ncert books class 11 english snapshots chapter 2 · Section 4

The Address I followed the girl along the passage. An old-fashioned iron Hanukkah1 candle-holder hung next to a mirror. We never used it because it was much more cumbersome than a single candlestick. ‘Won’t you sit down?’ asked the girl. She held open the door of the living-room and I went inside past her. I stopped, horrified. I was in a room I knew and did not know. I found myself in the midst of things I did want to see again but which oppressed me in the strange atmosphere. Or because of the tasteless way everything was arranged, because of the ugly furniture or the muggy smell that hung there, I don’t know; but I scarcely dared to look around me. The girl moved a chair. I sat down and stared at the woollen table-cloth. I rubbed it. My fingers grew warm from rubbing. I followed the lines of the pattern. Somewhere on the edge there should be a burn mark that had never been repaired. ‘My mother’ll be back soon,’ said the girl. ‘I’ve already made tea for her. Will you have a cup?’ ‘Thank you.’ I looked up. The girl put cups ready on the tea-table. She had a broad back. Just like her mother. She poured tea from a white pot. All it had was a gold border on the lid, I remembered. She opened a box and took some spoons out. ‘That’s a nice box.’ I heard my own voice. It was a strange voice. As though each sound was different in this room. ‘Oh, you know about them?’ She had turned round and brought me my tea. She laughed. ‘My mother says it is antique. We’ve got lots more.’ She pointed round the room. ‘See for yourself.’ I had no need to follow her hand. I knew which things she meant. I just looked at the still life over the tea-table. As a child I had always fancied the apple on the pewter plate. ‘We use it for everything,’ she said. ‘Once we even ate off the plates hanging there on the wall. I wanted to so much. But it wasn’t anything special.’ I had found the burn mark on the table-cloth. The girl looked questioningly at me. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘you get so used to touching all these lovely things in the house, you hardly look at them any more. You only the Feast of Lights, a Hebrew festival in December -