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UTIT 2. John Galsworthy, The man of Property (excerpt)
UNIT 3
W. Somerset Maugham,
RAIN (excerpt)
The days passed slowly. The whole household, intent
on the wretched, tortured woman downstairs, lived in a
state of unnatural excitement. She was like a victim that
was being prepared for the savage rites of a bloody idola
try. Her terror numbed her. She could not bear to let Davidson
out other sight; it was only when he was with her that she
had courage, and she hung upon him with a slavish de
pendence. She cried a great deal, and she read the Bible,
and prayed. Sometimes she was exhausted and apathetic.
Then she did indeed look forward to her ordeal, for it seemed
to offer an escape, direct and concrete, from the anguish
she was enduring. She could not bear much longer the vague
terrors, which now assailed her. With her sins she had
put aside all personal vanity, and she slopped about her
room, unkempt and dishevelled, in her tawdry dressing
gown. She had not taken off her nightdress for four days,
nor put on stockings. Her room was littered and untidy.
Meanwhile the rain fell with a cruel persistence. You felt
that the heavens must at last be empty of water, but still
it poured down, straight and heavy, with a maddening
iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and clam
my. There was mildew on the walls and on the boots that
stood on the floor. Through the sleepless nights the mos
quitoes droned their angry chant.
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