LITMIR.BIZ

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right back." She left the room.

      Five then ten minutes passed. By and by he pulled the bell cord. No response. He went to Louis XV cabinet and opened it. The pearls were gone. It was not a cabinet in fact, but a sort of chute lined with silk so that the pearls didn't make a noise on the way to the other room.

      Mr. Bradley walked out to the hall and left the house. When at home he went to his bedroom. There he pushed a picture aside, opened the safe behind it, took the string of real matched pearls from his coat pocket and locked them behind the door. Then he mopped his forehead with a silk handkerchief.

      3.4.1 Vocabulary notes

      to swindle – обманывать, надувать

      to rob – грабить

      matched – xopoшо подобранный

      deposit – задаток, залог

      his Lordship – его светлость

      her Ladyship – ее милость

      Good Lord! – О, Господи!

      сabinet – шкаф с выдвижными ящиками

      in apology – извиняясь

      no response – никакого ответа

      chute – лоток, желоб, спускной желоб

      to mop – вытирать (пот, слезы)

      3.4.2 Answer the questions

      1 What was Cedric Bradley like and what was his job?

      2 Who visited him one morning and what was the purpose of his visit?

      3 What kind of necklace did he want to have for his daughter?

      4 What were the terms of payment for the necklace?

      5 When did Lord Throckmorton come to Mr. Bradley's office again?

      6 How did he like the necklace?

      7 Why did he want it to be brought to his house?

      8 What was the real reason of his request?

      9 Mr. Bradley was proud that he had never been swindled or robbed, wasn't he?

      10 Was he still proud of it after his visit to Lord Throckmorton? Why?

      3.5 Text 5

A FUTURE BUSINESSMAN (from "The Financier" by Theodor Dreiser)

      Buttonwood Street, Philadelphia, where Frank Cowperwood spent the first ten years of his life, was a lovely place for a boy to live in. There were mainly red brick houses there with small marble steps leading up to the front doors. There were trees in the street – a lot of them. Behind each house there was a garden with trees and grass and sometimes flowers.

      The Cowperwoods, father and mother, were happy with their children. Henry Cowperwood, the father of the family, started life as a bank clerk, but when Frank, his elder son, was ten, Henry Cowperwood became a teller at the bank.

      As his position grew more responsible, his business connections increased, and gradually he was becoming quite a personage. He already knew a number of rich businessmen who dealt with the bank where he worked. The brokers considered him to be a most reliable person.

      Young Cowperwood took an interest in his father's progress. From seeing his father count money, he was sure that he would like banking, and Third Street, where his father's office was, seemed to him the cleanest, most fascinating street in the world. He was quite often allowed to come to the bank on Saturdays, when he could watch with great interest the quick exchange of bills. He wanted to know where all the types of money came from, why discounts were demanded and received, and what the men did with all the money they received. His father, pleased at his interest, was glad to explain so that even at this early age – from ten to fifteen – the boy gained a wide knowledge of the condition of the country financially. He was also interested in stocks and bonds, and he learned that some stocks and bonds were not even worth the paper they were written on, and others were worth much more than their face value showed.

      At home he also listened to considerable talk of business and financial adventure.

      Frank realized that his father was too honest, too careful. He often told himself that when he grew up, he was going to be a broker, or a financier, or a banker, and do some of the risky things he so often used to hear about.

      Just at this time there came to the Cowperwoods an uncle, Seneca Davis – Henry Cowperwood was pleased at the arrival of this rather rich relative, for before that Seneca Davis had not taken much notice of Henry Cowperwood and his family.

      This time, however, he showed much more interest in the Cowperwoods, particularly in Frank.

      "How would you like to come down to Cuba and be a planter, my boy?" he asked him once.

      "I'm not so sure that I'd like to," replied the boy. "Well, that's frank enough. What have you against it?" "Nothing, except that I don't know anything about it." "Well, what are you interested in ?" "Money!"

      "Aha! get something of that from your father! Well, that's a good trait. And speak like a man, too!"

      He looked at Frank carefully now. There was real force, in that young body – no doubt of it.

      "A clever boy!" he said to Henry, his brother-in-law. "You have a bright family."

      Henry Cowperwood smiled. This man, if he liked Frank, might do much for the boy. He might leave him some of his money. He was rich and single.

      Uncle Seneca became a frequent visitor to the house and took an increasing interest in Frank.

      "When that boy gets old enough to find out what he wants to do, I think I’ll help him to do it," he said to his sister one day. She told him she was very grateful. He talked to Frank about his studies, and found that he cared little for books or most of the subjects he had to take at school.

      "I like book-keeping and mathematics," he said. "I want to get out and get to work, though. That's what I want to do."

      "You are very young, my son," his uncle said. "You're only how old now? Fourteen?" "Thirteen."

      "Well, you can't leave school much before sixteen. You'll do better if you stay until seventeen or eighteen. It can't do you any harm. You won't be a boy again."

      "I don't want to be a boy. I want to get to work."

      "Don't go too fast, son. You'll be a man soon enough. You want to be a banker, don't you?"

      "Yes, sir."

      "Well, when the time comes, if everything is all right and you've behaved well and you still want to, I'll help you get a start in business. If you are going to be a banker, you must work with some good company a year or so. You'll get a good training there. And, meantime, keep your health and learn all you can."

      And with these words he gave the boy a ten-dollar gold piece with which to start a bank account.

      3.5.1 Vocabulary notes

      teller – кассир в банке, банковский служащий

      to deal with – заниматься чем-л., иметь дело с кем-л., чем-л.

      bill – счет; вексель; амер. банкнота, казначейский билет

      discount – скидка

      stock – акция, ценные бумаги, облигации

      bond – долговое обязательство, облигация

      face value – номинальная стоимость

      a broker – брокер, маклер; агент; посредник

      trait

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