United States or Burundi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
If it was a matter of helping Mombleux with a translation, why should she have to go to the office, where everyone could see her and know that he had had to ask for her help? She quickly went up the steps, where she saw Talouel standing outside waiting for her. "Are you the girl who speaks English?" he asked. "Now, no lies, 'cause you speak French without an accent."
At last M. Mombleux couldn't go on any longer, and to calm the boss he said that he knew of a girl named Aurelie in the factory who spoke English, and the boss made me come off at once for you." There was a moment's silence; then he turned round again to Perrine. "If you speak English like M. Mombleux," he said mockingly, "perhaps it'd be better if you didn't go any farther.
As William had said mockingly, it was not the same that M. Mombleux understood. And she fully realized that there would be many technical words that she would not be able to translate. She would not understand, and she would hesitate, and then probably M. Paindavoine would be angry with her, the same as he had been with M. Mombleux.
He places every confidence in me, and I must see that nothing hurts him." If Perrine had not known Talouel she might have been won by his words; but after what she had heard the factory girls say about him, and the talk that she had overheard between Fabry and Mombleux, who were men able to judge character, she felt that she could not believe in him. He was not sincere.
Since he had gone blind his nephews or Talouel read the French mail aloud to him; the English letters were given to Fabry and the German to Mombleux. The day following the conversation between Fabry and Mombleux which had caused Perrine so much anxiety, M. Vulfran, his nephews and the manager were occupied with the morning's mail. Suddenly Theodore exclaimed: "A letter from Dacca, dated May 29."
They came to a big red brick building. Here she saw Mombleux walking back and forth, evidently in a bad humor, and it seemed to her that he threw her anything but a friendly look. They went in and were taken up to the first floor. Here in a big hall stood a number of wooden crates bearing a firm's name, "Morton and Pratt, Manchester." On one of the crates the Englishmen were sitting, waiting.
But now M. Fabry has been sent away to Scotland and M. Mombleux is in a fix, because, although he can read German all right, he's not much on English. If the writing isn't very clear he can't make out the letters at all. I heard him saying so at the table when I was waiting on them. So I thought I'd tell him that you can speak English just as good as you can French."
They had not thought that the pretty little girl in the corner was listening to their conversation. After Zenobie had left the room they went on with their talk. "But what if the son returns?" asked Mombleux. "Well, most of us want him back, for the old man's getting old," said Fabry; "but perhaps he's dead." "That might be," agreed Mombleux. "Talouel's so ambitious he'd stop at nothing.
She had told Rosalie that she would call at Mother Françoise's house on Monday to see if Mombleux had need of her services. Rosalie came to meet her and said that as no letters had come from England that Monday, there would not be any translations to make that day, but perhaps there would be something for the next day. This was at the luncheon hour, so Perrine returned to the factory.
"He's got some English mechanics come over to put a machine together, and they can't understand each other. He's got M. Mombleux there, who says he can speak English, but if he does it isn't the same English as these Englishmen speak. They keep on jabbering, but don't seem to understand, and the boss is mad. It makes you split your sides to hear 'em.
Word Of The Day