Give a detailed description

a) of Mrs Tower’s house;

 

b) of Jane Fowler as seen by the narrator for the first time

 

c) of Marion’s and Jane’s states of mind at the dinner with Gilbert Napier;

forgotten that she was a perfect hostess whose duty it was to make her party go. She talked vivaciously; but I wondered if Gilbert Napier saw how hard and vindictive was the expression of her eyes behind the mask of friendliness that she turned to him. She was measuring him. She was seeking to delve into the secret of his soul. I could see that she was in a passion, for under her rouge her cheeks glowed with an angry red. d) of Marion’s and Jane’s states of mind during their conversation after the dinner; Mrs. Tower sprang to the fray as soon as she heard the front door close behind us. 'Are you crazy, Jane?' she cried. 'Not more than most people who don’t habitually live in a lunatic asylum, I trust,' Jane answered blandly. 'May I ask why you’re going to marry this young man?' asked Mrs Tower with formidable politeness. 'Partly because he won’t take no for an answer. He’s asked me five times. I grew positively tired of refusing him.' 'And why do you think he’s so anxious to marry you?' 'I amuse him.' Mrs Tower gave an exclamation of annoyance. 'He’s an unscrupulous rascal. I very nearly told him so to his face.' 'You would have been wrong, and it wouldn’t have been very polite.' 'He’s penniless and you’re rich. You can’t be such a besotted fool as not to see that he’s marrying you for your money.' Jane remained perfectly composed. She observed her sister-in-law’s agitation with detachment. 'I don’t think he is, you know,' she replied. 'I think he’s very fond of me.' 'You’re an old woman, Jane.' 'I’m the same age as you are, Marion,' she smiled. 'I’ve never let myself go. I’m very young for my age. No one would think I was more than forty. But even I wouldn’t dream of marrying a boy twenty years younger than myself.' 'Twenty-seven,' corrected Jane. 'Do you mean to tell me that you can bring yourself to believe that it’s possible for a young man to care for a woman old enough to be his mother?' 'I’ve lived very much in the country for many years. I daresay there’s a great deal about human nature that I don’t know. They tell me there’s a man called Freud, an Austrian, I believe - ' But Mrs Tower interrupted her without any politeness at all. 'Don’t be ridiculous, Jane. It’s so undignified. It’s so ungraceful. I always thought you were a sensible woman. Really you’re the last person I should ever have thought likely to fall in love with a boy.' 'But I’m not in love with him. I’ve told him that. Of course I like him very much or I wouldn’t think of marrying him. I thought it only fair to tell him quite plainly what my feelings were towards him.' Mrs Tower gasped. The blood rushed to her head and her breathing oppressed her. She had no fan, but she seized the evening paper and vigorously fanned herself with it. 'If you’re not in love with him why do you want to marry him?' 'I’ve been a widow a very long time and I’ve led a very quiet life. I thought I’d like a change.' 'If you want to marry just to be married why don’t you marry a man of your own age?' 'No man of my own age has asked me five times. In fact no man of my own age has asked me at all.' Jane chuckled as she answered. It drove Mrs Tower to the final pitch of frenzy. 'Don’t laugh, Jane. I won’t have it. I don’t think you can be right in your mind. It’s dreadful.’ It was altogether too much for her and she burst into tears. She knew that at her age it was fatal to cry, her eyes would be swollen for twenty-four hours and she would look a sight. But there was no help for it. She wept. Jane remained perfectly calm. She looked at Marion through her large spectacles and reflectively smoothed the lap of her black silk dress. 'You’re going to be so dreadfully unhappy.' Mrs Tower sobbed, dabbing her eyes cautiously in the hope that the black on her lashes would not smudge. 'I don’t think so, you know,' Jane answered in those equable, mild tones of hers, as if there were a little smile behind the words. 'We’ve talked it over very thoroughly I

always think I’m a very easy person to live with. I think I shall make Gilbert very happy and comfortable. He’s never had anyone to look after him properly. We’re only marrying after mature consideration. And we’ve decided that if either of us wants his liberty the other will place no obstacles in the way of his getting it.' Mrs Tower had by now recovered herself sufficiently to make a cutting remark. 'How much has he persuaded you to settle on him?" 'I wanted to settle a thousand a year on him, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He was quite upset when I made the suggestion. He says he can earn quite enough for his own needs.' 'He’s more cunning than I thought,' said Mrs Tower acidly. Jane paused a little and looked at her sister-in-law with kindly but resolute eyes. 'You see, my dear, it’s different for you,' she said. 'You’ve never been so very much a widow, have you?' Mrs Tower looked at her. She blushed a little. She even felt slightly uncomfortable. But of course Jane was much too simple to intend an innuendo. Mrs Tower gathered herself together with dignity. 'I’m so upset that I really must go to bed,' she said. 'We’ll resume the conversation to-morrow morning.' 'I’m afraid that won’t be very convenient, dear. Gilbert and I are going to get the licence tomorrow morning.' Mrs Tower threw up her hands in a gesture of dismay, but she found nothing more to say. e) of Jane’s outfit, which she’d put on for the dinner; But her dress was extraordinary. It was cut very low, with short skirts, which were then the fashion, in black and yellow; it had almost the effect of fancy-dress and yet so became her that though on anyone else it would have been outrageous, on her it had the inevitable simplicity of nature. And to complete the impression of an eccentricity in which there was no pose and of an extravagance in which there was no ostentation she wore, attached by a broad black ribbon, a single eye-glass. f) of Gilbert Napier; There entered a youth in a very well-cut dinner jacket. He was slight, not very tall, with fair hair in which there was a hint of a natural wave, clean-shaven and blue-eyed. He was not particularly good-looking, but he had a pleasant, amiable face. In ten years he would probably be wizened and sallow; but now, in extreme youth, he was fresh and clean and blooming. For he was certainly not more than twenty-four. g) of Jane Fowler as “created” by Gilbert Napier. She was not a young woman, for her hair was iron-grey; it was cut very short and clustered thickly round her well-shaped head in tight curls. She made no attempt at youth, for she was conspicuous in that gathering by using neither lipstick, rouge, nor powder. Her face, not a particularly handsome one, was red and weather-beaten; but because it owed nothing to artifice it had a naturalness that was very pleasing. It contrasted oddly with the whiteness of her shoulders. They were really magnificent. A woman of thirty might have been proud of them.

 

 

13. Answer the questions and do the following tasks:

1. What do you know about the author of the story?

 

William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. He is an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. He abandoned a short career in medicine when his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), had some success. His plays, mainly Edwardian social comedies, brought him financial security. His reputation rests primarily on the novels Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor's Edge (1944), all of which were adapted for film and some for television. His short stories often portray the confusion of Europeans in alien surroundings. His works, regarded less highly today than formerly, are characterized by a clear, unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature.