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Pearson ducation Limited
Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,
Essex
C M 2 0
2JE, England
and Associated Companies throughout the world.
I S B N 0 582 40162 3
First
published 1881
Publis hed in Penguin Pop ular Classics 1995
This
editi on first publishe d 1999
Text copyright Penguin Books 1999
Illustrations copyright Bob Harvey
(Pennant
Illustration) 1999
Typeset by
D ig i t a l
Type, London
Set in 11/14pt Bembo
Printed in Spain by Mateu Cromo,
S.A.
Pinto (Madrid)
All
rights
reserved;nopartofthispublication may be reproduced stored
in a retrievalsystem ortransmitted in anyform or by anymeans
electronic mechanical photocopying recording or
otherwise without
the
prior
written
permission of the
Publishers.
Published by Pearson Education Limite d in association w ith
Penguin Books
L t d
both
companies
being subsidiaries of Pearson Pic
Contents
p ge
Introduction
Chapter 1
A n Ordinary G i r l
1
Chapter 2
A M an with No Profession
5
Chapter 3
Secrets
10
Chapter 4
Fo r
Love or Money?
17
Chapter 5
M r s
Penniman s Plan
22
Chapter 6 The Lon g Wait 27
Chapter 7
A
D i f f i cu l t
Time
31
Chapter 8
After
the Dance
35
Activities
40
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ntroduction
He s looking
for a
profession, saidAunt Penniman.
He
looks
every
day.
He s looking
for it here,
answered
thedoctor. The
profession
of
husband to
a
weak
woman with thirty
thousand
dollars.
Catherine lives a quiet
life
with her father andaunt i n a nice
house i n aquiet corner of New Y o r k Catherineis not beautiful
or
clever or interesting.She is honest and good and she is Dr
Sloper s only c h i l d A n d when her father dies, she w i l l havea lot
o f
money.
O n e day, she meets a handsome young ma n called Morr is
Townsend.
He is
very interested
in
Catherine.
H e
soon says
he
loves
her. She loves him.But her father does no t
l ike
h i m W i l l
they marry?
HenryJames is one of the most important writers i n the English
language.H e was b orn in N e w Y o r k in 1843 and went to school
there. He then went to HarvardUniversity as a law student. In
1875 he leftAmerica and
l iv ed
i n
Paris.
There he met Flaubert,
Turgenev and other important writers . In 1876 he moved to
London. London society loved Henr y James and he was often
u every night of the week.He wrote plays, short stories and
twenty books.
His
stories
are
clever pictures
of
American
and
European society.
Washington Square
is one of his earliest books
he wroteit in 1880. His other famous books are
The
Portraitof a
Lady
(1881), The
Bostonians
(1886),The
Golden Bowl
(1904)and
the short story,
The
Turnofth Screw(1898).ThePortrait
of a Lady
and The Turn
of
th
Screw
are both in the Penguin Readers series.
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Chapter 1 An Ordinary irl
Many years
ago in the city of New
Y o r k
there l i v ed
a doctor.
America
likes doctors and
Ne w Y o r k l i k ed
D r Sloper. At the time
our story begins, in 1843, Dr Sloper was
fifty
yearsold. He was a
good doctor, he was a man of the
world,
and he was honest.
Life
was good to
him.
At twenty-seven he marri ed a beautiful
and clever
g i r l .
She had pretty eyes, ten thousa nd dollars and a
good place in society. For
five
yearsDr Sloper was a happy m an.
Many
of his wife s friends came to him and he did
w e l l
in his
profession. They
l i v ed
in a large house in Washington Square a
quiet corner in a noisy
city.
Their first
ch i l d
a very clever littl e boy, died when he was
three.
H is mother s love and his father s profession di d not help
him.
Two years later, Mrs Sloper had a second
ch i l d
a
g i r l .
The
doctor did not want a
g i r l .
But this was not the worst. Two weeks
later, Mrs Sloper died. The little girl s name was Catherine. She
was strong. Her father was not afraid of
losing
her.
When
the
c h i l d
was ten yearsol d, Dr Sloper asked his sister, Mrs
LaviniaPenniman to come and stay with them. M r Penniman, a
churchman withou t a penny, died when M rs Pennim an was
thirty-three. She had no children and no money.
Stay for six months, he said.
I w i l l look for a flat, she said. She moved into her brother s
house and never went away again. Mr s Penni man told everybody
thatthe
ch i l d
wanted a clever woman
near
her. Dr Sloper did not
think his sister was clever, but he was always very pol ite to her
and never angry. They didn t speak much. He gave her his
opinions*about Catherine s school ing and not much more.
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Catherine was very good andhonest,but she was not pretty or
clever. She was quiet. She loved her father and was very afraid of
him.
She was happy when her
father
was happy. The doctor
wanted to be proud of her, but he
wasn't.
He was som etimes
angry
because
his only
ch i l d
was ordinary.
When she was eighteen, Catherine was a quiet young woman,
but she began to wear strong, noisy colours. Dr Slope r did not
l ike
her new
dresses.
Hethought she was vulgar.
One day, Catherine's other
aunt,
M rs
A l m o n d
asked a lot of
people to her house. Mr s A l m o n d was the younger o f Dr
Sloper's two sisters. She was the wi fe of a
r i c h
city man and the
moth er of nine chi ldre n. She was pretty, happy and clever, and
her brother
l i k e d
her. Wh en he want ed to talk about
Catherine, he went to her and not to Mrs Penniman.
Catherine was close to her
aunt's
child ren. There were seven
boys and two
girls.
The older g i r l mar ried young. The younger
g i r l
called Mari an , soon decid ed to ma rry too. She found a
young m an called Art hur Townsend. An d so the Alm onds asked
everybody to the house.
M r s
Pennim an and Catherine arrived at the Alm onds '. The
doctor planned to come later.
Soon after the dancing started,MarianA l m o n d brought a tall
young man over to Catherine.
'Cathe rine, this is M r
Morris
Townsend. He is from the
same
family
as Arthur He
wants
to
meet
you very much '
Marian A l m o n d
was aprettywoman. Atseventeen she moved
easily in society. She left Ca ther ine and M r Townsend together.
Catherine looked at the young man. He was very handsome.
'What can I say to this handsome man?' thought Catherine. But
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M r
Townsend began to talk to her with an easysmile.
'Wh at a nice evening Wh at a beautiful house What an
interesting
family
What apretty
g i r l
Ma rian is '
He l ooked into Catherine's eyes. She said nothing . He talked
and she listened and looked at him.The dancing began again. He
asked her to dance and she gave hi m her arm. After the dance,
her face was red and she was ho t.
' W e ' l l
sit and talk,' said M r Townsend. But he t alked and
Catherine listened. Catherine sat back. She thought he was very
clever. 'Th is is my first visit to M rs Almond's, ' he said. 'A nd my
first visit to
N ewY o r k
for many years. I
l i v e d here
whe n I was a
c h i l d
but I left whe n I was twenty. I went round the wor ld. I
came back to Ne w
Y o r k
on ly a mon th ago. It is a nice city but I
don't kn ow anybody. Yo u see, people forget you,' he said and
smiled
at Catherine.
Catherine thought,'/'// never forget you.'
They sat therefor sometime. They laughed together.He asked
her about the people
near
them. He gave his opinions about
them. She thought he was very honest.Then Mar ian
A l m o n d
came back and took M r Townsend away to her mother.
' W e ' l l meet
again,' he said to Catherine. Mariancame back and
took Catherine's arm. They walked round the ro om
together.
'What do you think of
M o r r i s ?'
she said.
For
the first time i n her
life
Catherine did not
te l l
the truth.
' O h ,
noth ing much, ' she answered.
' I ' l l te l l hi m that ' cried Marian.'It w i l l be good for him. He
has a very good opinion of
Morris
Townsend Art hur says
that,
and Arthur knows him.'
H a l f
an hour later, Catherine saw her Aunt Penniman
near
a
window.
Morris
Townsend stood next to her. The n Dr Sloper
arrived. He usually had a little smile on his face, but neve r a big
smile.
He looked at his
daughter's
reddress.
'Can
thishandsomewoman be my child ?' he asked. Cat herine
4
d id
not alwaysunderstand her father's words.
'I'm not handsome,'she said, quietly.
'You're r i c h '
he said.'Is the evening going
well?'
' I 'm
rather
tired,' she answered and loo ked away.That evening
was the beginning
o f
something important for Catherine. For the
second time in her
life
and in one evening, she did not speak the
truth. She was not ti red. They drove home. D r Sloper spoke to his
sister,
La v in ia .
'Who
was the young man who spoke of his love for you?'
' O h ,
A u s t i n , ' said Mrs Penniman. She smi led .'H e spoke to me
o f
Catherine.'
' O h ,
Aunt Penniman,' Catherin e c ried out, quietly.
'He's veryhandsome.He's very clever,' said her aunt.
'He's in love with our expensive Catherine, then?' the docto r
asked. He laughed .
'I don't know that.But he
l i k e d
her dress.'
Catherine did not
think,'My dress
only?' She
thought
what a
warm and
r i c h
thing to say.
' Y o u see,' said her father. 'H e thinks she has eighty thousand
dollars.'
'In my opi nion , he doesn't think of that; he's not a vulgar
man,' said Mrs Penniman.
'The time ishere,'the doctor t hought .'Lav inia is going to get
lover for Catherine. I'm sorry for the.
g i r l . '
Chapter A Man with No Profession
Three or four days later,
Morris
Townsend,togetherw ith Arthur
Townsend, visited Washington Square.
'Arthur is going to marry my sister's daughter,Mari an, so the
polite thing is for Arthur to visit me,' Aunt Penniman said to
Catherine before they came.
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A n d here
they were. Arthur sat with Catherine,
Morris
sat
with
M rs Penniman. Catherine tried to listen to
Morris
and her
aunt. Morris
o ften loo ked over at Catherine and smiled. Then
Arthur
began to talk about
Morris
so Catherine began to listen
to him.
'Morris
asked me to bri ng him. He wanted to come very
much. He loves going out into society.'
'We' re very happy to see him, ' said Catherine.
'Most
people
l ike
h im
he's very interesting. But some people
call
him too clever.'
N o w
he's back in
N e w
Y o r k ,
w i l l
he stay here?'
A h ,
said Arthu r,' he wants to
find
a job.'
'What? He has no profession?' said Catherine.
N o .
He's
looking
round, but he can't
find
anything.'
I m
very sorry,' said Catherine.
O h ,
he
takes life
easy' said Arthur. 'The jo b must be right for
h im .
W i l l his father take him into his
office?'
she asked.
H is
father is dead
he only has a sister.' He looked at
Morris
and began to laugh. We're talking about you. '
Morris
stood up.'I cannot say the
same
about
y o u , Arthur,'
he
said. But I can about
M i s s
Sloper.'
Catherine's face went red. She thought he spoke very
we l l .
I
came to talk to you,
M i s s
Sloper,' he said. 'So no w I must
come another time.'The two young men left.
H e s
very interested in you, Catherine.'
D i d
he say that?'
N o t
in
those
words. But he wanted me to thi nk it. I
understand young men.'
B u t
he doesn't kn ow me.'
O h
yes, he knows yo u. I
told
hi m all about you. '
O h ,
Aunt Penniman.
W e
don't kno w him or his
family'
'Catherine, you kno w very
w e l l
that
yo u
l i ke
him.'
Catherine did not think this was a thing to talk about.
A n d
she
d id
not think thatAunt Penniman spoke the truth.
H a l f
an hour later, Dr Sloper came home. Mrs Penniman
told
h im
of
Morris
Townsend's
visit.
O h ,
and did he ask you to marry h im , Catheri ne?' he asked.
O h ,
father ' said Catherine quietly. She turned and l oo ked at
the dark sky through the window.
H e w i l l
ask
y u
first,
A u s t i n ,
said
L a v i n i a ,
and smiled.
'T he next time he comes,
call
me,' the doctor said.
B u t
the next time M r Townsend came, the docto r was out
again. M rs Penniman left the two young people
together.
The
visit
was quite
long.
He sat
there,
in the biggest chair, by the
fire,
fo r
more than an hour. He lo oked round the room carefully, at all
the things i n it. He loo ked at Cather ine carefully. There was a
smile
i n his handsome eyes. Hi s talk was light and easy. He asked
Catherin e many questions. Di d she
l ike
this? D i d she
l ike that?
T e l l
me about you, ' he said.
G i v e
me a picture
I can carry it
in
my head.' She said she didn 't have muc h to
te l l .
She didn't go
out very often. She didn't
l ike
reading much.
Morris
said he
l iked
singing.
I ll
sing to yo u, but no t today. Perhaps next time.'
H e
did not say,politely,'I
w i l l
sing and you can play for me.' He
thought of this after he was in the
street.
But Catherine thought
onlyabout his words 'next time'.They had a warm sound.
A s
soon
as the doctor came home, she
told
him about
Morris
Townsend's
second
visit.
A n d
did he ask you to marry hi m today?' the doc tor asked.
She was afraid of this question.
'Perhaps
h e l l
do it next time,' she said, and she gave a litt le
laugh. She ran out of the roo m.
The docto r stood and thought. Perhaps his daughter wanted
to marry
Morris
Townsend. He decided to learn about this
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young man, who came in and out of hishouse when he l i ke d . He
went to see Mrs
A l m o n d .
L a v i n i a
is very excited, but I know very littleabouthim,' said
M r s A l m o n d .
A n d
our young man is from Arthur's family?'
Ye s,
but not close family. The name is the same, but I
understand there
are Townsends and
there
are Townsends. Arthur
is from the
best
line of that family, Lavinia's you ng ma n is not. I
know his sister. She is very nice. Her name is Mrs Montgomery.
Her
husband is dead, she has a nice smallhouse, and she has five
children. She lives on Second Avenue.'
'What
does
Mrs Montgomery sayabout him?'
'That he's clever and
perhapsh e l l
be important.'
'But
he
does
nothing.'
'She doesn't say
that.'
'She'sproud,' said the doct or. 'Wh at is his profession?'
'He hasn't
got a profession. He's looki ng for something. He
was at sea.'
'Was? Ho w old is he?'
'Thirty-something. He went to sea when he was very young.
Some money came to him
somebody in his family died, I
think. He went all over the world . He has no money now. He
decided to begin his
l ife
again and so he cameback to Ameri ca.'
'Does he want to marry Catherine, then?'
'Don't forget that after you die she'll have thirty thousand
dollars.'
A n d that's why he thinks she'snice '
M r s A l m o n d went red. 'N ot only that ' she said. 'B ut many
young men think money is important.'
'Th e young men of Ne w Y o r k are not only interested in
money. They also
l ike
clever,
pretty
and excitin g girls. Mar ian is
clever,pretty and exciting . Catherine is not.'
'Marian
is ordinary. Cather ine is not. She has no lovers
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