Communication » 2A Interacting
A RESPECTABLE WOMAN
Mrs Barada had beeen looking forward to a period of unbroken rest and tete-a tete with her husband at the plantation after a winter of frequent entertainment in New Orleans and so was a bit disappointed to know that Mr Gouvernail, her husband former college friend and now a journalist, was coming to stay with them for a week or two. She had heard much of him by her husband and din't like him. On the contrary she rather liked him when he presented. He had corteous and qiuet manners and never made any appeal to her approval or esteem. Indeed he was a lovable innoffensive fellow, thought Mrs. Barada, leaving her guest and her husband alone for most time. Evem when she accompanied him in his walks she felt tired from his presence.
One night she was sitting alone one the bench beneath a grat oak tree when Gouvernail came and sitted near her making some commonplace and boring observations about night in that season. He began talking about the old college days with her husband in a low and qiuet way that seemed pleasant to the woman. She was hardly listening to his words but was fashinated by the tone of his voice. She had the impulse to touch him and lean against him, and she might have done it if she wasn' t a respectable woman, so she rose and left him alone. Mrs. Barada was tampted to tell her husband of this folly that had got her, but didn't. Times later, when Gouvernail had already left since months, her husband proposed to have the friend back the following summer. He was surprised and delighted to know that her wife unexpectedly didn' t oppose and on the contrary she said she was very glad of her husband proposal . This time she was going to be very nice to their host.
A PAIR OF SOLK STOCKINGS
Mrs Sommers one day found 15$ unexpectatly in her purse. It seemed her a big amount of money and she spent two days thinking about how she could invest them. She decided to buy new clothes for her children. But when she went out for shopping, she found a beautiful piar of silk stockings on sale in a shop. She couldn't resist and bought them. She put them on and moved to a shoe shop. There among many pairs of shoes she found a piar of polished, point-tipped boots, which matched very well with her new stockings. She also needed a piar of gloves, so, in another shop, she bought a piar of kid gloves. With her new clothes she felt as if she belonged to the well-dressed multitude. After her shopping she was hungry so she decided to go into a sumptuos restaurant, full of welldressed and rich people. After her lunch she noticed a matinee poster and went into the theatre. There she laughed and wept with anm other lady with a gaudy attire. At the end of the play she went out to wait for the cable car. Sitting opposite to her, a man started fixing her and he desired the cable car wouldn't ever stop and go with her forever.
DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?
Manuel had seen a fish which thrashed helplessy in the gutter but passed it. Nearby there was a poor child, 9 or 10 years old. He had a rod and was fishing in a dirty water. While he was watching the boy he noticed a young American couple who was approaching them. When the woman saw the fish she decided to try to free it. She went to the boy and told him his fish was dying but he didn't seem to understand. So she asked Manuel, who was watching the sceene, if he spoke English and if he could tell the boy what he wanted to do with the fish. He answered he was going to sell it. But the woman didn't want to leave the fish on the street so asked how much he would sell it. The boy told a sum five times higher the real price, but the woman decided to pay anyway. So she kept the fish and put it into the water and then went back with his husband. The fish hadn't survive and so was floating on the water surface. The boy, helping himself with a stick, kept the fish and put it on the road again, smiling to Manuel. Manuel finished his cigarette and went back the way he had come.