The courtship of susan bell краткое содержание

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Дороги которые мы выбираем / The Way We Live Now

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Название: Дороги, которые мы выбираем
Оригинальное название: The Way We Live Now
Год выпуска: 2001
Жанр: Мелодрама, драма
Режиссер: Дэвид Йейтс
Сценарист: Эндрю Дэвис
В ролях: Дэвид Суше, Киллиан Мерфи, Миранда Отто, Ширли Хендерсон, Палома Баэза, Дуглас Ходж, Маттью Макфэдьен, Дэвид Брэдли, Тони Бриттон, Аллан Корданер, Джоанна Дэвид, Анна-Мария Дафф, Оливер Форд Дэвис, Майкл Райли, Джим Картер, Грэм Кроуден, Питер Ганн, Роджер Хэммонд, Тоби Джонс, Стюарт Маккварри, Тревор Пикок, Дадли Саттон, Ангус Райт

По одноименному роману Энтони Троллопа.

Через несколько недель после прибытия в Лондон финансист Огастес Мелмотт, чье происхождение окутано таким же мраком, как и источник его богатств, объявляет о создании новой компании, пообещав сказочные прибыли всем, кто готов принять участие в его предприятии. Мелмотта окружает толпа богемных аристократов, хитроумных вдовушек и алчных нуворишей, и всех их объединяет желание откусить кусочек от финансового пирога, испеченного Огастесом Мелмоттом.

Продолжительность: 04:54:44
Страна: Великобритания, BBC
Перевод: Профессиональный (многоголосый, закадровый) + оригинальная дорожка

Действие сериала "Дороги которые мы выбираем" (The Way We Live Now) разворачивается в Англии в 18 веке.

В Лондон прибывает из Европы Огастес Мелмотт, который называет себя крупным финансистом. Однако где он заработал так много денег, никому не известно. Но вся настороженность богатых людей города улетучивается, когда Огастес начинает закатывать шикарные вечеринки. Вскоре он объявляет открытие новой финансовой компании, вкладчики которой должны получить баснословные дивиденды. Вступить в долю такого перспективного предприятия спешат многие горожане. Фильм "Дороги которые мы выбираем" получил 8 наград, в том числе три премии BAFTA в 2002 году.

Я провела исследование интернет – ресурсов для того, чтобы узнать источник текста ЕГЭ ’’The Courtship of Susan Bell’’ и узнала о том, что автором данного рассказа является выдающийся мастер короткого рассказа английский писатель Энтони Троллоп. Изучение творчества и биографии писателя вызывает интерес у старшеклассников при подготовке к ЕГЭ.

Задания для подготовки к ЕГЭ по английскому языку. Вопрос A15.

Прочитайте рассказ и выполните задания А15 — А21 , обводя цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую номеру выбранного вами варианта ответа.

The Courtship of Susan Bell

Mrs. Bell invited Aaron Houston, a famous British artist, to paint her younger daughter’s portrait. Aaron wanted to make a few drawings before he started a portrait. On the Thursday evening the drawing was finished. Not a word had been said because the girls were shy to speak in Aaron’s presence and he had gone on working in silence. “There,” said he, “I don’t think that it will be any better if I go on for another hour. I hope you will like it. There, Miss Susan”, and he sent it across the table with his fingers.
Susan’s face got red, she was embarrassed. She took the drawing and said, “Oh, it’s beautiful”. The superb originality of the drawing captivated her. A young girl was represented sitting at a table in a room filled with fresh air and the soft light of a summer day. The greenery of an old overgrown garden could be seen through the window. In front of her on the white tablecloth there was her book. The eyes of the girl looked out at you, dark grey, mysterious, sad, languorous, yet strangely intent. What was the girl thinking about? Who was the girl thinking about? The drawing was more than a portrait. It fact, the artist tackled a far bigger job than that of reproducing a definite person in portraiture and in performing which he imparted another and bigger content.
Susan’s face revealed her feelings. She turned to her mother and said, “Isn’t it beautifully done, mother?” and then her elder sister and her mother got up to look at it, and both admitted that it was beautifully done but Susan felt there was doubt in her mother’s voice.
“We thank you very much,” said Susan after a long pause.
“Oh, it’s nothing”, said he, not quite liking the word “we”.
On the following day he returned from his work to Saratoga about noon. He had never done this before, and therefore no one expected that he would be seen in the house before the evening. On this occasion, however, he went straight there, and by chance both the widow and her elder daughter were out. Susan was there alone in charge of the house.
He walked in and opened the sitting-room door. There she sat, with her knitting and a book forgotten on the table behind her, and Aaron’s drawing, on her lap. She was looking at it closely as he entered.
“Oh, Mr. Dunn,” she said, getting up and holding the picture behind her dress.
“Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I must start for New York this afternoon and be there for six weeks, or perhaps, longer.”
“Mother is out,” she said. “I am sorry.”
“Is she?” said Aaron.
“And Hetta too. Dear me! And you will want dinner. I’ll go and see about it.”
Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any dinner.
“But you must have something, Mr. Dunn“ she said.
“Miss Susan,” said he, “I’ve been here nearly two months.”
“Yes, sir,” Susan said, hardly knowing what she was saying.
“I’m going away now, and it seems to be such a long time before I’ll come back.” And then he paused, looking into her eyes, to see what he could read there. She leant against the table; but her eyes were turned to the ground, and he could hardly see them.
“Will you help me?” he said. She was keeping silent. “Miss Susan,” he continued, “I am not very good at saying things like this, but will you marry me? I love you dearly with all my heart. I never saw anyone so beautiful, so nice, so good.” And then he stopped. He didn’t ask for any love in return. He simply declared his feelings, leaning against the door. Susan remained silent. Aaron ran out of the room.

Энтони Троллоп – великий бытописатель викторианской Англии.

Роман должен представлять картину обыденной жизни,
оживленную юмором и подслащенную чувством.

Энтони Троллоп (англ. Anthony Trollope, 24 апреля 1815, Лондон, Англия — 6 декабря 1882, Лондон) — английский писатель, один из наиболее успешных и талантливых романистов викторианской эпохи. Произведения писателя позволяют нам окунуться в мир английской литературы 19 века, познакомиться с ходом истории Великобритании.

Викториа́нская эпо́ха (1837—1901) — период правления Виктории, королевы Великобритании и Ирландии, императрицы Индии. Начало Викторианской эпохи датируется 1837 годом, когда на английский престол взошла королева Виктория. На тот момент ей было 18 лет. Царствование королевы Виктории продолжалось в течение 63-х лет вплоть до 1901 года, которое оказало большое влияние на становление англо-американского мира.

Сколько блестящих имен дала нам викторианская эпоха! Чарльз Диккенс, Уильям Теккерей, Энтони Троллоп, Конан Дойль, Редьярд Киплинг и Оскар Уайльд. По романам Диккенса и Теккерея, в частности, мы можем узнать о транспорте в то время, о биржевых операциях в лондонском Сити, о тюрьмах, о больницах и театрах, о рынках и увеселительных заведениях, о видах трактиров, ресторанов и гостиниц старой Англии. Произведения этих двух писателей - это энциклопедия того времени: различные классы, характеры, возрасты; жизнь богачей и бедняков; фигуры врача, адвоката, актера, представителя аристократии и человека без определенных занятий, бедной швеи и светской барышни, фабриканта и рабочего - таков мир романов того времени, писателей викторианской эпохи. Многие из традиций, которые, как нам порой кажется, существовали всегда, появились именно в эпоху королевы Виктории.

Оплотом общества в то время считалась семья. Пример в этом подавала сама королева Виктория, чей брак с принцем Альбертом был очень счастливым. Особое значение придавалось дому, который в эту эпоху призван был отражать не только благосостояние семьи, но и представления о покое и семейном счастье.

Рассматривая викторианскую эпоху в общемировом контексте, нельзя не отметить, что она ознаменовалась для значительного числа государств – британских колоний – обретением большей независимости и свободы, а также возможности развивать свою собственную политическую жизнь. Помимо этого, те открытия, которые совершались в Британии в это время, имели значение не только для страны, но и для всего человечества в целом. Появление в Британии сразу нескольких выдающихся представителей искусства и, в первую очередь, художественной литературы, оказало влияние на развитие мирового искусства. Например, творчества английского писателя Чарльза Диккенса оказало существенное влияние на развитие русского романа.

Если рассматривать значение данного периода для самой Британии, то необходимо отметить, что викторианская эпоха занимает совершенно особое место в истории Великобритании. Для этого периода Британской истории характерны два главных обстоятельства. Прежде всего, это то, что в Викторианскую эпоху Британия не участвовала в каких-либо значительных войнах на международной арене, не считая печально известных Опиумных войн в Китае. Не было и серьезного напряжения британского общества, вызванного ожиданием какой-либо катастрофы извне. Поскольку британское общество было и остается достаточно закрытым и зацикленным на себе, это обстоятельство представляется особенно важным. Вторым обстоятельством является то, что значительно вырос интерес к религиозным вопросам с одновременным стремительным развитием научной мысли и самодисциплинирования человеческой личности, в основе которого лежали догматы пуританизма.

Развитие научной мысли в Викторианскую эпоху было таково, что по мере повышения значения дарвинизма и на волне все новых научных открытий, даже британские агностики обратились с критикой в сторону основных догматов христианства. Многие нонконформисты, включая, например, англо-католика У. Гладстона, рассматривали внутреннюю и внешнюю политику Британской империи сквозь призму своих собственных религиозных убеждений.

Викторианская эпоха ознаменовалась обретением Британией новых социальных функций, чего требовали новые промышленные условия и стремительный рост населения. Что касается развития личности, то оно строилось на самодисциплине и уверенности в себе, подкрепляемых уэслианским и евангелическим движениями.

Многие из традиций, которые, как нам порой кажется, существовали всегда, появились именно в эпоху королевы Виктории. Как раз к 1840-му году чай в 5 часов стал приметой хорошего дома. Тогда входит в моду у джентльменов курить трубку, и в домах появляются первые курительные комнаты, в то же время вводится и другая очень известная традиция – наряжать на Рождество елку, этот ритуал был заимствован в Германии, как и курение трубки.

Именно в викторианскую эпоху проявляется забота о здоровье – в загородных домах строятся специальные павильоны с холодными ваннами. Эту традицию привезла много позже в Россию принцесса Алиса Гессен- Дармштадская, любимая внучка королевы Виктории, ставшая супругой последнего русского императора Николая II. Благодаря заботе о здоровье в Англии той поры становятся популярны виды спорта, которые требовали пребывания на открытом воздухе, например, гольф, крикет и теннис.

Эти и некоторые другие детали викторианского быта были крайне важны для построения идеологии и формирования национальной идентичности. И конечно, все это отразилось в литературе этого периода, и стало очень важным для последующего времени, вызывая в памяти совершенно определенный облик эпохи. Надо отметить, что викторианство является одной из эпох в истории, интерес к которой не ослабевает, а лишь усиливается с годами. Приблизительно с середины ХХ столетия она активно анализируется критиками и историками литературы.

Для Диккенса люди из народа - пусть и обездоленные, униженные - не маленькие люди. Писателя восхищает их нравственное величие, душевная красота и чистота помыслов. Когда же речь заходит о представителях "высшего света", он не преминет подчеркнуть, что у них нет и в помине доброты и отзывчивости простых людей. Людей из народа он противопоставляет аристократам и буржуа. В сатирических тонах изображает писатель духовную ограниченность и скудость чувств "мещан во дворянстве", их тяготение ко всему великосветскому "романтическому" и "фешенебельному". Молодые люди прикидываются разочарованными, мрачными, загадочными, разыгрывают из себя "байронических" героев, молодые девицы на выданье делают вид, будто самое упоминание о таких прозаических вещах, как пища, претит им.

Положительный герой Диккенса всегда полон готовности прийти на помощь тому, кто в ней нуждается. Оливера Твиста, который пешком отправился в Лондон, спасают от голодной смерти бедняки - сторож у заставы да сердобольная старая женщина, в то время как люди обеспеченные лавочники, фермеры, пассажиры почтовой кареты–грубо издеваются над ним. Ньюмен Ноггс делится последним с Николасом Никклби, а его семью поддерживает мисс Ла Криви, которая сама едва сводит концы с концами. Бездомная Нелли и ее дед находят приют и сочувствие у простых тружеников: у Кита и его матери, у крестьян, бедного школьного учителя, содержательницы выставки восковых фигур, барочников, рабочего-кочегара и т. д. Эти скромные, незаметные люди проявляют подлинную силу духа, благородство чувств. Николас - смел, честен, непримирим ко всякому злу. Возмущенный жестокостью Сквирса по отношению к мальчикам, Николас избивает его; рискуя жизнью, он вступается за честь сестры и дает жестокий урок светскому хлыщу Хоку.

В произведениях Троллопа отразились проблемы его времени — политические, социальные и семейные. В изображении нравов писатель выступал как наследник традиций английских писателей-юмористов XVIII века.

Предметом художественного изображения в этих романах стали жизнь, быт и нравы клерикального англиканского сословия, играющего наряду с помещиками ведущую роль в жизни провинциальной Англии.

Ценой больших усилий и унижений матери удалось устроить сыновей в качестве бесплатных приходящих учеников в привилегированную школу Харроу. В школе Энтони страдал от презрения и насмешек богатых учеников.

Книга имела успех и принесла семье некоторое финансовое благополучие. Фрэнсис решила зарабатывать на жизнь литературным трудом и из под её пера один за другим стали выходить романы, потакавшие вкусам невзыскательной публики и в результате быстро раскупавшиеся.

В 1834 отец Троллопа окончательно разорился и был вынужден бежать от кредиторов в Бельгию. Туда последовала и вся семья. В 1835 Томас умер в Брюгге.

Жизнь в Ирландии и начало литературной карьеры

По возвращении в Англию Энтони вынужден был устраиваться на службу, чтобы зарабатывать себе на жизнь. Он поступил клерком в почтовое ведомство в Лондоне. На этой безрадостной и угнетающей творческую личность службе он провел семь лет.

Жизнь в Лондоне

В 1859 Троллоп возвращается в Лондон, он занимает высокий пост в иерархии почтового ведомства, занимается проведением почтовой реформы, в 1868 выставляет свою кандидатуру на выборах от либералов.

После провала на выборах Троллоп более политикой не занимается, но на основе своих впечатлений от общения с политическим эстеблишментом он создает новый цикл романов, объединенный вокруг главного героя — политика Плантагенета Паллисьера, раскрывающий хитросплетения парламентской и правительственной жизни Англии.

Упадок популярности и посмертная слава

Писателю пришлось пережить упадок его громкой славы. Причиной утраты популярности в конце 70-х годов были не только ремесленнический характер многих наскоро написанных романов, но и изменившиеся вкусы публики.

Не могли бы вы помочь написать краткий пересказ книги "The courtship of susan bell" автор Anthony Trollope!
Пожалуйста.

Так возьмите текст и скопируйте абзацами. Где родилась, где училась, как попала на проект, что из этого вышло.

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The girls kept silent because they

1) didn’t like to speak to Aaron.

2) didn’t know what to say to Aaron.

3) were afraid to speak in their mother’s presence.

4) were too modest to speak in the guest’s presence.

Прочитайте рассказ и выполните задания А15 – А21, отмечая цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую номеру выбранного вами варианта ответа.

The Courtship of Susan Bell

Susan’s face got red, she was embarrassed. She took the drawing and said, “Oh, it’s beautiful”. The superb originality of the drawing captivated her. A young girl was represented sitting at a table in a room filled with fresh air and the soft light of a summer day. The greenery of an old overgrown garden could be seen through the window. In front of her on the white tablecloth there was her book. The eyes of the girl looked out at you, dark grey, mysterious, sad, languorous, yet strangely intent. What was the girl thinking about? Who was the girl thinking about? The drawing was more than a portrait. It fact, the artist tackled a far bigger job than that of reproducing a definite person in portraiture and in performing which he imparted another and bigger content.

Susan’s face revealed her feelings. She turned to her mother and said, “Isn’t it beautifully done, mother?” and then her elder sister and her mother got up to look at it, and both admitted that it was beautifully done but Susan felt there was doubt in her mother’s voice.

“We thank you very much,” said Susan after a long pause.

“Oh, it’s nothing”, said he, not quite liking the word “we”.

On the following day he returned from his work to Saratoga about noon. He had never done this before, and therefore no one expected that he would be seen in the house before the evening. On this occasion, however, he went straight there, and by chance both the widow and her elder daughter were out. Susan was there alone in charge of the house.

He walked in and opened the sitting-room door. There she sat, with her knitting and a book forgotten on the table behind her, and Aaron’s drawing, on her lap. She was looking at it closely as he entered.

“Oh, Mr. Dunn,” she said, getting up and holding the picture behind her dress.

“Miss Susan, I have come here to tell your mother that I must start for New York this afternoon and be there for six weeks, or perhaps, longer.”

“Mother is out,” she said. “I am sorry.”

“Is she?” said Aaron.

“And Hetta too. Dear me! And you will want dinner. I’ll go and see about it.”

Aaron began to swear that he could not possibly eat any dinner.

“But you must have something, Mr. Dunn“ she said.

“Miss Susan,” said he, “I’ve been here nearly two months.”

“Yes, sir,” Susan said, hardly knowing what she was saying.

“I’m going away now, and it seems to be such a long time before I’ll come back.” And then he paused, looking into her eyes, to see what he could read there. She leant against the table; but her eyes were turned to the ground, and he could hardly see them.

“Will you help me?” he said. She was keeping silent. “Miss Susan,” he continued, “I am not very good at saying things like this, but will you marry me? I love you dearly with all my heart. I never saw anyone so beautiful, so nice, so good.” And then he stopped. He didn’t ask for any love in return. He simply declared his feelings, leaning against the door. Susan remained silent. Aaron ran out of the room.

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Anthony Trollope

The Courtship of Susan Bell

Published by Good Press, 2021

John Munroe Bell had been a lawyer in Albany, State of New York, and as such had thriven well. He had thriven well as long as thrift and thriving on this earth had been allowed to him. But the Almighty had seen fit to shorten his span.

Early in life he had married a timid, anxious, pretty, good little wife, whose whole heart and mind had been given up to do his bidding and deserve his love. She had not only deserved it but had possessed it, and as long as John Munroe Bell had lived, Henrietta Bell—Hetta as he called her—had been a woman rich in blessings. After twelve years of such blessings he had left her, and had left with her two daughters, a second Hetta, and the heroine of our little story, Susan Bell.

A lawyer in Albany may thrive passing well for eight or ten years, and yet not leave behind him any very large sum of money if he dies at the end of that time. Some small modicum, some few thousand dollars, John Bell had amassed, so that his widow and daughters were not absolutely driven to look for work or bread.

In those happy days when cash had begun to flow in plenteously to the young father of the family, he had taken it into his head to build for himself, or rather for his young female brood, a small neat house in the outskirts of Saratoga Springs. In doing so he was instigated as much by the excellence of the investment for his pocket as by the salubrity of the place for his girls. He furnished the house well, and then during some summer weeks his wife lived there, and sometimes he let it.

How the widow grieved when the lord of her heart and master of her mind was laid in the grave, I need not tell. She had already counted ten years of widowhood, and her children had grown to be young women beside her at the time of which I am now about to speak. Since that sad day on which they had left Albany they had lived together at the cottage at the Springs. In winter their life had been lonely enough; but as soon as the hot weather began to drive the fainting citizens out from New York, they had always received two or three boarders—old ladies generally, and occasionally an old gentleman—persons of very steady habits, with whose pockets the widow’s moderate demands agreed better than the hotel charges. And so the Bells lived for ten years.

That Saratoga is a gay place in July, August, and September, the world knows well enough. To girls who go there with trunks full of muslin and crinoline, for whom a carriage and pair of horses is always waiting immediately after dinner, whose fathers’ pockets are bursting with dollars, it is a very gay place. Dancing and flirtations come as a matter of course, and matrimony follows after with only too great rapidity. But the place was not very gay for Hetta or Susan Bell.

In the first place the widow was a timid woman, and among other fears feared greatly that she should be thought guilty of setting traps for husbands. Poor mothers! how often are they charged with this sin when their honest desires go no further than that their bairns may be “respectit like the lave.” And then she feared flirtations; flirtations that should be that and nothing more, flirtations that are so destructive of the heart’s sweetest essence. She feared love also, though she longed for that as well as feared it;—for her girls, I mean; all such feelings for herself were long laid under ground;—and then, like a timid creature as she was, she had other indefinite fears, and among them a great fear that those girls of hers would be left husbandless,—a phase of life which after her twelve years of bliss she regarded as anything but desirable. But the upshot was,—the upshot of so many fears and such small means,—that Hetta and Susan Bell had but a dull life of it.

Were it not that I am somewhat closely restricted in the number of my pages, I would describe at full the merits and beauties of Hetta and Susan Bell. As it is I can but say a few words. At our period of their lives Hetta was nearly one-and-twenty, and Susan was just nineteen. Hetta was a short, plump, demure young woman, with the softest smoothed hair, and the brownest brightest eyes. She was very useful in the house, good at corn cakes, and thought much, particularly in these latter months, of her religious duties. Her sister in the privacy of their own little room would sometimes twit her with the admiring patience with which she would listen to the lengthened eloquence of Mr. Phineas Beckard, the Baptist minister. Now Mr. Phineas Beckard was a bachelor.

Susan was not so good a girl in the kitchen or about the house as was her sister; but she was bright in the parlour, and if that motherly heart could have been made to give out its inmost secret—which however, it could not have been made to give out in any way painful to dear Hetta—perhaps it might have been found that Susan was loved with the closest love. She was taller than her sister, and lighter; her eyes were blue as were her mother’s; her hair was brighter than Hetta’s, but not always so singularly neat. She had a dimple on her chin, whereas Hetta had none; dimples on her cheeks too, when she smiled; and, oh, such a mouth! There; my allowance of pages permits no more.

One piercing cold winter’s day there came knocking at the widow’s door—a young man. Winter days, when the ice of January is refrozen by the wind of February, are very cold at Saratoga Springs. In these days there was not often much to disturb the serenity of Mrs. Bell’s house; but on the day in question there came knocking at the door—a young man.

Mrs. Bell kept an old domestic, who had lived with them in those happy Albany days. Her name was Kate O’Brien, but though picturesque in name she was hardly so in person. She was a thick-set, noisy, good-natured old Irishwoman, who had joined her lot to that of Mrs. Bell when the latter first began housekeeping, and knowing when she was well off; had remained in the same place from that day forth. She had known Hetta as a baby, and, so to say, had seen Susan’s birth.

“And what might you be wanting, sir?” said Kate O’Brien, apparently not quite pleased as she opened the door and let in all the cold air.

“I wish to see Mrs. Bell. Is not this Mrs. Bell’s house?” said the young man, shaking the snow from out of the breast of his coat.

He did see Mrs. Bell, and we will now tell who he was, and why he had come, and how it came to pass that his carpet-bag was brought down to the widow’s house and one of the front bedrooms was prepared for him, and that he drank tea that night in the widow’s parlour.

His name was Aaron Dunn, and by profession he was an engineer. What peculiar misfortune in those days of frost and snow had befallen the line of rails which runs from Schenectady to Lake Champlain, I never quite understood. Banks and bridges had in some way come to grief, and on Aaron Dunn’s shoulders was thrown the burden of seeing that they were duly repaired. Saratoga Springs was the centre of these mishaps, and therefore at Saratoga Springs it was necessary that he should take up his temporary abode.

Now there was at that time in New York city a Mr. Bell, great in railway matters—an uncle of the once thriving but now departed Albany lawyer. He was a rich man, but he liked his riches himself; or at any rate had not found himself called upon to share them with the widow and daughters of his nephew. But when it chanced to come to pass that he had a hand in despatching Aaron Dunn to Saratoga, he took the young man aside and recommended him to lodge with the widow. “There,” said he, “show her my card.” So much the rich uncle thought he might vouchsafe to do for the nephew’s widow.

Mrs. Bell and both her daughters were in the parlour when Aaron Dunn was shown in, snow and all. He told his story in a rough, shaky voice, for his teeth chattered; and he gave the card, almost wishing that he had gone to the empty big hotel, for the widow’s welcome was not at first quite warm.

The widow listened to him as he gave his message, and then she took the card and looked at it. Hetta, who was sitting on the side of the fireplace facing the door, went on demurely with her work. Susan gave one glance round—her back was to the stranger—and then another; and then she moved her chair a little nearer to the wall, so as to give the young man room to come to the fire, if he would. He did not come, but his eyes glanced upon Susan Bell; and he thought that the old man in New York was right, and that the big hotel would be cold and dull. It was a pretty face to look on that cold evening as she turned it up from the stocking she was mending.

“Perhaps you don’t wish to take winter boarders, ma’am?” said Aaron Dunn.

“We never have done so yet, sir,” said Mrs. Bell timidly. Could she let this young wolf in among her lamb-fold? He might be a wolf;—who could tell?

“Mr. Bell seemed to think it would suit,” said Aaron.

Had he acquiesced in her timidity and not pressed the point, it would have been all up with him. But the widow did not like to go against the big uncle; and so she said, “Perhaps it may, sir.”

“I guess it will, finely,” said Aaron. And then the widow seeing that the matter was so far settled, put down her work and came round into the passage. Hetta followed her, for there would be housework to do. Aaron gave himself another shake, settled the weekly number of dollars—with very little difficulty on his part, for he had caught another glance at Susan’s face; and then went after his bag. ’Twas thus that Aaron Dunn obtained an entrance into Mrs. Bell’s house. “But what if he be a wolf?” she said to herself over and over again that night, though not exactly in those words. Ay, but there is another side to that question. What if he be a stalwart man, honest-minded, with clever eye, cunning hand, ready brain, broad back, and warm heart; in want of a wife mayhap; a man that can earn his own bread and another’s;—half a dozen others’ when the half dozen come? Would not that be a good sort of lodger? Such a question as that too did flit, just flit, across the widow’s sleepless mind. But then she thought so much more of the wolf! Wolves, she had taught herself to think, were more common than stalwart, honest-minded, wife-desirous men.

“I wonder mother consented to take him,” said Hetta, when they were in the little room together.

“And why shouldn’t she?” said Susan. “It will be a help.”

“Yes, it will be a little help,” said Hetta. “But we have done very well hitherto without winter lodgers.”

“But uncle Bell said she was to.”

“What is uncle Bell to us?” said Hetta, who had a spirit of her own. And she began to surmise within herself whether Aaron Dunn would join the Baptist congregation, and whether Phineas Beckard would approve of this new move.

“He is a very well-behaved young man at any rate,” said Susan, “and he draws beautifully. Did you see those things he was doing?”

“He draws very well, I dare say,” said Hetta, who regarded this as but a poor warranty for good behaviour. Hetta also had some fear of wolves—not for herself perhaps; but for her sister.

Aaron Dunn’s work—the commencement of his work—lay at some distance from the Springs, and he left every morning with a lot of workmen by an early train—almost before daylight. And every morning, cold and wintry as the mornings were, the widow got him his breakfast with her own hands. She took his dollars and would not leave him altogether to the awkward mercies of Kate O’Brien; nor would she trust her girls to attend upon the young man. Hetta she might have trusted; but then Susan would have asked why she was spared her share of such hardship.

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