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60

Next morning I got up and began to shave. Mr. Kelada lay on
his bed smoking a cigarette. Suddenly there was a small scraping
sound and I saw a letter pushed under the door. I opened the door and
looked out. There was nobody there. I picked up the letter and saw
that it was addressed to Max Kelada. The name was written in block
letters. I handed it to him.
"Who's this from?" He opened it. "Oh!"
He took out of the envelope, not a letter, but a hundred-dollar
bill. He looked at me and again he reddened. He tore the envelope
into little bits and gave them to me.
"Do you mind just throwing them out of the porthole?"
I did as he asked, and then I looked at him with a smile.
"No one likes being made to look a perfect damned fool," he
said.
"Were the pearls real?"
"If I had a pretty little wife I shouldn't let her spend a year in
New York while I stayed at Kobe," said he.
At that moment I did not entirely dislike Mr. Kelada. He
reached out for his pocketbook and carefully put in it the hundred-
dollar note.
***

Assignments

1. Skimming: Skim the reading to gain a general idea of its form, length,
and content. Give the gist of the story.

2. Scanning:
2.1. Put the following events in the chronological order.
1. Mr. Kelada took out his passport and airily waved it under the
author’s nose.
2. Suddenly he caught sight of Mrs. Ramsay’s face.
3. Mr. Kelada managed the sweeps.
4. The name of the companion suggested closed portholes.
5. The conversation by chance drifted to the subject of pearls.
6. We knew vaguely that he was going to Japan on some commercial
errand.
7. The author found Mr. Kelada’s luggage below.
8. Kelada took a magnifying glass and examined the pearls.