大学英语作文3700字：Business Partners
fink, poor fellow, was a widower, and each of his daughters had said that she would rather be dead than live in a dump like lyndhurst, so he had to live all by himself in the diamond hotel, near the office, on the other side of the market square. the food at the diamond, fink said, was giving him an ulcer in the stomach, so he ate his lunch with gottlieb, at the gottliebs house. carefully they drove to gottliebs house for lunch鈥攐ne day in gottliebs car and the net day in finks鈥攁nd ate the lunch that sylvia and mrs gottlieb served them both. then gottlieb retired to his bedroom with the newspaper and had a little sleep until two oclock, and fink did the same in the lounge, with his shoes off and his stockinged2 feet pointing to the ceiling from the end of the sofa.
its no life for a man without a wife, mrs gottlieb reported to her husband. he had holes in his socks today.
holes in his socks! a fine advertisement for his soft-goods!3
mrs gottlieb was not amused. its a shame. id offer to darn4 them, but hed be offended. you know what hes like.
very well, gottlieb nodded. poor fellow.
hed be hurt that i saw the holes in his socks. he has such terrible pride.
finks pride is a terrible thing. it is eating him away.
sometimes riva cast about5 in her mind for a suitable widow for fink. its what he needs, she said. then hell be happy again.
gottlieb was more cautious. perhaps he would be a little happier, and not so proud.
at other times gottlieb reminded her that the man had three daughters, not one of whom had made it her business to stay in lyndhurst and look after her father. instead each one of them, as she had reached maturity of a sort,6 and eligibility without doubt for marriage, had deliberately gone off to johannesburg in search of the professional man that each had succeeded in marrying. a girl has to get married, gottlieb admitted to his wife, but is it impossible to manage it in lyndhurst?
and when he wanted to goad fink, gottlieb always inquired after finks daughters. what has happened to althea? he would ask. she married the lawyer?
fink would know what was coming. yes.
hes doing well?
hes making a living.
gottlieb would think this over for a moment or two.
and lynda? she married the doctor?
yes.
and how is his practice?7
very good. an ecellent practice in a good suburb.
and claire, her husband is also making a living?
a first-class living.
thats a good thing to hear. three daughters, all married to good men, all making a living. gottlieb would nod, gottlieb would suck at his tea, absently gottlieb would deliver his blow.8
i havent seen them for a long time. id like to see them again. are they coming down to lyndhurst soon?
yes.
oh鈥攕o?
yes.
gottlieb would smile, gottlieb would know he was on top. when?
i dont know, fink would shout. i dont know their plans.
but if fink had been really angered by gottliebs inquiries, he would tell gottlieb, theyre coming down when your irvine comes down. on eactly the same train, thats when theyre coming down.
my irvine? gottlieb could see no connection between his irvine and the questions he had been asking. haughtily he asked, my irvine? hes very well. hes learning hard to be a specialist.
and when hes finished hes coming to practice in lyndhurst?
perhaps, gottlieb would lie uneasily; and fink would reply with a pitying shrug of his shoulders:
perhaps is as good as a feast.9
(from the price of diamonds, 1957)