second appearance of the ghost was on Sunday night.
4. They discharged two pellets on the ghost.
5. Mrs. Otis gave the ghost a bottle of Doctor Dobell’s tincture.
6. Longfello is a famous poet.
7. He fell back because he saw an awful phantom.
8. Its head was bald and burnished; its face round, and fat, and white.
9. There was a placard with strange writing on its breast.
10. He retired to a comfortable lead coffin.
5. Fill in the gaps with the words from the box.
1. If he really ___________________ to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him.
2. The only thing that excited any attention being the ___________________ of the blood-stain on the library floor.
3. The second ___________________ of the ghost was on Sunday night.
4. The ghost was rubbing his knees with an ___________________ of agony on his face.
5. Towards evening a ___________________storm of rain came on, and the wind was so high that all the windows and doors in the old house shook and rattled.
6. ___________________ little Virginia, he had not quite made up his mind.
7. He ___________________ to himself, and turned the corner.
8. Right in front of him was standing a horrible spectre, motionless as a _______ ____________ image, and monstrous as a madman’s dream!
9. It bore a ___________________ of gleaming steel.
10. But the cock, __________________, did not crow again.
IV
The next day the ghost was very weak and tired. The terrible excitement of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect. His nerves were completely shattered, and he started at the slightest noise. For five days he kept his room,[63] and at last made up his mind to give up the point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plan of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena. The question of phantasmic apparitions, and the development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different matter, and really not under his control. It was his duty to appear in the corridor once a week, and to gibber from the large oriel window on the first and third Wednesdays in every month, and he did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It is quite true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural.
For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o’clock, taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen. He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old worm-eaten boards, wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to use the Rising Sun Lubricator for oiling his chains. I am bound to acknowledge that it was with a good deal of difficulty that he brought himself to adopt this last mode of protection. However, one night, while the family were at dinner, he slipped into Mr. Otis’s bedroom and carried off the bottle. He felt a little humiliated at first, but afterwards was sensible enough to see that there was a great deal to be said for the invention, and, to a certain degree, it served his purpose. Still in spite of everything he was not left unmolested.[64] Strings were continually being stretched across the corridor, over which he tripped in the dark, and on one occasion, while dressed for the part of “Black Isaac,” he met with a severe fall, through treading on a butter-slide,[65] which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the Tapestry Chamber to the top of the oak staircase. This last insult so enraged him, that he resolved to make one final effort to assert his dignity[66] and social position, and determined to visit the twins the next night in his celebrated character of “Reckless Rupert.”
He had not appeared in this disguise for more than seventy years; in fact, not since he had so frightened pretty Lady Barbara Modish by means of it, that she suddenly broke off her engagement with the present Lord Canterville’s grandfather, and ran away to Gretna Green with handsome Jack Castletown, declaring that nothing in the world would induce her to marry into a family that allowed such a horrible phantom to walk up and down the terrace at twilight. Poor Jack was afterwards shot in a duel by Lord Canterville, and Lady Barbara died of a broken heart at Tunbridge Wells before the year was out, so, in every way, it had been a great success. It was, however an extremely difficult “make-up,” and it took him fully three hours to make his preparations. At last everything was ready, and he was very pleased with his appearance. The big leather boots that went with the dress[67] were just a little too large for him, and he could only find one of the two horse-pistols, but, on the whole, he was quite satisfied, and at a quarter-past one he glided out of the wainscoting and crept down the corridor. On reaching the room occupied by the twins, which was called the Blue Bed Chamber, he found the door just ajar. Wishing to make an effective entrance, he flung it wide open,[68] when a heavy jug of water fell right down on him, wetting him to the skin. At the same moment he heard stifled shrieks of laughter[69] proceeding from the bed. The shock to his nervous system was so great that he fled back to his room as hard as he could go, and the next day he was laid up with a severe cold.[70] The only thing that at all consoled him in the whole affair was the fact that he had not brought his head with him, for, had he done so, the consequences might have been very serious.
He now gave up all hope of ever frightening this rude American family, and contented himself, as a rule, with creeping about the passages in slippers, with a thick red muffler round his throat for fear of draughts, and a small arquebuse,[71] in case he should be attacked by the twins. The final blow he received occurred on the 19th of September. He had gone downstairs to the great entrance-hall, feeling sure that there, at any rate, he would be quite unmolested,[72] and was amusing himself by making satirical remarks on the large Saroni photographs of the United States Minister and his wife which had now taken the place of the Canterville family pictures. He was simply but neatly dressed in a long shroud, spotted with churchyard mould, had tied up his jaw with a strip of yellow linen, and carried a small lantern and a sexton’s spade. In fact, he was dressed for the character of “Jonas the Graveless,” one of his most remarkable impersonations, and one which the Cantervilles had every reason to remember, as it was the real origin of their quarrel with their neighbour, Lord Rufford. It was about a quarter-past two o’clock in the morning, and, as far as he could ascertain, no one was stirring. As he was strolling towards the library, however, to see if there were any traces left of the blood-stain, suddenly there leaped out on him from a dark corner two figures, who waved their arms wildly above their heads, and shrieked out “BOO!” in his ear.
Seized with a panic, which, under the circumstances, was only natural, he rushed
he kept his room – не выходил из комнаты
He was not left unmolested – Его не оставляли в покое
through treading on a butter-slide – поскользнувшись на натертом маслом полу
to assert his dignity – защитить свое достоинство
went with the dress – подходили к одеянию
he flung it wide open – он широко ее распахнул
stifled shrieks of laughter – сдавливаемый смех
was laid up with a severe cold – слег с тяжелой простудой
arquebuse – разновидность гладкоствольного ружья
he would be quite unmolested – его скорее всего никто не побеспокоит
