Beginning the New Year

by Arnold Bennett

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We are slow, silent people, we of the Five Towns. Perhaps it is because we make pottery, which is slow, silent work. There are many stories about us and how slow and silent we are. These stories often surprise the rest of the world very much, but we just laugh at them. Here is an example.

Toby Hall was born in Turnhill, the smallest of the Five Towns. Last New Year’s Eve he was travelling by train from Crewe to Derby, which was now his home town. He got out of the train at Knype, in the centre of the Five Towns, for a quick drink. The station was busy and he had to wait for his drink. When he returned to the train, it was already moving. Toby was not a young man; he couldn’t jump on the train, so he missed it.

He went to speak to the man in the station office. ‘Young man,’ he asked. ‘When’s the next train to Derby?’

‘There isn’t one before tomorrow.’

Toby went and had another drink.

‘I’ll go to Turnhill,’ he said to himself slowly, and he paid for his drink.

This was his first visit to the Five Towns for twenty-three years, but Knype station was still the same, and so were the times of the trains to Turnhill. The train was the same, too.

In twenty minutes he was leaving Turnhill station and walking into the town. He walked past a number of fine new buildings. In the town centre almost everything was different.

He walked on, into smaller streets, and at last came to Child Row. The old houses here were the same as always, and he looked at one small house very carefully. The light was on, so there was somebody at home.

He crossed the street to the house. It was a special house for him (Number 11 it was — and is) because twenty-four years ago it was his home.

Twenty-four years ago, Toby Hall married Miss Priscilla Bratt, a quiet woman of twenty-three. The house belonged to her. The two young people were perhaps not really in love, but they liked one another. Their only problem was the house. Priscilla often said that the house belonged to her. Toby knew that. Everybody in Turnhill knew that. She didn’t have to say it so often. Toby asked her not to, but she didn’t stop. He was happy to live in his wife’s house, but he didn’t want to hear about it every day. And after a year it was too much. One day he put some things in a bag, put on his hat, and went to the door.

‘Where are you going?’ asked Priscilla.

He stopped for a minute, then answered, ‘America.’

And he went. It was not difficult for Priscilla. She did not think that Toby was a very good husband. She could live without him; she had her house and some money.

Toby went to the bank and got all his money, and sailed off to New York on the Adriatic. From New York he went to Trenton, New Jersey, which was the Five Towns of America. Toby was a good potter, and he found work easily. After a year, he asked a friend to write to Priscilla, and tell her that he was dead. He wanted to be a free man, and it was only fair for her to be a free woman.

After a few years he returned to England. He changed his name from Hall, and started work as a potter in Derby. He did well — the money was good, and he didn’t have much to spend it on. He lived quietly, working all week and going fishing at the weekends.

And now, because of a visit to Crewe, a train, and a drink, he was in Child Row, and crossing the street to Number 11. He knocked on the door.

Many doors in the Five Towns open slowly and carefully — and so did this one. It opened a few centimetres, and a woman looked out at Toby.

‘Is this Mrs Hall’s?’ he asked.

‘No. It’s not Mrs Hall’s. It’s Mrs Tansley’s.’

‘I thought …’

The door opened a little more.

‘Is that you, Toby?’

‘It is,’ answered Toby, smiling a little.

‘Well, well!’ said the woman. ‘Well, well!’ The door opened a little more. ‘Are you coming in, Toby?’

‘Yes,’ said Toby.

And he went in.

‘Sit down,’ said his wife. ‘I thought you were dead. Someone wrote to me.’

‘Yes!’ said Toby. ‘But I’m not dead.’ He sat down in a comfortable chair by the fire. He knew the chair, and he knew the fire. He put his hat on the table. Priscilla locked the door again and sat down herself. Her dress was black and, like Toby, she was getting a little fat.

‘Well, well,’ she said. ‘So you’ve come back.’

‘Yes.’

They were both silent for a minute. ‘The weather’s cold, isn’t it?’ he said.

‘Yes. It’s been a cold winter.’

Another silence. What were they thinking and feeling? Perhaps they weren’t thinking anything very much.

‘And what’s the news?’ he asked.

‘News? Oh, nothing special.’

There was a picture above the fire. It was a picture of Priscilla when she was young. It surprised Toby.

‘I don’t remember that picture,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘That!’ He looked up at the picture.

‘Oh! That! That’s my daughter.’

‘Oh!’ Now Toby was surprised.

‘I married Job Tansley,’ said Priscilla. ‘He died four years ago. She’s married,’ she said, looking up at her daughter’s photograph. ‘She married young Gibson last September.’

‘Well, well!’

They were silent again.

‘That’s a good fire,’ said Toby, looking at it.

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Good coal.’

‘Seventy pence a tonne.’

Again they were silent.

‘Is Ned Walklate still at the pub?’ Toby asked.

‘I think so,’ said Priscilla.

‘I think I’ll go round and have a drink,’ said Toby, standing up.

He was unlocking the door when Priscilla said:

‘You’ve forgotten your hat, Toby.’

‘No,’ he answered. ‘I haven’t forgotten it. I’m coming back.’ They looked at one another, speaking without words.

‘That’ll be all right,’ she said. ‘Well, well!’

‘Yes!’

And he walked round to the pub.

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31 комментариев к “Beginning the New Year
  1. Лилия

    Удивительно! Почему я плАчу? Так должно быть?

    • Марина Борисова

      Принимаете переживания других людей близко к сердцу. Это нормально :)

  2. Serge

    That’s good story. Thanks.

  3. Максим

    По-моему в этом предложение ошибка » ‘He died four years ago.» в слове «dead» .

    • Марина Борисова

      Почему? «He died» — «Он умер»

  4. Асхат

    Я бы не вернулся к ней снова.Она даже ни о чем не жалеет.А он все еще любит ее…

    • Ольга

      Любит и поэтому ушёл навсегда!?

  5. Тёма

    А скажите пожалуйста в чем разница dead и died

    • Марина Борисова

      Died — Past Simple (простое прошедшее время) от глагола to die — то есть «умер». Dead — «мёртвый» в данном случае.

  6. Тёма

    А скажите пож в чем разница sаt и sit

    • Марина Борисова

      Sat — это sit в прошедшем времени. Про неправильные глаголы в английском вы знаете? Глагол to sit — как раз один из них.

  7. Андрей

    Спасибо,Марина,интересно.Почему читая, я все понимаю,а на слух — ничего? Наверное мой «распознаватель» английских слов работает слишком медленно на слух и «зависает» постоянно?

    • Марина Борисова

      Наверное, потому что в жизни нам чаще приходится видеть английские слова (и тексты), чем слышать их, вот мы и привыкли различать их на вид, а не на слух. Как можно больше практики в аудировании, и это обязательно уравновесится.

  8. наруто

    Я заинтригован от комментариев !

  9. Empty

    А, откуда вы берёте тексты?
    Пишите сами? или в интернете ищете тексты?
    все равно, спасибо!)

    • Марина Борисова

      В интернете, конечно. И в книгах.

  10. Татьяна

    Hi Marena! I really like your history,I have had read all ! My favorite story «A serious case». I understand best when l’m reading text as Andrey. I would have wanted more different stories. Thank you very much. Can you answer me I correctly write a sentences.

    • Марина Борисова

      Hi! Glad you liked the stories. I’ll publish more soon.

  11. Евгений

    sailed off to New York on the Adriatic. Нью Йорк в Адриатике? Как это?

    • Марина Борисова

      Думаю, это название корабля.

    • zolo

      (On the) а не (at the ) читаю коменты и удивляюсь как вы вообще читаете если элементарной граматики не знаете кто то про dead и died спрашивал кто то про sat и sit

  12. Серафим

    Спасибо за рассказы! Всегда интересно и познавательно! Вы большая молодец! Продолжайте в том же духе.

    • Марина Борисова

      И вам спасибо, что читаете!

  13. Марчелло

    Thank you for this story! I do like it.

  14. Марина

    Здравствуйте Марина Борисова! погомиге, пожалуйста, корректно перевести предложение: (He did well — the money was good, and…) he didn’t have much to spend it on.
    Спасибо. Жду

    • Марина Борисова

      Дела его шли хорошо: он зарабатывал неплохие деньги, а тратить их было особо не на что.
      Примерно так.

  15. Ксения

    Подскажите пожалуйста перевод или значение слова Eve ( Last New Year’s Eve…..). Переводчик выдал слово «канун». Но тогда возникает вопрос почему оно пишется с заглавной буквы?Заранее спасибо за ответ

    • Марина Борисова

      Это действительно канун. С большой буквы, потому что канун нового года — новогодняя ночь, проще говоря, — название праздника.

  16. Карина

    Мария,тексты очень интересны,понимаю абсолютно все, а ведь когда-то была неуверенна что пойму хоть половину))))Спасибо вам! Но когда новые тексты?

    • Марина Борисова

      Рада, что сайт вам полезен!
      Новые тексты постараюсь скоро выложить. В последнее время совсем руки не доходят…

  17. ARTEM

    THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GREAT WORK. I AM GLAD THAT I FOUND THIS BRIGHT SITE.

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