2020-04-07
493
Analize the text according to the plan.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
CAT IN THE RAIN
(1925)
There were only two Americans at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs to their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colours of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain.
The motor-cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the cafe a waiter stood looking out at the empty square.
The American wife stood at the window looking out. Out-side right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green lables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.
“I'm going down and get that kitty”, the American wife said.
“I'll do it”, her husband offered from the bed.
“No, I'll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table.”
The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed.
“Don't get wet”, he said.
The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office. He was an old man and very tall.
“Il prove” the wife said. She liked the hotel-keeper.
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“Si, si, Signora, brutto tempo. It's very bad weather.”
He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands.
Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining harder. A man in a rubber cape was crossing the empty square to the cafe. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she could go along under the eaves. As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who looked after their room.
“You must not get wet”, she smiled, speaking Italian Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her.
With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at her.
“Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?”
“There was a cat”, said the American girl.
“A cat?”
“Si, il gatt'”
“A cat?” the maid laughed. “A cat in the rain?”
“Yes”, she said, “under the table.” Then, “Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty”.
When she talked English the maid's face tightened.
“Come, Signora” she said. “We must get back inside. You will be wet”.
“I suppose so”, said the American girl.
They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room, George was on the bed, reading.
“Did you get the cat?” he asked, putting the book down.
“It was gone”.
“Wonder where it went to?” he said, resting his eyes from reading.
She sat down on the bed.
I wanted it so much' she said. I don't know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain!'
George was reading again.
She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing-table looking at herself with the hand glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head and her neck.
“Don't you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?” she asked, looking at her profile again.
George looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy’s.
“I like it the way it is”.
“I get so tired of it”, she said. “I get so tired of looking like a boy.”
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George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn't looked away from her since she started to speak.
“You look pretty darn nice”, he said.
She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It was getting dark.
“I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel”, she said. “I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her.”
“Yeah?” George said from the bed.
“And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.”
“Oh, shut up and get something to read”, George said. He was reading again.
His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees.
“Anyway, I want a cat”, she said'. “I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat”.
George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window where the light had come on in the square.
Someone knocked at the door.
“Avanti”, George said. He looked up from his book.
In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body. “Excuse me” she said, “the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora”.
2. Analize the text according to the plan.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
THE LAST TEA
(1932)
The young man in the chocolate-brown suit sat down at the table, where the girl with the artificial camellia had been sitting for forty minutes.
“Guess I must he late”, he said. “Sorry you been waiting.”
“Oh, goodness!” she said. “I just got here myself, just about a second ago – I simply went ahead and ordered because I was dying for a cup of tea. I was late, myself. I haven't been here more than a minute.”
“That's good,” he said. “Hey, hey, easy on the sugar – one lump is fair enough. And take away those cakes. Terrible! Do I feel terrible!”
“Ah,” she said, “you do? Ah. Whadda matter?”
“Oh, I'm ruined,” he said. “I'm in terrible shape.”
“Ah, the poor boy,” she said. “Was it feelin' mizzable? Ah, and it came way up here to meet me! You shouldn't have that - I'd have done understood. Ah, just think of it coming all the way up here when it's so sick!”
“Oh that's all right,” he said. “I might as well be here as any place else: Any place is like any other place, the way I feel today. Oh, I'm all shot”.
“Why that's just awful,” she said. “Why, you poor sick thing. Goodness, I hope it isn't influenza. They say theres a lot of it around.”
“Influenza!” he said. “I wish that was all I had. Oh, I'm poisoned. I'm through. I'm off the stuff for life. Know what time I go to bed? Twenty minutes past five, a.m., this morning. What a night! What an evening!”
“I thought,” she said, “that you were going to stay at the office and work late. You said you'd be working every night this week”.
“Yeah, I know,” he said- “But it gave me the jumps, thinking about going down there and sitting at that desk. I went up to May's – she was throwing a party. Say, there was somebody there said they knew you.”
“Honestly?” she said- “Man or woman?”
“Dame”, he said. “Name's Carol McCall. Say, why haven't I been told about her before? That's what I call a girl. What a looker she is!”
“Oh really?” she said. “That's funny - I never heard of anyone that thought that. I've heard people say she was sort of nice-looking if she wouldn't make up so much. But I never heard of anyone that thought she was pretty.”
“Pretty is right,” he said. “What a couple of eyes she's got on her!”
“Really?” she said. “I never noticed them particularly. But I hadn't seen her for a long time - sometimes people change, or something.”
“She says she used to go to school with you,” he said.
“Well, we went to the same school,” she said. “I simply happened to go to public school because it happened to be right near us, and Mother hated to have me crossing streets. But she was three or four classes ahead of me. She's ages older than I am.”
“She's three or four classes ahead of them all,” he said. “Dance! Can she step! 'Burn your clothes, baby;' I kept telling her. I must have been fried pretty.”
“I was out dancing myself, last night,” she said. “Wally Dillon and I. He's just been pestering me to go out with him. He's the most wonderful dancer. Goodness! I didn't get home till I don't know what time. I must look just simply a wreck. Don't I?”
“You look all right.” he said.
“Wally's crazy,” she said. “The things he says! For some crazy reason or other, he's got it into his head that I've got beautiful eyes, and, well, he just kept talking about them till I didn't know where to look, I was so embarrassed. I got so red, I thought every body in the place would be looking at me. I got just as red as a brick. Beautiful eyes! Isn't he crazy?”
“He's all right,” he said. “Say, this little McCall girl, she's had all kinds of offers to go into moving pictures, “Why don't you go ahead and go?” I told her. But she says she doesn't feel like it.”
“There was a man up at the lake, two summers ago,” she said-“He was a director or something with one of the big moving-picture people – oh, he had all kinds of influence! – and he used to keep insisting and insisting that I ought to be in the movies. Said I ought to be doing sort of Garbo parts. I used to just laugh at him. Imagine!”
“She’s had about a million offers,” he said. “I told her to go ahead and go. She keeps getting these offers all the time.”
“Oh, really?” she said. “Oh, listen, I knew I had something to ask you – Did you call me up last night, by any chance?”
“Me?” he said. “No, I didn't call you”.
“While I was out, Mother said this man's voice kept calling up,” she said- “I thought maybe it might be you, by some chance. I wonder who it could have been. Oh -I guess I know who it was. Yes, that's who it was!”
“No, I didn't call you,” he said, “I couldn't have seen a telephone, last night. What a head I had on me, this morning! I called Carol up, around ten, and she said she was feeling great. Can that girl hold her liquor!”
“It's a funny thing about me,” she said, “It just makes me feel sort of sick to see a girl drink. It's just something in me, I guess. I don't mind a man so much, but it makes me feel perfectly terrible to see a girl get intoxicated. It's just the way I am, I suppose.”
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“Does she carry it!” he said. “And then feels great the next day. There's a girl! Hey, what are you doing there? I don't want any more tea, thanks. I'm not one of these tea boys. And these tea rooms give me the jumps! Look at all those old dames, will you? Enough to give you the jumps.”
“Of course, if you'd rather be some place, drinking, with I don't know what kinds of people,” she said, “I'm sure I don't see how I can help that – Goodness, there are enough people that are glad enough to take me to tea. I don't know how many people keep calling me up and pestering me to take me to tea. Plenty of people!”
“All right, all right, I'm here, aren't I?” he said. “Keep your hair on.”
“I could name them all day,” she said.
“All right,” he said. “What's there to crab about?”
“Goodness, it isn't any of my business what you do,” she said. “But I hate to see you wasting your time with people that aren't nearly good enough for you. That's all.”
“No need worrying over me,” he said. “I'll be all right. Listen. You don’t have to worry.”
“It's just I don't like to see you wasting your time,” she said, “staying up all night and then feeling terribly the next day. Ah, I was forgetting he was so sick. Ah, I was mean, wasn't I, scolding him when he was so mizzable. Poor boy. How's he feel now?”
“Oh, I'm all right,” he said. “I feel fine. You want anything else? How about getting a check? I got to make a telephone call before six.”
“Oh, really?” she said, “Calling up Carol?”
“She said she might be in around now,” he said.
“Seeing her tonight?” she said.
“She's going to let me know when I call up,” he said. “She's probably got about a million dates. Why?”
“I was just wondering,” she said. “Goodness, I've got to fly! I'm having dinner with Wally, and he's so crazy, he's probably there now. He's called me up about a hundred times today.”
“Wait till I pay the check,” he said, “and I'll put you on a bus.”
“Oh, don't bother,” she said. “It's right at the corner. I've got to fly. I suppose you want to stay and call up your friend from here?”
“It's an idea,” he said. “Sure you'll be all right?”
“Oh, sure,” she said. Busily she gathered her gloves and purse, and left her chair. He rose, not quite fully, as she stopped beside him.
“When I’ll see you again?” she said.
“I'll call you up,” he said. “I'm all tied up, down at the office and everything. Tell you what I'll do. I'll give you a ring,”
“Honestly, I have more dates!” she said. “It's terrible. I don't know when I'll have a minute. But you call up, will you?”
“I'll do that,” he said. “Take care of yourself.”
“You take care of yourself,” she said, “Hope you'll feel all right.”
“Oh, I'm fine,” he said. “Just beginning to come back to life.”
“Be sure and let me know how you feel,” she said. “Will you? Sure, now? Well, good-bye. Oh, have a good time tonight!”
“Thanks,” he said. “Hope you have a good time, too,” “Oh, I will,” she said. “I expect to. I've got to rush! Oh, I nearly forgot! Thanks ever so much for the tea. It was lovely.”
“Be yourself, will you?” he said, “It was,” she said. “Well. Now don't forget to call me up, will you? Sure? Well, good by.”
“Solong,” he said.
She walked on down the little line between the blue-painted tables.
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3. Analize the text according to the plan.
