Discourse analysis in grammatical aspect

Nowadays the analysis of discourse or “the analysis of language in use” seems to be very important. Spoken and written language, as it appears in natural context, draws the attention of many discourse analysts. The attempts to investigate different aspects of the language bear their fruits. The discourse analysis helps “to understand” lexical and grammatical system of the language, and, exactly, the use of this system in one or another context. This analysis is not restricted to the description of linguistic forms, which exist independently; “it is designed to serve in human affairs” (Schiffrin, 1994). When we conduct a discourse analysis, we investigate “what the language is used for” (Schiffrin, 1994). Thus the primary source for discourse analysis is the natural spoken and written language.

In this work I make an attempt to make discourse analysis of English grammar. It seems to be rather relevant to investigate this aspect of the language. The learners of ESL often lack the natural data and context while studying grammar. They are provided with the definite rules, examples, and a set of sentences, which they should put in a right grammatical form. Thus the goal of this work is to conduct discourse analysis of grammar on the example of the novel “Theatre” by W. Somerset Maugham and elaborate recommendations for teaching grammar in discourse aspect.

The subject is the aspects of discourse analysis; the object is the extracts from the novel “Theatre”.

To achieve the goal I put some tasks:

1) to observe the theoretical data in the sphere of discourse analysis and discourse grammar;

2) to investigate some extracts from the novel “Theatre” in different grammar aspects, i.e. tense, modality, noun phrase, use of pronouns;

3) to investigate the separate extracts from the novel for illustrating discourse analysis of grammar in its unity;

4) make some recommendations - how discourse analysis may be used in teaching grammar.

The first part covers the theoretical aspects of the discourse analysis of grammar. Such aspects of analysis as informational flow and discourse structure are considered more detailed. The second part is a practical one. The research of grammar is conducted there on the example of some extracts. In conclusion some recommendations for teaching grammar as a discourse are provided.

I. Aspects of Discourse Grammar

1. General Overview of Discourse Grammar

As it was mentioned earlier, the discourse analysis is the analysis of the language in its use by various speakers. It seems to be extremely important to investigate discourse in different aspects of language. First of all, it is the lexical-grammatical system of the language. This system and discourse are not two separate things, but it is viewed as a whole unit. In this respect language is viewed as discourse.

From the point of view of many discourse-functional grammarians, discourse is the primary place, where we can find grammar, and also it is the source from which grammar is formed.

Susanna Cumming and Tsuyoshi Ono (T.A. van Dijk, 1998) say that discourse-functional approaches to grammar have two goals. The first goal is a descriptive one. It describes the richness of the grammatical resources. It gives the answers to such questions as what the speakers should choose in a sentence as a subject or object: full noun phrase or pronoun; what order the speaker should choose for subject and verb. The second goal is explanatory one. It explains, for instance, the tendency for subjects to precede objects, because of the referent, contained in subject and related to the discourse topic.

“Discourse linguists interested in grammar have tended to focus on three general kinds of explanation. Cognitive recourses appeal to the cognitive resources and processes used by interactants in producing and understanding language. Social or interactional explanations appeal to the dynamics of the interactional situations in which language is produced and consumed, and with the social and cultural norms, resources, and goals of interactants. The diachronic explanations focus on the relationship between discourse-functional pressures on grammars and grammatical change”. (T.A. van Dijk, 1998) These three explanations do not exclude each other; they are in the constant interrelation in many ways.

“The primacy of grammar in discourse both as an object of description and as a source of explanations has important methodological consequences for discourse grammarians. Unlike “autonomist” grammarians, who consider grammar existence as completely independent of its communicative uses, discourse grammarians pay their attention mostly to the naturally occurring data, including as much as possible of the context. Many discourse linguists understand discourse and its context as mutually creating and complementary.” (T.A. van Dijk, 1998). Du Bois says about discourse in grammar, “Grammars code best what speakers do most.” This observation has had two significant consequences for the methodology of discourse approaches to grammar, elaborated by many discourse grammarians:

1) Adaptation of quantitative methodology which is concerned with statistical correlation between particular grammatical forms and aspects of the linguistic and non-linguistic context.

2) Focusing on the form of the language which occupies most of the time and attention of most language users everywhere in the world: everyday “talk in interaction”. The interactive talk serves now as one of the main sources of explanation for language structure and change.

2. Information Flow

There are a number of explanatory themes or the so-called “conceptual tools”, which have been especially important and have been used by discourse grammarians in their work. The great amount of research is connected with the theme “informational flow”, which has to do with information distribution (1; 115).

As we know, the primary function of language is to convey information from speaker to the addressee. The misleading point, according to Teun A. van Dijk, is that fact that the “same” information is present in the mind of the speaker and in the mind of the addressee, and moreover that the speaker’s representation of the addressee is exact. However, we are interested in the speaker’s mental states and the speaker’s model of the mental state of the addressee.

So, “information flow is generally taken to be a cognitive matter, to be understood in terms of the mental states of the speaker and addressee during discourse production and consumption” (T.A. van Dijk, 1998).

The main matters of grammatical phenomena regarding to the information flow are the quantity of information in a unit (noun phrase form) and its arrangement (argument structure).

Noun Phrase Form

One of the main points of discourse investigation is the choice among different referential forms such as full noun phrase, pronoun, “zero anaphora” (omission), and articles. As Chafe says, the use of referential form depends on the fact how accessible the speaker judges the referent to be in the hearer’s mind. Full noun phrases are associated with the referents, which are not active in hearer’s mind, while pronouns are associated with the active referents. The articles are associated with “identifiability”, i.e. when a hearer can identify a referent, basing on previous discourse of obtaining information from other sources. Thus, definite article is associated with identifiable referents and vice versa.

Let us take the extract from the dialogue given in the “Discourse as Structure and Process” by Teun A. van Dijk.

1 A:… Can you imagine man?

2 … They hired summer help

3 … three machines man.

4 … Two dudes

5 … A mayate and a white dude.

6 B: Nobody in finishing?

7 …. Just two guys they hired?

8 A: … So they got three new guys

9 … But they’re summer help.

10 … But the mayate,

11 … it seems like he’s worked…

12 B:… on the tables

The given example fully proves the words of Chafe about the referential form. You see when referent is not active in hearer’s mind, it is likely to use an indefinite noun phrase a shown in line 5. When it is already identifiable, a definite noun phrase is used as in line 10, where the word “mayate” is used with article “the”. When the speaker is sure that the referent is fully active, the pronoun is used. We can follow it on the line 11, where we use the pronoun “he”.

I’d like also mention the so-called “environmental” conditions. In the line12, which is also an extract from the dialogue, you can see a definite noun phrase, though it occurs in the text for the first time, but we use it with the definite article. It happens so because speakers A and B have worked in the same environment and they know what “tables” it runs about.

Constituent Order and Preferred Argument Structure

Constituent order is the order of elements in the clause, i.e. position of verb, subject and object. Information status depends on all these criteria. The Prague school linguists observed that, especially in languages with relatively flexible constituent order, given information tends to come earlier in the clause than new information. We know that English also has a stable word order in a sentence and because of this fact; it tends to put new information in this way. Let us take an example:

They saw this group of elephants

In this example we see that the new information is used as an object of the transitive verb and it follows the given information.

Though it is usual to build the sentences in this way, there are some languages, where the unexpected and new information is preceded by the verb, e.g. Classical Malay. In this language the known information sometimes follows the verb and new information occurs as a subject.

…A group of elephants appeared in front of them

3. Discourse Structure

Another group of “conceptual tools” for explaining the distribution of grammatical patterns in discourse is connected with discourse structure. Grammar creates and reflects the high-level organization of text in several ways. Full noun phrases, adverbial clauses, pronouns are associated with the so-called “unit-internal locations” according to Teun A. van Dijk. Some grammatical parts, for instance, verbs in Past Simple are associated with narrative clauses. Types of inter-unit relation may be signaled by different kinds of subordinate clauses.

We can see that different word relations and word orders are characteristic of different kind of structure. Different discourse structures are associated with different discourse genres. The theory of discourse structure, obtained from different sources, e.g. anthropology, sociology, is applied mostly in these cases.

Let us take the examples of two kinds:

Initial Adverbial Clauses

Adverbial clauses are placed either before or after the clause they modify. In English they are usually determined by such conjunctions as before, because, or although. The most important things in research made by such scholars as Chafe, Thompson, Ford, and others, were the factors, determining the position of adverbial clauses. As it turned out, “the most general function associated with initial position for adverbial clauses is that of creating and reflecting discourse structure by signaling shifts in time, place or orientation” (T.A. van Dijk, 1998).

e.g. So Sang Sapurba left for Bentan. After arriving in Bentan, he went into the country.

In this example the initial adverbial phrase signals a text structure boundary to show a switch in time and location. It describes the activities of the hero after he arrives in another place.

Noun Phrase form

Noun Phrase Form as well as initial adverbial clause can show the text-structure boundary.

e.g. He circled, poking the pointed javelin at her, clearly more fearful than aggressive.

“Hey, cut that out,” Leia brushed the weapon away with annoyance.

It is understandable that we know already who Leia is. It is usual now to use pronouns for indicating the girl in the text as we can see from the first sentence from extract. The use of full noun phrase Leia illustrates the presence of text-structure boundary. It shows us the “boundary between an “initiating event” and a “reaction”.” (T.A. van Dijk, 1998).

II. Discourse Grammar on the example of the novel “Theatre” by W. Somerset Maugham

From the first part of this work it is clear that the grammar system of the language and discourse are not two separate things. According to the words of Michael McCarthy “we should think of all language as discourse” (M. McCarthy, 1994). In order to understand better how grammar and discourse are combined or, to say better, how they represent the whole unit, we should take the texts and data from real life, i.e. real dialogues, conversations, and narrations. “Studies of real data reveal that grammar choices are directly related to the larger issues of how the discourse is shaped and staged, offer the possibility of a discourse-related grammatical inventory in the syllabus.” (M. McCarthy, 1994) Exactly this objective is the main one in this work. For achieving this goal we will take the narrative as an example. As M. McCarthy says, narrative as the prime example of grammar and discourse is good, because it illustrates most frequently discourse forms in daily life. We may take, of course, newspaper reports, as an example from our daily life, with their definite structures and lexical and grammatical system and analyze this system as a discourse. Exactly such kind of texts teachers use very often at their lessons.

We will take a literary text, a novel “Theatre” written by W. Somerset Maugham. The reasons for taking the novel for discourse grammar analysis are the following. This text as any other novel has “greater complexity and less regular and predictable pattering in different grammar terms, especially tense and aspect”. (M. McCarthy, 1994) We can observe “tenses and aspects in contrast with one another” and “the same interpersonal and textual mechanisms at work.” (M. McCarthy, 1994).

We will observe the following discourse aspects in the novel “Theatre”:

1) noun phrase form, i.e. use of pronouns and articles;

2) constituent order and preferred argument structure;

3) discourse structure, i.e. initial adverbial clauses and noun phrase form;

4) tense/aspect;

5) modality.

The following aspects will be observed at first on the separate extracts and later the greater extract will be taken in order to analyze its whole discourse structure from the point of view of all these aspects.

At first let us consider those aspects, which were discussed in the first part of the work – noun phrase form, constituent order, and discourse structure.

1. Noun phrase form, constituent order, and discourse structure

The extract which illustrates these aspects is given in the Appendix 1.

The text begins from the introduction into the text of the director of the theatre. Because of it, it seems to be reasonable to start the narration from the name of the director – Jimmy Langton. Then we can see the description of, firstly, his appearance and secondly, his working style in the troupe. In the course of description in every sentence the pronoun he is appeared. For every reader it is understandable that it runs about the same director, with whom the reader has been already acquainted.

As for the constituent order we can also follow the text and see that new information in the sentences is appeared in the end, as it is usual for English:

…He loved acting, but his physique prevented him from playing any but a few parts, which was fortunate, for he was a bad actor.

…He worked his company hard.

In these sentences we can observe the appearance of new information in the end, just after the known information.

In this extract we also see the discourse structure performed by initial adverbial clauses and noun phrases.

…Though they said he drove them like slaves… it gave them a sort of horrible satisfaction to comply with his outrageous demands.

This sentence with an initial adverbial phrase shows the so-called “shift in orientation”. It shows the contrast in mood and attitude of actors towards the way of rehearsing and the director himself.

Another demonstrative in the discourse structure is noun phrase form. The extract begins from the introduction of Jimmy Langton, whose name appears in text. Then, when the reader knows who Jimmy Langton is, the pronoun he is introduced while he process of the description. After the description we can see the appearance of the name Jimmy Langton again, even twice. It signals the so-called “text-structure boundary” between the description of the person and real action of the novel. This demonstrative - Jimmy Langton – returns the reader to the real events of the novel.

2. Tense/aspect

This aspect of discourse was not discussed in the theoretical part of this work. We have decided to investigate it in the real novel at once. The study of tense in narrative is a good example of the approach that combines grammar and discourse according to the words of Schiffrin. When we consider a very common textual form, narrative, “we get a glimpse of how speakers and writers use tense and aspect to realize narrative structure and to position them in relation to the receiver” (M. McCarthy, 1994). “The writer has the freedom to segment the text into temporal frameworks of great subtlety and complexity, to foreground certain events as a matter of textual organization, and to involve or “detach” the reader to greater or lesser degrees” (M. McCarthy, 1994).

In my own research of the novel extracts I try to compare the use of tenses, to observe how the author involves the reader, and how the reader is getting nearer or detaching from the events by changing tenses and aspects.

The main point in tense research is the comparison between the use of past tenses and “historical present”, which occurs in the text in order “to bring the listener directly into the action with the teller” (M. McCarthy, 1994). As M. McCarthy says, it is “the signal of interpersonal intimacy from the teller”. (M. McCarthy, 1994).

Let us consider the extract from the novel, which shows the great complexity and change of tenses. It is given in the Appendix 2.

The first sentence is in Past Simple, as it is usual for any narration. As we can follow the whole narration, it is written in Past Simple tense.

Michael’s words begin from Present Perfect tense. It is made for the purpose to show that the said information is known already and the teller only wants to revise for it.

... I’ve had a good deal of experience.

Then the tense changes to Present Simple, or, as we say by discourse analysis, “historical present”.

… I always design the sets myself for our plays. Of course, I have a man to do the rough work for me, but the ideas are mine.

These sentences, appeared in historical present, illustrate the process of approaching the listener to the teller. It intends to show the real events of the present.

Then Past Perfect tense appears in the text to show the events, which happened in the distant past. Only once it changes into the Past Continuous in order to illustrate the pleasant process of their tour and to get the listener a little bit nearer to the situation;

… when they were going on a tour…

The description in Past Perfect also breaks in the middle and transfers into Past Simple in order to return the listener to the real events. It is a kind of digression, which explains the further flow of the story and change in the mood of Julia, who was not pleased with her husband’s revelation regarding their previous life.

… it was unnecessary to impart such tedious details to a young man whose name even they did not know.

After this remark the story returns again into the distant past. It can be observed not only by the change of tense into Past Perfect again …Julia, however, had insisted…, but also by the change of aspect from active into the passive, which also illustrates the fact that the action is carried to the past …The house was furnished in extremely good taste…

Thus we can see how the tenses and aspects may change even in such small extract. All these changes, occurring in natural events, can be explained by the changes in mood and attitude of the writer towards events and the reader as a part of discourse analysis.

3. Modality

According to the meaning of M. McCarthy the use of modal verbs as signs of modality is extremely important in any language, but there are a great number of the devices for expressing the modal functions at the discourse level. Some of them are such lexical words as possible, probable, certain, likely, and of course such discourse markers as like, sort of. These words take their place for expressing modality alongside with the modal verbs.

… They are like me, there is no denying that.

In this sentence the marker like shows the certainty and confidence in the Julia’s words. It is obvious even without the use of a modal verb.

… All right. You shall have this one. You know I’m not a beautiful woman, I’m not even a very pretty one…

This example illustrates the mixture of advice and necessity in the words of the heroin, when she tells her husband to be with the other woman. It is perfectly done with the help of the verb shall.

Let us consider a little dialogue between Julia and Jimmy Langton, the director of the play from the point of view of modality. It is given in Appendix 3.

The whole dialogue is under the spirit of “doubt and possibility”. It is felt from the first sentence, which begins from the words I suppose. Next phrase contains the verb shall which in this case also has the meaning of probability, but not certainty. The ending remark also begins from the words I suppose which emphasizes the uncertainty of the whole dialogue as well.

Thus modality can be expressed not only with the help of modal verbs, but also with the help of other words. It would be better to call these words “discourse markers” as they perform modal functions in real everyday speech, and we know that discourse analysis deals exactly with such kind of texts.

…I shall probably stay the night…

You see the discourse marker probably which performs the same function as the modal verb here.

4. Practical Overview of the aspects of discourse grammar in the separate extract

The last point of this part is to observe the extract from the point of view of all the aspects of discourse grammar. It is given in Appendix 4.

Noun phrase form is represented by the use of pronoun he just after the introduction into the text of the name Mr. Funnel in the beginning of the extract. At first Julia did not recognize the person, and when she understood who this man was, the writer uses the pronoun he for indicating the man.

We can also follow the use of articles here.

… -I’ve got a matinee today.

- Come to tea after the matinee.

It a common rule for articles use, but it also shows the example when the listener is not acquainted with exactly this matinee, the indefinite article is used. When it is already known the definite article is used.

As for constituent order, i.e. the appearance of new information in the end of the statement, we can observe it in many sentences:

… it occurred to her that it might be the young man of her adventure…

… I’ve been terribly busy the last few days…

… I’ve got a matinee today…

Discourse structure performed in initial adverbial clause can be observed in the statement … As soon as I have a moment to spare…The adverbial clause, beginning from the phrase as soon as illustrates us the example of “shift in time”, which means that they will meet only when she (Julia) will have time for it.

In this extract we can also follow the change mainly between three tenses: Past Simple, Present Perfect, and Present Simple. The extract begins from Past Simple and this tense predominates in it as it is the most common tense in any narration. Sometimes it is interrupted by Present Perfect and Present Simple. Present Simple or “historical present” is used for bringing the reader to the real events of the novel; Present Perfect reminds the listeners (in this case it is both Julia and Mr. Fennel) about recent events.

… so I’ve rung you up instead.. This statement reminds Julia about Mr. Fennel’s act.

… I’ve been terribly busy the last few days… This statement reminds Mr. Fennel about Julia’s deeds.

Modality is expressed by both means – discourse markers and modal verbs as well.

… you don’t catch me a second time like that.. The marker like expresses certainty in Julia’s words, comparing the real experience with the previous one.

… “I can’t possibly,” she answered… This sentence contains both modal verb and discourse marker possibly. It expresses the certainty concerning Julia’s decision, but it is softened a little bit by the lexical word possibly in order to not offend Mr. Fennel by sharp refusal. The modal verb can’t in the question “Can’t I come and see you while you’re resting?” expresses the permission, but it is said more firmly than if the verb “may” is used.

As we can see, it is possible to make discourse analysis of any extract from any narrative. In this work we take grammar aspect for the grounds of analysis. It corresponds to the goals and tasks of the work – to investigate and apply discourse analysis in teaching grammar. It corresponds to the primary source of discourse – natural conversations and dialogues. The best ways of applying discourse grammar in teaching are given in the conclusion of the work.

In two previous parts of this work I tried to fulfill the tasks and achieve the goal, put in the introduction. I discussed and made the discourse analysis of the real novel in different grammatical aspects. In conclusion I try to show how the practical results of the discourse analysis may be applied in teaching, especially teaching grammar.

As I have mentioned earlier, while teaching grammar the students are mostly provided with general rules and separate exercises in order to practice these rules. When the students begin to speak or to write letters or essays, i.e. to use the language, it happens very often that they forget about the grammatical rules, which they have just practiced in the exercises. Thus, I can state that it is necessary to study grammar in natural context.

For teaching grammar I’d like to make some suggestions. First of all, the ordinary course of grammar should start from teaching grammar rules, provided with the examples. The next step in teaching, or better to say practicing grammar, is in natural context. The teacher should give the students texts from everyday use, e.g. newspaper articles. Different types of writing are also possible. They students should make discourse analysis of the texts according to different grammatical aspects, e.g. tense, aspect or modality, as it was done in the second part of this work. They make their own conclusions in what context and why exactly one or another grammar rule is used. Then they can fulfill such tasks as to write their own articles, describing the latest news; to write essays and letters. The students should be provided with a great number of natural texts in order to be able to analyze the grammatical aspects and the language as a discourse.

The students can also benefit from discourse analysis of spoken texts. The informational flow, i.e. the use of full noun phrases, pronouns, articles, constituent order etc. is very important in speech as well. It is necessary to know, where we should use full noun phrase and where the pronoun can be used; in what chain we should tell new information and what structures should be used by it. The students can learn to make discourse analysis in grammar aspects of the spoken texts as well.

All these aspects of language seem to be very important ones. The discourse analysis of any text is not unnecessary matter. As we have stated earlier, discourse analysis is the language in use. When do we use the language? Only in the case if we understand fully the essence of any language aspect. Thus we should apprehend the language as discourse; otherwise it will be impossible to use this language.

REFERENCES

1. van Dijk T. A., 1998, Discourse as Structure and Process Sage Publications London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi

2. McCarthy Michael and Carter Ronald, 1994, Language as Discourse: Perspectives for Language Teaching – Essex.

3. Schiffrin Deborah, 1994, Approaches to Discourse, Blackwell Oxford UK and Cambridge USA

4. Brown Gillian, Yule George Discourse Analysis Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 288

5. Maugham W. Somerset Theatre – M., Manager Publishing Group, p. 304

6. McCarthy Michael and O’Dell Felicity, 2001, English Vocabulary in Use (upper-intermediate), Cambrighe University Press

7. http://bank.rug.ac.be/

8. http://www.ikaras.org/d_quantitative_analysis

9. http://www.khsu.ru/ida/

10. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/centres/dargindex.htm

11. Edwards, J.A., Lampert, M.D., 1993, (Eds), Talking Data: Transcription and coding in discourse research, Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum

12. Fairclough, N., 1995, Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Longman

13. Jaworski, A., Coupland, N., 1999, (Eds), The Discourse Reader, London: Routledge.

14. Potter, J., 1997, Discourse Analysis as a Way of Analysing Naturally Occurring Talk, London: Sage Publications

15. Potter, J., Wetherell, M., 1987, Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour, London: Sage

16. Silverman, D., 1997, (Ed), Qualitative Research: Theory, method and practices, London: Sage

17. ten Have, P., 1999, Doing Conversation Analysis, London: Sage

18. Wood, L.A., Kroger, R.O., 2000, Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text, Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications

19. Yates, S., Taylor, S., Wetherell, M., 2001, Discourse as data: A guide for analysis, London; Sage.

20. Hutchby, I., Wooffitt, R., 1998, Conversation Analysis, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press

Appendix 1

Informational flow

… Jimmy Langton, a fat, bald-headed, rubicund man of forty-five, who looked like one of Ruben’s prosperous burghers, had a passion for the theatre. He was an eccentric, arrogant, exuberant, vain and charming fellow. He loved acting, but his physique prevented him from playing any but a few parts, which was fortunate, for he was a bad actor. … He broadened every gesture, he exaggerated every intonation.

… He worked his company hard. They rehearsed every morning from ten till two, when he sent them home to learn their parts and rest before the evening’s performance.

… Though they said he drove them like slaves, and they never had a moment to themselves, flesh and blood couldn’t stand it, it gave them a sort of horrible satisfaction to comply with his outrageous demands.

… It happened hat when Michael kept the appointment he had asked for, Jimmy Langton was in need of a leading juvenile. He had guessed why Michael wanted to see him, and had gone the night before to see him play.

… While Michael explained the purpose of his visit Jimmy Langton observed him shrewdly.

Appendix 2

Tense change

… Michael gave the room a complacent glance.

“I’ve had a good deal of experience. I always design the sets myself for our plays. Of, course, I have a man to do the rough work for me, but the ideas are mine”.

They had moved into that house two years before, and he knew, and Julia knew, that they had put it into the hands of an expensive decorator when they were going on tour, and he had agreed to have it completely ready for them, at cost price in return for the work they promised him in the theatre, by the time they came back.

But it was unnecessary to impart such tedious details to a young man whose name even they did not know.

The house was furnished in extremely good taste, with a judicious mixture of the antique and the modern, and Michael was right when he said that it was quite obviously a gentleman’s house. Julia, however, had insisted that she must have her bedroom as she liked …

Appendix 3

Modality

“I suppose it’s beastly of me,” she thought, “but thank God, thank God.”

When he announced the date of his sailing she could not contain her joy. She got Jimmie so to arrange his programmer that she might go and meet him at Liverpool.

“If the boat comes in late I shall probably stay the night,” she told Jimmie.

He smiled ironically.

“I suppose you think that in the excitement of home-coming you may work the trick”.

Appendix 4

… Some days passed, and one morning, while Julia was lying in bed reading a play, they rang through from the basement to ask if she would speak to Mr. Fennel. The name meant nothing to her and she was about to refuse when it occurred to her that it might be the young man of her adventure. Her curiosity induced her to tell them to connect him. She recognized his voice.

“You promised to ring me up,” he said. “I got tired of waiting, so I’ve rung you up instead.”

“I’ve been terribly busy the last few days.”

“When am I going to see you?”

“As soon as I have a moment to spare.”

“What about this afternoon?”

“I’ve got a matinee today.”

“Come to tea after the matinee.”

She smiled. (“No, young feller-me-lad, you don’t catch me a second time like that.”)

“I can’t possibly,” she answered. “I always stay in my dressing-room and rest till the evening performance.”

“Can’t I come and see you while you’re resting?”

She hesitated for an instant…