man with the knife.
But, at this moment, a dog ran in from the road to drink at the spring. The dog paid no attention to the men nor to David but drank thirstily of the water. The men stopped suddenly and one of them drew a pistol from his pocket.
"Wait!" said the other man. "We can do nothing now. The owner of the dog is probably close behind."
"Yes," said the other. "We'd better get out of here."
Thus the two men left as stealthily as they had come and continued down the road. In a few minutes, they had forgotten the entire eventand, of course, there was one less dark crime to be written against their names in the books of heaven, but of this they did not think for even a moment.
David slept, but no longer as quietly as at first. He had had an hour's peaceful sleep and was now more rested. He moved slightly and lay for a few minutes half asleep, half awake. Then suddenly in the distance there was a loud noise of approaching wheels. The stagecoach was coming. David jumped up and ran out just in time to call to the driver.
"Hello, driver! Have you room for one more passenger?"
"There is room on top," answered the driver.
David climbed to the top of the coach and the driver started off. The coach moved quickly down the road, and David did not give even a final glance to the place where he had slept. He was thinking now of other things, of the life ahead of him. He had no memories of the place where he had rested because he had no knowledge of anything that had happened there. He did not know that Fortune had smiled on him and almost brought him great riches and a great love with perhaps a successful career in business. He did not know that he had been close to death at the point of a robber's knifeall within the space of one brief hour.
Thus it is that life deals with us in many strange ways. Fortunately, we do not know the many things that come close to us and pass us by without results. If we knew all the many possibilities of change in our fortune, life would be too full of hopes and fears, surprises and disappointments to permit us a single hour of peace.
