Владимир Аракин - Практический курс английского языка 3 курс [calibre 2.43.0]

The moment he takes them, she hurries across to the other side of the room; sits down and covers her face with her hands.

N a p o l e o n (gloating over the papers): Aha! That's right. (Before he opens them, he looks at her and says.) Excuse me. (He sees

that she is hiding her face.) Very angry with me, eh? (He unties the packet, the seal of which is already broken, and puts it on the table

to examine its contents.)

L a d y (quietly, taking down her hands and shewing that she is not crying, but only thinking ): No. You were right. But I am sorry

for you.

N a p o l e o n (pausing in the act of taking the uppermost paper from the packet): Sorry for me! Why?

L a d y : I am going to see you lose your honor.

N a p o l e o n : Hm! Nothing worse than that? (He takes up the paper.)

L a d y : And your happiness.

N a p o l e o n : Happiness! Happiness is the most tedious thing in the world to me. Should I be what I am if I cared for happiness.

Anything else?

L a d y : Nothing.

N a p o l e o n : Good.

L a d y : Except that you will cut a very foolish figure in the eyes of France.

N a p o l e o n (quickly): What? (He throws the letter down and breaks out into a torrent of scolding.) What do you mean? Eh? Are

you at your tricks again? Do you think I don't know what these papers contain? I'll tell you. First, my information as to Beau- lieu's 7

retreat. You are one of his spies: he has discovered that he had been betrayed, and has sent you to intercept the information. As if that

could save him from me, the old fool! The other papers are only my private letters from Paris, of which you know nothing.

L a d y (prompt and business-like): General: let us make § fair division. Take the information your spies have sent you about the

Austrian army; and give me the Paris correspondence. That will content me.

N a p o l e o n (his breath taken away by the coolness of her proposal): A fair di — (he gasps). It seems to me, madam, that you

have come to regard my letters as your own property, of which I am trying to rob you.

L a d y (earnestly): No: on my honor I ask for no letter of yours: not a word that has been written by you or to you. That packet con-

tains a stolen letter: a letter written by a woman to a man: a man not her husband: a letter that means disgrace, infamy — ^N a p o 1 e

o n: A love letter?

L a d y (bitter-sweetly): What else but a love letter could stir up so much hate?

N a p o l e o n : Why is it sent to me? To put the husband in my power?

L a d y : No, no: it can be of no use to you: I swear that it will cost you nothing to give it to me. It has been sent to you out of sheer

malice: solely to injure the woman who wrote it.

N a p o l e o n : Then why not send it to her husband instead of to me?

L a d y ( completely taken aback): Oh! (Sinking back into the chair.) I — I don't know. (She breaks down.)

N a p o l e o n : Aha! I thought so: a little romance to get the papers back. Per Bacco,81 can't help admiring you. I wish I could lie like

that. It would save me a great deal of trouble.

L a d y (wringing her hands): Oh how I wish I really had told you some lie! You would have believed me then. The truth is the one

thing nobody will believe.

N a p o l e o n (with coarse familiarity): Capital! Capital! Come: I am a true Corsican in my love for stories. But I could tell them

better than you if I set my mind to it. Next time you are asked why a letter compromising a wife should not be sent to her husband, an -

swer simply that the husband wouldn't read it. Do you suppose, you goose, that a man wants to be compelled by public opinion to

make a scene, to fight a duel, to break up his household, to injure his career by a scandal, when he can avoid it all by taking care not

to know?

L a d y (revolted): Suppose that packet contained a letter about your own wife?

N a p o l e o n (offended): You are impertinent, madam.

L a d y (humbly): I beg your pardon. Caesar's wife is above suspicion.9

N a p o l e o n : You have committed an indiscretion. I pardon you. In future, do not permit yourself to introduce real persons in your

romances.

L a d y : General: there really is a woman's letter there. (Pointing to the packet .) Give it to me.

N a p o l e o n : Why?

L a d y : She is an old friend: we were at school together. She has written to me imploring me to prevent the letter falling into your

hands.

N a p o 1 e o n: Why has it been sent to me?

L a d y : Because it compromises the director Barras! 10

Napoleon (frowning, evidently startled): Barras! (Haughtily.) Take care, madam. The director Barras is my attached personal

friend.

L a d y (nodding placidly): Yes. You became friends through your wife.

N a p o l e o n : Again! Have I not forbidden you to speak of my wife? Barras? Barras? (Very threateningly, his face darkening.) Take

care. Take care: do you hear? You may go too far.

L a d y (innocently turning her face to him): What's the matter?

N a p o l e o n : What are you hinting at? Who is this woman?

L a d y (meeting his angry searching gaze with tranquil indifference as she sits looking up at him): A vain, silly, extravagant crea-

ture, with a very able and ambitious husband who knows her through and through: knows that she had lied to him about her age, her

income, her social position, about everything that silly women lie about: knows that she is incapable of fidelity to any principle or any

person; and yet cannot help loving her — cannot help his man's instinct to make use of her for his own advancement with Barras.

N a p o l e o n (in a stealthy coldly furious whisper): This is your revenge, you she-cat, for having had to give me the letters.

L a d y : Nonsense! Or do you mean that you are that sort of man?

N a p o l e o n (exasperated, clasps his hands behind him, his fingers twitching, and says, as he walks irritably away from her to the

fireplace): This woman will drive me out of my senses. (To her.) Begone."

L a d y (springing up with a bright flush in her cheeks): Oh, you are too bad. Keep your letters. Read the story of your own disho-

nour in them; and much good may they do you. Goodbye. (She goes indignantly towards the inner door.)

EXPLANATORY NOTES

1. The Man of Destiny:Napoleon regarded himself as an instrument in the hands of destiny.

2. shew, shewed:show, showed — in standard English.

3. fichu (Fr.) [fi'Ju:]: woman's triangular shawl of lace for shoulders and neck.

4. Buonaparte:Bonaparte ['b3un3pa:t],

5. Tut! Tut![Utj: an exclamation of contempt, impatience or annoyance.

___6. Dalila[di'laib]: a biblical name used as a symbol of a treacherous,

faithless woman.

7. Beaulieu Jean Pirre['bjidij: Commander-in-chief of the Austrian army in Italy defeated in 1796by Napoleon.

8. Per Bacco (Lat.): I swear by god. Bacchus: in Greek and Roman mythology god of wine and revelry.

9. Caesar's wife is above suspicion:the words ascribed to Julius Caesar ['cfeuiljss 'si:za].

10. Barras Paul:a reactionary politician, a member of the Directory which governed France at that time.

11. Begone:go away.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

Vocabulary Notes

1. character n 1) mental or moral nature, e. g. He is a man of fine (strong, weak, independent) character. In order to know a

person's character we must know how he thinks, feels and acts. They differ in character. 2) the qualities that make a thing what it is,

as the character of the work, soil, climate, etc.; 3) moral strength, e. g. He is a man of character. Character- building is not an easy

thing. 4) a person in a play or novel, as the characters in the novel; good (bad, important) characters, e. g. Many characters of the

novel are real people, others are fictional. 5) a person who does something unusual, e. g. He's quite a character. 6) a description of a

person's abilities, e. g. He came to our office with a good character.

characteristic adj showing the character of a thing, as the characteristic enthusiasm of the youth, e. g. It's characteristic of her.

characterize vt to show the character of, e. g. His work is characterized by lack of attention to detail. The camel is characterized

by an ability to go for many days without water.

2. threat n 1)a statement of an intention to punish or hurt, e. g. Nobody is afraid of your threats. 2) a sign or warning of coming

trouble, danger, etc., e. g. There was a threat of rain in the dark sky.

threaten vt/i 1)to give warning of, e. g. The clouds threatened rain. 2) to seem likely to come or occur, e. g. He was unconscious of the danger that threatened him. 3) to use threats towards; to threaten to do smth.,e. g. Andrew threatened to report the incident to the

authorities, to threaten smb. with smth.,e. g. The criminal threatened his enemy with death.

threatening adj full of threat, as a threatening attitude (voice); to give smb. a threatening look.

3. sink (sank, sunk) vi/t 1) to go slowly downward; to go below the horizon or under the surface of water, e. g. The sun was sinking

in the west. Wood does not sink in water. The ship sank. The drowning man sank like a stone. 2) to become lower or weaker, e. g. My

spirits sank. Having displayed his cowardice, he sank in our estimation. 3) to fall; to allow oneself to fall, e. g. He sank to the ground

wounded. She sank into the chair and burst into tears.

sink n a basin with a drain, usually under a water tap in a kitchen, e. g. Put the dirty dishes into the kitchen sink and ask your sister

to help you to wash up.

4. sensen 1) any of the special faculties of the body, e. g. The five senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. 2) a feeling,

understanding, as a sense of duty (humour, beauty, proportion, time, security, danger, pain, cold, etc.), e. g. He has a strong sense of

duty. 3) pi. a normal, ordinary state of mind, as in one's right senses, ant. to be out of one's sensesto be insane, e. g. Are you out of your senses that you talk such nonsense? 4) intelligence; practical wisdom, e. g. He is a man of sense. He has plenty of sense

(common sense). There is a lot of sense in what he says. There is no sense in doing it. What's the sense of doing that? 5) a meaning,

e. g. in a strict (literal, figurative, good, bad) sense, e. g. This word cannot be used in this sense, to make senseto have a meaning that can be understood, e. g. I cannot make sense of what he is saying, ant. to make no sense.,e. g. It makes no sense.