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1、The Temptation of a Respectable WomanMrs.Baroda was a little annoyed to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation.Gouvernails quiet personality puzzled Mrs.Baroda. After a few days with him, she could understand him no better than at first. S
2、he left her husband and his guest, for the most part, alone together, only to find that Gouvernail hardly noticed her absence. Then she imposed her company upon him, accompanying him in his idle walks to the mill to press her attempt to penetrate the silence in which he had unconsciously covered him
3、self. But it hardly worked.When is he going - your friend? she one day asked her husband. For my part, I find him a terrible nuisance.Not for a week yet, dear. I cant understand; he gives you no trouble.No. I should like him better if he did if he were more like others, and I had to plan somewhat fo
4、r his comfort and enjoyment.Gaston pulled the sleeve of his wifes dress, gathered his arms around her waist and looked merrily into her troubled eyes.You are full of surprises, he said to her. Even I can never count upon how you are going to act under given conditions. Here you are, he went on, taki
5、ng poor Gouvernail seriously and making a fuss about him, the last thing he would desire or expect.Fuss! she hotly replied, Nonsense! How can you say such a thing! Fuss, indeed! But, you know, you said he was clever.So he is. But the poor fellow is run down by too much work now. Thats why I asked hi
6、m here to take a rest.You used to say he was a man of wit, she said, still annoyed. I expected him to be interesting, at least. Im going to the city in the morning to have my spring dresses fitted. Let me know when Mr.Gouvernail is gone; until that time I shall be at my aunts house.That night she we
7、nt and sat alone upon a bench that stood beneath an oak tree at the edge of the walk. She had never known her thoughts to be so confused; like the bats now above her, her thoughts quickly flew this way and that. She could gather nothing from them but the feeling of a distinct necessity to leave her
8、home in the next morning.Mrs.Baroda heard footsteps coming from the direction of the barn; she knew it was Gouvernail. She hoped to remain unnoticed, but her white gown revealed her to him. He seated himself upon the bench beside her, without a suspicion that she might object to his presence.Your hu
9、sband told me to bring this to you, Mrs.Baroda, he said, handing her a length of sheer white fabric with which she sometimes covered her head and shoulders. She accepted it from him and let it lie in her lap.He made some routine observations upon the unhealthy effect of the night breeze at that seas
10、on. Then as his gaze reached out into the darkness, he began to talk.Gouvernail was in no sense a shy man. His periods of silence were not his basic nature, but the result of moods. When he was sitting there beside Mrs.Baroda, his silence melted for the time.He talked freely and intimately in a low,
11、 hesitating voice that was not unpleasant to hear. He talked of the old college days when he and Gaston had been best friends, of the days of keen ambitions and large intentions. Now, all there was left with him was a desire to be permitted to exist, with now and then a little breath of genuine life
12、, such as he was breathing now.Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying. His words became a meaningless succession of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives; she only drank in the tones of his voice. She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him - which she might have done if
13、 she had not been a respectable woman.The stronger the desire grew to bring herself near him, the further, in fact, did she move away from him. As soon as she could do so without an appearance of being rude, she pretended to yawn, rose, and left him there alone.Mrs.Baroda was greatly tempted that ni
14、ght to tell her husband who was also her friend of this foolishness that had seized her. But she did not yield to the temptation. Besides being an upright and respectable woman she was also a very sensible one.When Gaston arose the next morning, his wife had already departed, without even saying far
15、ewell. A porter had carried her trunk to the station and she had taken an early morning train to the city. She did not return until Gouvernail was gone from under her roof.There was some talk of having him back during the summer that followed. That is, Gaston greatly desired it; but this desire yiel
16、ded to his honorable wifes vigorous opposition.However, before the year ended, she proposed, wholly from herself, to have Gouvernail visit them again. Her husband was surprised and delighted with the suggestion coming from her.I am glad, my dear, to know that you have finally overcome your dislike f
17、or him; truly he did not deserve it.Oh, she told him, laughingly, after pressing a long, tender kiss upon his lips, I have overcome everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him.Charlie ChaplinHe was born in a poor area of south London. He wore his mothers old red stockings cut dow
18、n for ankle socks. His mother was temporarily declared mad. Dickens might have created Charlie Chaplins childhood. But only Charle Chaplin could have created the great comic character of theTramp , the little man in rags who gave his creator permanent fame.Other countries France, Italy, Spain, even
19、Japan and Korea have provided more applause (and profit) where Chaplin is concerned than the land of his birth. Chaplin quit Britain for good in 1913 when he journeyed to America with a group of performers to do his comedy act on the stage where talent scouts recruited him to work for Mack Sennett,
20、the king of Hollywood comedy films.Sad to say, many English people in the 1920s and 1930s thought Chaplins Tramp a bit, well, crude . Certainly middle-class audiences did; the working-class audiences were more likely to clap for a character who revolted against authority, using his wicked little can
21、e to trip it up, or aiming the heel of his boot for a well-placed kick at its broad rear. All the same, Chaplins comic beggar didnt seem all that English or even working class. English tramps didnt sport tiny moustaches, huge pants or tail coats: European leaders and Italian waiters wore things like
22、 that. Then again, the Tramps quick eye for a pretty girl had a coarse way about it that was considered, well, not quite nice by English audiences thats how foreigners behaved, wasnt it? But for over half of his screen career, Chaplin had no screen voice to confirm his British nationality.Indeed, it
23、 was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find the right voice for his Tramp. He postponed that day as long as possible: in Modern Times in 1936, the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter, he made up a nonsense language which sounded like
24、 no known nationality. He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a college-educated gentleman whod come down in the world. But if hed been able to speak with an educated accent in those early short comedy movies, its doubtful if he would have achieved world fame. And the English would have been sure
25、 to find it odd. No one was certain whether Chaplin did it on purpose but this helped to bring about his huge success.He was an immensely talented man, determined to a degree unusual even in the ranks of Hollywood stars. His huge fame gave him the freedom 一 and, more importantly, the money to be his
26、 own master. He already had the urge to explore and extend a talent he discovered in himself as he went along. It cant be me. Is that possible? How extraordinary, is how he greeted the first sight of himself as the Tramp on the screen.But that shock roused his imagination. Chaplin didnt have his jok
27、es written into a script in advance; he was the kind of comic who used his physical senses to invent his art as he went along. Lifeless objects especially helped Chaplin make contact with himself as an artist. He turned them into other kinds of objects. Thus, a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pa
28、wnbroker became a sick patient undergoing surgery; boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten with salt and pepper like prime cuts of fish (the nails being removed like fish bones). This physical transformation, plus the skill with which he executed it again and again, are sur
29、ely the secrets ofChaplins great comedy.He also had a deep need to be loved 一 and a corresponding fear of being betrayed. The two were hard to combine and sometimes as in his early marriages 一 the collision between them resulted in disaster. Yet even this painfully-bought self-knowledge found its wa
30、y into his comic creations. The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl wholl be waiting to walk into the sunset with him; while the other side of Chaplin makes Monsieur Verdoux, the French wife killer, into a symbol of hatred for women.Its a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie C
31、haplin the stable happiness it had earlier denied him. In Oona ONeill Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them that had seemed so threatening that when the official who was marrying them in 1942, turned to the beautiful girl of 17 who
32、d given notice of their wedding date and said, And where is the young man? Chaplin, then 54, had cautiously waited outside. As Oona herself was the child of a large family with its own problems, she was well-prepared for the battle that Chaplins life became as unfounded rumors of Marxist sympathies
33、surrounded them both 一 and, later on, she was the center of rest in the quarrels that Chaplin sometimes sparked in their own large family of talented children.Chaplin died on Christmas Day 1977. A few months later, a couple of almost comic body-thieves stole his body from the family burial chamber a
34、nd held it for money: the police recovered it with more efficiency than MackSennetts clumsy Keystone Cops would have done. But one cant help feeling Chaplin would have regarded this strange incident as a fitting memoria! 一 his way of having the last laugh on a world to which he had given so many.Lon
35、ging for a New Welfare SystemA welfare client is supposed to cheat. Everybody expects it. Faced with sharing a dinner of raw pet food with the cat, many people in wheelchairs I know bleed the system for a few extra dollars. They tell the government that they are getting two hundred dollars less than
36、 their real pension so they can get a little extra welfare money. Or, they tell the caseworker that the landlord raised the rent by a hundred dollars.I have opted to live a life of complete honesty. So instead, I go out and drum up some business and draw cartoons. I even tell welfare how much I make
37、! Oh, Im tempted to get paid under the table. But even if I yielded to that temptation, big magazines are not going to get involved in some sticky situation. They keep my records, and that information goes right into the governments computer. Very high- profile.As a welfare client Im expected to bow
38、 before the caseworker. Deep down, caseworkers know that they are being made fools of by many of their clients, and they feel they are entitled to have clients bow to them as compensation. Im not being bitter. Most caseworkers begin as college-educated liberals with high ideals. But after a few year
39、s in a system that practically requires people to lie, they become like the one I shall call Suzanne, a detective in shorts.Not long after Christmas last year, Suzanne came to inspect my apartment and saw some new posters pasted on the wall. Whered you get the money for those? she wanted to know.Fri
40、ends and family.Well, youd better have a receipt for it, by God. You have to report any donations or gifts.This was my cue to beg. Instead, I talked back. I got a cigarette from somebody on the street the other day. Do I have to report that?Well Im sorry, but I dont make the rules, Mr. Callahan.Suza
41、nne tries to lecture me about repairs to my wheelchair, which is always breaking down because welfare wont spend the money maintaining it properly. You know, Mr. Callahan, Ive heard that you put a lot more miles on that wheelchair than average.Of course I do. Im an active worker, not a vegetable. I
42、live near downtown, so I can get around in a wheelchair. I wonder what shed think if she suddenly broke her hip and had to crawl to work.Government cuts in welfare have resulted in hunger and suffering for a lot of people, not just me. But people with spinal cord injuries felt the cuts in a unique w
43、ay: The government stopped taking care of our chairs. Each time mine broke down, lost a screw, needed a new roller bearing, the brake wouldnt work, etc., and I called Suzanne, I had to endure a little lecture. Finally, shed say, Well, if I can find time today, Ill call the medical worker.She was sup
44、posed to notify the medical worker, who would certify that there was a problem. Then the medical worker called the wheelchair repair companies to get the cheapest bid. Then the medical worker alerted the main welfare office at the state capital. They considered the matter for days while I lay in bed
45、, unable to move. Finally, if I was lucky, they called back and approved the repair.When welfare learned I was making money on my cartoons, Suzanne started visiting every fortnight instead of every two months. She looked into every corner in search of unreported appliances, or maids, or a roast pig
46、in the oven, or a new helicopter parked out back. She never found anything, but there was always a thick pile of forms to fill out at the end of each visit, accounting for every penny.There is no provision in the law for a gradual shift away from welfare. I am an independent businessman, slowly buil
47、ding up my market. Its impossible to jump off welfare and suddenly be making two thousand dollars a month. But I would love to be able to pay for some of my living and not have to go through an embarrassing situation every time I need a spare part for my wheelchair.There needs to be a lawyer who can
48、 act as a champion for the rights of welfare clients, because the system so easily lends itself to abuse by the welfare givers as well as by the clients. Welfare sent Suzanne to look around in my apartment the other day because the chemist said I was using a larger than usual amount of medical suppl
49、ies. I was, indeed: the hole that has been surgically cut to drain urine had changed size and the connection to my urine bag was leaking.While she was taking notes, my phone rang and Suzanne answered it.The caller was a state senator, which scared Suzanne a little. Would I sit on the governors committee and try to do something about the thousands of welfa