AN ENGLISH TALE I

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 592.

FRIENDS IN BUSINESS

A rich businessman ___ (to die). He ___ (to ask) all the members of his family to leave him alone with his business partner who ___ (to run) the business with him for years. The dying man ___ (not to want) anybody to hear their conversation.

"George," he ___ (to whisper) when they ___ (to remain) alone, "I ___ (to die) soon, I can't wait... I must tell you... Listen... When you ___ (to be) away on business five years ago I ___ (to take) eighty thousand dollars from the safe and ___ never ___ (to put) the money back... I always ___ (to try) not to let you be successful in business. I __ (to dislike) you greatly all my life... __ you ___ (to remember) that plan of yours which ___ (to end) in failure? You ___ (to explain) the failure by changes in business conditions, but the real reason ___ (to be) quite different: I ___ (to sell) your secret to McKay and Co. for 150 thousand dollars... Forgive me, George..." "Don't worry, Jim," George ___ (to say). "It ___ (to be) all right. I've also got to tell you something. I ___ (to put) some poison into your soup at dinner yesterday."

Once upon a time there ___ (to live) a man who ___ (to marry) a bad-tempered woman. She ___ (cannot) run the house properly and always ___ (to object) to any improvements her husband ___ (to suggest). As a result the man ___ (to be) very unhappy until his wife ___ (to die). By that time he ___ (to grow) quite old and his only son ___ already ___ (to grow) up. One day the man ___ (to give) his son two horses and a needle and ___ (to tell) him to go about the country and to travel until he ___ (to meet) a young married couple. He ___ (to tell) the young man to find out which of them ___ (to be) the real head of the family. If he ___ (to see) that the wife ___ (to obey) the husband he ___ (to be) to give the latter one of the horses as a present, but if he ___ (to discover) that the wife ___ (to make) all the decisions, he ___ (to be) to give her the needle. The son ___ (to start) off. He ___ (to travel) for three days when he ___ (to come) across a house at the side of the road which as people ___ (to tell) him ___ (to be) occupied for some time by a young married couple. When the young man ___ (to enter) the house the young couple ___ (to have) dinner. He ___ (to explain) what he ___ (to be) told to do.