Easy English ↔ Source English
Chapter 28
Source paragraphs anchor each row. Semantically matched easy-English paragraphs stay grouped beside the source they rewrite.
Easy-English paragraphs are matched to the source by meaning; numbering follows the source text.
-
01
Easy English
"Ol... ol... How do you spell it?"
The sharp young woman sat behind a brass window. Archer pushed May's telegram toward her. They were in the Western Union office.
Source English
"Ol--ol--howjer spell it, anyhow?" asked the tart young lady to whom Archer had pushed his wife's telegram across the brass ledge of the Western Union office.
-
02
Easy English
"Olenska. O-len-ska," Archer repeated.
He pulled the message back. Then he printed the foreign name above May's loose writing.
Source English
"Olenska--O-len-ska," he repeated, drawing back the message in order to print out the foreign syllables above May's rambling script.
-
03
Easy English
"That is not a common name in a New York telegram office. It is very strange in this part of town."
Archer knew the voice behind him. He turned and saw Lawrence Lefferts. The man pulled at the neat hair above his lip. He acted as if he did not see the message.
Source English
"It's an unlikely name for a New York telegraph office; at least in this quarter," an unexpected voice observed; and turning around Archer saw Lawrence Lefferts at his elbow, pulling an imperturbable moustache and affecting not to glance at the message.
-
04
Easy English
"Hello, Newland. I thought I would catch you here," Lefferts said. "I just heard about old Mrs. Mingott's stroke. I was going to her house."
"Then I saw you enter this street," he continued. "So I hurried after you. You just came from there, I suppose?"
Source English
"Hallo, Newland: thought I'd catch you here. I've just heard of old Mrs. Mingott's stroke; and as I was on my way to the house I saw you turning down this street and nipped after you. I suppose you've come from there?"
-
05
Easy English
Archer nodded. He pushed the telegram under the metal screen.
Source English
Archer nodded, and pushed his telegram under the lattice.
-
06
Easy English
"Is she very bad?" Lefferts asked. "You must be sending news to the family. It must be bad if you call Countess Olenska."
Source English
"Very bad, eh?" Lefferts continued. "Wiring to the family, I suppose. I gather it is bad, if you're including Countess Olenska."
-
07
Easy English
Archer's lips became hard. For one wild moment, he wanted to strike that long face. Lefferts was handsome and full of pride.
Source English
Archer's lips stiffened; he felt a savage impulse to dash his fist into the long vain handsome face at his side.
-
08
Easy English
"Why?" Archer asked.
Source English
"Why?" he questioned.
-
09
Easy English
Lefferts did not like open fights. He raised his eyebrows and made a cold face. His eyes pointed toward the young woman. She watched them from behind the screen.
His look carried a warning. A gentleman must never show anger in public. Nothing could break good form more completely.
Source English
Lefferts, who was known to shrink from discussion, raised his eye-brows with an ironic grimace that warned the other of the watching damsel behind the lattice. Nothing could be worse "form" the look reminded Archer, than any display of temper in a public place.
-
10
Easy English
Archer had never cared less about good form. Still, his wish to hurt Lefferts soon passed. He could not fight over Ellen's name. He would not trade ugly words about her either.
No act by Lefferts could make that right. Not at such a time.
Archer paid for the telegram. The two men walked into the street. There, Archer controlled himself again.
"Mrs. Mingott is much better," he said. "The doctor has no fear now."
Lefferts spoke at great length about his relief. Then he asked about the new Beaufort stories. The latest reports were terribly bad.
Source English
Archer had never been more indifferent to the requirements of form; but his impulse to do Lawrence Lefferts a physical injury was only momentary. The idea of bandying Ellen Olenska's name with him at such a time, and on whatsoever provocation, was unthinkable. He paid for his telegram, and the two young men went out together into the street. There Archer, having regained his self-control, went on: "Mrs. Mingott is much better: the doctor feels no anxiety whatever"; and Lefferts, with profuse expressions of relief, asked him if he had heard that there were beastly bad rumours again about Beaufort....
-
11
Easy English
That afternoon, every paper announced Beaufort's failure. This news covered the report about Mrs. Manson Mingott. Few people knew how the two events joined. Most blamed her stroke on age and her great size.
Source English
That afternoon the announcement of the Beaufort failure was in all the papers. It overshadowed the report of Mrs. Manson Mingott's stroke, and only the few who had heard of the mysterious connection between the two events thought of ascribing old Catherine's illness to anything but the accumulation of flesh and years.
-
12
Easy English
Beaufort's shame threw a shadow over all New York. Mr. Letterblair never saw a worse case. Even his long-dead relation saw none. That older Letterblair gave the law office its name.
Beaufort knew his bank must fail. Still, it accepted money for one whole day. Many customers belonged to New York's ruling families. His trick seemed twice as cruel for that reason.
People might still feel pity for Mrs. Beaufort. But she called such troubles a test of friendship. Those were her own words.
Her night visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott also became known.
After that, people thought Regina was even colder than Beaufort. She could not claim that she was foreign. That excuse belonged only to her husband.
People without money in the bank found some comfort there. At least Beaufort came from another country. But then a Dallas relation spoke from South Carolina. He said Beaufort would soon stand strong again.
Regina's own family shared her view. So people could not blame foreign ways alone. They saw instead a terrible truth about marriage. A husband and wife could not be pulled apart.
Society must continue without the Beauforts. That ended the matter for most people. Yet the bank's innocent victims could not forget it.
Medora Manson lost money. So did the poor old Miss Lannings. Other foolish ladies from good families also lost savings. They should have listened to Mr. Henry van der Luyden.
Source English
The whole of New York was darkened by the tale of Beaufort's dishonour. There had never, as Mr. Letterblair said, been a worse case in his memory, nor, for that matter, in the memory of the far-off Letterblair who had given his name to the firm. The bank had continued to take in money for a whole day after its failure was inevitable; and as many of its clients belonged to one or another of the ruling clans, Beaufort's duplicity seemed doubly cynical. If Mrs. Beaufort had not taken the tone that such misfortunes (the word was her own) were "the test of friendship," compassion for her might have tempered the general indignation against her husband. As it was--and especially after the object of her nocturnal visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott had become known--her cynicism was held to exceed his; and she had not the excuse--nor her detractors the satisfaction--of pleading that she was "a foreigner." It was some comfort (to those whose securities were not in jeopardy) to be able to remind themselves that Beaufort was; but, after all, if a Dallas of South Carolina took his view of the case, and glibly talked of his soon being "on his feet again," the argument lost its edge, and there was nothing to do but to accept this awful evidence of the indissolubility of marriage. Society must manage to get on without the Beauforts, and there was an end of it--except indeed for such hapless victims of the disaster as Medora Manson, the poor old Miss Lannings, and certain other misguided ladies of good family who, if only they had listened to Mr. Henry van der Luyden ...
-
13
Easy English
Mrs. Archer gave her final judgment. She spoke like a doctor choosing a cure.
"The Beauforts should go to Regina's small North Carolina place," she said. "Beaufort always kept a building for race horses. Now he can raise fast horses there."
"He has every gift needed for selling horses."
Everyone agreed. No one lowered themselves by asking about the Beauforts' real plans.
Source English
"The best thing the Beauforts can do," said Mrs. Archer, summing it up as if she were pronouncing a diagnosis and prescribing a course of treatment, "is to go and live at Regina's little place in North Carolina. Beaufort has always kept a racing stable, and he had better breed trotting horses. I should say he had all the qualities of a successful horsedealer." Every one agreed with her, but no one condescended to enquire what the Beauforts really meant to do.
-
14
Easy English
The next day, Mrs. Manson Mingott improved greatly. Her voice became strong enough for orders. No one could speak of the Beauforts near her.
Source English
The next day Mrs. Manson Mingott was much better: she recovered her voice sufficiently to give orders that no one should mention the Beauforts to her again, and asked--when Dr. Bencomb appeared--what in the world her family meant by making such a fuss about her health.
-
15
Easy English
When Dr. Bencomb came, she attacked her family's fear.
"Why is everyone making such noise about my health?" she asked. "People my age should not eat chicken salad at night. What else could they expect?"
The doctor changed the food she could eat. Soon the family called her stroke simple indigestion. Indigestion was pain after the body failed to deal with food well.
Old Catherine spoke with her usual force. Still, her view of life changed. Old age slowly moved her away from the world. She still wanted news about her neighbors.
Their troubles never moved her much. Now she cared even less. She easily pushed the Beaufort event from her mind. For the first time, her own health held her full interest.
She watched every small sign in her body. She also began to care about certain family members. Before this, she hardly thought of them.
Mr. Welland won most of her new attention. She always ignored this daughter's husband. Mrs. Welland tried to describe his strong mind.
She said he could do great things if he chose.
Old Catherine only laughed. Now his long study of illness made him useful. She ordered him to visit her. They must compare the foods allowed by their doctors.
Source English
"If people of my age will eat chicken-salad in the evening what are they to expect?" she enquired; and, the doctor having opportunely modified her dietary, the stroke was transformed into an attack of indigestion. But in spite of her firm tone old Catherine did not wholly recover her former attitude toward life. The growing remoteness of old age, though it had not diminished her curiosity about her neighbours, had blunted her never very lively compassion for their troubles; and she seemed to have no difficulty in putting the Beaufort disaster out of her mind. But for the first time she became absorbed in her own symptoms, and began to take a sentimental interest in certain members of her family to whom she had hitherto been contemptuously indifferent.
-
16
Easy English
He could come when his high body heat fell. Catherine now knew that body heat was very serious. A person could never watch it too carefully.
Source English
Mr. Welland, in particular, had the privilege of attracting her notice. Of her sons-in-law he was the one she had most consistently ignored; and all his wife's efforts to represent him as a man of forceful character and marked intellectual ability (if he had only "chosen") had been met with a derisive chuckle. But his eminence as a valetudinarian now made him an object of engrossing interest, and Mrs. Mingott issued an imperial summons to him to come and compare diets as soon as his temperature permitted; for old Catherine was now the first to recognise that one could not be too careful about temperatures.
-
17
Easy English
One day passed after the family called Ellen. Then her telegram came. She would arrive from Washington the next evening.
The Newland Archers were eating lunch with the Wellands. At once, the family asked who could meet Ellen. Her train would arrive across the river in Jersey City.
The Welland home faced each small problem like a distant army camp. Every simple plan became hard. This question gave new life to the lunch.
Mrs. Welland could not go to Jersey City. She must take her husband to old Catherine that afternoon. They also needed the brougham.
Mr. Welland might become upset during the visit.
If that happened, the carriage must take him home at once. The Welland sons would be downtown. Mr. Lovell Mingott was hurrying home from shooting. His family's carriage must meet him.
May could not cross the river alone near winter nightfall. She could not go even in her own carriage. Yet Ellen should not arrive without a welcome. That would seem cold and rude.
It would also oppose old Catherine's clear wish. Mrs. Welland's tired voice blamed Ellen. Ellen always gave the family another hard problem.
"It is always one thing after another," Mrs. Welland said. "This sudden wish to see Ellen is very strange. Meeting her now causes so much trouble."
"Perhaps Mamma is less well than Dr. Bencomb says. That is my only reason for this thought."
Source English
Twenty-four hours after Madame Olenska's summons a telegram announced that she would arrive from Washington on the evening of the following day. At the Wellands', where the Newland Archers chanced to be lunching, the question as to who should meet her at Jersey City was immediately raised; and the material difficulties amid which the Welland household struggled as if it had been a frontier outpost, lent animation to the debate. It was agreed that Mrs. Welland could not possibly go to Jersey City because she was to accompany her husband to old Catherine's that afternoon, and the brougham could not be spared, since, if Mr. Welland were "upset" by seeing his mother-in-law for the first time after her attack, he might have to be taken home at a moment's notice. The Welland sons would of course be "down town," Mr. Lovell Mingott would be just hurrying back from his shooting, and the Mingott carriage engaged in meeting him; and one could not ask May, at the close of a winter afternoon, to go alone across the ferry to Jersey City, even in her own carriage. Nevertheless, it might appear inhospitable--and contrary to old Catherine's express wishes--if Madame Olenska were allowed to arrive without any of the family being at the station to receive her. It was just like Ellen, Mrs. Welland's tired voice implied, to place the family in such a dilemma. "It's always one thing after another," the poor lady grieved, in one of her rare revolts against fate; "the only thing that makes me think Mamma must be less well than Dr. Bencomb will admit is this morbid desire to have Ellen come at once, however inconvenient it is to meet her."
-
18
Easy English
The words came from a tired mind. Mrs. Welland did not think before speaking. But Mr. Welland jumped upon them at once.
Source English
The words had been thoughtless, as the utterances of impatience often are; and Mr. Welland was upon them with a pounce.
-
19
Easy English
"Augusta," he said. His face became pale, and he put down his fork. "Do you have another reason to doubt Bencomb?"
"Has he shown less care than usual?" he asked. "Has he failed with my health or your mother's health?"
Source English
"Augusta," he said, turning pale and laying down his fork, "have you any other reason for thinking that Bencomb is less to be relied on than he was? Have you noticed that he has been less conscientious than usual in following up my case or your mother's?"
-
20
Easy English
Now Mrs. Welland also became pale. Her small mistake could cause endless new trouble. She saw it all before her. Yet she forced herself to laugh.
She took a second dish of baked oysters. Oysters were soft sea animals that lived inside hard shells. Eating helped her find her old bright manner.
"My dear, how can you think that?" she asked. "Mamma strongly believed Ellen must return to her husband. Now she suddenly wants Ellen here."
"That seems strange," she continued. "She could call six other grandchildren. But Mamma is very old, even with her great strength. We must remember that."
Source English
It was Mrs. Welland's turn to grow pale as the endless consequences of her blunder unrolled themselves before her; but she managed to laugh, and take a second helping of scalloped oysters, before she said, struggling back into her old armour of cheerfulness: "My dear, how could you imagine such a thing? I only meant that, after the decided stand Mamma took about its being Ellen's duty to go back to her husband, it seems strange that she should be seized with this sudden whim to see her, when there are half a dozen other grandchildren that she might have asked for. But we must never forget that Mamma, in spite of her wonderful vitality, is a very old woman."
-
21
Easy English
Mr. Welland's face stayed dark. His worried mind caught her last words.
"Yes, your mother is very old," he said. "Perhaps Bencomb is less skilled with very old people. We cannot know."
"As you say, dear, one problem always follows another. In ten or fifteen years, I may need a new doctor. I should choose one before I truly need him."
Mr. Welland reached this brave decision. Then he firmly picked up his fork.
Source English
Mr. Welland's brow remained clouded, and it was evident that his perturbed imagination had fastened at once on this last remark. "Yes: your mother's a very old woman; and for all we know Bencomb may not be as successful with very old people. As you say, my dear, it's always one thing after another; and in another ten or fifteen years I suppose I shall have the pleasing duty of looking about for a new doctor. It's always better to make such a change before it's absolutely necessary." And having arrived at this Spartan decision Mr. Welland firmly took up his fork.
-
22
Easy English
"But the problem remains," Mrs. Welland said after lunch. She led them into the back sitting room. "How will Ellen reach us tomorrow evening?"
"I like every plan fixed one day before it happens."
Source English
"But all the while," Mrs. Welland began again, as she rose from the luncheon-table, and led the way into the wilderness of purple satin and malachite known as the back drawing-room, "I don't see how Ellen's to be got here tomorrow evening; and I do like to have things settled for at least twenty-four hours ahead."
-
23
Easy English
The room was a wild field of purple satin and malachite. Malachite was a green stone with bands of color. Archer studied a small painting. Two Cardinals drank together in it.
A Cardinal was a high leader in the Catholic Church. The picture had eight sides and a black wood frame. Small pieces of onyx covered the frame. Onyx was a smooth stone with dark and light bands.
Source English
Archer turned from the fascinated contemplation of a small painting representing two Cardinals carousing, in an octagonal ebony frame set with medallions of onyx.
-
24
Easy English
"Shall I meet her?" Archer asked. "I can leave the office in time. May can send her brougham to the ferry."
His heart beat with excitement while he spoke.
Source English
"Shall I fetch her?" he proposed. "I can easily get away from the office in time to meet the brougham at the ferry, if May will send it there." His heart was beating excitedly as he spoke.
-
25
Easy English
Mrs. Welland gave a thankful sigh. May stood near the window. She turned and gave Archer a warm look of approval.
"You see, Mamma," May said. "Everything will be fixed a day ahead."
She bent and kissed her mother's worried forehead.
Source English
Mrs. Welland heaved a sigh of gratitude, and May, who had moved away to the window, turned to shed on him a beam of approval. "So you see, Mamma, everything will be settled twenty-four hours in advance," she said, stooping over to kiss her mother's troubled forehead.
-
26
Easy English
May's brougham waited outside. She would leave Archer at Union Square. From there, a Broadway street car could take him to work.
May sat in her corner. "I did not want to give Mamma a new problem," she said. "But how can you meet Ellen tomorrow?"
"How can you bring her home? You are going to Washington."
Source English
May's brougham awaited her at the door, and she was to drive Archer to Union Square, where he could pick up a Broadway car to carry him to the office. As she settled herself in her corner she said: "I didn't want to worry Mamma by raising fresh obstacles; but how can you meet Ellen tomorrow, and bring her back to New York, when you're going to Washington?"
-
27
Easy English
"Oh, I am not going," Archer answered.
Source English
"Oh, I'm not going," Archer answered.
-
28
Easy English
"Not going? What happened?"
Her voice was clear as a bell. It also sounded full of a wife's care.
Source English
"Not going? Why, what's happened?" Her voice was as clear as a bell, and full of wifely solicitude.
-
29
Easy English
"The court case will wait," Archer said.
Source English
"The case is off--postponed."
-
30
Easy English
"It will wait? How strange," May answered. "I saw a note from Mr. Letterblair this morning. He wrote to Mamma."
"He leaves for Washington tomorrow," she continued. "He will speak in the great inventor's case before the Supreme Court. You said your case involved an inventor, did you not?"
Source English
"Postponed? How odd! I saw a note this morning from Mr. Letterblair to Mamma saying that he was going to Washington tomorrow for the big patent case that he was to argue before the Supreme Court. You said it was a patent case, didn't you?"
-
31
Easy English
"Well, that explains it," Archer said. "The whole office cannot go. Letterblair chose to go this morning."
Source English
"Well--that's it: the whole office can't go. Letterblair decided to go this morning."
-
32
Easy English
"Then the case will not wait?" May asked.
Her firm questions were unlike her. Archer felt blood rise into his face. Her open questioning broke all their rules of care. It made him feel shame for her.
"No, the case will not wait. My own trip will wait."
Source English
"Then it's not postponed?" she continued, with an insistence so unlike her that he felt the blood rising to his face, as if he were blushing for her unwonted lapse from all the traditional delicacies.
-
33
Easy English
He hated all the details in his first false story. Somewhere he read about good liars. Good liars gave many facts. The best liars gave none.
Lying to May did not hurt him greatly. But he hated watching her hide her discovery. She knew that he lied.
Source English
"No: but my going is," he answered, cursing the unnecessary explanations that he had given when he had announced his intention of going to Washington, and wondering where he had read that clever liars give details, but that the cleverest do not. It did not hurt him half as much to tell May an untruth as to see her trying to pretend that she had not detected him.
-
34
Easy English
"I will go later," he continued. "Luckily, that helps your family."
His words held a low and ugly attack. He felt May watching him. So he met her eyes. He did not want to seem afraid.
Their eyes met for one second. Perhaps each saw too far into the other. Neither wanted to enter that dark place.
Source English
"I'm not going till later on: luckily for the convenience of your family," he continued, taking base refuge in sarcasm. As he spoke he felt that she was looking at him, and he turned his eyes to hers in order not to appear to be avoiding them. Their glances met for a second, and perhaps let them into each other's meanings more deeply than either cared to go.
-
35
Easy English
"Yes, it is very helpful," May said brightly. "Now you can meet Ellen. You saw how much Mamma valued your offer."
Source English
"Yes; it is awfully convenient," May brightly agreed, "that you should be able to meet Ellen after all; you saw how much Mamma appreciated your offering to do it."
-
36
Easy English
"Oh, I am very glad to do it."
The carriage stopped. Archer jumped out. May leaned forward and put her hand on his.
"Goodbye, dearest," she said.
Her eyes looked very blue. Later, Archer wondered if tears gave them that light.
Source English
"Oh, I'm delighted to do it." The carriage stopped, and as he jumped out she leaned to him and laid her hand on his. "Good-bye, dearest," she said, her eyes so blue that he wondered afterward if they had shone on him through tears.
-
37
Easy English
He turned and hurried across Union Square. One thought sounded inside him like a repeated song.
"It takes two whole hours from Jersey City to old Catherine's. It takes two whole hours. It may take more."
Source English
He turned away and hurried across Union Square, repeating to himself, in a sort of inward chant: "It's all of two hours from Jersey City to old Catherine's. It's all of two hours--and it may be more."