Page 82 - 182_

Being an elder son in the family, I have never regarded myself
as inferior to my brother. I have never downgraded my assets and
emphasised my shortcomings.
All the members of our family are as different as chalk and
cheese. We do not have much in common. We have different ideas,
preferences and views but we live friendly together.

***

Text 2

MARY TYRONE

(From “Long Day’s Journey into Night”
1
by Eugene O’Neil )

Mary Tyrone is fifty-four, about medium height. She still has a
young, graceful figure, a trifle plump, but showing little evidence of
middle-aged waist and hips, although she is not tightly corseted. her
face is distinctly Irish in type. It must once have been extremely
pretty and is still striking. It does not match her healthy figure but is
thin and pale with the bone structure prominent. Her nose is long and
straight, her mouth wide with full, sensitive lips. She uses no rouge or
any sort of make-up. Her high forehead is framed by thick, pure white
hair. Accentuated by her white hair, her dark brown eyes appear
black. They are unusually large and beautiful, with black brows and
long curling lashes.
What strikes one immediately is her extreme nervousness. Her
hands are never still. They were once beautiful hands with long,
tapering fingers, but rheumatism has knotted the joints and warped
the finfers, so that now they have an ugly crippled look. One avoids
looking at them, the more so because one is conscious she is sensitive
about their appearance and humiliated by their inability to control the
nervousness which draws attention to them.
She is dressed simply but with a sure sense of what becomes
her. Her hair is arranged with fastidious care. Her voice is soft and
attractive. When she is merry, there is a touch of Irish lilt in it.

1
Текст друкується за виданням O’Neil. Long Day’s Journey into Night. //
Three American Plays. – Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972. – С 14.

88