Martin Eden / Мартин Иден (в сокращении). Книга для чтения на английском языке

There was a brief pause in the conversation they were trying to get started, then she asked about the scar on his cheek.

“It was just an accident,” he said, putting his hand to his cheek.

“Oh!” she said, this time with an accent of comprehension.

Then noticing the book he had been reading she began to talk quickly and easily upon the subject of poetry. He felt better, and settled back slightly from the edge of the chair, holding tightly to its arms with his hands. He listened to her thinking: here was intellectual life and here was beauty, warm and wonderful, as he had never dreamed it could be.

He forgot himself and stared at her with hungry eyes. Here was something to live for, to win, to fight for and die for. The books were true. There were such women in the world. She was one of them. But he could not express what he felt. Well, he decided, it was up to him to get acquainted in this new world. It was time for him to want to learn to talk the things that were inside of him, so that she could understand.

“Now, Longfellow…” she was saying.

“Yes, I’ve read ’m,” he interrupted, wishing to show her that he was not wholly a stupid clod. “The Psalm of Life, Excelsior, an’… I guess that’s all.”

She nodded and smiled, and he felt somehow that her smile was tolerant – pitifully tolerant.

“Excuse me, miss, I guess the real fact is that I don’t know nothin’ much about such things. How did you learn all this you’ve ben talkin’?”

“By going to school, I fancy, and by studying,” she answered.

“I went to school when I was a kid,” he began.

“Yes; but I mean high school, and lectures, and the University.”

“You’ve gone to the University?” he demanded, in frank amazement. He felt that she had become remoter from him by at least a million miles.

“I’m going there now. I’m taking special courses in English.”

“How long would I have to study before I could go to the University?” he asked.

“That depends upon how much studying you have already done,” she answered. “You have never attended high school? Of course not. But did you finish grammar-school?”

“I had two years to run when I left,” he answered. “But I was always honourably promoted at school.”

The next moment he felt angry with himself for the boast. At the same moment he became aware that a woman was entering the room.