NCERT Textbook - Best Seller | English Class 9 PDF Download

 Page 1


43
CBSE
5 5
UNIT UNIT
Fiction
F. 5    Best Seller
1.  Before you read the story write down the answers to these questions.
Which was the latest book that you read?
Who was the author?
Who were the main characters?
When did you read the book?
How long did you take to complete reading it?
What genre did it belong to?
Why would/wouldn't you recommend it?
2 Now read the story.
1. One day last summer, I went to Pittsburgh-well, I had to go there on business.
2. My chair-car was profitably well-filled with people of the kind one usually sees on 
chair-cars. Most of them were ladies in brown-silk dresses cut with square yokes, 
with lace insertion and dotted veils, who refused to have the windows raised. Then 
there was the usual number of men who looked as if they might be in almost any 
business and going almost anywhere. I leaned back idly in chair No. 7, and looked 
with tepidest curiosity at the small, black, bald-spotted head just visible above the 
back of No.9.
3.     Suddenly No.9 hurled a book to the floor between his chair and the window, and, 
looking, I saw that it was "The Rose Lady and Trevelyan," one of the best-selling 
novels of the present day. And then the critic veered his chair toward the window, 
and I knew him at once for John A. Pescud of Pittsburgh, travelling salesman for a 
plate-glass company - an old acquaintance whom I had not seen in two years.
4. In two minutes we were faced, had shaken hands, and had finished with such 
topics as rain, prosperity, health, residence, and destination. Politics might have 
followed next; but I was not so ill-fated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
by O. Henry
Page 2


43
CBSE
5 5
UNIT UNIT
Fiction
F. 5    Best Seller
1.  Before you read the story write down the answers to these questions.
Which was the latest book that you read?
Who was the author?
Who were the main characters?
When did you read the book?
How long did you take to complete reading it?
What genre did it belong to?
Why would/wouldn't you recommend it?
2 Now read the story.
1. One day last summer, I went to Pittsburgh-well, I had to go there on business.
2. My chair-car was profitably well-filled with people of the kind one usually sees on 
chair-cars. Most of them were ladies in brown-silk dresses cut with square yokes, 
with lace insertion and dotted veils, who refused to have the windows raised. Then 
there was the usual number of men who looked as if they might be in almost any 
business and going almost anywhere. I leaned back idly in chair No. 7, and looked 
with tepidest curiosity at the small, black, bald-spotted head just visible above the 
back of No.9.
3.     Suddenly No.9 hurled a book to the floor between his chair and the window, and, 
looking, I saw that it was "The Rose Lady and Trevelyan," one of the best-selling 
novels of the present day. And then the critic veered his chair toward the window, 
and I knew him at once for John A. Pescud of Pittsburgh, travelling salesman for a 
plate-glass company - an old acquaintance whom I had not seen in two years.
4. In two minutes we were faced, had shaken hands, and had finished with such 
topics as rain, prosperity, health, residence, and destination. Politics might have 
followed next; but I was not so ill-fated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
by O. Henry
CBSE
Fiction
44
5. I wish you might know John A. Pescud. He is of the stuff that heroes are not often 
lucky enough to be made of. He is a small man with a wide smile, and an eye that 
seems to be fixed upon that little red spot on the end of your nose.
6. He believes that "our" plate-glass is the most important commodity in the world the 
Cambria Steel Works, the best company and that when a man is in his home town, 
he ought to be decent and law-abiding.
7. During my acquaintance with him earlier I had never known his views on life, 
romance, literature and ethics. We had browsed, during our meetings, on local 
topics and then parted.
8. Now I was to get more of his 
ideas. By way of facts, he told me 
that business had picked up since 
the party conventions and that he 
was going to get off at Coketown.
9. "Say," said Pescud, stirring his 
discarded book with the hand, 
"did you ever read one of these 
best-sellers? I mean the kind 
where the hero is an American 
swell-sometimes even from 
Chicago - who falls in love with a royal princess from Europe who is travelling 
under an alias and follows her to her father's kingdom or principality? I guess you 
have. They're all alike.
10. ____"Well, this fellow chases the royal chair-warmer home as I said, and finds out 
who she is. He meets her in the evening and gives us ten pages of conversation. 
She reminds him of the difference in their stations and that gives him a chance to 
ring in three solid pages about America's uncrowned sovereigns.
11. "Well, you know how it runs on, if you've read any of  'em-he slaps the king's Swiss 
bodyguards around like every thing whenever they get in his way. He's a great 
fencer, too.
12. "Yes," said Pescud, "but these kind of love-stories are rank on-the-level. I know 
something about literature, even if I am in plate-glass.
13. "When people in real life marry, they generally hunt up somebody in their own 
station. A fellow usually picks out a girl who went to the same high-school and 
belonged to the same singing-society that he did." 
Swell : a wealthy person of upper class and fashionably dressed.
alias : also known by another name, false name
Page 3


43
CBSE
5 5
UNIT UNIT
Fiction
F. 5    Best Seller
1.  Before you read the story write down the answers to these questions.
Which was the latest book that you read?
Who was the author?
Who were the main characters?
When did you read the book?
How long did you take to complete reading it?
What genre did it belong to?
Why would/wouldn't you recommend it?
2 Now read the story.
1. One day last summer, I went to Pittsburgh-well, I had to go there on business.
2. My chair-car was profitably well-filled with people of the kind one usually sees on 
chair-cars. Most of them were ladies in brown-silk dresses cut with square yokes, 
with lace insertion and dotted veils, who refused to have the windows raised. Then 
there was the usual number of men who looked as if they might be in almost any 
business and going almost anywhere. I leaned back idly in chair No. 7, and looked 
with tepidest curiosity at the small, black, bald-spotted head just visible above the 
back of No.9.
3.     Suddenly No.9 hurled a book to the floor between his chair and the window, and, 
looking, I saw that it was "The Rose Lady and Trevelyan," one of the best-selling 
novels of the present day. And then the critic veered his chair toward the window, 
and I knew him at once for John A. Pescud of Pittsburgh, travelling salesman for a 
plate-glass company - an old acquaintance whom I had not seen in two years.
4. In two minutes we were faced, had shaken hands, and had finished with such 
topics as rain, prosperity, health, residence, and destination. Politics might have 
followed next; but I was not so ill-fated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
by O. Henry
CBSE
Fiction
44
5. I wish you might know John A. Pescud. He is of the stuff that heroes are not often 
lucky enough to be made of. He is a small man with a wide smile, and an eye that 
seems to be fixed upon that little red spot on the end of your nose.
6. He believes that "our" plate-glass is the most important commodity in the world the 
Cambria Steel Works, the best company and that when a man is in his home town, 
he ought to be decent and law-abiding.
7. During my acquaintance with him earlier I had never known his views on life, 
romance, literature and ethics. We had browsed, during our meetings, on local 
topics and then parted.
8. Now I was to get more of his 
ideas. By way of facts, he told me 
that business had picked up since 
the party conventions and that he 
was going to get off at Coketown.
9. "Say," said Pescud, stirring his 
discarded book with the hand, 
"did you ever read one of these 
best-sellers? I mean the kind 
where the hero is an American 
swell-sometimes even from 
Chicago - who falls in love with a royal princess from Europe who is travelling 
under an alias and follows her to her father's kingdom or principality? I guess you 
have. They're all alike.
10. ____"Well, this fellow chases the royal chair-warmer home as I said, and finds out 
who she is. He meets her in the evening and gives us ten pages of conversation. 
She reminds him of the difference in their stations and that gives him a chance to 
ring in three solid pages about America's uncrowned sovereigns.
11. "Well, you know how it runs on, if you've read any of  'em-he slaps the king's Swiss 
bodyguards around like every thing whenever they get in his way. He's a great 
fencer, too.
12. "Yes," said Pescud, "but these kind of love-stories are rank on-the-level. I know 
something about literature, even if I am in plate-glass.
13. "When people in real life marry, they generally hunt up somebody in their own 
station. A fellow usually picks out a girl who went to the same high-school and 
belonged to the same singing-society that he did." 
Swell : a wealthy person of upper class and fashionably dressed.
alias : also known by another name, false name
CBSE
Fiction
45
14. Pescud picked up the best-seller and hunted his page.
15. "Listen to this," said he. "Trevelyan is sitting with the Princess Alwyna at the back 
end of the tulip-garden. This is how it goes:
16. "Say not so, dearest and sweetest of earth's fairest flowers. Would I aspire? You 
are a star set high above me in a royal heaven; I am only-myself. Yet I am a man 
and I have a heart to do and dare. I have no title save that of an uncrowned 
sovereign; but I have an arm and a sword that yet might free Schutzenfestenstein 
from the plots of traitors."
17. "Think of a Chicago man packing a sword, and talking about freeing anything that 
sounded as much like canned sardines!"
18. "I think I understand you, John," said I. "You want fiction- writers be consistent with 
their scenes and characters. They shouldn't mix Turkish pashas with Vermont 
farmers, or English dukes with Long Island clamdiggers or Cincinnati agents 
with the rajahs of India."
19. "Or plain business men with aristocracy high above 'em," added Pescud. "It 
doesn't jibe.  I don't see why people go to work and buy hundreds of thousands of 
books which are best sellers. You don't see or hear of any such capers in real life."
20. "Well John," said I, "I haven't read a best-seller in a long time. May be I've had 
notions about them somewhat like yours. But tell me more about yourself. Getting 
along all right with the company?"
21. "Bully," said Pescud, brightening at once. "I've had my salary raised twice since I 
saw you, and I get a commission, too. I've bought a neat slice of real estate. Next 
year the firm is going to sell me some shares of stock. Oh, l'm in on the line of 
General Prosperity.
22. "Met your affinity yet, John?" I asked.
23. "Oh, I didn't tell you about that, did I?" said Pescud with a broader grin.
24. "O-ho!" I said. "So you've taken time enough off from your plate-glass to have a 
romance?"
25. "No, no," said John. "No romance-nothing like that! But I'll tell you about it,
26. "I was on the south-bound, going to Cincinnati, about eighteen months ago, when I 
saw, across the aisle, the finest looking girl I'd ever laid eyes on. Nothing 
spectacular, you know, but just the sort you want for keeps."
Turkish pashas : a high official of the Ottoman empire
Vermont : a state of north east US bordering Canade
clamdiggers : people who hunt for clams (edible shell fish)
aristocracy : class of people of high social rank
general prosperity : doing well 
for keeps : for ever, permanently
Page 4


43
CBSE
5 5
UNIT UNIT
Fiction
F. 5    Best Seller
1.  Before you read the story write down the answers to these questions.
Which was the latest book that you read?
Who was the author?
Who were the main characters?
When did you read the book?
How long did you take to complete reading it?
What genre did it belong to?
Why would/wouldn't you recommend it?
2 Now read the story.
1. One day last summer, I went to Pittsburgh-well, I had to go there on business.
2. My chair-car was profitably well-filled with people of the kind one usually sees on 
chair-cars. Most of them were ladies in brown-silk dresses cut with square yokes, 
with lace insertion and dotted veils, who refused to have the windows raised. Then 
there was the usual number of men who looked as if they might be in almost any 
business and going almost anywhere. I leaned back idly in chair No. 7, and looked 
with tepidest curiosity at the small, black, bald-spotted head just visible above the 
back of No.9.
3.     Suddenly No.9 hurled a book to the floor between his chair and the window, and, 
looking, I saw that it was "The Rose Lady and Trevelyan," one of the best-selling 
novels of the present day. And then the critic veered his chair toward the window, 
and I knew him at once for John A. Pescud of Pittsburgh, travelling salesman for a 
plate-glass company - an old acquaintance whom I had not seen in two years.
4. In two minutes we were faced, had shaken hands, and had finished with such 
topics as rain, prosperity, health, residence, and destination. Politics might have 
followed next; but I was not so ill-fated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
by O. Henry
CBSE
Fiction
44
5. I wish you might know John A. Pescud. He is of the stuff that heroes are not often 
lucky enough to be made of. He is a small man with a wide smile, and an eye that 
seems to be fixed upon that little red spot on the end of your nose.
6. He believes that "our" plate-glass is the most important commodity in the world the 
Cambria Steel Works, the best company and that when a man is in his home town, 
he ought to be decent and law-abiding.
7. During my acquaintance with him earlier I had never known his views on life, 
romance, literature and ethics. We had browsed, during our meetings, on local 
topics and then parted.
8. Now I was to get more of his 
ideas. By way of facts, he told me 
that business had picked up since 
the party conventions and that he 
was going to get off at Coketown.
9. "Say," said Pescud, stirring his 
discarded book with the hand, 
"did you ever read one of these 
best-sellers? I mean the kind 
where the hero is an American 
swell-sometimes even from 
Chicago - who falls in love with a royal princess from Europe who is travelling 
under an alias and follows her to her father's kingdom or principality? I guess you 
have. They're all alike.
10. ____"Well, this fellow chases the royal chair-warmer home as I said, and finds out 
who she is. He meets her in the evening and gives us ten pages of conversation. 
She reminds him of the difference in their stations and that gives him a chance to 
ring in three solid pages about America's uncrowned sovereigns.
11. "Well, you know how it runs on, if you've read any of  'em-he slaps the king's Swiss 
bodyguards around like every thing whenever they get in his way. He's a great 
fencer, too.
12. "Yes," said Pescud, "but these kind of love-stories are rank on-the-level. I know 
something about literature, even if I am in plate-glass.
13. "When people in real life marry, they generally hunt up somebody in their own 
station. A fellow usually picks out a girl who went to the same high-school and 
belonged to the same singing-society that he did." 
Swell : a wealthy person of upper class and fashionably dressed.
alias : also known by another name, false name
CBSE
Fiction
45
14. Pescud picked up the best-seller and hunted his page.
15. "Listen to this," said he. "Trevelyan is sitting with the Princess Alwyna at the back 
end of the tulip-garden. This is how it goes:
16. "Say not so, dearest and sweetest of earth's fairest flowers. Would I aspire? You 
are a star set high above me in a royal heaven; I am only-myself. Yet I am a man 
and I have a heart to do and dare. I have no title save that of an uncrowned 
sovereign; but I have an arm and a sword that yet might free Schutzenfestenstein 
from the plots of traitors."
17. "Think of a Chicago man packing a sword, and talking about freeing anything that 
sounded as much like canned sardines!"
18. "I think I understand you, John," said I. "You want fiction- writers be consistent with 
their scenes and characters. They shouldn't mix Turkish pashas with Vermont 
farmers, or English dukes with Long Island clamdiggers or Cincinnati agents 
with the rajahs of India."
19. "Or plain business men with aristocracy high above 'em," added Pescud. "It 
doesn't jibe.  I don't see why people go to work and buy hundreds of thousands of 
books which are best sellers. You don't see or hear of any such capers in real life."
20. "Well John," said I, "I haven't read a best-seller in a long time. May be I've had 
notions about them somewhat like yours. But tell me more about yourself. Getting 
along all right with the company?"
21. "Bully," said Pescud, brightening at once. "I've had my salary raised twice since I 
saw you, and I get a commission, too. I've bought a neat slice of real estate. Next 
year the firm is going to sell me some shares of stock. Oh, l'm in on the line of 
General Prosperity.
22. "Met your affinity yet, John?" I asked.
23. "Oh, I didn't tell you about that, did I?" said Pescud with a broader grin.
24. "O-ho!" I said. "So you've taken time enough off from your plate-glass to have a 
romance?"
25. "No, no," said John. "No romance-nothing like that! But I'll tell you about it,
26. "I was on the south-bound, going to Cincinnati, about eighteen months ago, when I 
saw, across the aisle, the finest looking girl I'd ever laid eyes on. Nothing 
spectacular, you know, but just the sort you want for keeps."
Turkish pashas : a high official of the Ottoman empire
Vermont : a state of north east US bordering Canade
clamdiggers : people who hunt for clams (edible shell fish)
aristocracy : class of people of high social rank
general prosperity : doing well 
for keeps : for ever, permanently
CBSE
Fiction
46
27. She read a book and minded her business, which was to make the world prettier 
and better just by residing in it. I kept on looking out of the side-doors of my eyes, 
and finally the proposition got out of the carriage into a case of cottage with a lawn 
and vines running over the porch. I never thought of speaking to her, but I let the 
plate glass business go to smash for a while."
28. "She changed cars at Cincinnati and took a sleeper to Louisville. There she bought 
another ticket and went on through Shelbyville, Frankford, and Lexington. Along 
there, I began to have a hard time keeping up with her. The trains came along 
when they pleased, and didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular, except to 
keep on the track and the right of way as much as possible. Then they began to 
stop at junctions instead of towns, and at last they stopped altogether
29. "I contrived to keep out of her sight as much as I could, but I never lost track of her. 
The last station she got off at was away down in Virginia, about six in the evening. 
There were about fifty houses.
30. "The rest was red mud, mules, and speckled hounds.
31. "A tall old man, with a smooth face and white hair, looking as proud as Julius 
Caesar was there to meet her. His clothes were frazzled but I didn't notice that till 
later. He took her little satchel, and they started over the plank walks and went up a 
road along the hill. I kept along a piece behind 'em, trying to look like I was hunting 
a garnet ring in the sand that my sister had lost at a picnic the previous Saturday.
32. "They went in a gate on top of the hill. It nearly took my breath away when I looked 
up. Up there in the biggest grove, I had ever seen was a huge house with round 
white pillars about a thousand feet high, and the yard was so full of rose-bushes 
and box-bushes and lilacs that you couldn't have seen the house if it hadn't been 
as big as the Capitol at Washington.
33. " 'Here's where I have to trail,' say I to myself. I thought before that she seemed to 
be in moderate circumstances, at least. This must be the Governor's mansion, or 
the Agricultural Building of a new World's Fair, anyhow. I'd better go back to the 
village and get posted by the postmaster, for some information.
34. "In the village, I found a fine hotel called the Bay View House. The only excuse for 
the name was a bay horse grazing in the front yard. I set my sample-case down, 
and tried to be ostensible. I told the landlord, I was taking orders for plate-glass".
35. "By-and-by, I got him down to local gossip and answering questions.
36. _"'Why?', says he, 'I thought everybody knew who lived in the big white house on 
the hill. It's Colonel Allyn, the biggest man and finest quality in Virginia, or 
frazzled : worn out
garnet : red, semi-precious gemstone.
Page 5


43
CBSE
5 5
UNIT UNIT
Fiction
F. 5    Best Seller
1.  Before you read the story write down the answers to these questions.
Which was the latest book that you read?
Who was the author?
Who were the main characters?
When did you read the book?
How long did you take to complete reading it?
What genre did it belong to?
Why would/wouldn't you recommend it?
2 Now read the story.
1. One day last summer, I went to Pittsburgh-well, I had to go there on business.
2. My chair-car was profitably well-filled with people of the kind one usually sees on 
chair-cars. Most of them were ladies in brown-silk dresses cut with square yokes, 
with lace insertion and dotted veils, who refused to have the windows raised. Then 
there was the usual number of men who looked as if they might be in almost any 
business and going almost anywhere. I leaned back idly in chair No. 7, and looked 
with tepidest curiosity at the small, black, bald-spotted head just visible above the 
back of No.9.
3.     Suddenly No.9 hurled a book to the floor between his chair and the window, and, 
looking, I saw that it was "The Rose Lady and Trevelyan," one of the best-selling 
novels of the present day. And then the critic veered his chair toward the window, 
and I knew him at once for John A. Pescud of Pittsburgh, travelling salesman for a 
plate-glass company - an old acquaintance whom I had not seen in two years.
4. In two minutes we were faced, had shaken hands, and had finished with such 
topics as rain, prosperity, health, residence, and destination. Politics might have 
followed next; but I was not so ill-fated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
by O. Henry
CBSE
Fiction
44
5. I wish you might know John A. Pescud. He is of the stuff that heroes are not often 
lucky enough to be made of. He is a small man with a wide smile, and an eye that 
seems to be fixed upon that little red spot on the end of your nose.
6. He believes that "our" plate-glass is the most important commodity in the world the 
Cambria Steel Works, the best company and that when a man is in his home town, 
he ought to be decent and law-abiding.
7. During my acquaintance with him earlier I had never known his views on life, 
romance, literature and ethics. We had browsed, during our meetings, on local 
topics and then parted.
8. Now I was to get more of his 
ideas. By way of facts, he told me 
that business had picked up since 
the party conventions and that he 
was going to get off at Coketown.
9. "Say," said Pescud, stirring his 
discarded book with the hand, 
"did you ever read one of these 
best-sellers? I mean the kind 
where the hero is an American 
swell-sometimes even from 
Chicago - who falls in love with a royal princess from Europe who is travelling 
under an alias and follows her to her father's kingdom or principality? I guess you 
have. They're all alike.
10. ____"Well, this fellow chases the royal chair-warmer home as I said, and finds out 
who she is. He meets her in the evening and gives us ten pages of conversation. 
She reminds him of the difference in their stations and that gives him a chance to 
ring in three solid pages about America's uncrowned sovereigns.
11. "Well, you know how it runs on, if you've read any of  'em-he slaps the king's Swiss 
bodyguards around like every thing whenever they get in his way. He's a great 
fencer, too.
12. "Yes," said Pescud, "but these kind of love-stories are rank on-the-level. I know 
something about literature, even if I am in plate-glass.
13. "When people in real life marry, they generally hunt up somebody in their own 
station. A fellow usually picks out a girl who went to the same high-school and 
belonged to the same singing-society that he did." 
Swell : a wealthy person of upper class and fashionably dressed.
alias : also known by another name, false name
CBSE
Fiction
45
14. Pescud picked up the best-seller and hunted his page.
15. "Listen to this," said he. "Trevelyan is sitting with the Princess Alwyna at the back 
end of the tulip-garden. This is how it goes:
16. "Say not so, dearest and sweetest of earth's fairest flowers. Would I aspire? You 
are a star set high above me in a royal heaven; I am only-myself. Yet I am a man 
and I have a heart to do and dare. I have no title save that of an uncrowned 
sovereign; but I have an arm and a sword that yet might free Schutzenfestenstein 
from the plots of traitors."
17. "Think of a Chicago man packing a sword, and talking about freeing anything that 
sounded as much like canned sardines!"
18. "I think I understand you, John," said I. "You want fiction- writers be consistent with 
their scenes and characters. They shouldn't mix Turkish pashas with Vermont 
farmers, or English dukes with Long Island clamdiggers or Cincinnati agents 
with the rajahs of India."
19. "Or plain business men with aristocracy high above 'em," added Pescud. "It 
doesn't jibe.  I don't see why people go to work and buy hundreds of thousands of 
books which are best sellers. You don't see or hear of any such capers in real life."
20. "Well John," said I, "I haven't read a best-seller in a long time. May be I've had 
notions about them somewhat like yours. But tell me more about yourself. Getting 
along all right with the company?"
21. "Bully," said Pescud, brightening at once. "I've had my salary raised twice since I 
saw you, and I get a commission, too. I've bought a neat slice of real estate. Next 
year the firm is going to sell me some shares of stock. Oh, l'm in on the line of 
General Prosperity.
22. "Met your affinity yet, John?" I asked.
23. "Oh, I didn't tell you about that, did I?" said Pescud with a broader grin.
24. "O-ho!" I said. "So you've taken time enough off from your plate-glass to have a 
romance?"
25. "No, no," said John. "No romance-nothing like that! But I'll tell you about it,
26. "I was on the south-bound, going to Cincinnati, about eighteen months ago, when I 
saw, across the aisle, the finest looking girl I'd ever laid eyes on. Nothing 
spectacular, you know, but just the sort you want for keeps."
Turkish pashas : a high official of the Ottoman empire
Vermont : a state of north east US bordering Canade
clamdiggers : people who hunt for clams (edible shell fish)
aristocracy : class of people of high social rank
general prosperity : doing well 
for keeps : for ever, permanently
CBSE
Fiction
46
27. She read a book and minded her business, which was to make the world prettier 
and better just by residing in it. I kept on looking out of the side-doors of my eyes, 
and finally the proposition got out of the carriage into a case of cottage with a lawn 
and vines running over the porch. I never thought of speaking to her, but I let the 
plate glass business go to smash for a while."
28. "She changed cars at Cincinnati and took a sleeper to Louisville. There she bought 
another ticket and went on through Shelbyville, Frankford, and Lexington. Along 
there, I began to have a hard time keeping up with her. The trains came along 
when they pleased, and didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular, except to 
keep on the track and the right of way as much as possible. Then they began to 
stop at junctions instead of towns, and at last they stopped altogether
29. "I contrived to keep out of her sight as much as I could, but I never lost track of her. 
The last station she got off at was away down in Virginia, about six in the evening. 
There were about fifty houses.
30. "The rest was red mud, mules, and speckled hounds.
31. "A tall old man, with a smooth face and white hair, looking as proud as Julius 
Caesar was there to meet her. His clothes were frazzled but I didn't notice that till 
later. He took her little satchel, and they started over the plank walks and went up a 
road along the hill. I kept along a piece behind 'em, trying to look like I was hunting 
a garnet ring in the sand that my sister had lost at a picnic the previous Saturday.
32. "They went in a gate on top of the hill. It nearly took my breath away when I looked 
up. Up there in the biggest grove, I had ever seen was a huge house with round 
white pillars about a thousand feet high, and the yard was so full of rose-bushes 
and box-bushes and lilacs that you couldn't have seen the house if it hadn't been 
as big as the Capitol at Washington.
33. " 'Here's where I have to trail,' say I to myself. I thought before that she seemed to 
be in moderate circumstances, at least. This must be the Governor's mansion, or 
the Agricultural Building of a new World's Fair, anyhow. I'd better go back to the 
village and get posted by the postmaster, for some information.
34. "In the village, I found a fine hotel called the Bay View House. The only excuse for 
the name was a bay horse grazing in the front yard. I set my sample-case down, 
and tried to be ostensible. I told the landlord, I was taking orders for plate-glass".
35. "By-and-by, I got him down to local gossip and answering questions.
36. _"'Why?', says he, 'I thought everybody knew who lived in the big white house on 
the hill. It's Colonel Allyn, the biggest man and finest quality in Virginia, or 
frazzled : worn out
garnet : red, semi-precious gemstone.
CBSE
Fiction
47
anywhere else. They're the oldest family in the State. That was his daughter that 
got off the train. She's been up to Illinois to see her aunt, who is sick.'
37. "I registered at the hotel, and on the third day I caught the young lady walking in the 
front yard, down next to the paling fence. I stopped and raised my hat - there 
wasn't any other way.
38. 'Excuse me,' says I, 'can you tell me where Mr. Hinkle lives?'
39. "She looks at me as cool as if I was the man come to see about the weeding of the 
garden, but I thought I saw just a slight twinkle of fun in her eyes.
40. 'No one of that name lives in Birchton,' says she. 'That is,' she goes on, 'as far as I 
know'.
41. "Well, that tickled me. 'No kidding,' says I. 'I'm not looking for smoke, even if I do 
come from Pittsburgh.'
42. 'You are quite a distance from home,' says she.
43. 'I'd have gone a thousand miles farther,' says I.
44. 'Not if you hadn't woken up when the train started in Shelbyville,' says she; and 
then she turned almost as red as one of the roses on the bushes in the yard. I 
remembered I had dropped off to sleep on a bench in the Shelbyville station, 
waiting to see which train she took, and only just managed to wake up in time.
45. "And then I told her why I had come, as respectful and earnest as I could. And I told 
her everything about myself, and what I was making, and how that all I asked was 
just to get acquainted with her and try to get her to like me.
46. "She smiles a little, and blushes some, but her eyes never get mixed up. They look 
straight at whatever she's talking to.
47. 'I never had any one talk like this to me before, Mr. Pescud,' says she. 'What did 
you say your name is-John?'
48. 'John A.,' says I.
49. " 'And you came mighty near missing the train at Powhatan Junction, too,' says 
she, with a laugh that sounded as good as a mileage-book to me."
50. " 'How did you know?' I asked.
51. " 'Men are very clumsy,' said she. 'I know you were on every train. I thought you 
were going to speak to me, and I'm glad you didn't.
52. "Then we had more talk; and at last a kind of proud, serious look came on her face, 
and she turned and pointed a finger at the big house.