Back for Christmas

by J. Collier

H

e crossed the hall, sprang the latch of the front door, went upstairs, and taking his instru­ments from the washbasin, finished what he had to do. He came down again, clad in his bath gown, carrying parcel after parcel of towelling or newspaper neatly secured with safety pins. These he packed carefully into the narrow, deep hole he had made in the corner of the cellar, shovelled in the soil, spread coal dust over all, satisfied himself that everything was in order, and went upstairs again. He then thoroughly cleansed the bath, and himself, and the bath again, dressed, and took his wife’s clothing and his bath gown to the incinerator.

                One or two more little touches and everything was in order. It was only quarter past six. The Wallingfords were always late; he had only to get into the car and drive off. It was a pity he couldn’t wait till after dusk, but he could make a detour to avoid passing through the main street, and even if he was seen driving alone, people would only think Hermione had gone on ahead for some reason and they would forget about it.

                Still, he was glad when he had finally got away, entirely unobserved, on the open road, driving into the gathering dusk. He had to drive very carefully; he found himself unable to judge distances, his reactions were abnormally delayed, but that was a detail. When it was quite dark he allowed himself to stop the car on the top of the downs, in order to think.

                The stars were superb. He could see the lights of one or more little towns far away on the plain below him. He was exultant. Everything that was to follow was perfectly simple.

NOTES AND EXERCISES:

1.     In British English verbs ending in “l” double it in the past tense, past participle, and present participle forms: towel—towelled—towelling, travel—travelled—travelling, shovel—shovelled—shovelling.

        But: parallel—paralleled—unparalleled.

2.     The adverb-forming suffix “–ly” when added to an adjective ending in “–l” causes doubling of this letter: abnormal—abnormally, real—really, cool—coolly, whole—wholly, actual—actually, final—finally, natural—naturally, personal—personally, etc.

3.     Remember that the following words are spelt with a double “l”:

allow    volley  allege   colleague         tranquillity      milliner’s

follow  willow  allegiance        collapse           challenge         satellite

folly     mellow allude  collaborate      guerrilla           syllable

alley    bellows            allure   colloquial        hellebore         illiteracy

valley  gallows            alleviate          intellect           stallion            callous

4.     The verb “to cleanse” (to make thoroughly clean) is pronounced [klenz].

5.     Word study:

clad                         this is the old past participle form of the verb “to clothe”: to be properly clad, to be poorly clad, hills clad in verdure, steel-clad, iron-clad

incinerator           (from the verb “to incinerate” meaning to burn to ashes) furnace, enclosed fireplace for burning rubbish, etc.

detour                    a roundabout way, a diversion

downs                     expanse of open high land

exultant                 triumphant (to exult—to rejoice greatly)

6.     Translate the following expressions and use them in sentences of your own:

        to put the final (finishing) touches, to cut up old touches, to touch one’s hat to somebody, to touch land, to touch wood, he never touches wine, I haven’t touched food all day, the question touches you nearly, your argument doesn’t touch the point at issue, to touch a question, to touch on a problem, to touch to the heart, to touch to the quick, to be in touch with, to get in touch with, to keep in touch with, to be out of touch with, to have a near touch (a narrow escape, a close shave), to be touchy (easily offended), to lose touch (to cease to have any communication with): I used to see Williamson fairly often, but I’ve lost touch with him lately.