I. Modal-predicative structures.

Block Five

Analyse modal-predicative structures in bold type fromExtract V from S.W.Maugham’s “The Razor’s Edge”:

"Uncle Elliott, can Larry come to lunch tomorrow?" cried Isabel, her arm in the young man's, her face eager and her eyes shining,

"I should be charmed, but Larry has given me to understand that he doesn't eat lunch."

"He will tomorrow, won't you, Larry?"

"I will," he smiled.

"I shall look forward to seeing you at one o'clock then." He stretched out his hand once more, intending to dismiss him, but Larry grinned at him impudently.

"I'll help with the luggage and get a cab for you."

"My car is waiting and my man will see to the luggage," said Elliott with dignity.

"That's fine. Then all we've got to do is to go. If there's room for me I'll come as far as your door with you."

"Yes, do, Larry," said Isabel. They walked down the platform together, followed by Mrs. Bradley and Elliott. Elliott's face bore a look of frigid disapproval.

"Quelles manieres," he said to himself, for in certain circumstances he felt he could express his sentiments more forcibly in French.

Next morning at eleven, having finished dressing, for he was not an early riser, he sent a note to his sister, via his man Joseph and her maid Antoinette, to ask her to come to the library so that they could have a talk. When she appeared he closed the door carefully and, putting a cigarette into an immensely long agate holder, lit it and sat down.

"Am I to understand that Isabel and Larry are still engaged?" he asked.

"So far as I know."

"I'm afraid I haven't a very good account to give you of the young man." He told her then how he had been prepared to launch him in society and the plans he had made to establish him in a fit and proper manner. "I even had my eye on a rez-de-chaussйe that would have been the very

thing for him. It belongs to the young Marquis de Rethel and he wanted to sublet it because he'd been appointed to the embassy at Madrid."

But Larry had refused his invitations in a manner that made it quite clear that he did not want his help.

"What the object of coming to Paris is if you're not going to take advantage of what Paris has to give you is beyond my comprehension. I don't know what he does with himself. He doesn't seem to know anybody. Do you know where he lives?"

"The only address we've ever had is the American

Express."

"Like a travelling salesman or a school-teacher on vacation,

I shouldn't be surprised if he was living with some little trollop in a studio in Montmartre."

"Oh, Elliott."

"What other explanation can there be for the mystery he's making of his dwelling place and for his refusal to consort with people of his own class?"

"It doesn't sound like Larry. And last night, didn't you get the impression that he was just as much in love with Isabel as ever? He couldn't be so false."

Elliott by a shrug of the shoulders gave her to understand that there was no limit to the duplicity of men.

"What about Gray Maturin? Is he still in the picture?"

"He'd marry Isabel tomorrow if she'd have him," Mrs. Bradley told him then why they had to come to Europe sooner than they had at first intended. She had found herself in ill-health, and the doctors had informed her that she was suffering from diabetes. It was not serious, and by attention to her diet and taking moderate doses of insulin there was no reason why she should notlive for a good many years, but the knowledge that she had an incurable disease made her anxious to see Isabel settled.

They had talked the matter over. Isabel was sensible. She had agreed that if Larry refused to come back to Chicago at the end of the two years in Paris they had agreed upon and get a job, there was only one thing to do and that was to break with him. But it offended Mrs. Bradley's sense of personal dignity' that they should wait till the appointed time and then come to fetch him, like a fugitive from justice, back to his own country. She felt that Isabel would put herself in a humiliating position. But it was very natural that they should spend the summer in Europe,

where Isabel had not been since she was a child. After their visit in Paris they could go to some watering-place suitable to Mrs. Bradley's complaint, then on to the Austrian Tyrol for a while and from there travel slowly through Italy. Mrs. Bradley's intention was to ask Larry to accompany them, so that he and Isabel could see whether the long separation had left their feelings unchanged. It would be manifestin due course whether Larry, having had his fling, was prepared to accept the responsibilities of life.

II Multi-word verbs: leisure

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 638