The Woman in White [antikvár]

PART ONETHE STORY TOLD BY WALTER HARTRIGHTI :It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was coming to;an end, and 1 was feeling ill and depressed. I was also short of|tmoney, so I had little chance of escaping from the dusty Londonf istreets, and would have to spend the autumn economically between my rooms in the city and my mother's house.,My mother and my sister, Sarah, lived in a cottage in Hampstead, in the northern suburbs, and I usually went to see[I'ithem twice a week. This evening I arrived at the gate of theIAcottage just as it was starting to get dark. 1 had hardly rung thei j bell before the door was opened violently, and my Italian friend, Professor Pesca, rushed out to greet me.Pesca was a language teacher who had left Italy for political reasons and had made his home in England. He was a strange, excitable little man, who was always trying to be more English than the English. I had met him from time to time when he was teaching in the same houses as I was, and then one day I met him by chance in Brighton. "We agreed to go for a swim together in the sea. He was very enthusiastic and it never for a moment occurred to me that he did not know how to swim! Fortunately, when he suddenly sank to the bottom, I was able to dive down and save him. From that day on he was my grateful friend, and that evening he showed his gratitude to me in a way that changed my whole life.