Howard's End

by E.M. Forster

F

or the Andante had begun—very beautiful, but bearing a family likeness to all the other beauti­ful Andantes that Beethoven had written, and, to Helen's mind, rather disconnecting the he­roes and shipwrecks of the first movement from the heroes and goblins of the third. She heard the tune through once, and then her attention wandered, and she gazed at the audience, or the or­gan, or the architecture. Much did she censure the attenuated Cupids who encircle the ceiling of the Queen's Hall, inclining each to each with vapid gestures and clad in sallow pantaloons on which the October sunlight struck. "How awful to marry a man like those Cupids!" thought Helen.

            Here Beethoven started decorating his tune, so she heard him through once more, and then smiled at her cousin Frieda. But Frieda, listening to classical music, could not respond. Herr Leisecke, too, looked as if wild horses could not make him inattentive; there were lines across his forehead, his lips were parted, his pince-nez at right angles to his nose, and he had laid a thick white hand on either knee. And next to her was aunt Juley, so British, and wanting to tap. How interesting that row of people was! What diverse influences had gone to the making! Here Beethoven after humming and hawing with great sweetness, said "Heigh-ho," and the Andante came to an end. Applause, and a round of "wonderful" and "magnificent" from the German con­tingent. Margaret started talking to her new young man. Helen said to her aunt: "Now comes the wonderful movement: first of all the goblins, and then a trio of elephants dancing;" and Tibby im­plored the company generally to look out for the transitional passage on the drum.

            "On the what, dear?"

            "On the drum, Aunt Juley."

            "No, look out for the part where you think you have done with the goblins and they come back," breathed Helen, as the music started with a goblin walking quietly over the universe, from end to end. They were not aggressive creatures; it was that that made them so terrible to Helen. They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world.

Notes and exercises:

1.   The “w” is not pronounced in the following words:

wreck	whore	wrench	wrap	shipwreck	gunwale
who	write	wrist	wren	playwright	Greenwich
whom	wry	writhe	answer	boatswain	wriggle
whole	wrinkle	wrest	two	wrangle	wrestle
whoop	wreath	wring	sword	wretched	wrong

2.   Give the correct spelling (“–os” or “–oes”) of the corresponding plural forms:

piano	peccadillo	radio	kilo	soprano	archipelago
casino	memento	studio	photo	tango	commando
ghetto	innuendo	zoo	potato	tobacco	flamingo
hero	Filipino	pro	banjo	halo	manifesto
oratorio	bamboo	Nero	concerto	torpedo	motto
mosquito	embryo	Negro	dynamo	buffalo	tornado
folio	Romeo	quarto	cargo	volcano	crescendo
proviso	kangaroo	Iago	solo	Dago	echo
stiletto	embargo	Eskimo	tomato	veto	bronco

3.   Learn the spelling of the following words of French origin:

attaché	crèche	ballet	debris	rendezvous
café	cliché	tête-à-tête	bouquet	pied-à-terre
fête	début	demesne	pince-nez	dénouement

4.   Word study:

goblin                   mischievous demon; ugly-looking evil spirit

Cupid                     Roman god of love; a picture or statue of a beautiful boy with wings and a bow and arrows as symbol of love

attenuate               to make thin or slender; to weaken; to reduce

attenuation             weakening: Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS)—weakening of the central nervous system as a result of informational overload leading to convulsions of the body and death

vapid                     uninteresting, dull: the vapid utterances of the clergy

hum and haw        (colloq.) to make sounds expressing hesitation or doubt

heigh-ho               an interjection used to express disappointment, boredom, etc.

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

to bear a likeness, to bear a resemblance, not one of those faces bore a trace of malice, to bear a/the responsibility, there’s no bearing him, I can’t bear that noise, to bear company (to keep company), to bear a hand (to help), to bear comparison, to bear oneself

Key to exercise 2: The problem with these nouns is whether to add “–es” or only “–s” in the plural form. Only “–s” is added in the following cases:

Þ      if final “o” is preceded by a vowel (folio—folios)

Þ      in proper names (Romeo—Romeos)

Þ      in abbreviation (photo—photos)

In other cases there is a considerable vacillation and the plural forms of the words have to be memorized.