Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.
Fog - कोहरा
shop windows - दुकान के खिड़कियाँ
blazed - चमक, लौ, चिन्ह, चमकना, जलना
cab - टैक्सी
thoroughfares - सार्वजनिक मार्ग, आम रास्ता
She sat with her feet tucked under her, and leaned against her father, who held her in his arm, as she stared out of the window at the passing people with a queer old-fashioned thoughtfulness in her big eyes.
tucked - सितारा मछली, मिठाई, लपेटना
queer - अजीब, अनोखा, बेढंग
thoughtfulness - चिंतन, सावधानी, सहृदयता, परवाह
She was such a little girl that one did not expect to see such a look on her small face. It would have been an old look for a child of twelve, and Sara Crewe was only seven. The fact was, however, that she was always dreaming and thinking odd things and could not herself remember any time when she had not been thinking things about grown-up people and the world they belonged to.
She felt as if she had lived a long, long time.
At this moment she was remembering the voyage she had just made from Bombay with her father, Captain Crewe. She was thinking of the big ship, of the Lascars passing silently to and fro on it, of the children playing about on the hot deck, and of some young officers'wives who used to try to make her talk to them and laugh at the things she said.
Bombay - बम्बई, बंबई
silently - खामोशी से, चुपचाप
fro - से
Principally, she was thinking of what a queer thing it was that at one time one was in India in the blazing sun, and then in the middle of the ocean, and then driving in a strange vehicle through strange streets where the day was as dark as the night. She found this so puzzling that she moved closer to her father.
principally - मुख्य रूप से, मुख्यतया
India - भारत, भारतवर्ष
blazing - चमक, लौ, चिन्ह, चमकना, जलना
"Papa," she said in a low, mysterious little voice which was almost a whisper, "papa."
papa - पिता, पापा
"What is it, darling?" Captain Crewe answered, holding her closer and looking down into her face. "What is Sara thinking of?"
darling - प्रिये, चहेता, प्यारा, जानेमन
"Is this the place?" Sara whispered, cuddling still closer to him. "Is it, papa?"
cuddling - आलिंगन, गले से सटा लेना
"Yes, little Sara, it is. We have reached it at last." And though she was only seven years old, she knew that he felt sad when he said it.
It seemed to her many years since he had begun to prepare her mind for "the place," as she always called it. Her mother had died when she was born, so she had never known or missed her. Her young, handsome, rich, petting father seemed to be the only relation she had in the world. They had always played together and been fond of each other.
handsome - ख़ूबसूरत
She only knew he was rich because she had heard people say so when they thought she was not listening, and she had also heard them say that when she grew up she would be rich, too. She did not know all that being rich meant.
She had always lived in a beautiful bungalow, and had been used to seeing many servants who made salaams to her and called her "Missee Sahib," and gave her her own way in everything. She had had toys and pets and an ayah who worshipped her, and she had gradually learned that people who were rich had these things. That, however, was all she knew about it.
bungalow - बँगला, बंगला
Missee - मिसी
Sahib - साहिब, साहब
Ayah - आया
worshipped - समादर करना, पूजा करना
During her short life only one thing had troubled her, and that thing was "the place" she was to be taken to some day. The climate of India was very bad for children, and as soon as possible they were sent away from it-generally to England and to school. She had seen other children go away, and had heard their fathers and mothers talk about the letters they received from them.
sent away - भेज दिया
She had known that she would be obliged to go also, and though sometimes her father's stories of the voyage and the new country had attracted her, she had been troubled by the thought that he could not stay with her.
be obliged - आभारी होगा
"Couldn't you go to that place with me, papa?" she had asked when she was five years old. "Couldn't you go to school, too? I would help you with your lessons."
"But you will not have to stay for a very long time, little Sara," he had always said. "You will go to a nice house where there will be a lot of little girls, and you will play together, and I will send you plenty of books, and you will grow so fast that it will seem scarcely a year before you are big enough and clever enough to come back and take care of papa."
scarcely - शायद ही, केवल, मुश्किल से
She had liked to think of that. To keep the house for her father; to ride with him, and sit at the head of his table when he had dinner parties; to talk to him and read his books-that would be what she would like most in the world, and if one must go away to "the place" in England to attain it, she must make up her mind to go.
attain - पाना, प्राप्त करना, सिद्ध करना
She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself. She liked books more than anything else, and was, in fact, always inventing stories of beautiful things and telling them to herself. Sometimes she had told them to her father, and he had liked them as much as she did.
console - सान्त्वना देना
"Well, papa," she said softly, "if we are here I suppose we must be resigned."
softly - हल्का सा, सादे ढंग से
He laughed at her old-fashioned speech and kissed her. He was really not at all resigned himself, though he knew he must keep that a secret. His quaint little Sara had been a great companion to him, and he felt he should be a lonely fellow when, on his return to India, he went into his bungalow knowing he need not expect to see the small figure in its white frock come forward to meet him.
quaint - अजीब, अनुठा
companion - साथी
frock - फ्रॉक
So he held her very closely in his arms as the cab rolled into the big, dull square in which stood the house which was their destination.
It was a big, dull, brick house, exactly like all the others in its row, but that on the front door there shone a brass plate on which was engraved in black letters:
Row - झगड़ा
brass - पीतल
engraved - खोदना, उत्कीर्ण करना
MISS MINCHIN,
Select Seminary for Young Ladies.
seminary - धर्मप्रशिक्षणालय
"Here we are, Sara," said Captain Crewe, making his voice sound as cheerful as possible. Then he lifted her out of the cab and they mounted the steps and rang the bell. Sara often thought afterward that the house was somehow exactly like Miss Minchin. It was respectable and well furnished, but everything in it was ugly; and the very armchairs seemed to have hard bones in them.
afterward - बाद में, बाद में
respectable - प्रणम्य, नमनीय, आदरणीय
furnished - सुस्सजित करना, प्रस्तुत करना
armchairs - हत्थेदार कुर्सी
In the hall everything was hard and polished-even the red cheeks of the moon face on the tall clock in the corner had a severe varnished look. The drawing room into which they were ushered was covered by a carpet with a square pattern upon it, the chairs were square, and a heavy marble timepiece stood upon the heavy marble mantel.
polished - चमकाना, चमक, रोगन करना
varnished - वार्निश, वार्निश/रोगन
ushered - प्रवेश कराना/भेंट करा
marble - संगमरमर
timepiece - घड़ी
mantel - अग्निकोष्ठ के ऊपर का ताक
As she sat down in one of the stiff mahogany chairs, Sara cast one of her quick looks about her.
mahogany - महोगनी
"I don't like it, papa," she said. "But then I dare say soldiers-even brave ones-don't really LIKE going into battle."
Captain Crewe laughed outright at this. He was young and full of fun, and he never tired of hearing Sara's queer speeches.
outright - तुरंत, पूर्णतया, स्पष्ट
"Oh, little Sara," he said. "What shall I do when I have no one to say solemn things to me? No one else is as solemn as you are."
solemn - शान्त, पवित्र, समारोही, गंभीर
"But why do solemn things make you laugh so?" inquired Sara.
inquired - पूछना, पता लगाना, छानबीन करना
"Because you are such fun when you say them," he answered, laughing still more. And then suddenly he swept her into his arms and kissed her very hard, stopping laughing all at once and looking almost as if tears had come into his eyes.
It was just then that Miss Minchin entered the room. She was very like her house, Sara felt: tall and dull, and respectable and ugly. She had large, cold, fishy eyes, and a large, cold, fishy smile. It spread itself into a very large smile when she saw Sara and Captain Crewe. She had heard a great many desirable things of the young soldier from the lady who had recommended her school to him.
fishy - सन्देहास्पद, मछली की गंध युक्त
desirable - योग्य, वांछित, वांछनीय, इष्ट
Among other things, she had heard that he was a rich father who was willing to spend a great deal of money on his little daughter.
little daughter - छोटी बेटी
"It will be a great privilege to have charge of such a beautiful and promising child, Captain Crewe," she said, taking Sara's hand and stroking it. "Lady Meredith has told me of her unusual cleverness. A clever child is a great treasure in an establishment like mine."
privilege - सौभाग्य, सुविधा, विशेषाधिकार
cleverness - होशियारी, चुस्ती
establishment - स्थान, संस्था, नींव, स्थापना
Sara stood quietly, with her eyes fixed upon Miss Minchin's face. She was thinking something odd, as usual.
"Why does she say I am a beautiful child?" she was thinking. "I am not beautiful at all. Colonel Grange's little girl, Isobel, is beautiful. She has dimples and rose-colored cheeks, and long hair the color of gold. I have short black hair and green eyes; besides which, I am a thin child and not fair in the least. I am one of the ugliest children I ever saw. She is beginning by telling a story."
Colonel - कर्नल
grange - ग्रैंज
dimples - गढ्ढा
She was mistaken, however, in thinking she was an ugly child. She was not in the least like Isobel Grange, who had been the beauty of the regiment, but she had an odd charm of her own. She was a slim, supple creature, rather tall for her age, and had an intense, attractive little face.
regiment - बहुसंख्या, रेजिमेंट, पलटन
charm - सुंदरता
slim - पतला
supple - लचीला, नरम बनाना, कोमल
Her hair was heavy and quite black and only curled at the tips; her eyes were greenish gray, it is true, but they were big, wonderful eyes with long, black lashes, and though she herself did not like the color of them, many other people did. Still she was very firm in her belief that she was an ugly little girl, and she was not at all elated by Miss Minchin's flattery.
curled - मोड़ना, जाना, लपेटना, सिकोड़ना
greenish - हरा सा, हरा सा, कुछ कुछ हरा
lashes - टकराना, घूमना, फटकारना, बरौनी
elated - प्रफुल्लित करना[होना]
flattery - चापलूसी
"I should be telling a story if I said she was beautiful," she thought; "and I should know I was telling a story. I believe I am as ugly as she is-in my way. What did she say that for?"
After she had known Miss Minchin longer she learned why she had said it. She discovered that she said the same thing to each papa and mamma who brought a child to her school.
mamma - मां
Sara stood near her father and listened while he and Miss Minchin talked. She had been brought to the seminary because Lady Meredith's two little girls had been educated there, and Captain Crewe had a great respect for Lady Meredith's experience. Sara was to be what was known as "a parlor boarder," and she was to enjoy even greater privileges than parlor boarders usually did.
parlor - बैठक, स्वागत कक्ष
privileges - सौभाग्य, सुविधा, विशेषाधिकार
boarders - आवासी, अंतेवासी
She was to have a pretty bedroom and sitting room of her own; she was to have a pony and a carriage, and a maid to take the place of the ayah who had been her nurse in India.
pony - टट्टू, याबू
carriage - गाड़ी
maid - लड़की
"I am not in the least anxious about her education," Captain Crewe said, with his gay laugh, as he held Sara's hand and patted it. "The difficulty will be to keep her from learning too fast and too much. She is always sitting with her little nose burrowing into books. She doesn't read them, Miss Minchin; she gobbles them up as if she were a little wolf instead of a little girl.
patted - थपथपाना, पोंछना, उपयुक्त, सतही
burrowing - खोदना, बिल, बिल खोदना, माँद
gobbles - घुरघुराना
wolf - भेड़िया, वृक, गुर्ग
She is always starving for new books to gobble, and she wants grown-up books-great, big, fat ones-French and German as well as English-history and biography and poets, and all sorts of things. Drag her away from her books when she reads too much. Make her ride her pony in the Row or go out and buy a new doll. She ought to play more with dolls."
gobble - जल्दी और आवाज करके खाना
German - जरमन, जर्मन
biography - जीवनी, जीवनकथा, ज़िंदगीनामा
dolls - सुन्दरी, गुड़िया
"Papa," said Sara, "you see, if I went out and bought a new doll every few days I should have more than I could be fond of. Dolls ought to be intimate friends. Emily is going to be my intimate friend."
doll - गुड़िया
intimate - बताना, घनिष्ठ, आत्मीय, सुपरिचित
Captain Crewe looked at Miss Minchin and Miss Minchin looked at Captain Crewe.
"Who is Emily?" she inquired.
"Tell her, Sara," Captain Crewe said, smiling.
Sara's green-gray eyes looked very solemn and quite soft as she answered.
"She is a doll I haven't got yet," she said. "She is a doll papa is going to buy for me. We are going out together to find her. I have called her Emily. She is going to be my friend when papa is gone. I want her to talk to about him."
Miss Minchin's large, fishy smile became very flattering indeed.
flattering - चापलूसी करना, रौशन होना[करना]
"What an original child!" she said. "What a darling little creature!"
"Yes," said Captain Crewe, drawing Sara close. "She is a darling little creature. Take great care of her for me, Miss Minchin."
Sara stayed with her father at his hotel for several days; in fact, she remained with him until he sailed away again to India. They went out and visited many big shops together, and bought a great many things.
sailed away - नौका से दौड़ गया
They bought, indeed, a great many more things than Sara needed; but Captain Crewe was a rash, innocent young man and wanted his little girl to have everything she admired and everything he admired himself, so between them they collected a wardrobe much too grand for a child of seven.
rash - अतिशीघ्र
wardrobe - अलमारी
There were velvet dresses trimmed with costly furs, and lace dresses, and embroidered ones, and hats with great, soft ostrich feathers, and ermine coats and muffs, and boxes of tiny gloves and handkerchiefs and silk stockings in such abundant supplies that the polite young women behind the counters whispered to each other that the odd little girl with the big, solemn eyes must be at least some foreign princess-perhaps the little daughter of an Indian rajah.
velvet - मख़मल
trimmed - काटना, सजाना, छँटाई, छाँटना
costly - भारी, कड़े संघर्ष से प्राप्त
lace - फीता
embroidered - कढ़ाई करना, बेलबूटे काढना
ostrich - शुतुरमुर्ग़, शुतुरमुर्ग
ermine - न्योले की जाति का एक जन्तु
muffs - गड़बड़ा देना, मफ़, मफ़/दस्तना
handkerchiefs - सितारा मछली, रुमाल
silk stockings - रेशम स्टॉकिंग्स
abundant - बहुत, प्रचुर
Indian - भारतीय, भारत संबंधी
rajah - राजा
And at last they found Emily, but they went to a number of toy shops and looked at a great many dolls before they discovered her.
toy shops - खिलौने की दुकान
"I want her to look as if she wasn't a doll really," Sara said. "I want her to look as if she LISTENS when I talk to her. The trouble with dolls, papa"-and she put her head on one side and reflected as she said it-"the trouble with dolls is that they never seem to HEAR.
" So they looked at big ones and little ones-at dolls with black eyes and dolls with blue-at dolls with brown curls and dolls with golden braids, dolls dressed and dolls undressed.
curls - मोड़ना, जाना, लपेटना, सिकोड़ना
braids - चोटी, चोटी बँधना, फीता
undressed - निर्वस्त्रता, कपड़े उतारना
"You see," Sara said when they were examining one who had no clothes. "If, when I find her, she has no frocks, we can take her to a dressmaker and have her things made to fit. They will fit better if they are tried on."
frocks - अंगरखा, फ़्रक, फ्रॉक
dressmaker - सजीला
After a number of disappointments they decided to walk and look in at the shop windows and let the cab follow them. They had passed two or three places without even going in, when, as they were approaching a shop which was really not a very large one, Sara suddenly started and clutched her father's arm.
clutched - क्लच, अण्डो का समुच्चय
"Oh, papa!" she cried. "There is Emily!"
A flush had risen to her face and there was an expression in her green-gray eyes as if she had just recognized someone she was intimate with and fond of.
flush - लालिमा, आवेग
"She is actually waiting there for us!" she said. "Let us go in to her."
"Dear me," said Captain Crewe, "I feel as if we ought to have someone to introduce us."
Dear me - अह मुझे
"You must introduce me and I will introduce you," said Sara. "But I knew her the minute I saw her-so perhaps she knew me, too."
Perhaps she had known her. She had certainly a very intelligent expression in her eyes when Sara took her in her arms. She was a large doll, but not too large to carry about easily; she had naturally curling golden-brown hair, which hung like a mantle about her, and her eyes were a deep, clear, gray-blue, with soft, thick eyelashes which were real eyelashes and not mere painted lines.
curling - घुंघराले, कर्लिंग
mantle - प्रावरक, आच्छादित करना, आवरण
eyelashes - बरौनी
mere - केवल
"Of course," said Sara, looking into her face as she held her on her knee, "of course papa, this is Emily."
So Emily was bought and actually taken to a children's outfitter's shop and measured for a wardrobe as grand as Sara's own. She had lace frocks, too, and velvet and muslin ones, and hats and coats and beautiful lace-trimmed underclothes, and gloves and handkerchiefs and furs.
outfitter - पुरुष वस्त्र विक्रेता
muslin - मलमल
underclothes - जाँघिया, अंतर्वस्त्र
"I should like her always to look as if she was a child with a good mother," said Sara. "I'm her mother, though I am going to make a companion of her."
Captain Crewe would really have enjoyed the shopping tremendously, but that a sad thought kept tugging at his heart. This all meant that he was going to be separated from his beloved, quaint little comrade.
tremendously - अत्यधिक, जबरदस्त
tugging - खींचना, (tug) खींचना
beloved - प्रेमिका, सनम, प्यारा, प्रियतम
comrade - साथी, कामरेड
He got out of his bed in the middle of that night and went and stood looking down at Sara, who lay asleep with Emily in her arms. Her black hair was spread out on the pillow and Emily's golden-brown hair mingled with it, both of them had lace-ruffled nightgowns, and both had long eyelashes which lay and curled up on their cheeks.
pillow - सिरहाना, शिरोपधान
mingled - घुलना मिलना, घुल मिल जाना
ruffled - फुला लेना, घबरा देना, झालर
nightgowns - नाइटी
Emily looked so like a real child that Captain Crewe felt glad she was there. He drew a big sigh and pulled his mustache with a boyish expression.
sigh - आह भरना
mustache - मूँछ
boyish - बालसुलभ, बालसदृश
"Heigh-ho, little Sara!" he said to himself "I don't believe you know how much your daddy will miss you."
Heigh - ऊंचाई
Ho - अरे!
daddy - अब्बा, बाबा, बापू, पिताजी
The next day he took her to Miss Minchin's and left her there. He was to sail away the next morning. He explained to Miss Minchin that his solicitors, Messrs. Barrow & Skipworth, had charge of his affairs in England and would give her any advice she wanted, and that they would pay the bills she sent in for Sara's expenses.
solicitors - याचक, वकील
barrow - ठेला-गाड़ी
He would write to Sara twice a week, and she was to be given every pleasure she asked for.
"She is a sensible little thing, and she never wants anything it isn't safe to give her," he said.
Then he went with Sara into her little sitting room and they bade each other good-by. Sara sat on his knee and held the lapels of his coat in her small hands, and looked long and hard at his face.
bade - बेड
good-by - (good-by) अलविदा
lapels - लौट, खुले गले के कोट कालर
"Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?" he said, stroking her hair.
"No," she answered. "I know you by heart. You are inside my heart." And they put their arms round each other and kissed as if they would never let each other go.
When the cab drove away from the door, Sara was sitting on the floor of her sitting room, with her hands under her chin and her eyes following it until it had turned the corner of the square. Emily was sitting by her, and she looked after it, too. When Miss Minchin sent her sister, Miss Amelia, to see what the child was doing, she found she could not open the door.
chin - ठुड्डी
Amelia - female given name
"I have locked it," said a queer, polite little voice from inside. "I want to be quite by myself, if you please."
Miss Amelia was fat and dumpy, and stood very much in awe of her sister. She was really the better-natured person of the two, but she never disobeyed Miss Minchin. She went downstairs again, looking almost alarmed.
dumpy - नाटा मोटा
awe - विस्मय, विस्मयाकुल कर देना
disobeyed - आज्ञा न मानना
"I never saw such a funny, old-fashioned child, sister," she said. "She has locked herself in, and she is not making the least particle of noise."
particle - कण
"It is much better than if she kicked and screamed, as some of them do," Miss Minchin answered. "I expected that a child as much spoiled as she is would set the whole house in an uproar. If ever a child was given her own way in everything, she is."
uproar - ख़ुराफ़ात, बवाल, हल्ला, कोलाहल
"I've been opening her trunks and putting her things away," said Miss Amelia. "I never saw anything like them-sable and ermine on her coats, and real Valenciennes lace on her underclothing. You have seen some of her clothes. What DO you think of them?"
trunks - लाइन, धारा, डाली, नली, तना
sable - सेबल
underclothing - अंतर्वस्त्र, (underclothe)
"I think they are perfectly ridiculous," replied Miss Minchin, sharply; "but they will look very well at the head of the line when we take the schoolchildren to church on Sunday. She has been provided for as if she were a little princess."
sharply - कटुतापूर्वक, तीक्ष्णता से
schoolchildren - स्कूली बच्चा
And upstairs in the locked room Sara and Emily sat on the floor and stared at the corner round which the cab had disappeared, while Captain Crewe looked backward, waving and kissing his hand as if he could not bear to stop.
backward - पीछे की ओर का, उल्टा, पिछड़ा हुआ
When Sara entered the schoolroom the next morning everybody looked at her with wide, interested eyes. By that time every pupil-from Lavinia Herbert, who was nearly thirteen and felt quite grown up, to Lottie Legh, who was only just four and the baby of the school-had heard a great deal about her.
schoolroom - स्कूल कक्ष
They knew very certainly that she was Miss Minchin's show pupil and was considered a credit to the establishment. One or two of them had even caught a glimpse of her French maid, Mariette, who had arrived the evening before. Lavinia had managed to pass Sara's room when the door was open, and had seen Mariette opening a box which had arrived late from some shop.
Glimpse - झलक, झाँकी
"It was full of petticoats with lace frills on them-frills and frills," she whispered to her friend Jessie as she bent over her geography. "I saw her shaking them out. I heard Miss Minchin say to Miss Amelia that her clothes were so grand that they were ridiculous for a child. My mamma says that children should be dressed simply. She has got one of those petticoats on now.
petticoats - पेटीकोट, साया
frills - झालर, ताम झाम
I saw it when she sat down."
"She has silk stockings on!" whispered Jessie, bending over her geography also. "And what little feet! I never saw such little feet."
stockings - लंबा मोजा, संग्रहण, मोजा
"Oh," sniffed Lavinia, spitefully, "that is the way her slippers are made. My mamma says that even big feet can be made to look small if you have a clever shoemaker. I don't think she is pretty at all. Her eyes are such a queer color."
sniffed - नाक सुड़कना, भनक, गंध, सिसकी
spitefully - दुर्भावनापूर्वक, ईर्ष्यापूर्वक
slippers - हवाई चप्पल, स्लीपर, फिसलने वाला
Shoemaker - मोची
"She isn't pretty as other pretty people are," said Jessie, stealing a glance across the room; "but she makes you want to look at her again. She has tremendously long eyelashes, but her eyes are almost green."
glance - चमकना, ग्लांस करना, नजर डालना
Sara was sitting quietly in her seat, waiting to be told what to do. She had been placed near Miss Minchin's desk. She was not abashed at all by the many pairs of eyes watching her. She was interested and looked back quietly at the children who looked at her.
abashed - शर्मिंदा करना
She wondered what they were thinking of, and if they liked Miss Minchin, and if they cared for their lessons, and if any of them had a papa at all like her own. She had had a long talk with Emily about her papa that morning.
"He is on the sea now, Emily," she had said. "We must be very great friends to each other and tell each other things. Emily, look at me. You have the nicest eyes I ever saw-but I wish you could speak."
She was a child full of imaginings and whimsical thoughts, and one of her fancies was that there would be a great deal of comfort in even pretending that Emily was alive and really heard and understood. After Mariette had dressed her in her dark-blue schoolroom frock and tied her hair with a dark-blue ribbon, she went to Emily, who sat in a chair of her own, and gave her a book.
imaginings - कल्पना, कल्पनाशीलता
whimsical - अस्थिर, तरंगी, सनकी, मौजी
thoughts - विचार, मत, इरादा, विचारधारा
ribbon - फीता, फ़ीता, रिबन
"You can read that while I am downstairs," she said; and, seeing Mariette looking at her curiously, she spoke to her with a serious little face.
curiously - अजीब से
"What I believe about dolls," she said, "is that they can do things they will not let us know about. Perhaps, really, Emily can read and talk and walk, but she will only do it when people are out of the room. That is her secret. You see, if people knew that dolls could do things, they would make them work. So, perhaps, they have promised each other to keep it a secret.
If you stay in the room, Emily will just sit there and stare; but if you go out, she will begin to read, perhaps, or go and look out of the window. Then if she heard either of us coming, she would just run back and jump into her chair and pretend she had been there all the time."
"Comme elle est drole!" Mariette said to herself, and when she went downstairs she told the head housemaid about it. But she had already begun to like this odd little girl who had such an intelligent small face and such perfect manners. She had taken care of children before who were not so polite.
est - Eastern Standard Time
drole - भूमिका
housemaid - नौकरानी
Sara was a very fine little person, and had a gentle, appreciative way of saying, "If you please, Mariette," "Thank you, Mariette," which was very charming. Mariette told the head housemaid that she thanked her as if she was thanking a lady.
appreciative - गुणानुरागी, गुणग्राही, गुणज्ञ
"Elle a l'air d'une princesse, cette petite," she said. Indeed, she was very much pleased with her new little mistress and liked her place greatly.
princesse - राजकुमारी
petite - ठिंगनी, छोटा सा
Mistress - प्रेमिका
After Sara had sat in her seat in the schoolroom for a few minutes, being looked at by the pupils, Miss Minchin rapped in a dignified manner upon her desk.
rapped - रैप संगीत बजाना, चटाक् से मारना
dignified - प्रतिष्ठित दिखाई देना
"Young ladies," she said, "I wish to introduce you to your new companion." All the little girls rose in their places, and Sara rose also. "I shall expect you all to be very agreeable to Miss Crewe; she has just come to us from a great distance-in fact, from India. As soon as lessons are over you must make each other's acquaintance."
agreeable - रजामंद
acquaintance - ज्ञान, पहचान, परिचित, परिचय
The pupils bowed ceremoniously, and Sara made a little curtsy, and then they sat down and looked at each other again.
bowed - झुकाना, सिर झुकाना, गलही
ceremoniously - औपचारिक ढंग से, औपचारिक ढंग से
curtsy - महिलाओं द्वारा घुटने मोड़ कर और शरीर को आगे झुका कर किया जाने वाला अभिनन्दन
"Sara," said Miss Minchin in her schoolroom manner, "come here to me."
She had taken a book from the desk and was turning over its leaves. Sara went to her politely.
"As your papa has engaged a French maid for you," she began, "I conclude that he wishes you to make a special study of the French language."
Sara felt a little awkward.
"I think he engaged her," she said, "because he-he thought I would like her, Miss Minchin."
"I am afraid," said Miss Minchin, with a slightly sour smile, "that you have been a very spoiled little girl and always imagine that things are done because you like them. My impression is that your papa wished you to learn French."
sour - खट्टा
If Sara had been older or less punctilious about being quite polite to people, she could have explained herself in a very few words. But, as it was, she felt a flush rising on her cheeks. Miss Minchin was a very severe and imposing person, and she seemed so absolutely sure that Sara knew nothing whatever of French that she felt as if it would be almost rude to correct her.
punctilious - अति शिष्टाचारी, अत्यौपचारिक
The truth was that Sara could not remember the time when she had not seemed to know French. Her father had often spoken it to her when she had been a baby. Her mother had been a French woman, and Captain Crewe had loved her language, so it happened that Sara had always heard and been familiar with it.
"I-I have never really learned French, but-but-" she began, trying shyly to make herself clear.
shyly - शर्माता हुआ
One of Miss Minchin's chief secret annoyances was that she did not speak French herself, and was desirous of concealing the irritating fact. She, therefore, had no intention of discussing the matter and laying herself open to innocent questioning by a new little pupil.
annoyances - चिढ़, मुसीबत, कष्ट, छेड़छाड़
desirous - अभिलाषी, इच्छुक, इच्छा करनेवाला
concealing - छिपाना
irritating - परेशान करना, उत्तेजित करना
"That is enough," she said with polite tartness. "If you have not learned, you must begin at once. The French master, Monsieur Dufarge, will be here in a few minutes. Take this book and look at it until he arrives."
tartness - खट्टापन, कटुता, रूखापन, कड़वाहट
monsieur - श्रीमान
Sara's cheeks felt warm. She went back to her seat and opened the book. She looked at the first page with a grave face. She knew it would be rude to smile, and she was very determined not to be rude. But it was very odd to find herself expected to study a page which told her that "le pere" meant "the father," and "la mere" meant "the mother."
grave - कब्र
le - ली
Pere - पिता
la - ला
Miss Minchin glanced toward her scrutinizingly.
glanced - चमकना, ग्लांस करना, नजर डालना
toward - की तरफ़, ओर, की ओर
"You look rather cross, Sara," she said. "I am sorry you do not like the idea of learning French."
"I am very fond of it," answered Sara, thinking she would try again; "but-"
"You must not say 'but'when you are told to do things," said Miss Minchin. "Look at your book again."
And Sara did so, and did not smile, even when she found that "le fils" meant "the son," and "le frere" meant "the brother."
fils - बेटा, (fil) बेटा
frere - भाई
"When Monsieur Dufarge comes," she thought, "I can make him understand."
Monsieur Dufarge arrived very shortly afterward. He was a very nice, intelligent, middle-aged Frenchman, and he looked interested when his eyes fell upon Sara trying politely to seem absorbed in her little book of phrases.
"Is this a new pupil for me, madame?" he said to Miss Minchin. "I hope that is my good fortune."
"Her papa-Captain Crewe-is very anxious that she should begin the language. But I am afraid she has a childish prejudice against it. She does not seem to wish to learn," said Miss Minchin.
childish - बचकाना, लड़कपन की सी
prejudice - पूर्वाग्रह
"I am sorry of that, mademoiselle," he said kindly to Sara. "Perhaps, when we begin to study together, I may show you that it is a charming tongue."
Mademoiselle - कुमारी
Little Sara rose in her seat. She was beginning to feel rather desperate, as if she were almost in disgrace. She looked up into Monsieur Dufarge's face with her big, green-gray eyes, and they were quite innocently appealing. She knew that he would understand as soon as she spoke. She began to explain quite simply in pretty and fluent French. Madame had not understood.
disgrace - अपमान
innocently - भोलेपन से, कानूनी ढंग से
fluent - प्रवाहमय
She had not learned French exactly-not out of books-but her papa and other people had always spoken it to her, and she had read it and written it as she had read and written English. Her papa loved it, and she loved it because he did. Her dear mamma, who had died when she was born, had been French.
She would be glad to learn anything monsieur would teach her, but what she had tried to explain to madame was that she already knew the words in this book-and she held out the little book of phrases.
When she began to speak Miss Minchin started quite violently and sat staring at her over her eyeglasses, almost indignantly, until she had finished. Monsieur Dufarge began to smile, and his smile was one of great pleasure.
violently - हिंसात्मक ढंग से
eyeglasses - लेन्स
indignantly - रोषपूर्वक, क्रोध से
To hear this pretty childish voice speaking his own language so simply and charmingly made him feel almost as if he were in his native land-which in dark, foggy days in London sometimes seemed worlds away. When she had finished, he took the phrase book from her, with a look almost affectionate. But he spoke to Miss Minchin.
charmingly - आकर्षक रूप से
foggy - कोहरेदार, भ्रमपूर्ण, धुँधला
phrase book - पुस्तक अनुवाद
affectionate - स्नेही, स्नेहमय, fond
"Ah, madame," he said, "there is not much I can teach her. She has not LEARNED French; she is French. Her accent is exquisite."
exquisite - सुन्दर, तीव्र, उत्कृष्ट
"You ought to have told me," exclaimed Miss Minchin, much mortified, turning to Sara.
exclaimed - चिल्लाना, चिल्लाकर कहना
mortified - नीचा दिखाना, शर्मिंदा करना
"I-I tried," said Sara. "I-I suppose I did not begin right."
Miss Minchin knew she had tried, and that it had not been her fault that she was not allowed to explain. And when she saw that the pupils had been listening and that Lavinia and Jessie were giggling behind their French grammars, she felt infuriated.
giggling - हंसना, (giggle) हंसना
grammars - व्याकरण भाषा
infuriated - क्रुद्ध करना, क्रोधोन्मत्त करना
"Silence, young ladies!" she said severely, rapping upon the desk. "Silence at once!"
rapping - रैप संगीत बजाना, चटाक् से मारना
And she began from that minute to feel rather a grudge against her show pupil.
grudge - डाह
On that first morning, when Sara sat at Miss Minchin's side, aware that the whole schoolroom was devoting itself to observing her, she had noticed very soon one little girl, about her own age, who looked at her very hard with a pair of light, rather dull, blue eyes. She was a fat child who did not look as if she were in the least clever, but she had a good-naturedly pouting mouth.
pouting - उल्टी हुई होती हुई, (pout) उल्टी हुई होती हुई
Her flaxen hair was braided in a tight pigtail, tied with a ribbon, and she had pulled this pigtail around her neck, and was biting the end of the ribbon, resting her elbows on the desk, as she stared wonderingly at the new pupil.
flaxen - सन के रंग का
braided - चोटी, चोटी बँधना, फीता
pigtail - छोटी चोटी, चोटी, लम्बी चोटी
wonderingly - प्रश्नात्मक ढंग से
When Monsieur Dufarge began to speak to Sara, she looked a little frightened; and when Sara stepped forward and, looking at him with the innocent, appealing eyes, answered him, without any warning, in French, the fat little girl gave a startled jump, and grew quite red in her awed amazement.
startled - चकित, चौंक जाना, चौंकाना
awed - विस्मय, विस्मयाकुल कर देना
amazement - अचंभा
Having wept hopeless tears for weeks in her efforts to remember that "la mere" meant "the mother," and "le pere," "the father,"-when one spoke sensible English-it was almost too much for her suddenly to find herself listening to a child her own age who seemed not only quite familiar with these words, but apparently knew any number of others, and could mix them up with verbs as if they were mere trifles.
wept - बहना, रोना, विलाप करना, रोदन
hopeless - निराशाजनक, निराश, हताश, निकम्मा
verbs - क्रिया, क्रियापद
trifles - क्षुद्र धनराशि, छोटी सी बात
She stared so hard and bit the ribbon on her pigtail so fast that she attracted the attention of Miss Minchin, who, feeling extremely cross at the moment, immediately pounced upon her.
pounced - झपटना, झपट्टा, झपटना/पंजा मारना
"Miss St. John!" she exclaimed severely. "What do you mean by such conduct? Remove your elbows! Take your ribbon out of your mouth! Sit up at once!"
Upon which Miss St. John gave another jump, and when Lavinia and Jessie tittered she became redder than ever-so red, indeed, that she almost looked as if tears were coming into her poor, dull, childish eyes; and Sara saw her and was so sorry for her that she began rather to like her and want to be her friend.
tittered - दबी हुई हँसी
It was a way of hers always to want to spring into any fray in which someone was made uncomfortable or unhappy.
fray - उघड़ना
"If Sara had been a boy and lived a few centuries ago," her father used to say, "she would have gone about the country with her sword drawn, rescuing and defending everyone in distress. She always wants to fight when she sees people in trouble."
sword - तलवार, शमशेर
distress - दुःख होना, कठिनाई, दुःख होना
So she took rather a fancy to fat, slow, little Miss St. John, and kept glancing toward her through the morning. She saw that lessons were no easy matter to her, and that there was no danger of her ever being spoiled by being treated as a show pupil. Her French lesson was a pathetic thing.
glancing - झलकना, (glance) झलकना
pathetic - दयनीय, शोचनीय, भावात्मक
Her pronunciation made even Monsieur Dufarge smile in spite of himself, and Lavinia and Jessie and the more fortunate girls either giggled or looked at her in wondering disdain. But Sara did not laugh. She tried to look as if she did not hear when Miss St. John called "le bon pain," "lee bong pang.
pronunciation - उच्चारण
giggled - मन्द मन्द हंसना, ठट्ठा
disdain - उपेक्षा करना, अवहेलना
Lee - ओर
pang - तेज पीड़ा
" She had a fine, hot little temper of her own, and it made her feel rather savage when she heard the titters and saw the poor, stupid, distressed child's face.
temper - लचकीला बनाना, कम करना, गुस्सा
savage - असभ्य, दुष्ट, तीव्र, काटना
titters - दबी हुई हँसी
distressed - दुःख होना, कठिनाई, दुःख होना
"It isn't funny, really," she said between her teeth, as she bent over her book. "They ought not to laugh."
When lessons were over and the pupils gathered together in groups to talk, Sara looked for Miss St. John, and finding her bundled rather disconsolately in a window-seat, she walked over to her and spoke. She only said the kind of thing little girls always say to each other by way of beginning an acquaintance, but there was something friendly about Sara, and people always felt it.
bundled - भरना, बहुत ज़्यादा, गट्ठा
disconsolately - निराशापूर्ण ढंग से
"What is your name?" she said.
To explain Miss St. John's amazement one must recall that a new pupil is, for a short time, a somewhat uncertain thing; and of this new pupil the entire school had talked the night before until it fell asleep quite exhausted by excitement and contradictory stories. A new pupil with a carriage and a pony and a maid, and a voyage from India to discuss, was not an ordinary acquaintance.
uncertain - अविश्वसनीय, अनिश्चित, अस्थिर
exhausted - थकाना, खींच लेना
contradictory - अन्तर्विरोधी, परस्पर विरोधी
"My name's Ermengarde St. John," she answered.
"Mine is Sara Crewe," said Sara. "Yours is very pretty. It sounds like a story book."
"Do you like it?" fluttered Ermengarde. "I-I like yours."
fluttered - उत्तेजना, घबराहट, उतार चढाव
Miss St. John's chief trouble in life was that she had a clever father. Sometimes this seemed to her a dreadful calamity.
dreadful - भद्दा, शोचनीय, डरावना, विकट
calamity - आपदा, मुसीबत, आफ़त
If you have a father who knows everything, who speaks seven or eight languages, and has thousands of volumes which he has apparently learned by heart, he frequently expects you to be familiar with the contents of your lesson books at least; and it is not improbable that he will feel you ought to be able to remember a few incidents of history and to write a French exercise.
Contents - मात्रा, सन्तुष्ट
improbable - विचित्र, असंभाव्य, असम्भाव्य
Ermengarde was a severe trial to Mr. St. John. He could not understand how a child of his could be a notably and unmistakably dull creature who never shone in anything.
notably - विशेषकर, विशेषतः
unmistakably - सुस्पष्टता से, स्पष्टतः
"Good heavens!" he had said more than once, as he stared at her, "there are times when I think she is as stupid as her Aunt Eliza!"
Good heavens - वहीं देवताओं!
If her Aunt Eliza had been slow to learn and quick to forget a thing entirely when she had learned it, Ermengarde was strikingly like her. She was the monumental dunce of the school, and it could not be denied.
strikingly - असाधारण रूप से
monumental - महत्वपूर्ण, स्मारकीय
dunce - मूर्ख/जड़/मूढ़मति
"She must be MADE to learn," her father said to Miss Minchin.
Consequently Ermengarde spent the greater part of her life in disgrace or in tears. She learned things and forgot them; or, if she remembered them, she did not understand them. So it was natural that, having made Sara's acquaintance, she should sit and stare at her with profound admiration.
profound - गहन, गहरा, पारंगत, अथाह, गाढ़ा
admiration - तारीफ़, सफत, उपमा
"You can speak French, can't you?" she said respectfully.
respectfully - ससम्मान, आदरपूर्वक, सादर
Sara got on to the window-seat, which was a big, deep one, and, tucking up her feet, sat with her hands clasped round her knees.
tucking up - उठाना
clasped - मजबूत पकड़, बकसुआ
"I can speak it because I have heard it all my life," she answered. "You could speak it if you had always heard it."
"Oh, no, I couldn't," said Ermengarde. "I NEVER could speak it!"
"Why?" inquired Sara, curiously.
Ermengarde shook her head so that the pigtail wobbled.
wobbled - डगमगाना, लरज़ना, काँपना
"You heard me just now," she said. "I'm always like that. I can't SAY the words. They're so queer."
She paused a moment, and then added with a touch of awe in her voice, "You are CLEVER, aren't you?"
Sara looked out of the window into the dingy square, where the sparrows were hopping and twittering on the wet, iron railings and the sooty branches of the trees. She reflected a few moments. She had heard it said very often that she was "clever," and she wondered if she was-and IF she was, how it had happened.
dingy - काला और गन्दा
sparrows - एक प्रकार की छोटी चिड़िया, गौरैया
hopping - हॉपिंग, (hop) हॉपिंग
twittering - ट्विटर करना, (twitter) ट्विटर करना
sooty - कालिख जैस्, कालिख से ढ़की
"I don't know," she said. "I can't tell." Then, seeing a mournful look on the round, chubby face, she gave a little laugh and changed the subject.
mournful - दुःखपूर्ण, दुख भरा
Chubby - गोलमटोल, गलफुला
"Would you like to see Emily?" she inquired.
"Who is Emily?" Ermengarde asked, just as Miss Minchin had done.
"Come up to my room and see," said Sara, holding out her hand.
They jumped down from the window-seat together, and went upstairs.
"Is it true," Ermengarde whispered, as they went through the hall-"is it true that you have a playroom all to yourself?"
playroom - खेलकूद कक्ष
"Yes," Sara answered. "Papa asked Miss Minchin to let me have one, because-well, it was because when I play I make up stories and tell them to myself, and I don't like people to hear me. It spoils it if I think people listen."
They had reached the passage leading to Sara's room by this time, and Ermengarde stopped short, staring, and quite losing her breath.
"You MAKE up stories!" she gasped. "Can you do that-as well as speak French? CAN you?"
gasped - चाहना, धक से रह जाना
Sara looked at her in simple surprise.
"Why, anyone can make up things," she said. "Have you never tried?"
She put her hand warningly on Ermengarde's.
"Let us go very quietly to the door," she whispered, "and then I will open it quite suddenly; perhaps we may catch her."
She was half laughing, but there was a touch of mysterious hope in her eyes which fascinated Ermengarde, though she had not the remotest idea what it meant, or whom it was she wanted to "catch," or why she wanted to catch her. Whatsoever she meant, Ermengarde was sure it was something delightfully exciting. So, quite thrilled with expectation, she followed her on tiptoe along the passage.
fascinated - मंत्र मुग्ध करना
whatsoever - जो कुछ, कुछ भी, कुछ भी
delightfully - रुचिकर ढंग से, खुशी से
thrilled - उत्तेजित करना, खुशी होना
on tiptoe - चुपके से चलना
They made not the least noise until they reached the door. Then Sara suddenly turned the handle, and threw it wide open. Its opening revealed the room quite neat and quiet, a fire gently burning in the grate, and a wonderful doll sitting in a chair by it, apparently reading a book.
gently - सावधानी से, शिष्टता से
grate - झंझरी
"Oh, she got back to her seat before we could see her!" Sara explained. "Of course they always do. They are as quick as lightning."
lightning - तड़ित, विद्युत, बिजली
Ermengarde looked from her to the doll and back again.
"Can she-walk?" she asked breathlessly.
breathlessly - हाँफाते हुए, हाँफाते हुए
"Yes," answered Sara. "At least I believe she can. At least I PRETEND I believe she can. And that makes it seem as if it were true. Have you never pretended things?"
"No," said Ermengarde. "Never. I-tell me about it."
She was so bewitched by this odd, new companion that she actually stared at Sara instead of at Emily-notwithstanding that Emily was the most attractive doll person she had ever seen.
bewitched - जादू करना, सम्मोहित करना
notwithstanding - फिर भी, के बावजूद, तथापि, तब भी
"Let us sit down," said Sara, "and I will tell you. It's so easy that when you begin you can't stop. You just go on and on doing it always. And it's beautiful. Emily, you must listen. This is Ermengarde St. John, Emily. Ermengarde, this is Emily. Would you like to hold her?"
"Oh, may I?" said Ermengarde. "May I, really? She is beautiful!" And Emily was put into her arms.
Never in her dull, short life had Miss St. John dreamed of such an hour as the one she spent with the queer new pupil before they heard the lunch-bell ring and were obliged to go downstairs.
ring - अंगूठी
obliged - नैतिक नियमों से मज़बूर करना
Sara sat upon the hearth-rug and told her strange things. She sat rather huddled up, and her green eyes shone and her cheeks flushed.
hearth - अंगीठी, चूल्हा
rug - ग़ालीचा, दरी
huddled up - गिरते हुए
flushed - समतल, समृद्ध
She told stories of the voyage, and stories of India; but what fascinated Ermengarde the most was her fancy about the dolls who walked and talked, and who could do anything they chose when the human beings were out of the room, but who must keep their powers a secret and so flew back to their places "like lightning" when people returned to the room.
beings - जीवन, स्वभाव, प्राणी, अस्तित्व
"WE couldn't do it," said Sara, seriously. "You see, it's a kind of magic."
Once, when she was relating the story of the search for Emily, Ermengarde saw her face suddenly change. A cloud seemed to pass over it and put out the light in her shining eyes. She drew her breath in so sharply that it made a funny, sad little sound, and then she shut her lips and held them tightly closed, as if she was determined either to do or NOT to do something.
tightly - ठसाठस, कस कर, कस कर
Ermengarde had an idea that if she had been like any other little girl, she might have suddenly burst out sobbing and crying. But she did not.
burst - फूटना
sobbing - action of the verb ", to sob"
"Have you a-a pain?" Ermengarde ventured.
ventured - जाने का साहस करना
"Yes," Sara answered, after a moment's silence. "But it is not in my body." Then she added something in a low voice which she tried to keep quite steady, and it was this: "Do you love your father more than anything else in all the whole world?"
Ermengarde's mouth fell open a little. She knew that it would be far from behaving like a respectable child at a select seminary to say that it had never occurred to you that you COULD love your father, that you would do anything desperate to avoid being left alone in his society for ten minutes. She was, indeed, greatly embarrassed.
"I-I scarcely ever see him," she stammered. "He is always in the library-reading things."
stammered - हकलाहट, हकलाना, तोतलाना
"I love mine more than all the world ten times over," Sara said. "That is what my pain is. He has gone away."
She put her head quietly down on her little, huddled-up knees, and sat very still for a few minutes.
huddled - सलाह मशविरा, झुंड, सिमट जाना
"She's going to cry out loud," thought Ermengarde, fearfully.
fearfully - भयावह रूप से, भयसहित
But she did not. Her short, black locks tumbled about her ears, and she sat still. Then she spoke without lifting her head.
tumbled - गिरावट, भाव गिरना, गिर जाना
"I promised him I would bear it," she said. "And I will. You have to bear things. Think what soldiers bear! Papa is a soldier. If there was a war he would have to bear marching and thirstiness and, perhaps, deep wounds. And he would never say a word-not one word."
thirstiness - सूखा, प्यास
Ermengarde could only gaze at her, but she felt that she was beginning to adore her. She was so wonderful and different from anyone else.
gaze - एक्टक देखने ताला, टकटकी
adore - पूजा करना, आराधना करना
Presently, she lifted her face and shook back her black locks, with a queer little smile.
Presently - अभी, शीघ्र ही, संप्रति
"If I go on talking and talking," she said, "and telling you things about pretending, I shall bear it better. You don't forget, but you bear it better."
Ermengarde did not know why a lump came into her throat and her eyes felt as if tears were in them.
lump - ढेला, ढेर, मूर्ख, गोला, सूजन
"Lavinia and Jessie are 'best friends,'" she said rather huskily. "I wish we could be 'best friends.'Would you have me for yours? You're clever, and I'm the stupidest child in the school, but I-oh, I do so like you!"
huskily - भारी आवाज़ में, कर्कश आवाज़ से
"I'm glad of that," said Sara. "It makes you thankful when you are liked. Yes. We will be friends. And I'll tell you what"-a sudden gleam lighting her face-"I can help you with your French lessons."
I'm glad of that - मुझे यह खुशी है
gleam - किरण डालना
If Sara had been a different kind of child, the life she led at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for the next few years would not have been at all good for her. She was treated more as if she were a distinguished guest at the establishment than as if she were a mere little girl.
If she had been a self-opinionated, domineering child, she might have become disagreeable enough to be unbearable through being so much indulged and flattered. If she had been an indolent child, she would have learned nothing. Privately Miss Minchin disliked her, but she was far too worldly a woman to do or say anything which might make such a desirable pupil wish to leave her school.
opinionated - दुराग्रही
domineering - अत्याचार करना/कठोरता से शासन करना
disagreeable - अप्रिय, झगड़ालू
unbearable - असहनीय, असह्य
indulged - लिप्त होना, प्रसन्न करना
flattered - चापलूसी करना, रौशन होना[करना]
indolent - आलसी, गब्बर, अस्कती
privately - व्यक्तिगत रूप से
worldly - सांसारिक, भौतिक, लौकिक
She knew quite well that if Sara wrote to her papa to tell him she was uncomfortable or unhappy, Captain Crewe would remove her at once. Miss Minchin's opinion was that if a child were continually praised and never forbidden to do what she liked, she would be sure to be fond of the place where she was so treated.
continually - लगातार, निरंतर
Accordingly, Sara was praised for her quickness at her lessons, for her good manners, for her amiability to her fellow pupils, for her generosity if she gave sixpence to a beggar out of her full little purse; the simplest thing she did was treated as if it were a virtue, and if she had not had a disposition and a clever little brain, she might have been a very self-satisfied young person.
accordingly - फलस्वरूप, परिस्थिति के अनुसार
quickness - तत्परता, कुशाग्रता
amiability - सौम्यता, मिलनसारीई, मिलनसारी
generosity - उदारता
sixpence - छः पेंस
beggar - याचक, भिक्षुक, भिखमंगा
purse - पर्स, बटुआ
virtue - सदाचार, गुण, अच्छाई, नेकी
disposition - प्रवृत्ति, प्रबंध, स्थिति
But the clever little brain told her a great many sensible and true things about herself and her circumstances, and now and then she talked these things over to Ermengarde as time went on.
"Things happen to people by accident," she used to say. "A lot of nice accidents have happened to me. It just HAPPENED that I always liked lessons and books, and could remember things when I learned them. It just happened that I was born with a father who was beautiful and nice and clever, and could give me everything I liked.
Perhaps I have not really a good temper at all, but if you have everything you want and everyone is kind to you, how can you help but be good-tempered? I don't know"-looking quite serious-"how I shall ever find out whether I am really a nice child or a horrid one. Perhaps I'm a HIDEOUS child, and no one will ever know, just because I never have any trials."
tempered - लचकीला बनाना, कम करना, गुस्सा
horrid - भयंकर, जघन्य
hideous - डरावना, वीभत्स
"Lavinia has no trials," said Ermengarde, stolidly, "and she is horrid enough."
stolidly - भावहीन ढंग से
Sara rubbed the end of her little nose reflectively, as she thought the matter over.
reflectively - विचारमग्न ढंग से
"Well," she said at last, "perhaps-perhaps that is because Lavinia is GROWING." This was the result of a charitable recollection of having heard Miss Amelia say that Lavinia was growing so fast that she believed it affected her health and temper.
charitable - उदार, परोपकारी, दानशील
recollection - स्मरण, स्मरण शक्ति, याद, स्मृति
Lavinia, in fact, was spiteful. She was inordinately jealous of Sara. Until the new pupil's arrival, she had felt herself the leader in the school. She had led because she was capable of making herself extremely disagreeable if the others did not follow her. She domineered over the little children, and assumed grand airs with those big enough to be her companions.
spiteful - ईर्ष्यालु, द्वेषी, ईर्ष्यापूर्ण
inordinately - बहुत ज़्यादा
jealous - सतर्क, चौकन्ना, सावधान
domineered - अत्याचार करना/कठोरता से शासन करना
Companions - साथी, छोटी पुस्तक, मिट्र
She was rather pretty, and had been the best-dressed pupil in the procession when the Select Seminary walked out two by two, until Sara's velvet coats and sable muffs appeared, combined with drooping ostrich feathers, and were led by Miss Minchin at the head of the line.
procession - शोभायाट्रा, याट्रा का व्यक्ति
drooping - झुकना, लटकन, कुम्हलाना
This, at the beginning, had been bitter enough; but as time went on it became apparent that Sara was a leader, too, and not because she could make herself disagreeable, but because she never did.
"There's one thing about Sara Crewe," Jessie had enraged her "best friend" by saying honestly, "she's never 'grand'about herself the least bit, and you know she might be, Lavvie. I believe I couldn't help being-just a little-if I had so many fine things and was made such a fuss over. It's disgusting, the way Miss Minchin shows her off when parents come."
enraged - गुस्सा दिलानाकुपित करना
honestly - ईमानदारी से
fuss - परेशान करना, चिंतित होना
disgusting - गुस्सा, घृणा करना, घृणा
"'Dear Sara must come into the drawing room and talk to Mrs. Musgrave about India,'" mimicked Lavinia, in her most highly flavored imitation of Miss Minchin. "'Dear Sara must speak French to Lady Pitkin. Her accent is so perfect.'She didn't learn her French at the Seminary, at any rate. And there's nothing so clever in her knowing it. She says herself she didn't learn it at all.
mimicked - नकलची, नकल करना
flavored - झलक, स्वाद, स्वाद लाना, गंध
imitation - कृत्रिम, नकली/अनुकरण, अनुकरण
She just picked it up, because she always heard her papa speak it. And, as to her papa, there is nothing so grand in being an Indian officer."
"Well," said Jessie, slowly, "he's killed tigers. He killed the one in the skin Sara has in her room. That's why she likes it so. She lies on it and strokes its head, and talks to it as if it was a cat."
tigers - शेर, बाघ, बाघ का बच्चा, चटोरा
"She's always doing something silly," snapped Lavinia. "My mamma says that way of hers of pretending things is silly. She says she will grow up eccentric."
snapped - प्रेस बटन, टूटना, काट लेना
eccentric - सनकी, विचित्र
It was quite true that Sara was never "grand." She was a friendly little soul, and shared her privileges and belongings with a free hand. The little ones, who were accustomed to being disdained and ordered out of the way by mature ladies aged ten and twelve, were never made to cry by this most envied of them all.
belongings - सम्पत्ति, माल असबाब
accustomed - आदी बना करना, साधना
disdained - उपेक्षा करना, अवहेलना
mature - पूर्ण विकसित
envied - ईर्ष्या, ईर्ष्या करना, जलन
She was a motherly young person, and when people fell down and scraped their knees, she ran and helped them up and patted them, or found in her pocket a bonbon or some other article of a soothing nature. She never pushed them out of her way or alluded to their years as a humiliation and a blot upon their small characters.
motherly - माँ जैसा, माँ जैसा, मातृ सुल्भ
scraped - खरोंचना, खरोंच, खरोंच खाना
bonbon - बॉनबॉन
soothing - आरामदेह
alluded - संकेत करना, ज़िक्र करना
humiliation - निरादर, अपमान
blot - दाग, धब्बा, दाग/धब्बा
"If you are four you are four," she said severely to Lavinia on an occasion of her having-it must be confessed-slapped Lottie and called her "a brat;" "but you will be five next year, and six the year after that. And," opening large, convicting eyes, "it takes sixteen years to make you twenty."
slapped - सीधे, ठीक, तमाचा मारना
brat - छोकरा, शरारती बालक
convicting - अपराधी, अपराधी ठहराना, दोषी
"Dear me," said Lavinia, "how we can calculate!" In fact, it was not to be denied that sixteen and four made twenty-and twenty was an age the most daring were scarcely bold enough to dream of.
So the younger children adored Sara. More than once she had been known to have a tea party, made up of these despised ones, in her own room. And Emily had been played with, and Emily's own tea service used-the one with cups which held quite a lot of much-sweetened weak tea and had blue flowers on them. No one had seen such a very real doll's tea set before.
adored - पूजा करना, आराधना करना
despised - घृणा करना, उपेक्षा करना
tea service - चाय सेवा
sweetened - और मीठा करना, और मीठा करना
tea set - चाय सेट
From that afternoon Sara was regarded as a goddess and a queen by the entire alphabet class.
goddess - देवी
alphabet - वर्णमाला, मूलाक्षर, अक्षरमाला
Lottie Legh worshipped her to such an extent that if Sara had not been a motherly person, she would have found her tiresome. Lottie had been sent to school by a rather flighty young papa who could not imagine what else to do with her.
tiresome - तकलीफ़देह, उबाऊ, थकानेवाला
flighty - चंचल, चंचल व्यवहार
Her young mother had died, and as the child had been treated like a favorite doll or a very spoiled pet monkey or lap dog ever since the first hour of her life, she was a very appalling little creature.
lap dog - कुत्ता का कुत्ता
appalling - घटिया, भयंकर, (appal) घटिया
When she wanted anything or did not want anything she wept and howled; and, as she always wanted the things she could not have, and did not want the things that were best for her, her shrill little voice was usually to be heard uplifted in wails in one part of the house or another.
howled - चिल्लाना, चिल्लाहट
shrill - तीखा, तीक्ष्ण, कर्णभेदी
uplifted - सुधार, उठाना
wails - रोना, ऊँची आवाज़ में रोना
Her strongest weapon was that in some mysterious way she had found out that a very small girl who had lost her mother was a person who ought to be pitied and made much of. She had probably heard some grown-up people talking her over in the early days, after her mother's death. So it became her habit to make great use of this knowledge.
The first time Sara took her in charge was one morning when, on passing a sitting room, she heard both Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia trying to suppress the angry wails of some child who, evidently, refused to be silenced. She refused so strenuously indeed that Miss Minchin was obliged to almost shout-in a stately and severe manner-to make herself heard.
Suppress - रोकना, समाप्त करना
evidently - स्पष्ट रूप से, स्पष्ट रूप से
refused - अग्राह्य करना, अस्वीकार करना
strenuously - सख़्ती से, दृढ़ता से
stately - शानदार, प्रभावशाली, उत्कृष्ट
"What IS she crying for?" she almost yelled.
yelled - चीखना, चिल्लाना, चिल्लाहट, चीख
"Oh-oh-oh!" Sara heard; "I haven't got any mam-ma-a!"
Mam - माँ
"Oh, Lottie!" screamed Miss Amelia. "Do stop, darling! don't cry! Please don't!"
don't cry - रोना मत
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" Lottie howled tempestuously. "Haven't-got-any-mam-ma-a!"
tempestuously - in a tempestuous manner
Ma - एम् एए, माँ, एम् एए
"She ought to be whipped," Miss Minchin proclaimed. "You SHALL be whipped, you naughty child!"
proclaimed - प्रमाणित करना, प्रशंसा करना
whipped - मिठाई, बुरी तरह से पछाड़ देना
naughty - शरारती, दुष्ट, अश्लील
Lottie wailed more loudly than ever. Miss Amelia began to cry. Miss Minchin's voice rose until it almost thundered, then suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent indignation and flounced out of the room, leaving Miss Amelia to arrange the matter.
wailed - रोना, ऊँची आवाज़ में रोना
thundered - ज़ोर से धमाकाना, गरजना
impotent - नामर्द, नपुंसक
indignation - रोष, क्रोध/रोष, नाराज़गी
flounced - झालर, आवेश में चल देना
Sara had paused in the hall, wondering if she ought to go into the room, because she had recently begun a friendly acquaintance with Lottie and might be able to quiet her. When Miss Minchin came out and saw her, she looked rather annoyed. She realized that her voice, as heard from inside the room, could not have sounded either dignified or amiable.
amiable - स्नेही, मिलनसार, कांत
"Oh, Sara!" she exclaimed, endeavoring to produce a suitable smile.
endeavoring - प्रयास, प्रयत्न, प्रयत्न करना
"I stopped," explained Sara, "because I knew it was Lottie-and I thought, perhaps-just perhaps, I could make her be quiet. May I try, Miss Minchin?"
"If you can, you are a clever child," answered Miss Minchin, drawing in her mouth sharply. Then, seeing that Sara looked slightly chilled by her asperity, she changed her manner. "But you are clever in everything," she said in her approving way. "I dare say you can manage her. Go in." And she left her.
chilled - ठंडा, ठण्डा, ठंडा किया हुआ
asperity - कठोरता, कठिनाई, रूखापन
When Sara entered the room, Lottie was lying upon the floor, screaming and kicking her small fat legs violently, and Miss Amelia was bending over her in consternation and despair, looking quite red and damp with heat. Lottie had always found, when in her own nursery at home, that kicking and screaming would always be quieted by any means she insisted on.
consternation - व्याकुलता, विस्मय/घबराहट
despair - निराशा, मायूसी
damp - कम करना, गीला, नमी, नम करना
nursery - नर्सरी, संवर्धन स्थान
Poor plump Miss Amelia was trying first one method, and then another.
plump - मोटा, गोल-मटोल
"Poor darling," she said one moment, "I know you haven't any mamma, poor-" Then in quite another tone, "If you don't stop, Lottie, I will shake you. Poor little angel! There-! You wicked, bad, detestable child, I will smack you! I will!"
angel - देवदूत
wicked - दुष्ट, (wick) दुष्ट
detestable - घृणित, घिनौना, घृणास्पद
Smack - थप्पड़ मारना
Sara went to them quietly. She did not know at all what she was going to do, but she had a vague inward conviction that it would be better not to say such different kinds of things quite so helplessly and excitedly.
vague - अज्ञात, हल्का, अनिश्चित
inward - भीतरी, अन्दरूनी, भीतर की ओर
conviction - अपराध सिद्धि, दोषसिद्धि
helplessly - असहाय भाव से, असहाय भाव से
excitedly - उत्तेजित हो कर, उत्तेजित हो कर
"Miss Amelia," she said in a low voice, "Miss Minchin says I may try to make her stop-may I?"
Miss Amelia turned and looked at her hopelessly. "Oh, DO you think you can?" she gasped.
hopelessly - निराशाजनक ढंग से
"I don't know whether I CAN", answered Sara, still in her half-whisper; "but I will try."
Miss Amelia stumbled up from her knees with a heavy sigh, and Lottie's fat little legs kicked as hard as ever.
stumbled - गिरना, ठोकर, भूल करना
"If you will steal out of the room," said Sara, "I will stay with her."
"Oh, Sara!" almost whimpered Miss Amelia. "We never had such a dreadful child before. I don't believe we can keep her."
whimpered - ठिनठिनाहट, रिरियाहट, ठिनठिनाना
But she crept out of the room, and was very much relieved to find an excuse for doing it.
crept - जाना, डर, छिपकर घुसना, घुसना
Sara stood by the howling furious child for a few moments, and looked down at her without saying anything. Then she sat down flat on the floor beside her and waited. Except for Lottie's angry screams, the room was quite quiet. This was a new state of affairs for little Miss Legh, who was accustomed, when she screamed, to hear other people protest and implore and command and coax by turns.
howling - ज़बर्दस्त, भीषण, अद्भुत
implore - प्रार्थना करना
coax - मान-मनव्वल करना
To lie and kick and shriek, and find the only person near you not seeming to mind in the least, attracted her attention. She opened her tight-shut streaming eyes to see who this person was. And it was only another little girl. But it was the one who owned Emily and all the nice things. And she was looking at her steadily and as if she was merely thinking.
shriek - चीखना, चिल्लाना, ठहाका लगाना
merely - केवल, मात्र
Having paused for a few seconds to find this out, Lottie thought she must begin again, but the quiet of the room and of Sara's odd, interested face made her first howl rather half-hearted.
howl - चिल्लाना, चिल्लाहट
"I-haven't-any-ma-ma-ma-a!" she announced; but her voice was not so strong.
Sara looked at her still more steadily, but with a sort of understanding in her eyes.
"Neither have I," she said.
This was so unexpected that it was astounding. Lottie actually dropped her legs, gave a wriggle, and lay and stared. A new idea will stop a crying child when nothing else will. Also it was true that while Lottie disliked Miss Minchin, who was cross, and Miss Amelia, who was foolishly indulgent, she rather liked Sara, little as she knew her.
astounding - चकित करना, अचंभित करना
wriggle - कसमसाहट, छटपटाना, कसमसाना
foolishly - मूर्खता से
indulgent - अनुकूल, कृपालु, पक्षपातपूर्ण
She did not want to give up her grievance, but her thoughts were distracted from it, so she wriggled again, and, after a sulky sob, said, "Where is she?"
grievance - शिकायत, मनोमालिन्य, रंजिश
wriggled - कसमसाहट, छटपटाना, कसमसाना
sulky - मंदगति, नाराज़, मनहूस, रुष्ट
sob - कमीना, सिसकते हुए कहना
Sara paused a moment. Because she had been told that her mamma was in heaven, she had thought a great deal about the matter, and her thoughts had not been quite like those of other people.
"She went to heaven," she said. "But I am sure she comes out sometimes to see me-though I don't see her. So does yours. Perhaps they can both see us now. Perhaps they are both in this room."
Lottie sat bolt upright, and looked about her. She was a pretty, little, curly-headed creature, and her round eyes were like wet forget-me-nots. If her mamma had seen her during the last half-hour, she might not have thought her the kind of child who ought to be related to an angel.
bolt upright - उठे हुए
Sara went on talking. Perhaps some people might think that what she said was rather like a fairy story, but it was all so real to her own imagination that Lottie began to listen in spite of herself. She had been told that her mamma had wings and a crown, and she had been shown pictures of ladies in beautiful white nightgowns, who were said to be angels.
fairy - परी, अप्सरा
crown - राजमुकुट
angels - सुन्दर, देवदूत, पटी, परि
But Sara seemed to be telling a real story about a lovely country where real people were.
"There are fields and fields of flowers," she said, forgetting herself, as usual, when she began, and talking rather as if she were in a dream, "fields and fields of lilies-and when the soft wind blows over them it wafts the scent of them into the air-and everybody always breathes it, because the soft wind is always blowing.
lilies - कुमुदिनी, कुमुदिनी/लिली
wind - हवा
wafts - झोंका, उड़ कर आना
scent - गंध
And little children run about in the lily fields and gather armfuls of them, and laugh and make little wreaths. And the streets are shining. And people are never tired, however far they walk. They can float anywhere they like.
Lily - कुमुदिनी
armfuls - मुट्ठी भर, मुट्ठी भर, भुजाभर
wreaths - घेरना, छल्ला, पुष्पहार
And there are walls made of pearl and gold all round the city, but they are low enough for the people to go and lean on them, and look down onto the earth and smile, and send beautiful messages."
pearl - मोती, मुक्ता
Whatsoever story she had begun to tell, Lottie would, no doubt, have stopped crying, and been fascinated into listening; but there was no denying that this story was prettier than most others. She dragged herself close to Sara, and drank in every word until the end came-far too soon. When it did come, she was so sorry that she put up her lip ominously.
"I want to go there," she cried. "I-haven't any mamma in this school."
Sara saw the danger signal, and came out of her dream. She took hold of the chubby hand and pulled her close to her side with a coaxing little laugh.
danger signal - संकेत सूचक
coaxing - मनाना
"I will be your mamma," she said. "We will play that you are my little girl. And Emily shall be your sister."
Lottie's dimples all began to show themselves.
"Shall she?" she said.
"Yes," answered Sara, jumping to her feet. "Let us go and tell her. And then I will wash your face and brush your hair."
To which Lottie agreed quite cheerfully, and trotted out of the room and upstairs with her, without seeming even to remember that the whole of the last hour's tragedy had been caused by the fact that she had refused to be washed and brushed for lunch and Miss Minchin had been called in to use her majestic authority.
cheerfully - खुशी खुशी
trotted - चलना, दौड़, दुलकी चलाना
majestic - शानदार, तेजस्वी, राजसी, भव्य
And from that time Sara was an adopted mother.
Of course the greatest power Sara possessed and the one which gained her even more followers than her luxuries and the fact that she was "the show pupil," the power that Lavinia and certain other girls were most envious of, and at the same time most fascinated by in spite of themselves, was her power of telling stories and of making everything she talked about seem like a story, whether it was one or not.
followers - अनुगामी, अनुयायी, आगे दिया हुआ
most envious - सबसे कुछुक्षु
Anyone who has been at school with a teller of stories knows what the wonder means-how he or she is followed about and besought in a whisper to relate romances; how groups gather round and hang on the outskirts of the favored party in the hope of being allowed to join in and listen. Sara not only could tell stories, but she adored telling them.
teller - गणक, बोलने वाला
besought - हाथ जोड़ना
whisper to - फुसलाना
outskirts - उपांत, बाहरी इलाका
When she sat or stood in the midst of a circle and began to invent wonderful things, her green eyes grew big and shining, her cheeks flushed, and, without knowing that she was doing it, she began to act and made what she told lovely or alarming by the raising or dropping of her voice, the bend and sway of her slim body, and the dramatic movement of her hands.
midst - बीच
sway - आधिपत्य, प्रभाव, प्रभावित करना
She forgot that she was talking to listening children; she saw and lived with the fairy folk, or the kings and queens and beautiful ladies, whose adventures she was narrating. Sometimes when she had finished her story, she was quite out of breath with excitement, and would lay her hand on her thin, little, quick-rising chest, and half laugh as if at herself.
narrating - बयान करना, सुनाना, आख्यान करना
"When I am telling it," she would say, "it doesn't seem as if it was only made up. It seems more real than you are-more real than the schoolroom. I feel as if I were all the people in the story-one after the other. It is queer."
She had been at Miss Minchin's school about two years when, one foggy winter's afternoon, as she was getting out of her carriage, comfortably wrapped up in her warmest velvets and furs and looking very much grander than she knew, she caught sight, as she crossed the pavement, of a dingy little figure standing on the area steps, and stretching its neck so that its wide-open eyes might peer at her through the railings. Something in the eagerness and timidity of the smudgy face made her look at it, and when she looked she smiled because it was her way to smile at people.
comfortably - आराम से
velvets - मखमली, मखमल
pavement - पटरी, छज्जा, फर्श
eagerness - उत्सुकता, औत्सुक्य, तत्परता
timidity - डर, घबराहट, कायरता
smudgy - दाग धब्बेदार
But the owner of the smudgy face and the wide-open eyes evidently was afraid that she ought not to have been caught looking at pupils of importance. She dodged out of sight like a jack-in-the-box and scurried back into the kitchen, disappearing so suddenly that if she had not been such a poor little forlorn thing, Sara would have laughed in spite of herself.
dodged - झटके से चले जाना
Jack - जैक
scurried - भाग जाना, दौड़ जाना, धक्कम धक्का
forlorn - अकेला, क्षीण, परित्यक्त
That very evening, as Sara was sitting in the midst of a group of listeners in a corner of the schoolroom telling one of her stories, the very same figure timidly entered the room, carrying a coal box much too heavy for her, and knelt down upon the hearth rug to replenish the fire and sweep up the ashes.
timidly - डरते डरते, संकोचपूर्वक
knelt - घुटने के बल बैठना, घुटने टेकना
replenish - फिर से भरना, पूर्ति{ईधन की}
ashes - ऐश वृक्ष, ऐश वृक्ष की लकड़ी
She was cleaner than she had been when she peeped through the area railings, but she looked just as frightened. She was evidently afraid to look at the children or seem to be listening. She put on pieces of coal cautiously with her fingers so that she might make no disturbing noise, and she swept about the fire irons very softly.
peeped - झलक, झाँकी, झांकना, दिखाई पड़ना
cautiously - सतर्कतापूर्वक
But Sara saw in two minutes that she was deeply interested in what was going on, and that she was doing her work slowly in the hope of catching a word here and there. And realizing this, she raised her voice and spoke more clearly.
"The Mermaids swam softly about in the crystal-green water, and dragged after them a fishing-net woven of deep-sea pearls," she said. "The Princess sat on the white rock and watched them."
mermaids - जलपरी
crystal - क्रिस्टल, स्फटिक, अमल, बिल्लौर
woven - बुना हुआ
deep-sea - (deep-sea) गहरी समुद्र
pearls - मोती, कृत्रिम मोती, जलज
It was a wonderful story about a princess who was loved by a Prince Merman, and went to live with him in shining caves under the sea.
Merman - legendary creature
The small drudge before the grate swept the hearth once and then swept it again. Having done it twice, she did it three times; and, as she was doing it the third time, the sound of the story so lured her to listen that she fell under the spell and actually forgot that she had no right to listen at all, and also forgot everything else.
drudge - टहलुआ, कड़ी मेहनत करना
lured - लुभाना, ललचाना, प्रलोभन
She sat down upon her heels as she knelt on the hearth rug, and the brush hung idly in her fingers. The voice of the storyteller went on and drew her with it into winding grottos under the sea, glowing with soft, clear blue light, and paved with pure golden sands. Strange sea flowers and grasses waved about her, and far away faint singing and music echoed.
idly - लक्ष्यहीन रूप से, आलस्यपूर्वक
storyteller - कहानीकार
winding - घुमावदार, घुमाव, चक्कर
glowing - चमकना, गरम करना, रंगना, लाली
paved - पटरी बिछाना, पटरी बिछाना
faint - अस्पष्ट
echoed - हाँ में हाँ मिलाना, गूँज
The hearth brush fell from the work-roughened hand, and Lavinia Herbert looked round.
roughened - कर्कश होना, कर्कश करना
"That girl has been listening," she said.
The culprit snatched up her brush, and scrambled to her feet. She caught at the coal box and simply scuttled out of the room like a frightened rabbit.
culprit - अपराधी, दोषी
snatched up - लीक गया
scrambled - छीना झपटी, गड़बड़ा देना
scuttled - विफल कर देना, भाग जाना
rabbit - खरगोश
Sara felt rather hot-tempered.
hot-tempered - (hot-tempered) उग्रवादी
"I knew she was listening," she said. "Why shouldn't she?"
Lavinia tossed her head with great elegance.
tossed - हिलाना, हिलाना[मिलाना]
elegance - लालित्य, शिष्टता
"Well," she remarked, "I do not know whether your mamma would like you to tell stories to servant girls, but I know MY mamma wouldn't like ME to do it."
"My mamma!" said Sara, looking odd. "I don't believe she would mind in the least. She knows that stories belong to everybody."
"I thought," retorted Lavinia, in severe recollection, "that your mamma was dead. How can she know things?"
retorted - प्रत्युत्तर देना, प्रत्युतर
"Do you think she DOESN'T know things?" said Sara, in her stern little voice. Sometimes she had a rather stern little voice.
stern - कड़ा, कठोर, सख्त
"Sara's mamma knows everything," piped in Lottie. "So does my mamma-'cept Sara is my mamma at Miss Minchin's-my other one knows everything. The streets are shining, and there are fields and fields of lilies, and everybody gathers them. Sara tells me when she puts me to bed."
"You wicked thing," said Lavinia, turning on Sara; "making fairy stories about heaven."
"There are much more splendid stories in Revelation," returned Sara. "Just look and see! How do you know mine are fairy stories? But I can tell you"-with a fine bit of unheavenly temper-"you will never find out whether they are or not if you're not kinder to people than you are now. Come along, Lottie.
more splendid - अधिक शानदार
revelation - प्रकटीकरण
" And she marched out of the room, rather hoping that she might see the little servant again somewhere, but she found no trace of her when she got into the hall.
"Who is that little girl who makes the fires?" she asked Mariette that night.
Mariette broke forth into a flow of description.
forth - आगे
Ah, indeed, Mademoiselle Sara might well ask. She was a forlorn little thing who had just taken the place of scullery maid-though, as to being scullery maid, she was everything else besides. She blacked boots and grates, and carried heavy coal-scuttles up and down stairs, and scrubbed floors and cleaned windows, and was ordered about by everybody.
scullery - बर्तन माँजने की जगह
grates - सेंत मेत, निःशुल्क
scuttles - विफल कर देना, भाग जाना
scrubbed - रगड़ कर सफ़ाई
She was fourteen years old, but was so stunted in growth that she looked about twelve. In truth, Mariette was sorry for her. She was so timid that if one chanced to speak to her it appeared as if her poor, frightened eyes would jump out of her head.
stunted - तमाशा, बढ़ने न देना
timid - डरपोक, अविश्वस्त, बुज़दिल, कातर
"What is her name?" asked Sara, who had sat by the table, with her chin on her hands, as she listened absorbedly to the recital.
recital - कहानी, पाठ, प्रस्तुति, गायन
Her name was Becky. Mariette heard everyone below-stairs calling, "Becky, do this," and "Becky, do that," every five minutes in the day.
Sara sat and looked into the fire, reflecting on Becky for some time after Mariette left her. She made up a story of which Becky was the ill-used heroine. She thought she looked as if she had never had quite enough to eat. Her very eyes were hungry.
heroine - नायिका
She hoped she should see her again, but though she caught sight of her carrying things up or down stairs on several occasions, she always seemed in such a hurry and so afraid of being seen that it was impossible to speak to her.
But a few weeks later, on another foggy afternoon, when she entered her sitting room she found herself confronting a rather pathetic picture.
confronting - सामना होना, सामना, सामना करना
In her own special and pet easy-chair before the bright fire, Becky-with a coal smudge on her nose and several on her apron, with her poor little cap hanging half off her head, and an empty coal box on the floor near her-sat fast asleep, tired out beyond even the endurance of her hard-working young body. She had been sent up to put the bedrooms in order for the evening.
smudge - धब्बा
apron - तहबन्द, एप्रन
tired out - थक गया
endurance - सहनशीलता, सहन, तितिक्षा
There were a great many of them, and she had been running about all day. Sara's rooms she had saved until the last. They were not like the other rooms, which were plain and bare. Ordinary pupils were expected to be satisfied with mere necessaries. Sara's comfortable sitting room seemed a bower of luxury to the scullery maid, though it was, in fact, merely a nice, bright little room.
bare - अनावृत
bower - ग्रीष्मावास
But there were pictures and books in it, and curious things from India; there was a sofa and the low, soft chair; Emily sat in a chair of her own, with the air of a presiding goddess, and there was always a glowing fire and a polished grate.
sofa - सोफ़ा, सोफा
presiding - संचालन करना, सभापति बनना
Becky saved it until the end of her afternoon's work, because it rested her to go into it, and she always hoped to snatch a few minutes to sit down in the soft chair and look about her, and think about the wonderful good fortune of the child who owned such surroundings and who went out on the cold days in beautiful hats and coats one tried to catch a glimpse of through the area railing.
snatch - छीनना
surroundings - आस पास का, आस पास का
On this afternoon, when she had sat down, the sensation of relief to her short, aching legs had been so wonderful and delightful that it had seemed to soothe her whole body, and the glow of warmth and comfort from the fire had crept over her like a spell, until, as she looked at the red coals, a tired, slow smile stole over her smudged face, her head nodded forward without her being aware of it, her eyes drooped, and she fell fast asleep. She had really been only about ten minutes in the room when Sara entered, but she was in as deep a sleep as if she had been, like the Sleeping Beauty, slumbering for a hundred years. But she did not look-poor Becky-like a Sleeping Beauty at all. She looked only like an ugly, stunted, worn-out little scullery drudge.
sensation - संवेदना, उत्तेजना, जोश, ज्ञान
aching - पीड़ा, दर्द
delightful - दिलचस्प, सुहाना, आनंदप्रद
soothe - कम करना, शांत करना, शान्त करना
glow - चमकना
smudged - फैल जाना, दाग, गंदा करना, धब्बा
nodded - ऊँघना, झूमना, सिर हिलाना, हुक्म
drooped - झुकना, लटकन, कुम्हलाना
Sleeping Beauty - स्लीपिंग ब्यूटी
slumbering - सोता हुआ, (slumber) सोता हुआ
Sara seemed as much unlike her as if she were a creature from another world.
On this particular afternoon she had been taking her dancing lesson, and the afternoon on which the dancing master appeared was rather a grand occasion at the seminary, though it occurred every week. The pupils were attired in their prettiest frocks, and as Sara danced particularly well, she was very much brought forward, and Mariette was requested to make her as diaphanous and fine as possible.
dancing lesson - नृत्य पाठ
dancing master - नृत्य शिक्षक
attired in - वस्त्र पहनाया
brought forward - आगे लाया
diaphanous - पारदर्शी
Today a frock the color of a rose had been put on her, and Mariette had bought some real buds and made her a wreath to wear on her black locks. She had been learning a new, delightful dance in which she had been skimming and flying about the room, like a large rose-colored butterfly, and the enjoyment and exercise had brought a brilliant, happy glow into her face.
buds - कली, कलम लगाना, कली निकालना
wreath - घेरना, छल्ला, पुष्पहार
skimming - स्किमिंग, (skim) स्किमिंग
butterfly - तितली
enjoyment - मज़ा, आनंद
When she entered the room, she floated in with a few of the butterfly steps-and there sat Becky, nodding her cap sideways off her head.
nodding - हँसते हुए, (nod) हँसते हुए
sideways - की तरफ़, तीरछा होकर, एक तरफ़ से
"Oh!" cried Sara, softly, when she saw her. "That poor thing!"
It did not occur to her to feel cross at finding her pet chair occupied by the small, dingy figure. To tell the truth, she was quite glad to find it there. When the ill-used heroine of her story wakened, she could talk to her. She crept toward her quietly, and stood looking at her. Becky gave a little snore.
wakened - उठाना, जगाना, जागना, जाग जाना
snore - खर्राटा लेना
"I wish she'd waken herself," Sara said. "I don't like to waken her. But Miss Minchin would be cross if she found out. I'll just wait a few minutes."
waken - उठाना, जगाना, जागना, जाग जाना
She took a seat on the edge of the table, and sat swinging her slim, rose-colored legs, and wondering what it would be best to do. Miss Amelia might come in at any moment, and if she did, Becky would be sure to be scolded.
swinging - ज़िंदादिल, दोलन, झूलता हुआ
scolded - फटकारना, डाँटना
"But she is so tired," she thought. "She is so tired!"
A piece of flaming coal ended her perplexity for her that very moment. It broke off from a large lump and fell on to the fender. Becky started, and opened her eyes with a frightened gasp. She did not know she had fallen asleep.
perplexity - जटिलता, घबराहट, हैरानी, टिलता
Fender - आघात से बचाव
gasp - चाहना, धक से रह जाना
She had only sat down for one moment and felt the beautiful glow-and here she found herself staring in wild alarm at the wonderful pupil, who sat perched quite near her, like a rose-colored fairy, with interested eyes.
perched - किनारे पर बैठना, बसेरा
She sprang up and clutched at her cap. She felt it dangling over her ear, and tried wildly to put it straight. Oh, she had got herself into trouble now with a vengeance! To have impudently fallen asleep on such a young lady's chair! She would be turned out of doors without wages.
dangling - लटका हुआ, (dangle) लटका हुआ
wildly - शिष्टाचारहीनतः, अशिष्टतः
vengeance - प्रतिशोध, बदला, प्रतिहिंसा
impudently - ढिठाई से, धृष्टतापूर्वक
She made a sound like a big breathless sob.
breathless - हँफा देनेवाली, स्तब्ध, बेदम
"Oh, miss! Oh, miss!" she stuttered. "I arst yer pardon, miss! Oh, I do, miss!"
stuttered - हकलाहट, खड़खड़ाना, तुतलाना
Sara jumped down, and came quite close to her.
"Don't be frightened," she said, quite as if she had been speaking to a little girl like herself. "It doesn't matter the least bit."
It doesn't matter - यह मतलब नहीं है
"I didn't go to do it, miss," protested Becky. "It was the warm fire-an'me bein'so tired. It-it WASN'T impertience!"
Sara broke into a friendly little laugh, and put her hand on her shoulder.
"You were tired," she said; "you could not help it. You are not really awake yet."
awake - जागना
How poor Becky stared at her! In fact, she had never heard such a nice, friendly sound in anyone's voice before. She was used to being ordered about and scolded, and having her ears boxed. And this one-in her rose-colored dancing afternoon splendor-was looking at her as if she were not a culprit at all-as if she had a right to be tired-even to fall asleep!
splendor - भव्यता, दीप्ति, शान शौकत
The touch of the soft, slim little paw on her shoulder was the most amazing thing she had ever known.
little paw - छोटा पांव
"Ain't-ain't yer angry, miss?" she gasped. "Ain't yer goin'to tell the missus?"
ain - département
Missus - पत्नी, श्रीमती, श्रीमती जी
"No," cried out Sara. "Of course I'm not."
The woeful fright in the coal-smutted face made her suddenly so sorry that she could scarcely bear it. One of her queer thoughts rushed into her mind. She put her hand against Becky's cheek.
woeful - पीड़ित, शोकान्वित, निंदनीय, दुखी
fright - भय
smutted - धब्बा, कालिख, अश्लीलता
"Why," she said, "we are just the same-I am only a little girl like you. It's just an accident that I am not you, and you are not me!"
Becky did not understand in the least. Her mind could not grasp such amazing thoughts, and "an accident" meant to her a calamity in which some one was run over or fell off a ladder and was carried to "the 'orspital."
grasp - समझना, पाने का प्रयत्न करना
"A'accident, miss," she fluttered respectfully. "Is it?"
"Yes," Sara answered, and she looked at her dreamily for a moment. But the next she spoke in a different tone. She realized that Becky did not know what she meant.
dreamily - स्वप्निल ढंग से, स्वप्न जैसा
"Have you done your work?" she asked. "Dare you stay here a few minutes?"
Becky lost her breath again.
"Here, miss? Me?"
Sara ran to the door, opened it, and looked out and listened.
"No one is anywhere about," she explained. "If your bedrooms are finished, perhaps you might stay a tiny while. I thought-perhaps-you might like a piece of cake."
The next ten minutes seemed to Becky like a sort of delirium. Sara opened a cupboard, and gave her a thick slice of cake. She seemed to rejoice when it was devoured in hungry bites. She talked and asked questions, and laughed until Becky's fears actually began to calm themselves, and she once or twice gathered boldness enough to ask a question or so herself, daring as she felt it to be.
delirium - उन्माद, सन्निपात, उन्मत्तता
rejoice - आनन्दित होना
devoured - नष्ट करना, खा जाना
boldness - छाती, निर्भिकता, दृष्टता
"Is that-" she ventured, looking longingly at the rose-colored frock. And she asked it almost in a whisper. "Is that there your best?"
longingly - ललक के साथ
"It is one of my dancing-frocks," answered Sara. "I like it, don't you?"
For a few seconds Becky was almost speechless with admiration. Then she said in an awed voice, "Onct I see a princess. I was standin'in the street with the crowd outside Covin'Garden, watchin'the swells go inter the operer. An'there was one everyone stared at most. They ses to each other, 'That's the princess.
speechless - मूक, गूंगा, अवाक्, वांगमय
swells - सुन्दर, बढ़ाना, मोड़ना, उठाना
inter - अन्तर, साथ साथ, गाड़ना{लाश}
'She was a growed-up young lady, but she was pink all over-gownd an'cloak, an'flowers an'all. I called her to mind the minnit I see you, sittin'there on the table, miss. You looked like her."
cloak - चोग़ा
"I've often thought," said Sara, in her reflecting voice, "that I should like to be a princess; I wonder what it feels like. I believe I will begin pretending I am one."
Becky stared at her admiringly, and, as before, did not understand her in the least. She watched her with a sort of adoration. Very soon Sara left her reflections and turned to her with a new question.
admiringly - प्रशंसापूर्वक
adoration - भक्ति, आदर, आराधना, गहरा प्रेम
reflections - झलक, परछाई, आरोप, दोष, चिंतन
"Becky," she said, "weren't you listening to that story?"
"Yes, miss," confessed Becky, a little alarmed again. "I knowed I hadn't orter, but it was that beautiful I-I couldn't help it."
"I liked you to listen to it," said Sara. "If you tell stories, you like nothing so much as to tell them to people who want to listen. I don't know why it is. Would you like to hear the rest?"
Becky lost her breath again.
"Me hear it?" she cried. "Like as if I was a pupil, miss! All about the Prince-and the little white Mer-babies swimming about laughing-with stars in their hair?"
Sara nodded.
"You haven't time to hear it now, I'm afraid," she said; "but if you will tell me just what time you come to do my rooms, I will try to be here and tell you a bit of it every day until it is finished. It's a lovely long one-and I'm always putting new bits to it."
I'm afraid - मुझे डर लग रहा है।
"Then," breathed Becky, devoutly, "I wouldn't mind HOW heavy the coal boxes was-or WHAT the cook done to me, if-if I might have that to think of."
devoutly - धर्मपरायणता से, धर्मपरायणता से
"You may," said Sara. "I'll tell it ALL to you."
When Becky went downstairs, she was not the same Becky who had staggered up, loaded down by the weight of the coal scuttle. She had an extra piece of cake in her pocket, and she had been fed and warmed, but not only by cake and fire. Something else had warmed and fed her, and the something else was Sara.
staggered - विचलित करना, लड़खड़ा कर चलना
scuttle - भाग जाना
fed - भारतीय राष्ट्रीय बैंक को भेजा गया, (feed) भारतीय राष्ट्रीय बैंक को भेजा गया
When she was gone Sara sat on her favorite perch on the end of her table. Her feet were on a chair, her elbows on her knees, and her chin in her hands.
perch - चिड़ियों के बैठने का अड्डा
"If I WAS a princess-a REAL princess," she murmured, "I could scatter largess to the populace. But even if I am only a pretend princess, I can invent little things to do for people. Things like this. She was just as happy as if it was largess. I'll pretend that to do things people like is scattering largess. I've scattered largess."
murmured - बड़बड़ाना, सरसराहट, बड़बड़ाहट
largess - उदारता, दान की दन राशि
populace - जनसाधारण, जनता, जन साधारण
scattering - फैलाव, फुहार, फैला हुआ, छितराव
scattered - फैलाव, छितराव, तितर बितर करना
Not very long after this a very exciting thing happened. Not only Sara, but the entire school, found it exciting, and made it the chief subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred. In one of his letters Captain Crewe told a most interesting story. A friend who had been at school with him when he was a boy had unexpectedly come to see him in India.
unexpectedly - अचानक, अकस्मात
He was the owner of a large tract of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines. If all went as was confidently expected, he would become possessed of such wealth as it made one dizzy to think of; and because he was fond of the friend of his school days, he had given him an opportunity to share in this enormous fortune by becoming a partner in his scheme.
tract - क्षेत्र
confidently - विश्वास सहित
dizzy - भौचक्का
This, at least, was what Sara gathered from his letters. It is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would have had but small attraction for her or for the schoolroom; but "diamond mines" sounded so like the Arabian Nights that no one could be indifferent.
Arabian - अरबी
indifferent - घटिया, तुच्छ, साधारण, उदासीन
Sara thought them enchanting, and painted pictures, for Ermengarde and Lottie, of labyrinthine passages in the bowels of the earth, where sparkling stones studded the walls and roofs and ceilings, and strange, dark men dug them out with heavy picks. Ermengarde delighted in the story, and Lottie insisted on its being retold to her every evening.
enchanting - मोहित करना, मोहित करना
labyrinthine - भूलभुलैयाँ के समान, पेचीदा
bowels - आँत, अंतड़ी
sparkling - उत्कृष्ट, चमकदार, झिलमिलाता हुआ
studded - कील, भर देना, अश्वशाला, पशुशाला
retold - पुनः कहना, फिर से सुनाना
Lavinia was very spiteful about it, and told Jessie that she didn't believe such things as diamond mines existed.
"My mamma has a diamond ring which cost forty pounds," she said. "And it is not a big one, either. If there were mines full of diamonds, people would be so rich it would be ridiculous."
"Perhaps Sara will be so rich that she will be ridiculous," giggled Jessie.
"She's ridiculous without being rich," Lavinia sniffed.
"I believe you hate her," said Jessie.
"No, I don't," snapped Lavinia. "But I don't believe in mines full of diamonds."
"Well, people have to get them from somewhere," said Jessie. "Lavinia," with a new giggle, "what do you think Gertrude says?"
giggle - मन्द मन्द हंसना, ठट्ठा
"I don't know, I'm sure; and I don't care if it's something more about that everlasting Sara."
everlasting - चिरस्थायी, अनन्त
"Well, it is. One of her 'pretends'is that she is a princess. She plays it all the time-even in school. She says it makes her learn her lessons better. She wants Ermengarde to be one, too, but Ermengarde says she is too fat."
"She IS too fat," said Lavinia. "And Sara is too thin."
Naturally, Jessie giggled again.
"She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you THINK of, and what you DO."
"I suppose she thinks she could be a princess if she was a beggar," said Lavinia. "Let us begin to call her Your Royal Highness."
Highness - अत्र भवान्, ऊँचाई
Lessons for the day were over, and they were sitting before the schoolroom fire, enjoying the time they liked best. It was the time when Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia were taking their tea in the sitting room sacred to themselves.
sacred - धार्मिक
At this hour a great deal of talking was done, and a great many secrets changed hands, particularly if the younger pupils behaved themselves well, and did not squabble or run about noisily, which it must be confessed they usually did. When they made an uproar the older girls usually interfered with scolding and shakes.
squabble - बाल की खाल निकालना, तकरार करना
noisily - शोर शराबे के साथ
interfered - बीच मेँ पड़ना, बाधा डालना
scolding - डाँटने वाला, झिड़की
They were expected to keep order, and there was danger that if they did not, Miss Minchin or Miss Amelia would appear and put an end to festivities. Even as Lavinia spoke the door opened and Sara entered with Lottie, whose habit was to trot everywhere after her like a little dog.
keep order - कीप ऑर्डर
festivities - आनन्दोत्सव, उत्सव का समय
trot - दुलकी चलना
"There she is, with that horrid child!" exclaimed Lavinia in a whisper. "If she's so fond of her, why doesn't she keep her in her own room? She will begin howling about something in five minutes."
It happened that Lottie had been seized with a sudden desire to play in the schoolroom, and had begged her adopted parent to come with her. She joined a group of little ones who were playing in a corner. Sara curled herself up in the window-seat, opened a book, and began to read.
seized with - Seized के साथ
It was a book about the French Revolution, and she was soon lost in a harrowing picture of the prisoners in the Bastille-men who had spent so many years in dungeons that when they were dragged out by those who rescued them, their long, gray hair and beards almost hid their faces, and they had forgotten that an outside world existed at all, and were like beings in a dream.
harrowing - हेंगा फेरना, हेंगा
Bastille - a prison in France
dungeons - तहखाना, अंधकूप{कारागार}
beards - खुलेआम विरोध करना, दाढी नोचना
She was so far away from the schoolroom that it was not agreeable to be dragged back suddenly by a howl from Lottie. Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment.
irritation - गुस्सा, उत्तेजना, कोप, संताप
The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.
temptation - प्रलोभन, लुभाने का तरीका
unreasonable - अविवेकपूर्ण, असंगत, अनुचित
snappish - चिड़चिड़ा
"It makes me feel as if someone had hit me," Sara had told Ermengarde once in confidence. "And as if I want to hit back. I have to remember things quickly to keep from saying something ill-tempered."
She had to remember things quickly when she laid her book on the window-seat and jumped down from her comfortable corner.
Lottie had been sliding across the schoolroom floor, and, having first irritated Lavinia and Jessie by making a noise, had ended by falling down and hurting her fat knee. She was screaming and dancing up and down in the midst of a group of friends and enemies, who were alternately coaxing and scolding her.
irritated - परेशान करना, उत्तेजित करना
alternately - एक के बाद एक, बारी बारी से
"Stop this minute, you cry-baby! Stop this minute!" Lavinia commanded.
"I'm not a cry-baby ... I'm not!" wailed Lottie. "Sara, Sa-ra!"
"If she doesn't stop, Miss Minchin will hear her," cried Jessie. "Lottie darling, I'll give you a penny!"
"I don't want your penny," sobbed Lottie; and she looked down at the fat knee, and, seeing a drop of blood on it, burst forth again.
sobbed - कमीना, सिसकते हुए कहना
Sara flew across the room and, kneeling down, put her arms round her.
kneeling - कुंठना, (kneel) कुंठना
"Now, Lottie," she said. "Now, Lottie, you PROMISED Sara."
"She said I was a cry-baby," wept Lottie.
Sara patted her, but spoke in the steady voice Lottie knew.
"But if you cry, you will be one, Lottie pet. You PROMISED." Lottie remembered that she had promised, but she preferred to lift up her voice.
"I haven't any mamma," she proclaimed. "I haven't-a bit-of mamma."
"Yes, you have," said Sara, cheerfully. "Have you forgotten? Don't you know that Sara is your mamma? Don't you want Sara for your mamma?"
Lottie cuddled up to her with a consoled sniff.
cuddled - आलिंगन, गले से सटा लेना
consoled - दीवारगीर, सान्त्वना देना
sniff - नाक सुड़कना, भनक, गंध, सिसकी
"Come and sit in the window-seat with me," Sara went on, "and I'll whisper a story to you."
"Will you?" whimpered Lottie. "Will you-tell me-about the diamond mines?"
"The diamond mines?" broke out Lavinia. "Nasty, little spoiled thing, I should like to SLAP her!"
slap - चांटा, चाँटा, थप्पड़, झापड़
Sara got up quickly on her feet. It must be remembered that she had been very deeply absorbed in the book about the Bastille, and she had had to recall several things rapidly when she realized that she must go and take care of her adopted child. She was not an angel, and she was not fond of Lavinia.
"Well," she said, with some fire, "I should like to slap YOU-but I don't want to slap you!" restraining herself. "At least I both want to slap you-and I should LIKE to slap you-but I WON'T slap you. We are not little gutter children. We are both old enough to know better."
restraining - रोकना, नियन्ट्रित करना
gutter - नाली
Here was Lavinia's opportunity.
"Ah, yes, your royal highness," she said. "We are princesses, I believe. At least one of us is. The school ought to be very fashionable now Miss Minchin has a princess for a pupil."
Sara started toward her. She looked as if she were going to box her ears. Perhaps she was. Her trick of pretending things was the joy of her life. She never spoke of it to girls she was not fond of. Her new "pretend" about being a princess was very near to her heart, and she was shy and sensitive about it.
She had meant it to be rather a secret, and here was Lavinia deriding it before nearly all the school. She felt the blood rush up into her face and tingle in her ears. She only just saved herself. If you were a princess, you did not fly into rages. Her hand dropped, and she stood quite still a moment.
deriding - उपहास करना
tingle - सनसनाहट, जलना, सिहरन
rages - ज़ोर से चलना, रोष व्यक्त करना
When she spoke it was in a quiet, steady voice; she held her head up, and everybody listened to her.
"It's true," she said. "Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one."
Lavinia could not think of exactly the right thing to say. Several times she had found that she could not think of a satisfactory reply when she was dealing with Sara. The reason for this was that, somehow, the rest always seemed to be vaguely in sympathy with her opponent. She saw now that they were pricking up their ears interestedly.
satisfactory - संतोषप्रद, सन्तोषजनक, संतोषजनक
vaguely - अस्पष्टतः, संदिग्धतः
pricking - छेदन, (prick) छेदन
The truth was, they liked princesses, and they all hoped they might hear something more definite about this one, and drew nearer Sara accordingly.
Lavinia could only invent one remark, and it fell rather flat.
"Dear me," she said, "I hope, when you ascend the throne, you won't forget us!"
ascend - चढ़ना
throne - सिंहासन, राजसिंहासन, तख़्त
"I won't," said Sara, and she did not utter another word, but stood quite still, and stared at her steadily as she saw her take Jessie's arm and turn away.
utter - पूर्ण
After this, the girls who were jealous of her used to speak of her as "Princess Sara" whenever they wished to be particularly disdainful, and those who were fond of her gave her the name among themselves as a term of affection.
disdainful - अवज्ञापूर्ण, अवहेलनापूर्ण
affection - स्नेह, प्यार
No one called her "princess" instead of "Sara," but her adorers were much pleased with the picturesqueness and grandeur of the title, and Miss Minchin, hearing of it, mentioned it more than once to visiting parents, feeling that it rather suggested a sort of royal boarding school.
picturesqueness - सुरम्यता, सजीवता
grandeur - भव्यता, वैभव, श्रेष्ठता
To Becky it seemed the most appropriate thing in the world. The acquaintance begun on the foggy afternoon when she had jumped up terrified from her sleep in the comfortable chair, had ripened and grown, though it must be confessed that Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia knew very little about it.
ripened - पकाना, पकना
They were aware that Sara was "kind" to the scullery maid, but they knew nothing of certain delightful moments snatched perilously when, the upstairs rooms being set in order with lightning rapidity, Sara's sitting room was reached, and the heavy coal box set down with a sigh of joy.
snatched - अंश, लेना, हटा लेना, छीनना
perilously - संकटपूर्ण ढंग से
rapidity - शीघ्रता, तेजी
At such times stories were told by installments, things of a satisfying nature were either produced and eaten or hastily tucked into pockets to be disposed of at night, when Becky went upstairs to her attic to bed.
installments - किस्त
hastily - जल्दी से, जल्दी से
disposed - सजाना, ठीक रखना, ठिकाने लगाना
attic - अटारी
"But I has to eat 'em careful, miss," she said once; "'cos if I leaves crumbs the rats come out to get 'em."
cos - क्योंकि, (CO) क्योंकि
crumbs - मुर्गे के क्रम्ब्स, (crumb) मुर्गे के क्रम्ब्स
"Rats!" exclaimed Sara, in horror. "Are there RATS there?"
"Lots of 'em, miss," Becky answered in quite a matter-of-fact manner. "There mostly is rats an'mice in attics. You gets used to the noise they makes scuttling about. I've got so I don't mind 'em s'long as they don't run over my piller."
attics - अटारी
scuttling - विफल कर देना, भाग जाना
I don't mind - मुझे बिल्कुल मतलब नहीं है
"Ugh!" said Sara.
Ugh - छी!
"You gets used to anythin'after a bit," said Becky. "You have to, miss, if you're born a scullery maid. I'd rather have rats than cockroaches."
cockroaches - तिलचिट्टा
"So would I," said Sara; "I suppose you might make friends with a rat in time, but I don't believe I should like to make friends with a cockroach."
cockroach - तिलचट्टा, तिलचटा, चपड़ा
Sometimes Becky did not dare to spend more than a few minutes in the bright, warm room, and when this was the case perhaps only a few words could be exchanged, and a small purchase slipped into the old-fashioned pocket Becky carried under her dress skirt, tied round her waist with a band of tape.
tied round - बाँधा गया
waist - कमर
The search for and discovery of satisfying things to eat which could be packed into small compass, added a new interest to Sara's existence. When she drove or walked out, she used to look into shop windows eagerly. The first time it occurred to her to bring home two or three little meat pies, she felt that she had hit upon a discovery. When she exhibited them, Becky's eyes quite sparkled.
compass - कम्पास, कुतुबनुमा
eagerly - व्यग्रता से
meat pies - मीट पाईज़
hit upon - पता लगाना
sparkled - चमक, जोश, चमकना, जीवंतता
"Oh, miss!" she murmured. "Them will be nice an'fillin.'It's fillin'ness that's best. Sponge cake's a 'evenly thing, but it melts away like-if you understand, miss. These'll just STAY in yer stummick."
ness - a promontory, a cape or headland
sponge - स्पंज
evenly - समान रूप से
melts away - मिट जाता है
"Well," hesitated Sara, "I don't think it would be good if they stayed always, but I do believe they will be satisfying."
They were satisfying-and so were beef sandwiches, bought at a cook-shop-and so were rolls and Bologna sausage. In time, Becky began to lose her hungry, tired feeling, and the coal box did not seem so unbearably heavy.
bologna - province, city
sausage - सॉसेज
unbearably - असहनीय ढंग से, असहनीय ढंग से
However heavy it was, and whatsoever the temper of the cook, and the hardness of the work heaped upon her shoulders, she had always the chance of the afternoon to look forward to-the chance that Miss Sara would be able to be in her sitting room. In fact, the mere seeing of Miss Sara would have been enough without meat pies.
hardness - कठिनाई
heaped - ढेर लगना, ढेर लगना, ढेर लगाना
pies - खिचड़ी, कचौडी
If there was time only for a few words, they were always friendly, merry words that put heart into one; and if there was time for more, then there was an installment of a story to be told, or some other thing one remembered afterward and sometimes lay awake in one's bed in the attic to think over.
merry - आनन्दपूर्ण
installment - किस्त
think over - विचार करना
Sara-who was only doing what she unconsciously liked better than anything else, Nature having made her for a giver-had not the least idea what she meant to poor Becky, and how wonderful a benefactor she seemed.
unconsciously - अनजाने में, अनजाने में
giver - दाता
benefactor - धन आदि से सहायता करने वाले
If Nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that-warm things, kind things, sweet things-help and comfort and laughter-and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all.
Becky had scarcely known what laughter was through all her poor, little hard-driven life. Sara made her laugh, and laughed with her; and, though neither of them quite knew it, the laughter was as "fillin'" as the meat pies.
pies - पाइ
A few weeks before Sara's eleventh birthday a letter came to her from her father, which did not seem to be written in such boyish high spirits as usual. He was not very well, and was evidently overweighted by the business connected with the diamond mines.
eleventh - ग्यारहवाँ
high spirits - उत्साहजनक
overweighted - मुटापा, भारी शरीरवाला
"You see, little Sara," he wrote, "your daddy is not a businessman at all, and figures and documents bother him. He does not really understand them, and all this seems so enormous. Perhaps, if I was not feverish I should not be awake, tossing about, one half of the night and spend the other half in troublesome dreams.
feverish - उत्तेजित, ज्वरजन्य
tossing - फेंकना, (toss), t-needed
troublesome - तकलीफ़देह, कष्टप्रद, दुःखदायी
If my little missus were here, I dare say she would give me some solemn, good advice. You would, wouldn't you, Little Missus?"
One of his many jokes had been to call her his "little missus" because she had such an old-fashioned air.
He had made wonderful preparations for her birthday. Among other things, a new doll had been ordered in Paris, and her wardrobe was to be, indeed, a marvel of splendid perfection. When she had replied to the letter asking her if the doll would be an acceptable present, Sara had been very quaint.
marvel - आश्चर्य, चमत्कार, अचंभित होना
splendid - शानदार
perfection - कमाल
"I am getting very old," she wrote; "you see, I shall never live to have another doll given me. This will be my last doll. There is something solemn about it. If I could write poetry, I am sure a poem about 'A Last Doll'would be very nice. But I cannot write poetry. I have tried, and it made me laugh. It did not sound like Watts or Coleridge or Shakespeare at all.
Watts - वाट
Shakespeare - शेक्सपियर
No one could ever take Emily's place, but I should respect the Last Doll very much; and I am sure the school would love it. They all like dolls, though some of the big ones-the almost fifteen ones-pretend they are too grown up."
Captain Crewe had a splitting headache when he read this letter in his bungalow in India. The table before him was heaped with papers and letters which were alarming him and filling him with anxious dread, but he laughed as he had not laughed for weeks.
splitting headache - विभाजित सिरदर्द
dread - वहशत, सहम
"Oh," he said, "she's better fun every year she lives. God grant this business may right itself and leave me free to run home and see her. What wouldn't I give to have her little arms round my neck this minute! What WOULDN'T I give!"
The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities. The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to be a party. The boxes containing the presents were to be opened with great ceremony, and there was to be a glittering feast spread in Miss Minchin's sacred room. When the day arrived the whole house was in a whirl of excitement.
glittering - शानदार, चमकीला, उज्ज्वल
feast - भोज
whirl - घुमाव, चक्कर, घूमना
How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because there seemed such preparations to be made. The schoolroom was being decked with garlands of holly; the desks had been moved away, and red covers had been put on the forms which were arrayed round the room against the wall.
garlands - माला, पुष्पहार
holly - शूलपर्णी
arrayed - क्रम, पोशाक
When Sara went into her sitting room in the morning, she found on the table a small, dumpy package, tied up in a piece of brown paper. She knew it was a present, and she thought she could guess whom it came from. She opened it quite tenderly. It was a square pincushion, made of not quite clean red flannel, and black pins had been stuck carefully into it to form the words, "Menny hapy returns."
tenderly - प्रेम से, कोमलता से
pincushion - पिनगद्दी/पिनकुशन
flannel - बकवास करना, बकवास, बकवास करना
"Oh!" cried Sara, with a warm feeling in her heart. "What pains she has taken! I like it so, it-it makes me feel sorrowful."
sorrowful - उदास, शोकसंतृप्त
But the next moment she was mystified. On the under side of the pincushion was secured a card, bearing in neat letters the name "Miss Amelia Minchin."
mystified - हैरान करना, पेचीदा करना
Sara turned it over and over.
"Miss Amelia!" she said to herself "How CAN it be!"
And just at that very moment she heard the door being cautiously pushed open and saw Becky peeping round it.
pushed open - खुला कर दिया
peeping - झलक, झाँकी, झांकना, दिखाई पड़ना
There was an affectionate, happy grin on her face, and she shuffled forward and stood nervously pulling at her fingers.
grin - दांत दिखाते हुए मुस्कुराना
shuffled - पैर घसीट कर चलना, रगड़ना/घसीटना
nervously - घबराए हुए अंदाझ्ॅअ में
"Do yer like it, Miss Sara?" she said. "Do yer?"
"Like it?" cried Sara. "You darling Becky, you made it all yourself."
Becky gave a hysteric but joyful sniff, and her eyes looked quite moist with delight.
hysteric -
joyful - खुश, हर्षित, मुदिता
moist - नम
"It ain't nothin'but flannin, an'the flannin ain't new; but I wanted to give yer somethin'an'I made it of nights. I knew yer could PRETEND it was satin with diamond pins in. _I_ tried to when I was makin'it. The card, miss," rather doubtfully; "'t warn't wrong of me to pick it up out o'the dust-bin, was it? Miss 'Meliar had throwed it away.
satin - चिकना, साटन जैसा, साटन
doubtfully - संदेहपूर्ण ढंग से
I hadn't no card o'my own, an'I knowed it wouldn't be a proper presink if I didn't pin a card on-so I pinned Miss 'Meliar's."
Sara flew at her and hugged her. She could not have told herself or anyone else why there was a lump in her throat.
hugged - आलिंगन, आलिंगन करना, सटा लेना
"Oh, Becky!" she cried out, with a queer little laugh, "I love you, Becky-I do, I do!"
"Oh, miss!" breathed Becky. "Thank yer, miss, kindly; it ain't good enough for that. The-the flannin wasn't new."
When Sara entered the holly-hung schoolroom in the afternoon, she did so as the head of a sort of procession. Miss Minchin, in her grandest silk dress, led her by the hand. A manservant followed, carrying the box containing the Last Doll, a housemaid carried a second box, and Becky brought up the rear, carrying a third and wearing a clean apron and a new cap.
manservant - नौकर
rear - पिछवाड़ा
Sara would have much preferred to enter in the usual way, but Miss Minchin had sent for her, and, after an interview in her private sitting room, had expressed her wishes.
"This is not an ordinary occasion," she said. "I do not desire that it should be treated as one."
So Sara was led grandly in and felt shy when, on her entry, the big girls stared at her and touched each other's elbows, and the little ones began to squirm joyously in their seats.
grandly - भव्य रूप से, भव्य रूप से
squirm - कसमसाहट, छटपटाना, कसमसाना
joyously - खुशी से
"Silence, young ladies!" said Miss Minchin, at the murmur which arose. "James, place the box on the table and remove the lid. Emma, put yours upon a chair. Becky!" suddenly and severely.
murmur - बड़बड़ाना, सरसराहट, बड़बड़ाहट
James - book of the Bible
lid - ढक्कन
Emma - female given name
Becky had quite forgotten herself in her excitement, and was grinning at Lottie, who was wriggling with rapturous expectation. She almost dropped her box, the disapproving voice so startled her, and her frightened, bobbing curtsy of apology was so funny that Lavinia and Jessie tittered.
grinning at - हँसते हुए
wriggling - कुलबुलाता हुआ
rapturous - हर्षोन्मत्त, अत्यन्त आह्लादजनक
disapproving - अस्वीकार करना, नापसंद करना
bobbing - झटका, सम्मान में झुकअना
"It is not your place to look at the young ladies," said Miss Minchin. "You forget yourself. Put your box down."
Becky obeyed with alarmed haste and hastily backed toward the door.
haste - जल्दी, जल्दबाजी, अविलंब
"You may leave us," Miss Minchin announced to the servants with a wave of her hand.
Becky stepped aside respectfully to allow the superior servants to pass out first. She could not help casting a longing glance at the box on the table. Something made of blue satin was peeping from between the folds of tissue paper.
superior - उत्कृष्ट, अच्छा, श्रेष्ठ, उच्च
tissue paper - टिशु पेपर
"If you please, Miss Minchin," said Sara, suddenly, "mayn't Becky stay?"
It was a bold thing to do. Miss Minchin was betrayed into something like a slight jump. Then she put her eyeglass up, and gazed at her show pupil disturbedly.
betrayed - दिखाना, प्रकट करना, धोखा देना
eyeglass - लेन्स
gazed - एक्टक देखने ताला, टकटकी
"Becky!" she exclaimed. "My dearest Sara!"
Sara advanced a step toward her.
"I want her because I know she will like to see the presents," she explained. "She is a little girl, too, you know."
Miss Minchin was scandalized. She glanced from one figure to the other.
scandalized - नाराज़ होना, दुखी करना
"My dear Sara," she said, "Becky is the scullery maid. Scullery maids-er-are not little girls."
er - हिचकिचाहट
maids - दासी, नौकरानी, नोकरानी
It really had not occurred to her to think of them in that light. Scullery maids were machines who carried coal scuttles and made fires.
"But Becky is," said Sara. "And I know she would enjoy herself. Please let her stay-because it is my birthday."
Miss Minchin replied with much dignity:
dignity - गरिमा, इज़्ज़त
"As you ask it as a birthday favor-she may stay. Rebecca, thank Miss Sara for her great kindness."
kindness - दया, मेहरबानी, दयालुता
Becky had been backing into the corner, twisting the hem of her apron in delighted suspense. She came forward, bobbing curtsies, but between Sara's eyes and her own there passed a gleam of friendly understanding, while her words tumbled over each other.
twisting - घुमावदार, छटपटाता हुआ
hem - किनारा
suspense - अनिश्चय, दुविधा, राज, असमंजस
"Oh, if you please, miss! I'm that grateful, miss! I did want to see the doll, miss, that I did. Thank you, miss. And thank you, ma'am,"-turning and making an alarmed bob to Miss Minchin-"for letting me take the liberty."
Bob - ऊपर नीचे करना
liberty - आज़ादी
Miss Minchin waved her hand again-this time it was in the direction of the corner near the door.
"Go and stand there," she commanded. "Not too near the young ladies."
Becky went to her place, grinning. She did not care where she was sent, so that she might have the luck of being inside the room, instead of being downstairs in the scullery, while these delights were going on. She did not even mind when Miss Minchin cleared her throat ominously and spoke again.
grinning - ठहाका लगाना, मुस्कराहट
"Now, young ladies, I have a few words to say to you," she announced.
"She's going to make a speech," whispered one of the girls. "I wish it was over."
Sara felt rather uncomfortable. As this was her party, it was probable that the speech was about her. It is not agreeable to stand in a schoolroom and have a speech made about you.
"You are aware, young ladies," the speech began-for it was a speech-"that dear Sara is eleven years old today."
"DEAR Sara!" murmured Lavinia.
"Several of you here have also been eleven years old, but Sara's birthdays are rather different from other little girls'birthdays. When she is older she will be heiress to a large fortune, which it will be her duty to spend in a meritorious manner."
heiress - उत्तराधिकारिणी
meritorious - सराहनीय, गुणी
"The diamond mines," giggled Jessie, in a whisper.
Sara did not hear her; but as she stood with her green-gray eyes fixed steadily on Miss Minchin, she felt herself growing rather hot. When Miss Minchin talked about money, she felt somehow that she always hated her-and, of course, it was disrespectful to hate grown-up people.
disrespectful - अनादरणीय, निरादरपूर्ण
"When her dear papa, Captain Crewe, brought her from India and gave her into my care," the speech proceeded, "he said to me, in a jesting way, 'I am afraid she will be very rich, Miss Minchin.'My reply was, 'Her education at my seminary, Captain Crewe, shall be such as will adorn the largest fortune.'Sara has become my most accomplished pupil.
jesting - मजाकिया, (jest) मजाकिया
adorn - सजाना, सुशोभित करना
Her French and her dancing are a credit to the seminary. Her manners-which have caused you to call her Princess Sara-are perfect. Her amiability she exhibits by giving you this afternoon's party. I hope you appreciate her generosity. I wish you to express your appreciation of it by saying aloud all together, 'Thank you, Sara!'"
appreciation - समालोचना, वृद्धि, आभार, सराहना
aloud - उच्च स्वर में, ज़ोर से
The entire schoolroom rose to its feet as it had done the morning Sara remembered so well.
"Thank you, Sara!" it said, and it must be confessed that Lottie jumped up and down. Sara looked rather shy for a moment. She made a curtsy-and it was a very nice one.
"Thank you," she said, "for coming to my party."
"Very pretty, indeed, Sara," approved Miss Minchin. "That is what a real princess does when the populace applauds her. Lavinia"-scathingly-"the sound you just made was extremely like a snort. If you are jealous of your fellow-pupil, I beg you will express your feelings in some more lady-like manner. Now I will leave you to enjoy yourselves."
applauds - ताली बजा कर प्रशंसा करना
scathingly - कटुता, कठोरतापूर्वक
snort - सूंघ कर लेना, फटफटाना
feelings - भावना, अहसास, जज्बात
The instant she had swept out of the room the spell her presence always had upon them was broken. The door had scarcely closed before every seat was empty. The little girls jumped or tumbled out of theirs; the older ones wasted no time in deserting theirs. There was a rush toward the boxes. Sara had bent over one of them with a delighted face.
"These are books, I know," she said.
The little children broke into a rueful murmur, and Ermengarde looked aghast.
rueful - उदास, विषादमय, पश्चात्तापमय
aghast - डरपोक, हक्का बक्का, कातर
"Does your papa send you books for a birthday present?" she exclaimed. "Why, he's as bad as mine. Don't open them, Sara."
"I like them," Sara laughed, but she turned to the biggest box. When she took out the Last Doll it was so magnificent that the children uttered delighted groans of joy, and actually drew back to gaze at it in breathless rapture.
uttered - चलाना, निकालना, नितान्त, कहना
groans - कराहना, आह
rapture - अत्यन्त हर्ष, हर्षोन्माद, उमङ्ग
"She is almost as big as Lottie," someone gasped.
Lottie clapped her hands and danced about, giggling.
clapped - ताली बजाना
"She's dressed for the theater," said Lavinia. "Her cloak is lined with ermine."
theater - थिएटर, रंगमंच
"Oh," cried Ermengarde, darting forward, "she has an opera-glass in her hand-a blue-and-gold one!"
darting - चुन्नट, (**), बर्छी, झपट्टा
"Here is her trunk," said Sara. "Let us open it and look at her things."
trunk - तना
She sat down upon the floor and turned the key. The children crowded clamoring around her, as she lifted tray after tray and revealed their contents. Never had the schoolroom been in such an uproar.
tray - ट्रे
There were lace collars and silk stockings and handkerchiefs; there was a jewel case containing a necklace and a tiara which looked quite as if they were made of real diamonds; there was a long sealskin and muff, there were ball dresses and walking dresses and visiting dresses; there were hats and tea gowns and fans.
collars - झपट लेना, पट्टा, पकड़ना
jewel case - ज्वेल केस
necklace - हार, हँसली
tiara - मुकुट
sealskin - type of fabric made from the skin of seals
muff - गड़बड़ा देना, मफ़, मफ़/दस्तना
ball dresses - गेंद के लिए लेडीज की कपड़े
Even Lavinia and Jessie forgot that they were too elderly to care for dolls, and uttered exclamations of delight and caught up things to look at them.
exclamations - विस्मयादिबोधक, विस्मयसूच्हक
"Suppose," Sara said, as she stood by the table, putting a large, black-velvet hat on the impassively smiling owner of all these splendors-"suppose she understands human talk and feels proud of being admired."
impassively - भावशून्यतापूर्वक
splendors - भव्यता, दीप्ति, शान शौकत
"You are always supposing things," said Lavinia, and her air was very superior.
"I know I am," answered Sara, undisturbedly. "I like it. There is nothing so nice as supposing. It's almost like being a fairy. If you suppose anything hard enough it seems as if it were real."
"It's all very well to suppose things if you have everything," said Lavinia. "Could you suppose and pretend if you were a beggar and lived in a garret?"
garret - अटारी, दुछत्ती
Sara stopped arranging the Last Doll's ostrich plumes, and looked thoughtful.
plumes - पंख, पर, पर से बनाया हुआ आभरण
thoughtful - परवाह करने वाला, सावधान
"I BELIEVE I could," she said. "If one was a beggar, one would have to suppose and pretend all the time. But it mightn't be easy."
She often thought afterward how strange it was that just as she had finished saying this-just at that very moment-Miss Amelia came into the room.
"Sara," she said, "your papa's solicitor, Mr. Barrow, has called to see Miss Minchin, and, as she must talk to him alone and the refreshments are laid in her parlor, you had all better come and have your feast now, so that my sister can have her interview here in the schoolroom."
solicitor - याचक, वकील
refreshments - ताज़गी, जलपान, अल्पाहार जलपान
Refreshments were not likely to be disdained at any hour, and many pairs of eyes gleamed. Miss Amelia arranged the procession into decorum, and then, with Sara at her side heading it, she led it away, leaving the Last Doll sitting upon a chair with the glories of her wardrobe scattered about her; dresses and coats hung upon chair backs, piles of lace-frilled petticoats lying upon their seats.
gleamed - झलक, चमचमाना, चमकना, किरण
decorum - मर्यादा
glories - अप्रतिम सुन्दरता
frilled - झालर, ताम झाम
Becky, who was not expected to partake of refreshments, had the indiscretion to linger a moment to look at these beauties-it really was an indiscretion.
partake - भाग लेना, ग्रहण करना
indiscretion - अविवेकपूर्ण कथन, असावधानी
linger - रुका रहना, ठहराना, टिका रहना
"Go back to your work, Becky," Miss Amelia had said; but she had stopped to pick up reverently first a muff and then a coat, and while she stood looking at them adoringly, she heard Miss Minchin upon the threshold, and, being smitten with terror at the thought of being accused of taking liberties, she rashly darted under the table, which hid her by its tablecloth.
reverently - आदर से, श्ह्रद्धापूर्ण ढंग से
threshold - डेवढ़ी
being smitten with - प्रेम में पड़ जाना
liberties - स्वतंत्रता, आजादी, रिहाई
rashly - अविवेकपूर्ण ढंग से
darted - चुन्नट, (**), बर्छी, झपट्टा
tablecloth - मेज़पोश, टेबुल-क्लाथ
Miss Minchin came into the room, accompanied by a sharp-featured, dry little gentleman, who looked rather disturbed. Miss Minchin herself also looked rather disturbed, it must be admitted, and she gazed at the dry little gentleman with an irritated and puzzled expression.
She sat down with stiff dignity, and waved him to a chair.
"Pray, be seated, Mr. Barrow," she said.
Mr. Barrow did not sit down at once. His attention seemed attracted by the Last Doll and the things which surrounded her. He settled his eyeglasses and looked at them in nervous disapproval. The Last Doll herself did not seem to mind this in the least. She merely sat upright and returned his gaze indifferently.
disapproval - असम्मति, नापसंदगी
upright - सरल, सीधा, सीधे, खड़ा स्तम्भ
indifferently - जैसे तैसे, उदासीनता से
"A hundred pounds," Mr. Barrow remarked succinctly. "All expensive material, and made at a Parisian modiste's. He spent money lavishly enough, that young man."
succinctly - संक्षिप्त, सारगर्भित ढंग से
Parisian - पैरिसवासी, पेरिसवासी, पेरिस का
modiste - टोपी बनाने वाला, दर्जिन
lavishly - उदारतापूर्वक, खुले हाथों से
Miss Minchin felt offended. This seemed to be a disparagement of her best patron and was a liberty.
disparagement - निंदा
patron - संरक्षक, दर्शक, ग्राहक
Even solicitors had no right to take liberties.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Barrow," she said stiffly. "I do not understand."
stiffly - कड़ेपन के साथ, रुखाई से
"Birthday presents," said Mr. Barrow in the same critical manner, "to a child eleven years old! Mad extravagance, I call it."
extravagance - अतिव्यय, फ़िज़ूलखर्ची
Miss Minchin drew herself up still more rigidly.
rigidly - कड़ेपन के साथ, कठोरतापूर्वक
"Captain Crewe is a man of fortune," she said. "The diamond mines alone-"
Mr. Barrow wheeled round upon her. "Diamond mines!" he broke out. "There are none! Never were!"
Miss Minchin actually got up from her chair.
"What!" she cried. "What do you mean?"
"At any rate," answered Mr. Barrow, quite snappishly, "it would have been much better if there never had been any."
snappishly - तीखे से
"Any diamond mines?" ejaculated Miss Minchin, catching at the back of a chair and feeling as if a splendid dream was fading away from her.
fading - फेडिंग, (fad) फेडिंग
"Diamond mines spell ruin oftener than they spell wealth," said Mr. Barrow. "When a man is in the hands of a very dear friend and is not a businessman himself, he had better steer clear of the dear friend's diamond mines, or gold mines, or any other kind of mines dear friends want his money to put into. The late Captain Crewe-"
steer - जवान बैल, बघिया पशु, बछड़ा, बछवा
Here Miss Minchin stopped him with a gasp.
"The LATE Captain Crewe!" she cried out. "The LATE! You don't come to tell me that Captain Crewe is-"
"He's dead, ma'am," Mr. Barrow answered with jerky brusqueness. "Died of jungle fever and business troubles combined. The jungle fever might not have killed him if he had not been driven mad by the business troubles, and the business troubles might not have put an end to him if the jungle fever had not assisted. Captain Crewe is dead!"
jerky - झटके के साथ, झटकेदार
brusqueness - रूखापन, अशिष्टता/रूखापन
jungle - जंगल
Miss Minchin dropped into her chair again. The words he had spoken filled her with alarm.
"What WERE his business troubles?" she said. "What WERE they?"
"Diamond mines," answered Mr. Barrow, "and dear friends-and ruin."
Miss Minchin lost her breath.
"Ruin!" she gasped out.
"Lost every penny. That young man had too much money. The dear friend was mad on the subject of the diamond mine. He put all his own money into it, and all Captain Crewe's. Then the dear friend ran away-Captain Crewe was already stricken with fever when the news came. The shock was too much for him. He died delirious, raving about his little girl-and didn't leave a penny."
delirious - उन्मत्त{खुशी से}, उन्मत्त
raving - एकदम, प्रलापी
Now Miss Minchin understood, and never had she received such a blow in her life. Her show pupil, her show patron, swept away from the Select Seminary at one blow. She felt as if she had been outraged and robbed, and that Captain Crewe and Sara and Mr. Barrow were equally to blame.
outraged - नाराज़ होना, बहुत खराब बात
"Do you mean to tell me," she cried out, "that he left NOTHING! That Sara will have no fortune! That the child is a beggar! That she is left on my hands a little pauper instead of an heiress?"
pauper - दरिद्र, कंगाल, अकिंचन, मंगता
Mr. Barrow was a shrewd businessman, and felt it as well to make his own freedom from responsibility quite clear without any delay.
shrewd - समझदार, धूर्त, चतुर
"She is certainly left a beggar," he replied. "And she is certainly left on your hands, ma'am-as she hasn't a relation in the world that we know of."
Miss Minchin started forward. She looked as if she was going to open the door and rush out of the room to stop the festivities going on joyfully and rather noisily that moment over the refreshments.
joyfully - खुशी से
"It is monstrous!" she said. "She's in my sitting room at this moment, dressed in silk gauze and lace petticoats, giving a party at my expense."
monstrous - भयानक, अप्राकृतिक, सरासर गलत
gauze - जाली, महीन कपड़ा
"She's giving it at your expense, madam, if she's giving it," said Mr. Barrow, calmly. "Barrow & Skipworth are not responsible for anything. There never was a cleaner sweep made of a man's fortune. Captain Crewe died without paying OUR last bill-and it was a big one."
madam - महोदया, साहिबा, श्रीमती, मैडम
calmly - शांतिपूर्वक, शान्ती से
Miss Minchin turned back from the door in increased indignation. This was worse than anyone could have dreamed of its being.
"That is what has happened to me!" she cried. "I was always so sure of his payments that I went to all sorts of ridiculous expenses for the child. I paid the bills for that ridiculous doll and her ridiculous fantastic wardrobe. The child was to have anything she wanted. She has a carriage and a pony and a maid, and I've paid for all of them since the last cheque came."
cheque - चेक
Mr. Barrow evidently did not intend to remain to listen to the story of Miss Minchin's grievances after he had made the position of his firm clear and related the mere dry facts. He did not feel any particular sympathy for irate keepers of boarding schools.
grievances - शिकायत, मनोमालिन्य, रंजिश
irate - सितारा मछली, क्रुद्ध
keepers - रक्षक{रखवाली करने वाला}, रक्षक
boarding schools - बोर्डिंग स्कूल
"You had better not pay for anything more, ma'am," he remarked, "unless you want to make presents to the young lady. No one will remember you. She hasn't a brass farthing to call her own."
farthing - दमड़ी
"But what am I to do?" demanded Miss Minchin, as if she felt it entirely his duty to make the matter right. "What am I to do?"
"There isn't anything to do," said Mr. Barrow, folding up his eyeglasses and slipping them into his pocket. "Captain Crewe is dead. The child is left a pauper. Nobody is responsible for her but you."
folding up - संकुचन
"I am not responsible for her, and I refuse to be made responsible!"
refuse - अस्वीकार करना
Miss Minchin became quite white with rage.
rage - ज़ोर से चलना, रोष व्यक्त करना
Mr. Barrow turned to go.
"I have nothing to do with that, madam," he said uninterestedly. "Barrow & Skipworth are not responsible. Very sorry the thing has happened, of course."
"If you think she is to be foisted off on me, you are greatly mistaken," Miss Minchin gasped. "I have been robbed and cheated; I will turn her into the street!"
foisted - बेवकूफ बनाना
If she had not been so furious, she would have been too discreet to say quite so much. She saw herself burdened with an extravagantly brought-up child whom she had always resented, and she lost all self-control.
discreet - सावधान, पृथक, न्याययसंगत
burdened - कष्ट देना, पर भार डालना, भार
extravagantly - बहुत अधिक, बहुत अधिक
resented - पसंद न करना, बुरा मानना
self-control - (self-control) स्वयं नियंत्रण
Mr. Barrow undisturbedly moved toward the door.
"I wouldn't do that, madam," he commented; "it wouldn't look well. Unpleasant story to get about in connection with the establishment. Pupil bundled out penniless and without friends."
penniless - निकौड़िया
He was a clever business man, and he knew what he was saying. He also knew that Miss Minchin was a business woman, and would be shrewd enough to see the truth. She could not afford to do a thing which would make people speak of her as cruel and hard-hearted.
"Better keep her and make use of her," he added. "She's a clever child, I believe. You can get a good deal out of her as she grows older."
"I will get a good deal out of her before she grows older!" exclaimed Miss Minchin.
"I am sure you will, ma'am," said Mr. Barrow, with a little sinister smile. "I am sure you will. Good morning!"
sinister - अशुभ, डरावना
He bowed himself out and closed the door, and it must be confessed that Miss Minchin stood for a few moments and glared at it. What he had said was quite true. She knew it. She had absolutely no redress. Her show pupil had melted into nothingness, leaving only a friendless, beggared little girl. Such money as she herself had advanced was lost and could not be regained.
glared - चमक, गुस्से से घूरना, चमकना
redress - सही करना
nothingness - अनस्तित्व, अस्तित्वहीनता
friendless - मित्रहीन
beggared - व्यक्ति, याचक, भिखारी
regained - पुनः प्राप्त करना
And as she stood there breathless under her sense of injury, there fell upon her ears a burst of gay voices from her own sacred room, which had actually been given up to the feast. She could at least stop this.
But as she started toward the door it was opened by Miss Amelia, who, when she caught sight of the changed, angry face, fell back a step in alarm.
"What IS the matter, sister?" she ejaculated.
Miss Minchin's voice was almost fierce when she answered:
fierce - भारी, घमासान, उत्तेजित, तीव्र
"Where is Sara Crewe?"
Miss Amelia was bewildered.
bewildered - हैरान करना, घबरा देना
"Sara!" she stammered. "Why, she's with the children in your room, of course."
"Has she a black frock in her sumptuous wardrobe?"-in bitter irony.
sumptuous - बहुमूल्य, आलीशान, कीमती/बहुमूल्य
irony - व्याजोक्ति, व्यंग्य
"A black frock?" Miss Amelia stammered again. "A BLACK one?"
"She has frocks of every other color. Has she a black one?"
Miss Amelia began to turn pale.
turn pale - पीला हो जाना
"No-ye-es!" she said. "But it is too short for her. She has only the old black velvet, and she has outgrown it."
ye - तुम
outgrown - से अधिक बढ़ जाना
"Go and tell her to take off that preposterous pink silk gauze, and put the black one on, whether it is too short or not. She has done with finery!"
preposterous - बेतुका, असंगत, हास्यास्पद
finery - ठाट बाट, अलंकारित वस्त्र आदि
Then Miss Amelia began to wring her fat hands and cry.
wring - निचोड़ना
"Oh, sister!" she sniffed. "Oh, sister! What CAN have happened?"
Miss Minchin wasted no words.
"Captain Crewe is dead," she said. "He has died without a penny. That spoiled, pampered, fanciful child is left a pauper on my hands."
pampered - बहुत लाड प्यार करना
fanciful - विलक्षण, मौजी, काल्पनिक
Miss Amelia sat down quite heavily in the nearest chair.
"Hundreds of pounds have I spent on nonsense for her. And I shall never see a penny of it. Put a stop to this ridiculous party of hers. Go and make her change her frock at once."
nonsense - बकवास
"I?" panted Miss Amelia. "M-must I go and tell her now?"
panted - एक छोटा श्वास, पैंट, भारी साँस
"This moment!" was the fierce answer. "Don't sit staring like a goose. Go!"
goose - हंस
Poor Miss Amelia was accustomed to being called a goose. She knew, in fact, that she was rather a goose, and that it was left to geese to do a great many disagreeable things.
It was a somewhat embarrassing thing to go into the midst of a room full of delighted children, and tell the giver of the feast that she had suddenly been transformed into a little beggar, and must go upstairs and put on an old black frock which was too small for her. But the thing must be done. This was evidently not the time when questions might be asked.
She rubbed her eyes with her handkerchief until they looked quite red. After which she got up and went out of the room, without venturing to say another word. When her older sister looked and spoke as she had done just now, the wisest course to pursue was to obey orders without any comment. Miss Minchin walked across the room. She spoke to herself aloud without knowing that she was doing it.
handkerchief - रूमाल
venturing - साहसिक, (venture) साहसिक
During the last year the story of the diamond mines had suggested all sorts of possibilities to her. Even proprietors of seminaries might make fortunes in stocks, with the aid of owners of mines. And now, instead of looking forward to gains, she was left to look back upon losses.
proprietors - मालिक, स्वामी
seminaries - धर्मप्रशिक्षणालय
owners - मालिक, स्तामी
"The Princess Sara, indeed!" she said. "The child has been pampered as if she were a QUEEN." She was sweeping angrily past the corner table as she said it, and the next moment she started at the sound of a loud, sobbing sniff which issued from under the cover.
angrily - क्रोध से, गुस्से में
"What is that!" she exclaimed angrily. The loud, sobbing sniff was heard again, and she stooped and raised the hanging folds of the table cover.
stooped - झुक कर खड़ा होना, झुकना
"How DARE you!" she cried out. "How dare you! Come out immediately!"
It was poor Becky who crawled out, and her cap was knocked on one side, and her face was red with repressed crying.
crawled - क्राल, रेंगना
repressed - दबाना, कुचलना, कुचल देना
"If you please, 'm-it's me, mum," she explained. "I know I hadn't ought to. But I was lookin'at the doll, mum-an'I was frightened when you come in-an'slipped under the table."
"You have been there all the time, listening," said Miss Minchin.
"No, mum," Becky protested, bobbing curtsies. "Not listenin'-I thought I could slip out without your noticin', but I couldn't an'I had to stay. But I didn't listen, mum-I wouldn't for nothin'. But I couldn't help hearin'."
Suddenly it seemed almost as if she lost all fear of the awful lady before her. She burst into fresh tears.
"Oh, please, 'm," she said; "I dare say you'll give me warnin', mum-but I'm so sorry for poor Miss Sara-I'm so sorry!"
"Leave the room!" ordered Miss Minchin.
Becky curtsied again, the tears openly streaming down her cheeks.
"Yes, 'm; I will, 'm," she said, trembling; "but oh, I just wanted to arst you: Miss Sara-she's been such a rich young lady, an'she's been waited on, 'and and foot; an'what will she do now, mum, without no maid? If-if, oh please, would you let me wait on her after I've done my pots an'kettles? I'd do 'em that quick-if you'd let me wait on her now she's poor.
trembling - कंपन
kettles - केतली
Oh," breaking out afresh, "poor little Miss Sara, mum-that was called a princess."
afresh - फिर से शुरुआत
Somehow, she made Miss Minchin feel more angry than ever. That the very scullery maid should range herself on the side of this child-whom she realized more fully than ever that she had never liked-was too much. She actually stamped her foot.
"No-certainly not," she said. "She will wait on herself, and on other people, too. Leave the room this instant, or you'll leave your place."
Becky threw her apron over her head and fled. She ran out of the room and down the steps into the scullery, and there she sat down among her pots and kettles, and wept as if her heart would break.
fled - भाग जाना, फरार होना
"It's exactly like the ones in the stories," she wailed. "Them pore princess ones that was drove into the world."
pore - छोटा छेद
Miss Minchin had never looked quite so still and hard as she did when Sara came to her, a few hours later, in response to a message she had sent her.
Even by that time it seemed to Sara as if the birthday party had either been a dream or a thing which had happened years ago, and had happened in the life of quite another little girl.
Every sign of the festivities had been swept away; the holly had been removed from the schoolroom walls, and the forms and desks put back into their places. Miss Minchin's sitting room looked as it always did-all traces of the feast were gone, and Miss Minchin had resumed her usual dress.
resumed - फिर आरम्भ करना, सार
The pupils had been ordered to lay aside their party frocks; and this having been done, they had returned to the schoolroom and huddled together in groups, whispering and talking excitedly.
lay aside - छोड़ दें
"Tell Sara to come to my room," Miss Minchin had said to her sister. "And explain to her clearly that I will have no crying or unpleasant scenes."
"Sister," replied Miss Amelia, "she is the strangest child I ever saw. She has actually made no fuss at all. You remember she made none when Captain Crewe went back to India. When I told her what had happened, she just stood quite still and looked at me without making a sound. Her eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger, and she went quite pale.
When I had finished, she still stood staring for a few seconds, and then her chin began to shake, and she turned round and ran out of the room and upstairs. Several of the other children began to cry, but she did not seem to hear them or to be alive to anything but just what I was saying.
It made me feel quite queer not to be answered; and when you tell anything sudden and strange, you expect people will say SOMETHING-whatever it is."
Nobody but Sara herself ever knew what had happened in her room after she had run upstairs and locked her door. In fact, she herself scarcely remembered anything but that she walked up and down, saying over and over again to herself in a voice which did not seem her own, "My papa is dead! My papa is dead!"
Once she stopped before Emily, who sat watching her from her chair, and cried out wildly, "Emily! Do you hear? Do you hear-papa is dead? He is dead in India-thousands of miles away."
When she came into Miss Minchin's sitting room in answer to her summons, her face was white and her eyes had dark rings around them. Her mouth was set as if she did not wish it to reveal what she had suffered and was suffering. She did not look in the least like the rose-colored butterfly child who had flown about from one of her treasures to the other in the decorated schoolroom.
summons - सम्मन, आह्वाहन पत्र, बुलावा
rings - गोला बनाना, बजना, टेलीफोन करना
She looked instead a strange, desolate, almost grotesque little figure.
desolate - सुनसान, निर्जन, वीरान
grotesque - विलक्षण, विकृत, भौंड़ा
She had put on, without Mariette's help, the cast-aside black-velvet frock. It was too short and tight, and her slender legs looked long and thin, showing themselves from beneath the brief skirt. As she had not found a piece of black ribbon, her short, thick, black hair tumbled loosely about her face and contrasted strongly with its pallor.
slender - पतला
beneath - नीचे की और, के योग्य, के नीचे
loosely - in a loose manner, not tightly
pallor - अवर्णता, पीलापन, निर्वर्णता
She held Emily tightly in one arm, and Emily was swathed in a piece of black material.
swathed - पट्टी
"Put down your doll," said Miss Minchin. "What do you mean by bringing her here?"
"No," Sara answered. "I will not put her down. She is all I have. My papa gave her to me."
She had always made Miss Minchin feel secretly uncomfortable, and she did so now. She did not speak with rudeness so much as with a cold steadiness with which Miss Minchin felt it difficult to cope-perhaps because she knew she was doing a heartless and inhuman thing.
secretly - गुप्त रूप से, गुप्ततः
rudeness - अशिष्टता, रूखापन
steadiness - स्थिरता, दृढ़ता, अविचलन
heartless - निष्ठुर
inhuman - निर्दय, क्रूर, अमानुषिक
"You will have no time for dolls in future," she said. "You will have to work and improve yourself and make yourself useful."
Sara kept her big, strange eyes fixed on her, and said not a word.
"Everything will be very different now," Miss Minchin went on. "I suppose Miss Amelia has explained matters to you."
"Yes," answered Sara. "My papa is dead. He left me no money. I am quite poor."
"You are a beggar," said Miss Minchin, her temper rising at the recollection of what all this meant. "It appears that you have no relations and no home, and no one to take care of you."
For a moment the thin, pale little face twitched, but Sara again said nothing.
twitched - झटकना, झटका, चिकोटी काटना
"What are you staring at?" demanded Miss Minchin, sharply. "Are you so stupid that you cannot understand? I tell you that you are quite alone in the world, and have no one to do anything for you, unless I choose to keep you here out of charity."
"I understand," answered Sara, in a low tone; and there was a sound as if she had gulped down something which rose in her throat. "I understand."
gulped - निगलना, घूँट भरना, घूँट, गटकना
"That doll," cried Miss Minchin, pointing to the splendid birthday gift seated near-"that ridiculous doll, with all her nonsensical, extravagant things-I actually paid the bill for her!"
nonsensical - निरर्थक, बेतुका, मूर्खतापूर्ण
extravagant - अत्यधिक, खर्चीला, फ़िज़ूलखर्च
Sara turned her head toward the chair.
"The Last Doll," she said. "The Last Doll." And her little mournful voice had an odd sound.
"The Last Doll, indeed!" said Miss Minchin. "And she is mine, not yours. Everything you own is mine."
"Please take it away from me, then," said Sara. "I do not want it."
If she had cried and sobbed and seemed frightened, Miss Minchin might almost have had more patience with her. She was a woman who liked to domineer and feel her power, and as she looked at Sara's pale little steadfast face and heard her proud little voice, she quite felt as if her might was being set at naught.
domineer - अत्याचार करना/कठोरता से शासन करना
steadfast - स्थिर, कट्टर, अविचल, पक्का
naught - कुछ नहीं, शूऩ्य़
"Don't put on grand airs," she said. "The time for that sort of thing is past. You are not a princess any longer. Your carriage and your pony will be sent away-your maid will be dismissed. You will wear your oldest and plainest clothes-your extravagant ones are no longer suited to your station. You are like Becky-you must work for your living."
To her surprise, a faint gleam of light came into the child's eyes-a shade of relief.
"Can I work?" she said. "If I can work it will not matter so much. What can I do?"
"You can do anything you are told," was the answer. "You are a sharp child, and pick up things readily. If you make yourself useful I may let you stay here. You speak French well, and you can help with the younger children."
readily - तरन्त ही, सरलता से, सरलता से
"May I?" exclaimed Sara. "Oh, please let me! I know I can teach them. I like them, and they like me."
"Don't talk nonsense about people liking you," said Miss Minchin. "You will have to do more than teach the little ones. You will run errands and help in the kitchen as well as in the schoolroom. If you don't please me, you will be sent away. Remember that. Now go."
run errands - कार्यों को चलाना
Sara stood still just a moment, looking at her. In her young soul, she was thinking deep and strange things. Then she turned to leave the room.
"Stop!" said Miss Minchin. "Don't you intend to thank me?"
Sara paused, and all the deep, strange thoughts surged up in her breast.
surged - तेज़ि से बढ़ना, आवेश, लहर
"What for?" she said.
"For my kindness to you," replied Miss Minchin. "For my kindness in giving you a home."
Sara made two or three steps toward her. Her thin little chest heaved up and down, and she spoke in a strange un-childishly fierce way.
heaved - उठाना, उबकाई, उबकाई आना, लहराना
un - सं.रा, यू एन
childishly - in a childish manner
"You are not kind," she said. "You are NOT kind, and it is NOT a home." And she had turned and run out of the room before Miss Minchin could stop her or do anything but stare after her with stony anger.
stony - कठोर, पथरीला, पत्थर सा सख़्त
She went up the stairs slowly, but panting for breath and she held Emily tightly against her side.
panting - श्वास लेना, (pant) श्वास लेना
"I wish she could talk," she said to herself. "If she could speak-if she could speak!"
She meant to go to her room and lie down on the tiger-skin, with her cheek upon the great cat's head, and look into the fire and think and think and think. But just before she reached the landing Miss Amelia came out of the door and closed it behind her, and stood before it, looking nervous and awkward. The truth was that she felt secretly ashamed of the thing she had been ordered to do.
tiger - बाघ
"You-you are not to go in there," she said.
"Not go in?" exclaimed Sara, and she fell back a pace.
"That is not your room now," Miss Amelia answered, reddening a little.
reddening - लाल करना या होना, लाल पड़ जाना
Somehow, all at once, Sara understood. She realized that this was the beginning of the change Miss Minchin had spoken of.
"Where is my room?" she asked, hoping very much that her voice did not shake.
"You are to sleep in the attic next to Becky."
Sara knew where it was. Becky had told her about it. She turned, and mounted up two flights of stairs. The last one was narrow, and covered with shabby strips of old carpet. She felt as if she were walking away and leaving far behind her the world in which that other child, who no longer seemed herself, had lived.
shabby - अनुचित, जीर्ण शीर्ण
strips - पोशाक, निकाल देना, पट्टी
This child, in her short, tight old frock, climbing the stairs to the attic, was quite a different creature.
When she reached the attic door and opened it, her heart gave a dreary little thump. Then she shut the door and stood against it and looked about her.
dreary - नीरस, निराशाजनक, मन्द उदास
thump - धमाके की आवाज़ करना, थपथपाना
Yes, this was another world. The room had a slanting roof and was whitewashed. The whitewash was dingy and had fallen off in places. There was a rusty grate, an old iron bedstead, and a hard bed covered with a faded coverlet. Some pieces of furniture too much worn to be used downstairs had been sent up.
slanting - दृष्टिकोण, तिरछा करना
whitewashed - पुताई करना, छिपाना
rusty - पुराना, जंग लगा, मंद
bedstead - चारपाई
faded - सनक
coverlet - चादर
Under the skylight in the roof, which showed nothing but an oblong piece of dull gray sky, there stood an old battered red footstool. Sara went to it and sat down. She seldom cried. She did not cry now.
skylight - रोशनदान, झरोखा/रोशनदान/वातायन
oblong - आयताकार, अंडाकार आकृति, आयन
battered - पीटना, मारना/कूटना, बल्लेबाज़
footstool - मचिया, पादपीठ
seldom - कभी कभी
She laid Emily across her knees and put her face down upon her and her arms around her, and sat there, her little black head resting on the black draperies, not saying one word, not making one sound.
draperies - लटकता कपड़ा, पर्दा
And as she sat in this silence there came a low tap at the door-such a low, humble one that she did not at first hear it, and, indeed, was not roused until the door was timidly pushed open and a poor tear-smeared face appeared peeping round it. It was Becky's face, and Becky had been crying furtively for hours and rubbing her eyes with her kitchen apron until she looked strange indeed.
humble - नम्र, विनीत, सीधा सादा
roused - उत्तेजित करना, उत्तेजित, उठाना
smeared - मैला करना, दाग, गंदा करना
furtively - गुप्त रुप से, गुप्त रुप से
"Oh, miss," she said under her breath. "Might I-would you allow me-jest to come in?"
jest - मजाक
Sara lifted her head and looked at her. She tried to begin a smile, and somehow she could not. Suddenly-and it was all through the loving mournfulness of Becky's streaming eyes-her face looked more like a child's not so much too old for her years. She held out her hand and gave a little sob.
mournfulness - उदासी
"Oh, Becky," she said. "I told you we were just the same-only two little girls-just two little girls. You see how true it is. There's no difference now. I'm not a princess anymore."
anymore - इसके बाद, अब, इसके बाद
Becky ran to her and caught her hand, and hugged it to her breast, kneeling beside her and sobbing with love and pain.
"Yes, miss, you are," she cried, and her words were all broken. "Whats'ever 'appens to you-whats'ever-you'd be a princess all the same-an'nothin'couldn't make you nothin'different."
The first night she spent in her attic was a thing Sara never forgot. During its passing she lived through a wild, unchildlike woe of which she never spoke to anyone about her. There was no one who would have understood. It was, indeed, well for her that as she lay awake in the darkness her mind was forcibly distracted, now and then, by the strangeness of her surroundings.
woe - संताप, शोक, विषाद
forcibly - ज़ोर, ज़बरदस्ती
strangeness - अनभिज्ञता, अजनबीपन
It was, perhaps, well for her that she was reminded by her small body of material things. If this had not been so, the anguish of her young mind might have been too great for a child to bear. But, really, while the night was passing she scarcely knew that she had a body at all or remembered any other thing than one.
anguish - वेदना
"My papa is dead!" she kept whispering to herself. "My papa is dead!"
It was not until long afterward that she realized that her bed had been so hard that she turned over and over in it to find a place to rest, that the darkness seemed more intense than any she had ever known, and that the wind howled over the roof among the chimneys like something which wailed aloud. Then there was something worse.
chimneys - चिमनी, चूल्हा, बर्फ़ का कटाव
This was certain scufflings and scratchings and squeakings in the walls and behind the skirting boards. She knew what they meant, because Becky had described them. They meant rats and mice who were either fighting with each other or playing together.
squeakings - चरमराता, किकियाता
skirting boards - स्कर्टिंग बोर्ड्स
Once or twice she even heard sharp-toed feet scurrying across the floor, and she remembered in those after days, when she recalled things, that when first she heard them she started up in bed and sat trembling, and when she lay down again covered her head with the bedclothes.
scurrying - भाग जाना, दौड़ जाना, धक्कम धक्का
bedclothes - बिस्तर के चादर कम्बल
The change in her life did not come about gradually, but was made all at once.
"She must begin as she is to go on," Miss Minchin said to Miss Amelia. "She must be taught at once what she is to expect."
Mariette had left the house the next morning. The glimpse Sara caught of her sitting room, as she passed its open door, showed her that everything had been changed. Her ornaments and luxuries had been removed, and a bed had been placed in a corner to transform it into a new pupil's bedroom.
ornaments - सजावट, जेवर, अलंकृत करना, आभूषण
When she went down to breakfast she saw that her seat at Miss Minchin's side was occupied by Lavinia, and Miss Minchin spoke to her coldly.
coldly - रुखाई से, बिना उत्साह के
"You will begin your new duties, Sara," she said, "by taking your seat with the younger children at a smaller table. You must keep them quiet, and see that they behave well and do not waste their food. You ought to have been down earlier. Lottie has already upset her tea."
That was the beginning, and from day to day the duties given to her were added to. She taught the younger children French and heard their other lessons, and these were the least of her labors. It was found that she could be made use of in numberless directions. She could be sent on errands at any time and in all weathers. She could be told to do things other people neglected.
labors - जी तोड़ कोशिश करना, मजदूर वर्ग
numberless - असंख्य, अगणित
errands - दूतकार्य
neglected - उपेक्षा करना, लापरवाही, उपेक्षा
The cook and the housemaids took their tone from Miss Minchin, and rather enjoyed ordering about the "young one" who had been made so much fuss over for so long. They were not servants of the best class, and had neither good manners nor good tempers, and it was frequently convenient to have at hand someone on whom blame could be laid.
housemaids - नौकरानी
ordering about - आदेश देना
tempers - लचकीला बनाना, कम करना, गुस्सा
During the first month or two, Sara thought that her willingness to do things as well as she could, and her silence under reproof, might soften those who drove her so hard. In her proud little heart she wanted them to see that she was trying to earn her living and not accepting charity.
willingness - तत्परता, स्वेच्छा, सम्मति
reproof - निन्दा
soften - कम करना, हल्का करना, कोमल बनाना
But the time came when she saw that no one was softened at all; and the more willing she was to do as she was told, the more domineering and exacting careless housemaids became, and the more ready a scolding cook was to blame her.
softened - कम करना, हल्का करना, कोमल बनाना
If she had been older, Miss Minchin would have given her the bigger girls to teach and saved money by dismissing an instructress; but while she remained and looked like a child, she could be made more useful as a sort of little superior errand girl and maid of all work. An ordinary errand boy would not have been so clever and reliable.
instructress - प्रशिक्षिका
errand - दूतकार्य
Sara could be trusted with difficult commissions and complicated messages. She could even go and pay bills, and she combined with this the ability to dust a room well and to set things in order.
Her own lessons became things of the past. She was taught nothing, and only after long and busy days spent in running here and there at everybody's orders was she grudgingly allowed to go into the deserted schoolroom, with a pile of old books, and study alone at night.
running here - यहाँ चल रहा है
grudgingly - अनिच्छा से, अनिच्छा से
"If I do not remind myself of the things I have learned, perhaps I may forget them," she said to herself. "I am almost a scullery maid, and if I am a scullery maid who knows nothing, I shall be like poor Becky. I wonder if I could QUITE forget and begin to drop my H'S and not remember that Henry the Eighth had six wives."
Eighth - आठवां
One of the most curious things in her new existence was her changed position among the pupils. Instead of being a sort of small royal personage among them, she no longer seemed to be one of their number at all.
most curious - सबसे जिज्ञासु
personage - व्यक्ति, मान्य व्यक्ति
She was kept so constantly at work that she scarcely ever had an opportunity of speaking to any of them, and she could not avoid seeing that Miss Minchin preferred that she should live a life apart from that of the occupants of the schoolroom.
occupants - सवारी, अधिभोक्ता/अधिवासी
"I will not have her forming intimacies and talking to the other children," that lady said. "Girls like a grievance, and if she begins to tell romantic stories about herself, she will become an ill-used heroine, and parents will be given a wrong impression. It is better that she should live a separate life-one suited to her circumstances.
intimacies - घनिष्ठता, यौन संबंध, आत्मीयता
I am giving her a home, and that is more than she has any right to expect from me."
Sara did not expect much, and was far too proud to try to continue to be intimate with girls who evidently felt rather awkward and uncertain about her. The fact was that Miss Minchin's pupils were a set of dull, matter-of-fact young people.
They were accustomed to being rich and comfortable, and as Sara's frocks grew shorter and shabbier and queerer-looking, and it became an established fact that she wore shoes with holes in them and was sent out to buy groceries and carry them through the streets in a basket on her arm when the cook wanted them in a hurry, they felt rather as if, when they spoke to her, they were addressing an under servant.
shabbier - अनुचित, जीर्ण शीर्ण
queerer - समलैंगिक पुरुष, समलैंगिक
"To think that she was the girl with the diamond mines," Lavinia commented. "She does look an object. And she's queerer than ever. I never liked her much, but I can't bear that way she has now of looking at people without speaking-just as if she was finding them out."
"I am," said Sara, promptly, when she heard of this. "That's what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think them over afterward."
promptly - तुरंत, जल्दी, फुर्ती से, समय पर
The truth was that she had saved herself annoyance several times by keeping her eye on Lavinia, who was quite ready to make mischief, and would have been rather pleased to have made it for the ex-show pupil.
annoyance - चिढ़, मुसीबत, कष्ट, छेड़छाड़
mischief - शरारत
Sara never made any mischief herself, or interfered with anyone.
She worked like a drudge; she tramped through the wet streets, carrying parcels and baskets; she labored with the childish inattention of the little ones'French lessons; as she became shabbier and more forlorn-looking, she was told that she had better take her meals downstairs; she was treated as if she was nobody's concern, and her heart grew proud and sore, but she never told anyone what she felt.
tramped - पैर घसीट कर चलना, माल जहाज
parcels - पार्सल, गठरी
labored - जी तोड़ कोशिश करना, मजदूर वर्ग
inattention - लापरवाही, उपेक्षा
sore - दुखता, दर्द भरा
"Soldiers don't complain," she would say between her small, shut teeth, "I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war."
But there were hours when her child heart might almost have broken with loneliness but for three people.
loneliness - अकेलापन, तनहाई
The first, it must be owned, was Becky-just Becky. Throughout all that first night spent in the garret, she had felt a vague comfort in knowing that on the other side of the wall in which the rats scuffled and squeaked there was another young human creature. And during the nights that followed the sense of comfort grew. They had little chance to speak to each other during the day.
scuffled - हाथापाई करना, पैर घसीट कर चलना
squeaked - प्रवेश करना, बाल बाल बचना
Each had her own tasks to perform, and any attempt at conversation would have been regarded as a tendency to loiter and lose time. "Don't mind me, miss," Becky whispered during the first morning, "if I don't say nothin'polite. Some un'd be down on us if I did. I MEANS 'please'an''thank you'an''beg pardon,'but I dassn't to take time to say it."
loiter - मटरगश्ती करना, आवारा फिरना
beg pardon - क्षमा करें
But before daybreak she used to slip into Sara's attic and button her dress and give her such help as she required before she went downstairs to light the kitchen fire. And when night came Sara always heard the humble knock at her door which meant that her handmaid was ready to help her again if she was needed.
daybreak - भोर
handmaid - नौकरानी
During the first weeks of her grief Sara felt as if she were too stupefied to talk, so it happened that some time passed before they saw each other much or exchanged visits. Becky's heart told her that it was best that people in trouble should be left alone.
grief - दुःख, शोक, ग़म, मातम
stupefied - मंदबुद्धि कर देना, हैरान करना
The second of the trio of comforters was Ermengarde, but odd things happened before Ermengarde found her place.
trio - तिकड़ी, गायकों की तिकड़ी
comforters - दुलाई, चुसनी, रजाई
When Sara's mind seemed to awaken again to the life about her, she realized that she had forgotten that an Ermengarde lived in the world. The two had always been friends, but Sara had felt as if she were years the older. It could not be contested that Ermengarde was as dull as she was affectionate.
awaken - उठाना, जगाना, जागना
She clung to Sara in a simple, helpless way; she brought her lessons to her that she might be helped; she listened to her every word and besieged her with requests for stories. But she had nothing interesting to say herself, and she loathed books of every description. She was, in fact, not a person one would remember when one was caught in the storm of a great trouble, and Sara forgot her.
clung - चिपक जाना, टिके रहना
helpless - लाचार, बेबस, विवश
besieged - घेर लेना/घेरा डालना, घेर लेना
loathed - घृणा करना, नफ़रत करना
It had been all the easier to forget her because she had been suddenly called home for a few weeks. When she came back she did not see Sara for a day or two, and when she met her for the first time she encountered her coming down a corridor with her arms full of garments which were to be taken downstairs to be mended. Sara herself had already been taught to mend them.
garments - वस्ट्र, कपड़ा
mended - ठीक करना, मरम्मत, मरम्मत करना
She looked pale and unlike herself, and she was attired in the queer, outgrown frock whose shortness showed so much thin black leg.
Attired - पोशाक, आभूषण पहनना, कपडे
shortness - The property of being short
Ermengarde was too slow a girl to be equal to such a situation. She could not think of anything to say. She knew what had happened, but, somehow, she had never imagined Sara could look like this-so odd and poor and almost like a servant.
It made her quite miserable, and she could do nothing but break into a short hysterical laugh and exclaim-aimlessly and as if without any meaning, "Oh, Sara, is that you?"
hysterical - मज़ेदार, उन्मत्त
exclaim - चिल्लाना
aimlessly - निरुद्देश्यता से
"Yes," answered Sara, and suddenly a strange thought passed through her mind and made her face flush. She held the pile of garments in her arms, and her chin rested upon the top of it to keep it steady. Something in the look of her straight-gazing eyes made Ermengarde lose her wits still more. She felt as if Sara had changed into a new kind of girl, and she had never known her before.
gazing - एक्टक देखने ताला, टकटकी
wits - समझ, विवेक, वाकपटुता
Perhaps it was because she had suddenly grown poor and had to mend things and work like Becky.
mend - ठीक करना
"Oh," she stammered. "How-how are you?"
"I don't know," Sara replied. "How are you?"
"I'm-I'm quite well," said Ermengarde, overwhelmed with shyness. Then spasmodically she thought of something to say which seemed more intimate. "Are you-are you very unhappy?" she said in a rush.
overwhelmed - पराजित करना, वश में करना
shyness - लज्जा, संकोच
spasmodically - ऐंठन के साथ, अनियमित रूप से
Then Sara was guilty of an injustice. Just at that moment her torn heart swelled within her, and she felt that if anyone was as stupid as that, one had better get away from her.
injustice - जफा, अन्याय
swelled - सुन्दर, बढ़ाना, मोड़ना, उठाना
"What do you think?" she said. "Do you think I am very happy?" And she marched past her without another word.
marched past - पीछे चला गया
In course of time she realized that if her wretchedness had not made her forget things, she would have known that poor, dull Ermengarde was not to be blamed for her unready, awkward ways. She was always awkward, and the more she felt, the more stupid she was given to being.
wretchedness - दुर्दशा, भाग्यहीनता, दयनीयता
unready - अतत्पर, नातैयार
more stupid - और मूर्ख
But the sudden thought which had flashed upon her had made her over-sensitive.
"She is like the others," she had thought. "She does not really want to talk to me. She knows no one does."
So for several weeks a barrier stood between them. When they met by chance Sara looked the other way, and Ermengarde felt too stiff and embarrassed to speak. Sometimes they nodded to each other in passing, but there were times when they did not even exchange a greeting.
"If she would rather not talk to me," Sara thought, "I will keep out of her way. Miss Minchin makes that easy enough."
Miss Minchin made it so easy that at last they scarcely saw each other at all. At that time it was noticed that Ermengarde was more stupid than ever, and that she looked listless and unhappy. She used to sit in the window-seat, huddled in a heap, and stare out of the window without speaking. Once Jessie, who was passing, stopped to look at her curiously.
listless - निऊत्साहित, निरुत्साहित
heap - ढेर
"What are you crying for, Ermengarde?" she asked.
"I'm not crying," answered Ermengarde, in a muffled, unsteady voice.
muffled - लपेटना, आवाज़ दबाना
unsteady - अनियमित, अस्थिर, चंचल, असंतुलित
"You are," said Jessie. "A great big tear just rolled down the bridge of your nose and dropped off at the end of it. And there goes another."
"Well," said Ermengarde, "I'm miserable-and no one need interfere." And she turned her plump back and took out her handkerchief and boldly hid her face in it.
interfere - बीच मेँ पड़ना, बाधा डालना
boldly - निडरतापूर्वक
That night, when Sara went to her attic, she was later than usual. She had been kept at work until after the hour at which the pupils went to bed, and after that she had gone to her lessons in the lonely schoolroom. When she reached the top of the stairs, she was surprised to see a glimmer of light coming from under the attic door.
glimmer - टिमटिमाना
"Nobody goes there but myself," she thought quickly, "but someone has lighted a candle."
Someone had, indeed, lighted a candle, and it was not burning in the kitchen candlestick she was expected to use, but in one of those belonging to the pupils'bedrooms. The someone was sitting upon the battered footstool, and was dressed in her nightgown and wrapped up in a red shawl. It was Ermengarde.
candlestick - दीपाधार, शमादान, चिराग़दान
nightgown - नाइटी
shawl - शाल
"Ermengarde!" cried Sara. She was so startled that she was almost frightened. "You will get into trouble."
Ermengarde stumbled up from her footstool. She shuffled across the attic in her bedroom slippers, which were too large for her. Her eyes and nose were pink with crying.
"I know I shall-if I'm found out." she said. "But I don't care-I don't care a bit. Oh, Sara, please tell me. What is the matter? Why don't you like me any more?"
Something in her voice made the familiar lump rise in Sara's throat. It was so affectionate and simple-so like the old Ermengarde who had asked her to be "best friends." It sounded as if she had not meant what she had seemed to mean during these past weeks.
"I do like you," Sara answered. "I thought-you see, everything is different now. I thought you-were different."
Ermengarde opened her wet eyes wide.
"Why, it was you who were different!" she cried. "You didn't want to talk to me. I didn't know what to do. It was you who were different after I came back."
Sara thought a moment. She saw she had made a mistake.
"I AM different," she explained, "though not in the way you think. Miss Minchin does not want me to talk to the girls. Most of them don't want to talk to me. I thought-perhaps-you didn't. So I tried to keep out of your way."
"Oh, Sara," Ermengarde almost wailed in her reproachful dismay. And then after one more look they rushed into each other's arms. It must be confessed that Sara's small black head lay for some minutes on the shoulder covered by the red shawl. When Ermengarde had seemed to desert her, she had felt horribly lonely.
reproachful - निन्दात्मक, उलाहना भरा
dismay - निराश करना, निराशा, त्रस्त
horribly - भयंकर रूपसे, बुरी तरह से
Afterward they sat down upon the floor together, Sara clasping her knees with her arms, and Ermengarde rolled up in her shawl. Ermengarde looked at the odd, big-eyed little face adoringly.
clasping - गिरगिराना, (clasp) गिरगिराना
"I couldn't bear it any more," she said. "I dare say you could live without me, Sara; but I couldn't live without you. I was nearly DEAD. So tonight, when I was crying under the bedclothes, I thought all at once of creeping up here and just begging you to let us be friends again."
creeping - जाना, डर, छिपकर घुसना, घुसना
"You are nicer than I am," said Sara. "I was too proud to try and make friends. You see, now that trials have come, they have shown that I am NOT a nice child. I was afraid they would. Perhaps"-wrinkling her forehead wisely-"that is what they were sent for."
wrinkling - सिकोड़ना, छोटी मोटी समस्या
forehead - माथा, माथ, ललाट
wisely - समझदारी से, बुद्धिमत्तापूर्वक
"I don't see any good in them," said Ermengarde stoutly.
stoutly - दृढ़तापूर्वक
"Neither do I-to speak the truth," admitted Sara, frankly. "But I suppose there MIGHT be good in things, even if we don't see it. There MIGHT"-doubtfully-"be good in Miss Minchin."
frankly - ईमानदारी से, ईमानदारी से
Ermengarde looked round the attic with a rather fearsome curiosity.
fearsome - भयंकर, घबराने वाला/बृहत्/डरावना
curiosity - जिज्ञासा
"Sara," she said, "do you think you can bear living here?"
Sara looked round also.
"If I pretend it's quite different, I can," she answered; "or if I pretend it is a place in a story."
She spoke slowly. Her imagination was beginning to work for her. It had not worked for her at all since her troubles had come upon her. She had felt as if it had been stunned.
stunned - सिर पर मारना, अचेत कर देना
"Other people have lived in worse places. Think of the Count of Monte Cristo in the dungeons of the Chateau d'If. And think of the people in the Bastille!"
chateau - महल, क़िला
"The Bastille," half whispered Ermengarde, watching her and beginning to be fascinated. She remembered stories of the French Revolution which Sara had been able to fix in her mind by her dramatic relation of them. No one but Sara could have done it.
A well-known glow came into Sara's eyes.
"Yes," she said, hugging her knees, "that will be a good place to pretend about. I am a prisoner in the Bastille. I have been here for years and years-and years; and everybody has forgotten about me. Miss Minchin is the jailer-and Becky"-a sudden light adding itself to the glow in her eyes-"Becky is the prisoner in the next cell."
hugging - आलिंगन, आलिंगन करना, सटा लेना
jailer - जेलर
She turned to Ermengarde, looking quite like the old Sara.
"I shall pretend that," she said; "and it will be a great comfort."
Ermengarde was at once enraptured and awed.
enraptured - मंत्रमुग्ध होना
"And will you tell me all about it?" she said. "May I creep up here at night, whenever it is safe, and hear the things you have made up in the day? It will seem as if we were more 'best friends'than ever."
creep - जाना, डर, छिपकर घुसना, घुसना
"Yes," answered Sara, nodding. "Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are."
adversity - विपत्ति, कठिनाई
The third person in the trio was Lottie. She was a small thing and did not know what adversity meant, and was much bewildered by the alteration she saw in her young adopted mother.
alteration - परिवर्तन, फेरबदल, प्रत्यावर्तन
She had heard it rumored that strange things had happened to Sara, but she could not understand why she looked different-why she wore an old black frock and came into the schoolroom only to teach instead of to sit in her place of honor and learn lessons herself.
rumored - अफ़वाह, अफ़वाह होना, जनश्रुति
There had been much whispering among the little ones when it had been discovered that Sara no longer lived in the rooms in which Emily had so long sat in state. Lottie's chief difficulty was that Sara said so little when one asked her questions. At seven mysteries must be made very clear if one is to understand them.
"Are you very poor now, Sara?" she had asked confidentially the first morning her friend took charge of the small French class. "Are you as poor as a beggar?" She thrust a fat hand into the slim one and opened round, tearful eyes. "I don't want you to be as poor as a beggar."
confidentially - गुप्त रूप से, गुप्त रूप से
thrust - आक्रमण, बल, ठेलना, मुख्य विषय
tearful - अश्रुपूर्ण, रोता हुआ, शोकपूर्ण
She looked as if she was going to cry. And Sara hurriedly consoled her.
hurriedly - in a hurried manner
"Beggars have nowhere to live," she said courageously. "I have a place to live in."
beggars - व्यक्ति, याचक, भिखारी
courageously - साहस से, साहसपूर्वक
"Where do you live?" persisted Lottie. "The new girl sleeps in your room, and it isn't pretty any more."
persisted - डटे रहना, बना रहना, डटे रहना
"I live in another room," said Sara.
"Is it a nice one?" inquired Lottie. "I want to go and see it."
"You must not talk," said Sara. "Miss Minchin is looking at us. She will be angry with me for letting you whisper."
She had found out already that she was to be held accountable for everything which was objected to. If the children were not attentive, if they talked, if they were restless, it was she who would be reproved.
accountable - उत्तरदायी, असंख्य, जिम्मेदार
attentive - सतर्क, अवधानी
restless - बेचैन, चिंतित, चंचल, व्याकुल
reproved - फटकारना, कटु आलोचना करना
But Lottie was a determined little person. If Sara would not tell her where she lived, she would find out in some other way.
She talked to her small companions and hung about the elder girls and listened when they were gossiping; and acting upon certain information they had unconsciously let drop, she started late one afternoon on a voyage of discovery, climbing stairs she had never known the existence of, until she reached the attic floor.
hung about - लगाया हुआ
gossiping - Act of gossiping
There she found two doors near each other, and opening one, she saw her beloved Sara standing upon an old table and looking out of a window.
"Sara!" she cried, aghast. "Mamma Sara!" She was aghast because the attic was so bare and ugly and seemed so far away from all the world. Her short legs had seemed to have been mounting hundreds of stairs.
Sara turned round at the sound of her voice. It was her turn to be aghast. What would happen now? If Lottie began to cry and any one chanced to hear, they were both lost. She jumped down from her table and ran to the child.
"Don't cry and make a noise," she implored. "I shall be scolded if you do, and I have been scolded all day. It's-it's not such a bad room, Lottie."
implored - प्रार्थना करना
"Isn't it?" gasped Lottie, and as she looked round it she bit her lip. She was a spoiled child yet, but she was fond enough of her adopted parent to make an effort to control herself for her sake. Then, somehow, it was quite possible that any place in which Sara lived might turn out to be nice. "Why isn't it, Sara?" she almost whispered.
sake - के लिये
Sara hugged her close and tried to laugh. There was a sort of comfort in the warmth of the plump, childish body. She had had a hard day and had been staring out of the windows with hot eyes.
"You can see all sorts of things you can't see downstairs," she said.
"What sort of things?" demanded Lottie, with that curiosity Sara could always awaken even in bigger girls.
"Chimneys-quite close to us-with smoke curling up in wreaths and clouds and going up into the sky-and sparrows hopping about and talking to each other just as if they were people-and other attic windows where heads may pop out any minute and you can wonder who they belong to. And it all feels as high up-as if it was another world."
curling up - घुमना
"Oh, let me see it!" cried Lottie. "Lift me up!"
Sara lifted her up, and they stood on the old table together and leaned on the edge of the flat window in the roof, and looked out.
Anyone who has not done this does not know what a different world they saw. The slates spread out on either side of them and slanted down into the rain gutter-pipes. The sparrows, being at home there, twittered and hopped about quite without fear. Two of them perched on the chimney top nearest and quarrelled with each other fiercely until one pecked the other and drove him away.
slates - उम्मीदवारों की सूची
slanted - दृष्टिकोण, तिरछा करना
twittered - चहकना, चहचहाहट, चहचहाना
hopped - कूदना, फुदकना, एक पैर से कूदना
chimney - चिमनी, धुआँकश
quarrelled - विवाद करना, शिकायत, झगड़ा
fiercely - उग्रतापूर्वक, प्रचंड रूप से
pecked - हल्के से चूमना
The garret window next to theirs was shut because the house next door was empty.
"I wish someone lived there," Sara said. "It is so close that if there was a little girl in the attic, we could talk to each other through the windows and climb over to see each other, if we were not afraid of falling."
The sky seemed so much nearer than when one saw it from the street, that Lottie was enchanted. From the attic window, among the chimney pots, the things which were happening in the world below seemed almost unreal. One scarcely believed in the existence of Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia and the schoolroom, and the roll of wheels in the square seemed a sound belonging to another existence.
enchanted - मोहित करना, मोहित करना
unreal - अवास्तविक
"Oh, Sara!" cried Lottie, cuddling in her guarding arm. "I like this attic-I like it! It is nicer than downstairs!"
"Look at that sparrow," whispered Sara. "I wish I had some crumbs to throw to him."
sparrow - गौरैया, गौरिया
"I have some!" came in a little shriek from Lottie. "I have part of a bun in my pocket; I bought it with my penny yesterday, and I saved a bit."
bun - पावबन
When they threw out a few crumbs the sparrow jumped and flew away to an adjacent chimney top. He was evidently not accustomed to intimates in attics, and unexpected crumbs startled him. But when Lottie remained quite still and Sara chirped very softly-almost as if she were a sparrow herself-he saw that the thing which had alarmed him represented hospitality, after all.
flew away - उड़ गया
adjacent - निकटवर्ती, लगा हुआ, पास
intimates - बताना, घनिष्ठ, आत्मीय, सुपरिचित
chirped - चूँ चूँ करना/चीं चीं करना
hospitality - आतिथ्य
He put his head on one side, and from his perch on the chimney looked down at the crumbs with twinkling eyes. Lottie could scarcely keep still.
twinkling - पलक झपकते ही, पल भर में
keep still - ठहरो
"Will he come? Will he come?" she whispered.
"His eyes look as if he would," Sara whispered back. "He is thinking and thinking whether he dare. Yes, he will! Yes, he is coming!"
He flew down and hopped toward the crumbs, but stopped a few inches away from them, putting his head on one side again, as if reflecting on the chances that Sara and Lottie might turn out to be big cats and jump on him.
At last his heart told him they were really nicer than they looked, and he hopped nearer and nearer, darted at the biggest crumb with a lightning peck, seized it, and carried it away to the other side of his chimney.
crumb - कमीना आदमी, कण, कमीना आदमी
peck - चोंच मारना
seized - समझना, झपट लेना, पकड़ना
"Now he KNOWS", said Sara. "And he will come back for the others."
He did come back, and even brought a friend, and the friend went away and brought a relative, and among them they made a hearty meal over which they twittered and chattered and exclaimed, stopping every now and then to put their heads on one side and examine Lottie and Sara. Lottie was so delighted that she quite forgot her first shocked impression of the attic.
hearty - हार्दिक, भर पेट
chattered - बकबक करना, गप्प लगाना, बकबक
In fact, when she was lifted down from the table and returned to earthly things, as it were, Sara was able to point out to her many beauties in the room which she herself would not have suspected the existence of.
earthly - सांसारिक, संभावित, भौतिक
"It is so little and so high above everything," she said, "that it is almost like a nest in a tree. The slanting ceiling is so funny. See, you can scarcely stand up at this end of the room; and when the morning begins to come I can lie in bed and look right up into the sky through that flat window in the roof. It is like a square patch of light.
nest - घोंसला
patch - पैवंद
If the sun is going to shine, little pink clouds float about, and I feel as if I could touch them. And if it rains, the drops patter and patter as if they were saying something nice. Then if there are stars, you can lie and try to count how many go into the patch. It takes such a lot. And just look at that tiny, rusty grate in the corner.
patter - बड़बड़ाना, पट-पट करना, टपटपाना
If it was polished and there was a fire in it, just think how nice it would be. You see, it's really a beautiful little room."
She was walking round the small place, holding Lottie's hand and making gestures which described all the beauties she was making herself see. She quite made Lottie see them, too. Lottie could always believe in the things Sara made pictures of.
"You see," she said, "there could be a thick, soft blue Indian rug on the floor; and in that corner there could be a soft little sofa, with cushions to curl up on; and just over it could be a shelf full of books so that one could reach them easily; and there could be a fur rug before the fire, and hangings on the wall to cover up the whitewash, and pictures.
cushions - गद्दी, बचाना, दूर रखना
curl - मोड़ना, जाना, लपेटना, सिकोड़ना
hangings - लटकने वाला, लटका हुआ
whitewash - पुताई करना, छिपाना
They would have to be little ones, but they could be beautiful; and there could be a lamp with a deep rose-colored shade; and a table in the middle, with things to have tea with; and a little fat copper kettle singing on the hob; and the bed could be quite different. It could be made soft and covered with a lovely silk coverlet. It could be beautiful.
have tea - चाय पीना
copper - तांबा
kettle - केतली
hob - घुंडी
And perhaps we could coax the sparrows until we made such friends with them that they would come and peck at the window and ask to be let in."
"Oh, Sara!" cried Lottie. "I should like to live here!"
When Sara had persuaded her to go downstairs again, and, after setting her on her way, had come back to her attic, she stood in the middle of it and looked about her. The enchantment of her imaginings for Lottie had died away. The bed was hard and covered with its dingy quilt.
enchantment - जादू, सम्मोहन, टोना, वशीकरण
quilt - दुलाई, गद्दाआ, रजाई बना
The whitewashed wall showed its broken patches, the floor was cold and bare, the grate was broken and rusty, and the battered footstool, tilted sideways on its injured leg, the only seat in the room. She sat down on it for a few minutes and let her head drop in her hands.
patches - पट्टी, धब्बा, चकती, क्षेट्रअ
tilted - झुकाना, डगमगाना, झुकना, झुकाव
The mere fact that Lottie had come and gone away again made things seem a little worse-just as perhaps prisoners feel a little more desolate after visitors come and go, leaving them behind.
"It's a lonely place," she said. "Sometimes it's the loneliest place in the world."
She was sitting in this way when her attention was attracted by a slight sound near her. She lifted her head to see where it came from, and if she had been a nervous child she would have left her seat on the battered footstool in a great hurry. A large rat was sitting up on his hind quarters and sniffing the air in an interested manner.
hind - हिरनी
sniffing - स्निफिंग, (sniff) स्निफिंग
Some of Lottie's crumbs had dropped upon the floor and their scent had drawn him out of his hole.
He looked so queer and so like a gray-whiskered dwarf or gnome that Sara was rather fascinated. He looked at her with his bright eyes, as if he were asking a question. He was evidently so doubtful that one of the child's queer thoughts came into her mind.
whiskered - गलमुच्छा, मूँछ
dwarf - बौना
gnome - बौना
doubtful - अनिश्चित, संदिग्ध, संदेह
"I dare say it is rather hard to be a rat," she mused. "Nobody likes you. People jump and run away and scream out, 'Oh, a horrid rat!'I shouldn't like people to scream and jump and say, 'Oh, a horrid Sara!'the moment they saw me. And set traps for me, and pretend they were dinner. It's so different to be a sparrow. But nobody asked this rat if he wanted to be a rat when he was made.
mused - विचार करना, प्रेरक शक्ति
Nobody said, 'Wouldn't you rather be a sparrow?'"
She had sat so quietly that the rat had begun to take courage. He was very much afraid of her, but perhaps he had a heart like the sparrow and it told him that she was not a thing which pounced. He was very hungry. He had a wife and a large family in the wall, and they had had frightfully bad luck for several days.
frightfully - बहुत अधिक, अत्यन्त
He had left the children crying bitterly, and felt he would risk a good deal for a few crumbs, so he cautiously dropped upon his feet.
bitterly - अधिक, बहुत ज़्यादा, कस के
"Come on," said Sara; "I'm not a trap. You can have them, poor thing! Prisoners in the Bastille used to make friends with rats. Suppose I make friends with you."
How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul.
But whatsoever was the reason, the rat knew from that moment that he was safe-even though he was a rat. He knew that this young human being sitting on the red footstool would not jump up and terrify him with wild, sharp noises or throw heavy objects at him which, if they did not fall and crush him, would send him limping in his scurry back to his hole.
crush - चूर चूर करना, दबाना, जमघट
limping - खंजक, लँंगड़ा, (limp)
scurry - भाग जाना, दौड़ जाना, धक्कम धक्का
He was really a very nice rat, and did not mean the least harm. When he had stood on his hind legs and sniffed the air, with his bright eyes fixed on Sara, he had hoped that she would understand this, and would not begin by hating him as an enemy. When the mysterious thing which speaks without saying any words told him that she would not, he went softly toward the crumbs and began to eat them.
As he did it he glanced every now and then at Sara, just as the sparrows had done, and his expression was so very apologetic that it touched her heart.
apologetic - शर्मिंदा, क्षमायाचक
She sat and watched him without making any movement. One crumb was very much larger than the others-in fact, it could scarcely be called a crumb. It was evident that he wanted that piece very much, but it lay quite near the footstool and he was still rather timid.
"I believe he wants it to carry to his family in the wall," Sara thought. "If I do not stir at all, perhaps he will come and get it."
stir - हिलाना-डुलाना
She scarcely allowed herself to breathe, she was so deeply interested.
The rat shuffled a little nearer and ate a few more crumbs, then he stopped and sniffed delicately, giving a side glance at the occupant of the footstool; then he darted at the piece of bun with something very like the sudden boldness of the sparrow, and the instant he had possession of it fled back to the wall, slipped down a crack in the skirting board, and was gone.
delicately - कुशलतापूर्वक
side glance - पार झलक
occupant - सवारी, अधिभोक्ता/अधिवासी
skirting board - स्कर्टिंग बोर्ड
"I knew he wanted it for his children," said Sara. "I do believe I could make friends with him."
A week or so afterward, on one of the rare nights when Ermengarde found it safe to steal up to the attic, when she tapped on the door with the tips of her fingers Sara did not come to her for two or three minutes. There was, indeed, such a silence in the room at first that Ermengarde wondered if she could have fallen asleep.
Then, to her surprise, she heard her utter a little, low laugh and speak coaxingly to someone.
coaxingly - मनाही से
"There!" Ermengarde heard her say. "Take it and go home, Melchisedec! Go home to your wife!"
Almost immediately Sara opened the door, and when she did so she found Ermengarde standing with alarmed eyes upon the threshold.
"Who-who ARE you talking to, Sara?" she gasped out.
Sara drew her in cautiously, but she looked as if something pleased and amused her.
amused - मनोरंजन करना, मन बहलाना
"You must promise not to be frightened-not to scream the least bit, or I can't tell you," she answered.
Ermengarde felt almost inclined to scream on the spot, but managed to control herself. She looked all round the attic and saw no one. And yet Sara had certainly been speaking TO someone. She thought of ghosts.
inclined - प्रोत्साहित करना
"Is it-something that will frighten me?" she asked timorously.
timorously - डरते डरते
"Some people are afraid of them," said Sara. "I was at first-but I am not now."
"Was it-a ghost?" quaked Ermengarde.
quaked - हिलना, कम्पन, थरथराहट, भूकम्प
"No," said Sara, laughing. "It was my rat."
Ermengarde made one bound, and landed in the middle of the little dingy bed. She tucked her feet under her nightgown and the red shawl. She did not scream, but she gasped with fright.
"Oh! Oh!" she cried under her breath. "A rat! A rat!"
"I was afraid you would be frightened," said Sara. "But you needn't be. I am making him tame. He actually knows me and comes out when I call him. Are you too frightened to want to see him?"
tame - पालतू
The truth was that, as the days had gone on and, with the aid of scraps brought up from the kitchen, her curious friendship had developed, she had gradually forgotten that the timid creature she was becoming familiar with was a mere rat.
scraps - झगड़ा, निकाल देना, रद्दी
At first Ermengarde was too much alarmed to do anything but huddle in a heap upon the bed and tuck up her feet, but the sight of Sara's composed little countenance and the story of Melchisedec's first appearance began at last to rouse her curiosity, and she leaned forward over the edge of the bed and watched Sara go and kneel down by the hole in the skirting board.
huddle - सलाह मशविरा, झुंड, सिमट जाना
tuck up - उठाओ
countenance - समर्थन, मुखाकृति, अनुमोदन करना
rouse - जागना
kneel - घुटने के बल बैठना, घुटने टेकना
"He-he won't run out quickly and jump on the bed, will he?" she said.
"No," answered Sara. "He's as polite as we are. He is just like a person. Now watch!"
She began to make a low, whistling sound-so low and coaxing that it could only have been heard in entire stillness. She did it several times, looking entirely absorbed in it. Ermengarde thought she looked as if she were working a spell. And at last, evidently in response to it, a gray-whiskered, bright-eyed head peeped out of the hole. Sara had some crumbs in her hand.
whistling - सीटी, (whistle), सीटी
stillness - पवनरहितता
She dropped them, and Melchisedec came quietly forth and ate them. A piece of larger size than the rest he took and carried in the most businesslike manner back to his home.
businesslike - व्यावहारिक
"You see," said Sara, "that is for his wife and children. He is very nice. He only eats the little bits. After he goes back I can always hear his family squeaking for joy. There are three kinds of squeaks. One kind is the children's, and one is Mrs. Melchisedec's, and one is Melchisedec's own."
squeaking - चरमराता
squeaks - प्रवेश करना, बाल बाल बचना
Ermengarde began to laugh.
"Oh, Sara!" she said. "You ARE queer-but you are nice."
"I know I am queer," admitted Sara, cheerfully; "and I TRY to be nice." She rubbed her forehead with her little brown paw, and a puzzled, tender look came into her face. "Papa always laughed at me," she said; "but I liked it. He thought I was queer, but he liked me to make up things. I-I can't help making up things. If I didn't, I don't believe I could live.
paw - पंजा
tender - मुलायम, नरम
" She paused and glanced around the attic. "I'm sure I couldn't live here," she added in a low voice.
Ermengarde was interested, as she always was. "When you talk about things," she said, "they seem as if they grew real. You talk about Melchisedec as if he was a person."
"He IS a person," said Sara. "He gets hungry and frightened, just as we do; and he is married and has children. How do we know he doesn't think things, just as we do? His eyes look as if he was a person. That was why I gave him a name."
She sat down on the floor in her favorite attitude, holding her knees.
"Besides," she said, "he is a Bastille rat sent to be my friend. I can always get a bit of bread the cook has thrown away, and it is quite enough to support him."
"Is it the Bastille yet?" asked Ermengarde, eagerly. "Do you always pretend it is the Bastille?"
"Nearly always," answered Sara. "Sometimes I try to pretend it is another kind of place; but the Bastille is generally easiest-particularly when it is cold."
Just at that moment Ermengarde almost jumped off the bed, she was so startled by a sound she heard. It was like two distinct knocks on the wall.
"What is that?" she exclaimed.
Sara got up from the floor and answered quite dramatically:
"It is the prisoner in the next cell."
"Becky!" cried Ermengarde, enraptured.
"Yes," said Sara. "Listen; the two knocks meant, 'Prisoner, are you there?'"
She knocked three times on the wall herself, as if in answer.
"That means, 'Yes, I am here, and all is well.'"
Four knocks came from Becky's side of the wall.
"That means," explained Sara, "'Then, fellow-sufferer, we will sleep in peace. Good night.'"
fellow-sufferer - (fellow-sufferer) सहबद्धी
Ermengarde quite beamed with delight.
beamed - चमक, झलक, प्रकाश विकिरण करना
"Oh, Sara!" she whispered joyfully. "It is like a story!"
"It IS a story," said Sara. "EVERYTHING'S a story. You are a story-I am a story. Miss Minchin is a story."
And she sat down again and talked until Ermengarde forgot that she was a sort of escaped prisoner herself, and had to be reminded by Sara that she could not remain in the Bastille all night, but must steal noiselessly downstairs again and creep back into her deserted bed.
noiselessly - बिना आवाज़ किये
But it was a perilous thing for Ermengarde and Lottie to make pilgrimages to the attic. They could never be quite sure when Sara would be there, and they could scarcely ever be certain that Miss Amelia would not make a tour of inspection through the bedrooms after the pupils were supposed to be asleep. So their visits were rare ones, and Sara lived a strange and lonely life.
perilous - खतरनाक, संकटपूर्ण
pilgrimages - श्रद्धायात्रा, तीर्थस्थान
inspection - निरीक्षण
It was a lonelier life when she was downstairs than when she was in her attic.
She had no one to talk to; and when she was sent out on errands and walked through the streets, a forlorn little figure carrying a basket or a parcel, trying to hold her hat on when the wind was blowing, and feeling the water soak through her shoes when it was raining, she felt as if the crowds hurrying past her made her loneliness greater.
parcel - पार्सल
soak - फैल जाना, डुबाव, भिगोना, सोखना
When she had been the Princess Sara, driving through the streets in her brougham, or walking, attended by Mariette, the sight of her bright, eager little face and picturesque coats and hats had often caused people to look after her. A happy, beautifully cared for little girl naturally attracts attention.
brougham - बंद घोड़ागाड़ी, बंद घोड़ागाड़ी
eager - उत्सुक
picturesque - सुरम्य, चित्रवत सुंदर
beautifully - सुंदर ढंग से, बहुत अच्छे से
Shabby, poorly dressed children are not rare enough and pretty enough to make people turn around to look at them and smile. No one looked at Sara in these days, and no one seemed to see her as she hurried along the crowded pavements.
poorly - अस्वस्थ, लस्टमपस्टम
pavements - पटरी, छज्जा, फर्श
She had begun to grow very fast, and, as she was dressed only in such clothes as the plainer remnants of her wardrobe would supply, she knew she looked very queer, indeed. All her valuable garments had been disposed of, and such as had been left for her use she was expected to wear so long as she could put them on at all.
remnants - बचा हुआ टुकड़ा, अवशेष
Sometimes, when she passed a shop window with a mirror in it, she almost laughed outright on catching a glimpse of herself, and sometimes her face went red and she bit her lip and turned away.
shop window - दुकान का खिड़की
In the evening, when she passed houses whose windows were lighted up, she used to look into the warm rooms and amuse herself by imagining things about the people she saw sitting before the fires or about the tables. It always interested her to catch glimpses of rooms before the shutters were closed.
lighted up - प्रकाशित
amuse - मनोरंजन करना, मन बहलाना
glimpses - झलक, झाँकी
shutters - झिलमिली, किवाड़, कपाट बंद करना
There were several families in the square in which Miss Minchin lived, with which she had become quite familiar in a way of her own. The one she liked best she called the Large Family. She called it the Large Family not because the members of it were big-for, indeed, most of them were little-but because there were so many of them.
There were eight children in the Large Family, and a stout, rosy mother, and a stout, rosy father, and a stout, rosy grandmother, and any number of servants.
rosy - उज्ज्वल, गुलाबी, सुहाना
stout - हट्टा-कट्टा
The eight children were always either being taken out to walk or to ride in perambulators by comfortable nurses, or they were going to drive with their mamma, or they were flying to the door in the evening to meet their papa and kiss him and dance around him and drag off his overcoat and look in the pockets for packages, or they were crowding about the nursery windows and looking out and pushing each other and laughing-in fact, they were always doing something enjoyable and suited to the tastes of a large family. Sara was quite fond of them, and had given them names out of books-quite romantic names. She called them the Montmorencys when she did not call them the Large Family. The fat, fair baby with the lace cap was Ethelberta Beauchamp Montmorency; the next baby was Violet Cholmondeley Montmorency; the little boy who could just stagger and who had such round legs was Sydney Cecil Vivian Montmorency; and then came Lilian Evangeline Maud Marion, Rosalind Gladys, Guy Clarence, Veronica Eustacia, and Claude Harold Hector.
perambulators - बच्चा गाड़ी
drag off - उठाना
overcoat - ओवरकोट, लबादा
Montmorency - मॉन्टमोरेन्सी
Violet - बनफ़्शा, बनफशा
stagger - लड़खड़ाना
Sydney - सिडनी
Maud - given name
Veronica - वेरोनिका
Hector - धमकाना, धौंस देना, डराना धमकाना
One evening a very funny thing happened-though, perhaps, in one sense it was not a funny thing at all.
Several of the Montmorencys were evidently going to a children's party, and just as Sara was about to pass the door they were crossing the pavement to get into the carriage which was waiting for them. Veronica Eustacia and Rosalind Gladys, in white-lace frocks and lovely sashes, had just got in, and Guy Clarence, aged five, was following them.
sashes - कमरपेटी, गज़, दुपट्टा/कमरबन्द
He was such a pretty fellow and had such rosy cheeks and blue eyes, and such a darling little round head covered with curls, that Sara forgot her basket and shabby cloak altogether-in fact, forgot everything but that she wanted to look at him for a moment. So she paused and looked.
It was Christmas time, and the Large Family had been hearing many stories about children who were poor and had no mammas and papas to fill their stockings and take them to the pantomime-children who were, in fact, cold and thinly clad and hungry.
Christmas time - क्रिसमस समय
mammas - माँ
papas - पिता
pantomime - तमाशा, नृत्य नाटिका, मूकाभिनय
thinly - हल्का सा, उत्साहहीन ढंग से
In the stories, kind people-sometimes little boys and girls with tender hearts-invariably saw the poor children and gave them money or rich gifts, or took them home to beautiful dinners.
invariably - सर्वदा, निरपवाद रूप से
Guy Clarence had been affected to tears that very afternoon by the reading of such a story, and he had burned with a desire to find such a poor child and give her a certain sixpence he possessed, and thus provide for her for life. An entire sixpence, he was sure, would mean affluence for evermore.
affluence - अमीर
evermore - सदैव के लिए, हमेशा
As he crossed the strip of red carpet laid across the pavement from the door to the carriage, he had this very sixpence in the pocket of his very short man-o-war trousers; And just as Rosalind Gladys got into the vehicle and jumped on the seat in order to feel the cushions spring under her, he saw Sara standing on the wet pavement in her shabby frock and hat, with her old basket on her arm, looking at him hungrily.
strip - उघाड़ना, आवरण हटाना
hungrily - भूखे लोगों की तरह
He thought that her eyes looked hungry because she had perhaps had nothing to eat for a long time. He did not know that they looked so because she was hungry for the warm, merry life his home held and his rosy face spoke of, and that she had a hungry wish to snatch him in her arms and kiss him. He only knew that she had big eyes and a thin face and thin legs and a common basket and poor clothes.
So he put his hand in his pocket and found his sixpence and walked up to her benignly.
benignly - सुरक्षित ढंग से
"Here, poor little girl," he said. "Here is a sixpence. I will give it to you."
Sara started, and all at once realized that she looked exactly like poor children she had seen, in her better days, waiting on the pavement to watch her as she got out of her brougham. And she had given them pennies many a time. Her face went red and then it went pale, and for a second she felt as if she could not take the dear little sixpence.
"Oh, no!" she said. "Oh, no, thank you; I mustn't take it, indeed!"
Her voice was so unlike an ordinary street child's voice and her manner was so like the manner of a well-bred little person that Veronica Eustacia (whose real name was Janet) and Rosalind Gladys (who was really called Nora) leaned forward to listen.
bred - पोला, (breed), ज़ात, बिरादरी
But Guy Clarence was not to be thwarted in his benevolence. He thrust the sixpence into her hand.
thwarted - रोकना, आड़ा तख्ता
benevolence - भलाई
"Yes, you must take it, poor little girl!" he insisted stoutly. "You can buy things to eat with it. It is a whole sixpence!"
There was something so honest and kind in his face, and he looked so likely to be heartbrokenly disappointed if she did not take it, that Sara knew she must not refuse him. To be as proud as that would be a cruel thing. So she actually put her pride in her pocket, though it must be admitted her cheeks burned.
"Thank you," she said. "You are a kind, kind little darling thing." And as he scrambled joyfully into the carriage she went away, trying to smile, though she caught her breath quickly and her eyes were shining through a mist. She had known that she looked odd and shabby, but until now she had not known that she might be taken for a beggar.
shining through - प्रकाश से दृश्य
mist - धुंध
As the Large Family's carriage drove away, the children inside it were talking with interested excitement.
"Oh, Donald," (this was Guy Clarence's name), Janet exclaimed alarmedly, "why did you offer that little girl your sixpence? I'm sure she is not a beggar!"
"She didn't speak like a beggar!" cried Nora. "And her face didn't really look like a beggar's face!"
"Besides, she didn't beg," said Janet. "I was so afraid she might be angry with you. You know, it makes people angry to be taken for beggars when they are not beggars."
"She wasn't angry," said Donald, a trifle dismayed, but still firm. "She laughed a little, and she said I was a kind, kind little darling thing. And I was!"-stoutly. "It was my whole sixpence."
trifle - क्षुद्र धनराशि, छोटी सी बात
dismayed - निराश करना, निराशा, त्रस्त
Janet and Nora exchanged glances.
glances - चमकना, ग्लांस करना, नजर डालना
"A beggar girl would never have said that," decided Janet. "She would have said, 'Thank yer kindly, little gentleman-thank yer, sir;'and perhaps she would have bobbed a curtsy."
bobbed - झटका, सम्मान में झुकअना
Sara knew nothing about the fact, but from that time the Large Family was as profoundly interested in her as she was in it. Faces used to appear at the nursery windows when she passed, and many discussions concerning her were held round the fire.
profoundly - पूरी तरह से, पूर्णतया, नितान्त
"She is a kind of servant at the seminary," Janet said. "I don't believe she belongs to anybody. I believe she is an orphan. But she is not a beggar, however shabby she looks."
orphan - अनाथ, यतीम, लावारिस
And afterward she was called by all of them, "The-little-girl-who-is-not-a-beggar," which was, of course, rather a long name, and sounded very funny sometimes when the youngest ones said it in a hurry.
Sara managed to bore a hole in the sixpence and hung it on an old bit of narrow ribbon round her neck. Her affection for the Large Family increased-as, indeed, her affection for everything she could love increased. She grew fonder and fonder of Becky, and she used to look forward to the two mornings a week when she went into the schoolroom to give the little ones their French lesson.
Her small pupils loved her, and strove with each other for the privilege of standing close to her and insinuating their small hands into hers. It fed her hungry heart to feel them nestling up to her.
strove - कठोर परिश्रम करना, प्रयास करना
insinuating - इशारा करना
nestling - बच्चा, पक्षी का नवजात बच्चा
She made such friends with the sparrows that when she stood upon the table, put her head and shoulders out of the attic window, and chirped, she heard almost immediately a flutter of wings and answering twitters, and a little flock of dingy town birds appeared and alighted on the slates to talk to her and make much of the crumbs she scattered.
flutter - उत्तेजना, घबराहट, उतार चढाव
twitters - चहकना, चहचहाहट, चहचहाना
flock - जानवरों का समूह
alighted - उतरना, जलता हुआ, प्रज्ज्वलित
With Melchisedec she had become so intimate that he actually brought Mrs. Melchisedec with him sometimes, and now and then one or two of his children. She used to talk to him, and, somehow, he looked quite as if he understood.
There had grown in her mind rather a strange feeling about Emily, who always sat and looked on at everything. It arose in one of her moments of great desolateness. She would have liked to believe or pretend to believe that Emily understood and sympathized with her. She did not like to own to herself that her only companion could feel and hear nothing.
desolateness - दुःखद
sympathized with - सहमत हुआ
She used to put her in a chair sometimes and sit opposite to her on the old red footstool, and stare and pretend about her until her own eyes would grow large with something which was almost like fear-particularly at night when everything was so still, when the only sound in the attic was the occasional sudden scurry and squeak of Melchisedec's family in the wall.
occasional - प्रासंगिक, असाम्यिक
squeak - प्रवेश करना, बाल बाल बचना
One of her "pretends" was that Emily was a kind of good witch who could protect her. Sometimes, after she had stared at her until she was wrought up to the highest pitch of fancifulness, she would ask her questions and find herself ALMOST feeling as if she would presently answer. But she never did.
witch - डायन
fancifulness - अनोखासता
"As to answering, though," said Sara, trying to console herself, "I don't answer very often. I never answer when I can help it. When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word-just to look at them and THINK. Miss Minchin turns pale with rage when I do it, Miss Amelia looks frightened, and so do the girls.
insulting - अपमान होना, अपमान, अपमान करना
turns pale - सावधान हो जाता है
When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in-that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies. I scarcely ever do.
fly into a passion - एक उत्साह में उड़ जाओ
Perhaps Emily is more like me than I am like myself. Perhaps she would rather not answer her friends, even. She keeps it all in her heart."
But though she tried to satisfy herself with these arguments, she did not find it easy.
When, after a long, hard day, in which she had been sent here and there, sometimes on long errands through wind and cold and rain, she came in wet and hungry, and was sent out again because nobody chose to remember that she was only a child, and that her slim legs might be tired and her small body might be chilled; when she had been given only harsh words and cold, slighting looks for thanks; when the cook had been vulgar and insolent; when Miss Minchin had been in her worst mood, and when she had seen the girls sneering among themselves at her shabbiness-then she was not always able to comfort her sore, proud, desolate heart with fancies when Emily merely sat upright in her old chair and stared.
harsh - कटु, कर्कश, निर्दयी
vulgar - वल्गर, अश्लील
insolent - धृष्ट, अक्खड़, बदतमीज़, उध्दत
sneering - उपेक्षापूर्ण
shabbiness - फटेहाल अवस्था
One of these nights, when she came up to the attic cold and hungry, with a tempest raging in her young breast, Emily's stare seemed so vacant, her sawdust legs and arms so inexpressive, that Sara lost all control over herself. There was nobody but Emily-no one in the world. And there she sat.
tempest - आँधी, तूफ़ान
raging - छेड़ छाड़ करना, घटिया समाचारपत्र
vacant - खाली, विचार शून्य, रिक्त
sawdust - बुरादा, चूरा
inexpressive - भावशून्य
"I shall die presently," she said at first.
Emily simply stared.
"I can't bear this," said the poor child, trembling. "I know I shall die. I'm cold; I'm wet; I'm starving to death. I've walked a thousand miles today, and they have done nothing but scold me from morning until night. And because I could not find that last thing the cook sent me for, they would not give me any supper. Some men laughed at me because my old shoes made me slip down in the mud.
I'm cold - मुझे ठंड लग रही है।
I'm starving - मैं भूखा हूँ
scold - फटकारना
supper - रात्रि भोजन
slip down - गिर जाओ
I'm covered with mud now. And they laughed. Do you hear?"
She looked at the staring glass eyes and complacent face, and suddenly a sort of heartbroken rage seized her. She lifted her little savage hand and knocked Emily off the chair, bursting into a passion of sobbing-Sara who never cried.
complacent - आत्मसन्तुष्ट, आत्मसंतुष्ट
Heartbroken - मर्मभेदी दुःख, हृदयविदारण
bursting - विस्फोट, कूट कूट कर भर देना
"You are nothing but a DOLL!" she cried. "Nothing but a doll-doll-doll! You care for nothing. You are stuffed with sawdust. You never had a heart. Nothing could ever make you feel. You are a DOLL!" Emily lay on the floor, with her legs ignominiously doubled up over her head, and a new flat place on the end of her nose; but she was calm, even dignified. Sara hid her face in her arms.
ignominiously - घृणित ढंग से, तिरस्कारपूर्वक
The rats in the wall began to fight and bite each other and squeak and scramble. Melchisedec was chastising some of his family.
scramble - छीना झपटी, गड़बड़ा देना
chastising - शारीरिक दंड देना, दंड देना
Sara's sobs gradually quieted themselves. It was so unlike her to break down that she was surprised at herself. After a while she raised her face and looked at Emily, who seemed to be gazing at her round the side of one angle, and, somehow, by this time actually with a kind of glassy-eyed sympathy. Sara bent and picked her up. Remorse overtook her. She even smiled at herself a very little smile.
sobs - कमीना, सिसकते हुए कहना
glassy - काँच के समान, काँच के समान
remorse - पश्चाताप, पछतावा, प्रयाश्चित
overtook - में अड़्चन पैदा करना
"You can't help being a doll," she said with a resigned sigh, "any more than Lavinia and Jessie can help not having any sense. We are not all made alike. Perhaps you do your sawdust best." And she kissed her and shook her clothes straight, and put her back upon her chair.
alike - एक जैसे, एक समान, समान रूप से
She had wished very much that some one would take the empty house next door. She wished it because of the attic window which was so near hers. It seemed as if it would be so nice to see it propped open someday and a head and shoulders rising out of the square aperture.
propped - सहारा, लकडी से बना आधार
someday - एक दिन, कभी भविष्य में
aperture - छिद्र, छेद, छिद्र्
"If it looked a nice head," she thought, "I might begin by saying, 'Good morning,'and all sorts of things might happen. But, of course, it's not really likely that anyone but under servants would sleep there."
One morning, on turning the corner of the square after a visit to the grocer's, the butcher's, and the baker's, she saw, to her great delight, that during her rather prolonged absence, a van full of furniture had stopped before the next house, the front doors were thrown open, and men in shirt sleeves were going in and out carrying heavy packages and pieces of furniture.
grocer - pansari
butcher - कसाई, बूचड़, (butch) कसाई
Baker - नानबाई
prolonged - लम्बा या दीर्घ करना, बढा देना
absence - अनुपस्थिति
sleeves - आवरण, बाँह/आस्तीन, आवरण नली
"It's taken!" she said. "It really IS taken! Oh, I do hope a nice head will look out of the attic window!"
She would almost have liked to join the group of loiterers who had stopped on the pavement to watch the things carried in. She had an idea that if she could see some of the furniture she could guess something about the people it belonged to.
"Miss Minchin's tables and chairs are just like her," she thought; "I remember thinking that the first minute I saw her, even though I was so little. I told papa afterward, and he laughed and said it was true. I am sure the Large Family have fat, comfortable armchairs and sofas, and I can see that their red-flowery wallpaper is exactly like them. It's warm and cheerful and kind-looking and happy.
sofas - सोफ़ा
flowery - आलंकारिक, फूलोंवाली, फूलदार
wallpaper - वॉलपेपर
"
She was sent out for parsley to the greengrocer's later in the day, and when she came up the area steps her heart gave quite a quick beat of recognition. Several pieces of furniture had been set out of the van upon the pavement. There was a beautiful table of elaborately wrought teakwood, and some chairs, and a screen covered with rich Oriental embroidery.
parsley - अजमोद, खुरासानी अजवायन
greengrocer - सब्ज़ी तरकारी बेचनेवाला
elaborately - सुपरिष्कृत रूप से
teakwood - टीकवुड
Oriental - पूर्वी, पूर्व वासी
embroidery - चिक काढना
The sight of them gave her a weird, homesick feeling. She had seen things so like them in India. One of the things Miss Minchin had taken from her was a carved teakwood desk her father had sent her.
homesick - गृहासक्त्त
carved - काट कर चित्र बनाना
"They are beautiful things," she said; "they look as if they ought to belong to a nice person. All the things look rather grand. I suppose it is a rich family."
The vans of furniture came and were unloaded and gave place to others all the day. Several times it so happened that Sara had an opportunity of seeing things carried in. It became plain that she had been right in guessing that the newcomers were people of large means. All the furniture was rich and beautiful, and a great deal of it was Oriental.
unloaded - माल उतारना, उतारना, खाली करना
newcomers - नवागंतुक
Wonderful rugs and draperies and ornaments were taken from the vans, many pictures, and books enough for a library. Among other things there was a superb god Buddha in a splendid shrine.
rugs - कंबल, कालीन, कम्बल, गलीचा
superb - शानदार, उत्कृष्ट
Buddha - बुद्ध
shrine - मन्दिर, दरगाह
"Someone in the family MUST have been in India," Sara thought. "They have got used to Indian things and like them. I AM glad. I shall feel as if they were friends, even if a head never looks out of the attic window."
When she was taking in the evening's milk for the cook (there was really no odd job she was not called upon to do), she saw something occur which made the situation more interesting than ever. The handsome, rosy man who was the father of the Large Family walked across the square in the most matter-of-fact manner, and ran up the steps of the next-door house.
He ran up them as if he felt quite at home and expected to run up and down them many a time in the future. He stayed inside quite a long time, and several times came out and gave directions to the workmen, as if he had a right to do so. It was quite certain that he was in some intimate way connected with the newcomers and was acting for them.
workmen - श्रमिक, कारीगर, मजदूर
"If the new people have children," Sara speculated, "the Large Family children will be sure to come and play with them, and they MIGHT come up into the attic just for fun."
At night, after her work was done, Becky came in to see her fellow prisoner and bring her news.
"It's a'Nindian gentleman that's comin'to live next door, miss," she said. "I don't know whether he's a black gentleman or not, but he's a Nindian one. He's very rich, an'he's ill, an'the gentleman of the Large Family is his lawyer. He's had a lot of trouble, an'it's made him ill an'low in his mind. He worships idols, miss. He's an 'eathen an'bows down to wood an'stone.
worships - समादर करना, पूजा करना
idols - आदर्श, प्रतिमा, मूर्ति
bows - तोपरे, (bow) तोपरे
I seen a'idol bein'carried in for him to worship. Somebody had oughter send him a trac'. You can get a trac'for a penny."
idol - बुत, मूर्ति, प्रतिमा
worship - पूजा r=pūjā, इबादत r=ibādat
Sara laughed a little.
"I don't believe he worships that idol," she said; "some people like to keep them to look at because they are interesting. My papa had a beautiful one, and he did not worship it."
But Becky was rather inclined to prefer to believe that the new neighbor was "an 'eathen." It sounded so much more romantic than that he should merely be the ordinary kind of gentleman who went to church with a prayer book. She sat and talked long that night of what he would be like, of what his wife would be like if he had one, and of what his children would be like if they had children.
more romantic - अधिक रोमांटिक
Sara saw that privately she could not help hoping very much that they would all be black, and would wear turbans, and, above all, that-like their parent-they would all be "'eathens."
turbans - पगड़ी
"I never lived next door to no 'eathens, miss," she said; "I should like to see what sort o'ways they'd have."
It was several weeks before her curiosity was satisfied, and then it was revealed that the new occupant had neither wife nor children. He was a solitary man with no family at all, and it was evident that he was shattered in health and unhappy in mind.
solitary - अकेला
shattered - नष्ट करना या हो जाना
A carriage drove up one day and stopped before the house. When the footman dismounted from the box and opened the door the gentleman who was the father of the Large Family got out first. After him there descended a nurse in uniform, then came down the steps two men-servants.
footman - नौकर, वर्दीधारी सेवक
dismounted - उतरना
descended - उतरना, उतारना, नीचे उतरना
men-servants - (men-servants) नौकरों
They came to assist their master, who, when he was helped out of the carriage, proved to be a man with a haggard, distressed face, and a skeleton body wrapped in furs. He was carried up the steps, and the head of the Large Family went with him, looking very anxious. Shortly afterward a doctor's carriage arrived, and the doctor went in-plainly to take care of him.
helped out - मदद की
haggard - थका-हारा
skeleton - कंकाल
plainly - साफ़ तौर पर, साफ़ साफ़
"There is such a yellow gentleman next door, Sara," Lottie whispered at the French class afterward. "Do you think he is a Chinee? The geography says the Chinee men are yellow."
"No, he is not Chinese," Sara whispered back; "he is very ill. Go on with your exercise, Lottie. 'Non, monsieur. Je n'ai pas le canif de mon oncle.'"
non - ग़ैर
Ai - ए. आई
pas - पास, (PA) पास
de - initialism of differential equation
mon - सोमवार
That was the beginning of the story of the Indian gentleman.
There were fine sunsets even in the square, sometimes. One could only see parts of them, however, between the chimneys and over the roofs. From the kitchen windows one could not see them at all, and could only guess that they were going on because the bricks looked warm and the air rosy or yellow for a while, or perhaps one saw a blazing glow strike a particular pane of glass somewhere.
sunsets - सूर्यास्त, समापक, डूबता, दिनांत
pane - फलक
There was, however, one place from which one could see all the splendor of them: the piles of red or gold clouds in the west; or the purple ones edged with dazzling brightness; or the little fleecy, floating ones, tinged with rose-color and looking like flights of pink doves scurrying across the blue in a great hurry if there was a wind.
dazzling - चौंधियाने वाला
brightness - चमक
fleecy - मुलायम, ऊन के समान, ऊनी, रोवेदार
tinged - झलक, भर देना, रंग देना
doves - कबूतर, शांतीदूत
The place where one could see all this, and seem at the same time to breathe a purer air, was, of course, the attic window.
When the square suddenly seemed to begin to glow in an enchanted way and look wonderful in spite of its sooty trees and railings, Sara knew something was going on in the sky; and when it was at all possible to leave the kitchen without being missed or called back, she invariably stole away and crept up the flights of stairs, and, climbing on the old table, got her head and body as far out of the window as possible. When she had accomplished this, she always drew a long breath and looked all round her. It used to seem as if she had all the sky and the world to herself. No one else ever looked out of the other attics. Generally the skylights were closed; but even if they were propped open to admit air, no one seemed to come near them. And there Sara would stand, sometimes turning her face upward to the blue which seemed so friendly and near-just like a lovely vaulted ceiling-sometimes watching the west and all the wonderful things that happened there: the clouds melting or drifting or waiting softly to be changed pink or crimson or snow-white or purple or pale dove-gray. Sometimes they made islands or great mountains enclosing lakes of deep turquoise-blue, or liquid amber, or chrysoprase-green; sometimes dark headlands jutted into strange, lost seas; sometimes slender strips of wonderful lands joined other wonderful lands together. There were places where it seemed that one could run or climb or stand and wait to see what next was coming-until, perhaps, as it all melted, one could float away. At least it seemed so to Sara, and nothing had ever been quite so beautiful to her as the things she saw as she stood on the table-her body half out of the skylight-the sparrows twittering with sunset softness on the slates. The sparrows always seemed to her to twitter with a sort of subdued softness just when these marvels were going on.
stole away - चुरा लिया
Skylights - रोशनदान, झरोखा/रोशनदान/वातायन
upward - ऊपर का, ऊपर, महँगाई की ओर
vaulted - तहखाना, शव कक्ष
drifting - बहना, ढेर, धारा, अभिप्राय
crimson - क़िरमिज़ी
enclosing - घेरना, बंद करना, बाड़ा लगाना
turquoise - फ़िरोज़ा, फिरोजा, फीरोजा, पेरोज
amber - एम्बर
chrysoprase - variety of quartz
headlands - उच्च अंतरीप, अंतरीप
jutted - बाहर निकालना, उभार
sunset - सूर्यास्त
softness - नरमी, उदारता, मंदी, शिथिलता
twitter - चहकना, चहचहाहट, चहचहाना
subdued - रोकना, शान्त करना, वस में लाना
marvels - आश्चर्य, चमत्कार, अचंभित होना
There was such a sunset as this a few days after the Indian gentleman was brought to his new home; and, as it fortunately happened that the afternoon's work was done in the kitchen and nobody had ordered her to go anywhere or perform any task, Sara found it easier than usual to slip away and go upstairs.
She mounted her table and stood looking out. It was a wonderful moment. There were floods of molten gold covering the west, as if a glorious tide was sweeping over the world. A deep, rich yellow light filled the air; the birds flying across the tops of the houses showed quite black against it.
glorious - शानदार, सुहावना, तेजस्वी
tide - ज्वार भाटा
"It's a Splendid one," said Sara, softly, to herself. "It makes me feel almost afraid-as if something strange was just going to happen. The Splendid ones always make me feel like that."
She suddenly turned her head because she heard a sound a few yards away from her. It was an odd sound like a queer little squeaky chattering. It came from the window of the next attic. Someone had come to look at the sunset as she had.
squeaky - चरमराता, किकियाता, तीखी/किकियायी
chattering - बातचीत, (chatter) बातचीत
There was a head and a part of a body emerging from the skylight, but it was not the head or body of a little girl or a housemaid; it was the picturesque white-swathed form and dark-faced, gleaming-eyed, white-turbaned head of a native Indian man-servant-"a Lascar," Sara said to herself quickly-and the sound she had heard came from a small monkey he held in his arms as if he were fond of it, and which was snuggling and chattering against his breast.
swathed - लपेटना, पट्टी, चौड़ी पट्टी
gleaming - having a bright sheen
turbaned - पगड़ीधारी
Lascar - लास्कर
snuggling - सट कर लेटना, आराम से लेटना
As Sara looked toward him he looked toward her. The first thing she thought was that his dark face looked sorrowful and homesick. She felt absolutely sure he had come up to look at the sun, because he had seen it so seldom in England that he longed for a sight of it. She looked at him interestedly for a second, and then smiled across the slates.
She had learned to know how comforting a smile, even from a stranger, may be.
Hers was evidently a pleasure to him. His whole expression altered, and he showed such gleaming white teeth as he smiled back that it was as if a light had been illuminated in his dusky face. The friendly look in Sara's eyes was always very effective when people felt tired or dull.
illuminated - प्रकाशयुक्त करना
dusky - मटमैला, श्यामल
It was perhaps in making his salute to her that he loosened his hold on the monkey. He was an impish monkey and always ready for adventure, and it is probable that the sight of a little girl excited him. He suddenly broke loose, jumped on to the slates, ran across them chattering, and actually leaped on to Sara's shoulder, and from there down into her attic room.
salute - वन्द्
loosened - ढीला करना
impish - शरारती, नटखट
leaped - छलांग मारना, उछलना, कूदना, उछाल
It made her laugh and delighted her; but she knew he must be restored to his master-if the Lascar was his master-and she wondered how this was to be done. Would he let her catch him, or would he be naughty and refuse to be caught, and perhaps get away and run off over the roofs and be lost? That would not do at all. Perhaps he belonged to the Indian gentleman, and the poor man was fond of him.
She turned to the Lascar, feeling glad that she remembered still some of the Hindustani she had learned when she lived with her father. She could make the man understand. She spoke to him in the language he knew.
Hindustani - हिन्दुस्तानी
"Will he let me catch him?" she asked.
She thought she had never seen more surprise and delight than the dark face expressed when she spoke in the familiar tongue. The truth was that the poor fellow felt as if his gods had intervened, and the kind little voice came from heaven itself. At once Sara saw that he had been accustomed to European children. He poured forth a flood of respectful thanks. He was the servant of Missee Sahib.
intervened - हस्तक्षेप करना, बीच मेँ आना
respectful - विनीत, आदरपुर्ण, भध्र
The monkey was a good monkey and would not bite; but, unfortunately, he was difficult to catch. He would flee from one spot to another, like the lightning. He was disobedient, though not evil. Ram Dass knew him as if he were his child, and Ram Dass he would sometimes obey, but not always.
flee - भागना
disobedient - अवज्ञाकारी
If Missee Sahib would permit Ram Dass, he himself could cross the roof to her room, enter the windows, and regain the unworthy little animal. But he was evidently afraid Sara might think he was taking a great liberty and perhaps would not let him come.
regain - पुनः प्राप्त करना
unworthy - कुपात्र, अनुचित, अनधिकारी
But Sara gave him leave at once.
"Can you get across?" she inquired.
"In a moment," he answered her.
"Then come," she said; "he is flying from side to side of the room as if he was frightened."
Ram Dass slipped through his attic window and crossed to hers as steadily and lightly as if he had walked on roofs all his life. He slipped through the skylight and dropped upon his feet without a sound. Then he turned to Sara and salaamed again. The monkey saw him and uttered a little scream. Ram Dass hastily took the precaution of shutting the skylight, and then went in chase of him.
lightly - अकारण, उपेक्षापूर्वक, हलके से
precaution - गर्भनिरोधक उपाय, एहतियात
It was not a very long chase. The monkey prolonged it a few minutes evidently for the mere fun of it, but presently he sprang chattering on to Ram Dass's shoulder and sat there chattering and clinging to his neck with a weird little skinny arm.
prolonged - लंबा, दीर्घकालीन
clinging - चिपक जाना, टिके रहना
skinny - पतला
Ram Dass thanked Sara profoundly. She had seen that his quick native eyes had taken in at a glance all the bare shabbiness of the room, but he spoke to her as if he were speaking to the little daughter of a rajah, and pretended that he observed nothing.
He did not presume to remain more than a few moments after he had caught the monkey, and those moments were given to further deep and grateful obeisance to her in return for her indulgence. This little evil one, he said, stroking the monkey, was, in truth, not so evil as he seemed, and his master, who was ill, was sometimes amused by him.
presume - मान लेना, चुनौती देना
obeisance - सम्मान, अभिवादन, दंडवत प्रणाम
indulgence - अनुग्रह, विलासिता, सन्तोष
He would have been made sad if his favorite had run away and been lost. Then he salaamed once more and got through the skylight and across the slates again with as much agility as the monkey himself had displayed.
agility - फुर्ती
When he had gone Sara stood in the middle of her attic and thought of many things his face and his manner had brought back to her. The sight of his native costume and the profound reverence of his manner stirred all her past memories.
reverence - आदर, मान, अदब, सत्कार
stirred - चलाना, उत्तेजित करना, मिलाना
It seemed a strange thing to remember that she-the drudge whom the cook had said insulting things to an hour ago-had only a few years ago been surrounded by people who all treated her as Ram Dass had treated her; who salaamed when she went by, whose foreheads almost touched the ground when she spoke to them, who were her servants and her slaves. It was like a sort of dream.
foreheads - मस्तिष्क, माथा
It was all over, and it could never come back. It certainly seemed that there was no way in which any change could take place. She knew what Miss Minchin intended that her future should be. So long as she was too young to be used as a regular teacher, she would be used as an errand girl and servant and yet expected to remember what she had learned and in some mysterious way to learn more.
The greater number of her evenings she was supposed to spend at study, and at various indefinite intervals she was examined and knew she would have been severely admonished if she had not advanced as was expected of her. The truth, indeed, was that Miss Minchin knew that she was too anxious to learn to require teachers. Give her books, and she would devour them and end by knowing them by heart.
indefinite - अनिश्चित, संदेहास्पद
admonished - चेतावनी देना
devour - नष्ट करना, खा जाना
She might be trusted to be equal to teaching a good deal in the course of a few years. This was what would happen: when she was older she would be expected to drudge in the schoolroom as she drudged now in various parts of the house; they would be obliged to give her more respectable clothes, but they would be sure to be plain and ugly and to make her look somehow like a servant.
drudged - टहलुआ, कड़ी मेहनत करना
more respectable - अधिक सम्मानित
That was all there seemed to be to look forward to, and Sara stood quite still for several minutes and thought it over.
Then a thought came back to her which made the color rise in her cheek and a spark light itself in her eyes. She straightened her thin little body and lifted her head.
spark - चिंगारी
straightened - ठीक करना, सीधा करना
"Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.
rags - छेड़ छाड़ करना, घटिया समाचारपत्र
tatters - चीथड़ा, चिथड़ा, लत्ता
triumph - विजय
There was Marie Antoinette when she was in prison and her throne was gone and she had only a black gown on, and her hair was white, and they insulted her and called her Widow Capet. She was a great deal more like a queen then than when she was so gay and everything was so grand. I like her best then. Those howling mobs of people did not frighten her.
insulted - अपमान होना, अपमान, अपमान करना
widow - विधवा, वीडो, बेवा, राँड़
mobs - घेर लेना, टोली, गिरोह
She was stronger than they were, even when they cut her head off."
This was not a new thought, but quite an old one, by this time. It had consoled her through many a bitter day, and she had gone about the house with an expression in her face which Miss Minchin could not understand and which was a source of great annoyance to her, as it seemed as if the child were mentally living a life which held her above the rest of the world.
mentally - मानसिक रूप से, मतिभ्रष्ट
It was as if she scarcely heard the rude and acid things said to her; or, if she heard them, did not care for them at all. Sometimes, when she was in the midst of some harsh, domineering speech, Miss Minchin would find the still, unchildish eyes fixed upon her with something like a proud smile in them. At such times she did not know that Sara was saying to herself:
"You don't know that you are saying these things to a princess, and that if I chose I could wave my hand and order you to execution. I only spare you because I am a princess, and you are a poor, stupid, unkind, vulgar old thing, and don't know any better."
execution - अमल
unkind - निर्दयी
This used to interest and amuse her more than anything else; and queer and fanciful as it was, she found comfort in it and it was a good thing for her. While the thought held possession of her, she could not be made rude and malicious by the rudeness and malice of those about her.
malicious - द्वेषी, दुर्भावनापूर्ण
malice - द्वेष, दुर्भावना, जलन, असूया
"A princess must be polite," she said to herself.
And so when the servants, taking their tone from their mistress, were insolent and ordered her about, she would hold her head erect and reply to them with a quaint civility which often made them stare at her.
erect - बनाना, खडा़ करना
civility - नम्रता, शिष्टता, सभ्यता
"She's got more airs and graces than if she come from Buckingham Palace, that young one," said the cook, chuckling a little sometimes. "I lose my temper with her often enough, but I will say she never forgets her manners. 'If you please, cook'; 'Will you be so kind, cook?''I beg your pardon, cook'; 'May I trouble you, cook?'She drops 'em about the kitchen as if they was nothing."
graces - तौर तरीका, (grace), अदा
chuckling - हंसना, (chuckle) हंसना
The morning after the interview with Ram Dass and his monkey, Sara was in the schoolroom with her small pupils.
Having finished giving them their lessons, she was putting the French exercise-books together and thinking, as she did it, of the various things royal personages in disguise were called upon to do: Alfred the Great, for instance, burning the cakes and getting his ears boxed by the wife of the neat-herd. How frightened she must have been when she found out what she had done.
personages - व्यक्ति, मान्य व्यक्ति
disguise - भेष बदलना, छिपाना, वेष बदलन्
herd - पशुओं का झुण्ड
If Miss Minchin should find out that she-Sara, whose toes were almost sticking out of her boots-was a princess-a real one! The look in her eyes was exactly the look which Miss Minchin most disliked. She would not have it; she was quite near her and was so enraged that she actually flew at her and boxed her ears-exactly as the neat-herd's wife had boxed King Alfred's. It made Sara start.
She wakened from her dream at the shock, and, catching her breath, stood still a second. Then, not knowing she was going to do it, she broke into a little laugh.
"What are you laughing at, you bold, impudent child?" Miss Minchin exclaimed.
impudent - अविवेकी, अक्खड़, निर्लज्ज
It took Sara a few seconds to control herself sufficiently to remember that she was a princess. Her cheeks were red and smarting from the blows she had received.
"I was thinking," she answered.
"Beg my pardon immediately," said Miss Minchin.
Sara hesitated a second before she replied.
"I will beg your pardon for laughing, if it was rude," she said then; "but I won't beg your pardon for thinking."
"What were you thinking?" demanded Miss Minchin. "How dare you think? What were you thinking?"
Jessie tittered, and she and Lavinia nudged each other in unison. All the girls looked up from their books to listen. Really, it always interested them a little when Miss Minchin attacked Sara. Sara always said something queer, and never seemed the least bit frightened. She was not in the least frightened now, though her boxed ears were scarlet and her eyes were as bright as stars.
nudged - कुहनी से छूना
unison - तालमेल, एक स्वर, मेल/एका
scarlet - क़िरमिज़
"I was thinking," she answered grandly and politely, "that you did not know what you were doing."
"That I did not know what I was doing?" Miss Minchin fairly gasped.
"Yes," said Sara, "and I was thinking what would happen if I were a princess and you boxed my ears-what I should do to you. And I was thinking that if I were one, you would never dare to do it, whatever I said or did. And I was thinking how surprised and frightened you would be if you suddenly found out-"
She had the imagined future so clearly before her eyes that she spoke in a manner which had an effect even upon Miss Minchin. It almost seemed for the moment to her narrow, unimaginative mind that there must be some real power hidden behind this candid daring.
unimaginative - नीरस, शुष्क, अकल्पनाशील
candid - खरा, खुले दिल का, सुस्पष्ट
"What?" she exclaimed. "Found out what?"
"That I really was a princess," said Sara, "and could do anything-anything I liked."
Every pair of eyes in the room widened to its full limit. Lavinia leaned forward on her seat to look.
widened - बढ़ाना, ढीला करना, चौड़ा होना
"Go to your room," cried Miss Minchin, breathlessly, "this instant! Leave the schoolroom! Attend to your lessons, young ladies!"
Sara made a little bow.
bow - झुकना, झुकाना
"Excuse me for laughing if it was impolite," she said, and walked out of the room, leaving Miss Minchin struggling with her rage, and the girls whispering over their books.
impolite - अशिष्ट, अशील, अविनित
"Did you see her? Did you see how queer she looked?" Jessie broke out. "I shouldn't be at all surprised if she did turn out to be something. Suppose she should!"
When one lives in a row of houses, it is interesting to think of the things which are being done and said on the other side of the wall of the very rooms one is living in. Sara was fond of amusing herself by trying to imagine the things hidden by the wall which divided the Select Seminary from the Indian gentleman's house.
She knew that the schoolroom was next to the Indian gentleman's study, and she hoped that the wall was thick so that the noise made sometimes after lesson hours would not disturb him.
"I am growing quite fond of him," she said to Ermengarde; "I should not like him to be disturbed. I have adopted him for a friend. You can do that with people you never speak to at all. You can just watch them, and think about them and be sorry for them, until they seem almost like relations. I'm quite anxious sometimes when I see the doctor call twice a day."
"I have very few relations," said Ermengarde, reflectively, "and I'm very glad of it. I don't like those I have. My two aunts are always saying, 'Dear me, Ermengarde! You are very fat. You shouldn't eat sweets,'and my uncle is always asking me things like, 'When did Edward the Third ascend the throne?'and, 'Who died of a surfeit of lampreys?'"
Edward - male given name
surfeit - अतिभोजन
Sara laughed.
"People you never speak to can't ask you questions like that," she said; "and I'm sure the Indian gentleman wouldn't even if he was quite intimate with you. I am fond of him."
She had become fond of the Large Family because they looked happy; but she had become fond of the Indian gentleman because he looked unhappy. He had evidently not fully recovered from some very severe illness. In the kitchen-where, of course, the servants, through some mysterious means, knew everything-there was much discussion of his case.
He was not an Indian gentleman really, but an Englishman who had lived in India. He had met with great misfortunes which had for a time so imperilled his whole fortune that he had thought himself ruined and disgraced forever.
Englishman - अंग्रेज़
misfortunes - दुर्भाग्य, बदकिस्मती, अवदशा
imperilled - जोखिम में डालना
disgraced - कलंकित करना, कलंकित करना
The shock had been so great that he had almost died of brain fever; and ever since he had been shattered in health, though his fortunes had changed and all his possessions had been restored to him. His trouble and peril had been connected with mines.
peril - खतरनाक स्थिति, संकट, खतरा
"And mines with diamonds in 'em!" said the cook. "No savin's of mine never goes into no mines-particular diamond ones"-with a side glance at Sara. "We all know somethin'of THEM."
savin - Juniperus sabina
"He felt as my papa felt," Sara thought. "He was ill as my papa was; but he did not die."
So her heart was more drawn to him than before. When she was sent out at night she used sometimes to feel quite glad, because there was always a chance that the curtains of the house next door might not yet be closed and she could look into the warm room and see her adopted friend.
When no one was about she used sometimes to stop, and, holding to the iron railings, wish him good night as if he could hear her.
"Perhaps you can FEEL if you can't hear," was her fancy. "Perhaps kind thoughts reach people somehow, even through windows and doors and walls. Perhaps you feel a little warm and comforted, and don't know why, when I am standing here in the cold and hoping you will get well and happy again. I am so sorry for you," she would whisper in an intense little voice.
"I wish you had a 'Little Missus'who could pet you as I used to pet papa when he had a headache. I should like to be your 'Little Missus'myself, poor dear! Good night-good night. God bless you!"
bless - आशीर्वाद देना
She would go away, feeling quite comforted and a little warmer herself. Her sympathy was so strong that it seemed as if it MUST reach him somehow as he sat alone in his armchair by the fire, nearly always in a great dressing gown, and nearly always with his forehead resting in his hand as he gazed hopelessly into the fire.
armchair - हाथकुर्सी, आराम-कुर्सी
dressing gown - लैपर
He looked to Sara like a man who had a trouble on his mind still, not merely like one whose troubles lay all in the past.
"He always seems as if he were thinking of something that hurts him NOW," she said to herself, "but he has got his money back and he will get over his brain fever in time, so he ought not to look like that. I wonder if there is something else."
If there was something else-something even servants did not hear of-she could not help believing that the father of the Large Family knew it-the gentleman she called Mr. Montmorency. Mr. Montmorency went to see him often, and Mrs. Montmorency and all the little Montmorencys went, too, though less often.
He seemed particularly fond of the two elder little girls-the Janet and Nora who had been so alarmed when their small brother Donald had given Sara his sixpence. He had, in fact, a very tender place in his heart for all children, and particularly for little girls.
Janet and Nora were as fond of him as he was of them, and looked forward with the greatest pleasure to the afternoons when they were allowed to cross the square and make their well-behaved little visits to him. They were extremely decorous little visits because he was an invalid.
decorous - मर्यादित
invalid - अविधिमान्य, अमान्य
"He is a poor thing," said Janet, "and he says we cheer him up. We try to cheer him up very quietly."
Janet was the head of the family, and kept the rest of it in order. It was she who decided when it was discreet to ask the Indian gentleman to tell stories about India, and it was she who saw when he was tired and it was the time to steal quietly away and tell Ram Dass to go to him. They were very fond of Ram Dass.
He could have told any number of stories if he had been able to speak anything but Hindustani. The Indian gentleman's real name was Mr. Carrisford, and Janet told Mr. Carrisford about the encounter with the little-girl-who-was-not-a-beggar. He was very much interested, and all the more so when he heard from Ram Dass of the adventure of the monkey on the roof.
Ram Dass made for him a very clear picture of the attic and its desolateness-of the bare floor and broken plaster, the rusty, empty grate, and the hard, narrow bed.
plaster - प्लास्टर
"Carmichael," he said to the father of the Large Family, after he had heard this description, "I wonder how many of the attics in this square are like that one, and how many wretched little servant girls sleep on such beds, while I toss on my down pillows, loaded and harassed by wealth that is, most of it-not mine."
wretched - दयनीय, दरिद्र, अत्यंत दुखी
toss - टॉस
pillows - रखना, सहारा देना, तकिया
harassed - परेशान करना, तंग करना
"My dear fellow," Mr. Carmichael answered cheerily, "the sooner you cease tormenting yourself the better it will be for you. If you possessed all the wealth of all the Indies, you could not set right all the discomforts in the world, and if you began to refurnish all the attics in this square, there would still remain all the attics in all the other squares and streets to put in order.
cheerily - प्रसन्नतापूर्वक
cease - बन्द करना, बन्द करना
tormenting - पीटना, (torment), यातना, पीड़ा
Indies - historical
set right - सुधार दें
discomforts - घबरा देना, अशांति, असुविधा
refurnish - पुनर्स्थापित करना
And there you are!"
Mr. Carrisford sat and bit his nails as he looked into the glowing bed of coals in the grate.
"Do you suppose," he said slowly, after a pause-"do you think it is possible that the other child-the child I never cease thinking of, I believe-could be-could POSSIBLY be reduced to any such condition as the poor little soul next door?"
Mr. Carmichael looked at him uneasily. He knew that the worst thing the man could do for himself, for his reason and his health, was to begin to think in the particular way of this particular subject.
uneasily - बेचैनी से, बेचैनी से
"If the child at Madame Pascal's school in Paris was the one you are in search of," he answered soothingly, "she would seem to be in the hands of people who can afford to take care of her. They adopted her because she had been the favorite companion of their little daughter who died. They had no other children, and Madame Pascal said that they were extremely well-to-do Russians."
soothingly - सांत्वनादायक ढंग से
Pascal - SI unit of pressure and stress
Russians - रूसवासी, रूस वासी, रूस संबंधी
"And the wretched woman actually did not know where they had taken her!" exclaimed Mr. Carrisford.
Mr. Carmichael shrugged his shoulders.
shrugged - कंधे उचकाना, कंधे उचकाना
"She was a shrewd, worldly Frenchwoman, and was evidently only too glad to get the child so comfortably off her hands when the father's death left her totally unprovided for. Women of her type do not trouble themselves about the futures of children who might prove burdens. The adopted parents apparently disappeared and left no trace."
Frenchwoman - फ्रांसीसी
burdens - कष्ट देना, पर भार डालना, भार
"But you say 'IF the child was the one I am in search of. You say 'if.'We are not sure. There was a difference in the name."
"Madame Pascal pronounced it as if it were Carew instead of Crewe-but that might be merely a matter of pronunciation. The circumstances were curiously similar. An English officer in India had placed his motherless little girl at the school. He had died suddenly after losing his fortune." Mr. Carmichael paused a moment, as if a new thought had occurred to him.
motherless - बिन माँ का
"Are you SURE the child was left at a school in Paris? Are you sure it was Paris?"
"My dear fellow," broke forth Carrisford, with restless bitterness, "I am SURE of nothing. I never saw either the child or her mother. Ralph Crewe and I loved each other as boys, but we had not met since our school days, until we met in India. I was absorbed in the magnificent promise of the mines. He became absorbed, too. The whole thing was so huge and glittering that we half lost our heads.
bitterness - तीखापन, कटुता, तीक्ष्णता, शोक
Ralph - male given name
When we met we scarcely spoke of anything else. I only knew that the child had been sent to school somewhere. I do not even remember, now, HOW I knew it."
He was beginning to be excited. He always became excited when his still weakened brain was stirred by memories of the catastrophes of the past.
weakened - शिथिल होना, कमजोर हो जाना
catastrophes - प्रलय, दुर्गति, प्रलय होना
Mr. Carmichael watched him anxiously. It was necessary to ask some questions, but they must be put quietly and with caution.
anxiously - चिंतित होकर, उदवेग से
caution - सावधानी
"But you had reason to think the school WAS in Paris?"
"Yes," was the answer, "because her mother was a Frenchwoman, and I had heard that she wished her child to be educated in Paris. It seemed only likely that she would be there."
"Yes," Mr. Carmichael said, "it seems more than probable."
The Indian gentleman leaned forward and struck the table with a long, wasted hand.
"Carmichael," he said, "I MUST find her. If she is alive, she is somewhere. If she is friendless and penniless, it is through my fault. How is a man to get back his nerve with a thing like that on his mind? This sudden change of luck at the mines has made realities of all our most fantastic dreams, and poor Crewe's child may be begging in the street!"
most fantastic - सबसे अद्भुत
"No, no," said Carmichael. "Try to be calm. Console yourself with the fact that when she is found you have a fortune to hand over to her."
"Why was I not man enough to stand my ground when things looked black?" Carrisford groaned in petulant misery. "I believe I should have stood my ground if I had not been responsible for other people's money as well as my own. Poor Crewe had put into the scheme every penny that he owned. He trusted me-he LOVED me.
groaned - कराहना, आह
petulant - बदमिजाज़, चिडचिडा
misery - विपत्ति, दुखअ, दुःख/विपत्ती
And he died thinking I had ruined him-I-Tom Carrisford, who played cricket at Eton with him. What a villain he must have thought me!"
Tom - बिल्ला
cricket - क्रिकेट
Eton - एटन
villain - खलनायक
"Don't reproach yourself so bitterly."
reproach - धिक्कारना, दोष लगाना, उलाहना
"I don't reproach myself because the speculation threatened to fail-I reproach myself for losing my courage. I ran away like a swindler and a thief, because I could not face my best friend and tell him I had ruined him and his child."
swindler - कपटी, ठग, जालसाज़, धोखेबाज़, छली
The good-hearted father of the Large Family put his hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"You ran away because your brain had given way under the strain of mental torture," he said. "You were half delirious already. If you had not been you would have stayed and fought it out. You were in a hospital, strapped down in bed, raving with brain fever, two days after you left the place. Remember that."
strain - तनना, तानना, खींचना
torture - यंत्रणा
strapped down - पकड़ा गया
Carrisford dropped his forehead in his hands.
"Good God! Yes," he said. "I was driven mad with dread and horror. I had not slept for weeks. The night I staggered out of my house all the air seemed full of hideous things mocking and mouthing at me."
mocking - उपहासपूर्ण, छेड़ छाड़ से भरा
"That is explanation enough in itself," said Mr. Carmichael. "How could a man on the verge of brain fever judge sanely!"
verge - किनारा
sanely - सहीहै
Carrisford shook his drooping head.
"And when I returned to consciousness poor Crewe was dead-and buried. And I seemed to remember nothing. I did not remember the child for months and months. Even when I began to recall her existence everything seemed in a sort of haze."
consciousness - चेतना
haze - कोहरा
He stopped a moment and rubbed his forehead. "It sometimes seems so now when I try to remember. Surely I must sometime have heard Crewe speak of the school she was sent to. Don't you think so?"
"He might not have spoken of it definitely. You never seem even to have heard her real name."
"He used to call her by an odd pet name he had invented. He called her his 'Little Missus.'But the wretched mines drove everything else out of our heads. We talked of nothing else. If he spoke of the school, I forgot-I forgot. And now I shall never remember."
pet name - पालतू नाम
"Come, come," said Carmichael. "We shall find her yet. We will continue to search for Madame Pascal's good-natured Russians. She seemed to have a vague idea that they lived in Moscow. We will take that as a clue. I will go to Moscow."
good-natured - (good-natured) अच्छे स्वभाव
Moscow - मास्को
"If I were able to travel, I would go with you," said Carrisford; "but I can only sit here wrapped in furs and stare at the fire. And when I look into it I seem to see Crewe's gay young face gazing back at me. He looks as if he were asking me a question. Sometimes I dream of him at night, and he always stands before me and asks the same question in words. Can you guess what he says, Carmichael?"
Mr. Carmichael answered him in a rather low voice.
"Not exactly," he said.
"He always says, 'Tom, old man-Tom-where is the Little Missus?'" He caught at Carmichael's hand and clung to it. "I must be able to answer him-I must!" he said. "Help me to find her. Help me."
On the other side of the wall Sara was sitting in her garret talking to Melchisedec, who had come out for his evening meal.
evening meal - सांझ भोजन
"It has been hard to be a princess today, Melchisedec," she said. "It has been harder than usual. It gets harder as the weather grows colder and the streets get more sloppy. When Lavinia laughed at my muddy skirt as I passed her in the hall, I thought of something to say all in a flash-and I only just stopped myself in time. You can't sneer back at people like that-if you are a princess.
sloppy - लापरवाह
Muddy - मटमैला, मैला, गंदा करना, दलदली
sneer - व्यंग्योक्ति, हँसी उड़ाना
But you have to bite your tongue to hold yourself in. I bit mine. It was a cold afternoon, Melchisedec. And it's a cold night."
Quite suddenly she put her black head down in her arms, as she often did when she was alone.
"Oh, papa," she whispered, "what a long time it seems since I was your 'Little Missus'!"
This was what happened that day on both sides of the wall.
The winter was a wretched one.
There were days on which Sara tramped through snow when she went on her errands; there were worse days when the snow melted and combined itself with mud to form slush; there were others when the fog was so thick that the lamps in the street were lighted all day and London looked as it had looked the afternoon, several years ago, when the cab had driven through the thoroughfares with Sara tucked up on its seat, leaning against her father's shoulder. On such days the windows of the house of the Large Family always looked delightfully cozy and alluring, and the study in which the Indian gentleman sat glowed with warmth and rich color. But the attic was dismal beyond words. There were no longer sunsets or sunrises to look at, and scarcely ever any stars, it seemed to Sara. The clouds hung low over the skylight and were either gray or mud-color, or dropping heavy rain. At four o'clock in the afternoon, even when there was no special fog, the daylight was at an end. If it was necessary to go to her attic for anything, Sara was obliged to light a candle. The women in the kitchen were depressed, and that made them more ill-tempered than ever. Becky was driven like a little slave.
slush - तैलीय पंक
tucked up - लपेटा हुआ
cozy - आरामदेह
alluring - लुभाना, माया, आकर्षण
glowed - चमकना, गरम करना, रंगना, लाली
dismal - निराशाजनक, भयानक, निराशपुर्ण
sunrises - नवोदित और विकासशील, सूर्योदय
daylight - दिन, सुबह, दिन का प्रकाश
"'Twarn't for you, miss," she said hoarsely to Sara one night when she had crept into the attic-"'twarn't for you, an'the Bastille, an'bein'the prisoner in the next cell, I should die. That there does seem real now, doesn't it? The missus is more like the head jailer every day she lives. I can jest see them big keys you say she carries. The cook she's like one of the under-jailers.
hoarsely - रूखे स्वरसे, भर्राई आवाज़ से
jailers - जेलर
Tell me some more, please, miss-tell me about the subt'ranean passage we've dug under the walls."
"I'll tell you something warmer," shivered Sara. "Get your coverlet and wrap it round you, and I'll get mine, and we will huddle close together on the bed, and I'll tell you about the tropical forest where the Indian gentleman's monkey used to live.
shivered - कम्पन, कँपकँअपी, काँपना
When I see him sitting on the table near the window and looking out into the street with that mournful expression, I always feel sure he is thinking about the tropical forest where he used to swing by his tail from coconut trees. I wonder who caught him, and if he left a family behind who had depended on him for coconuts."
mournful expression - दुःखी व्यक्तित्व
swing - परिवर्तन, लटकना, बदलना, घूमना
coconuts - नारियल
"That is warmer, miss," said Becky, gratefully; "but, someways, even the Bastille is sort of heatin'when you gets to tellin'about it."
gratefully - कृतज्ञतापूर्वक, कृतज्ञता से
someways - किसी कारण से, जैसे तैसे
"That is because it makes you think of something else," said Sara, wrapping the coverlet round her until only her small dark face was to be seen looking out of it. "I've noticed this. What you have to do with your mind, when your body is miserable, is to make it think of something else."
"Can you do it, miss?" faltered Becky, regarding her with admiring eyes.
faltered - हिचकिचाना, डगमगाना, हिचक
Sara knitted her brows a moment.
knitted - जुड़ना, सिकोड़ना, बुनना, बुनाई
brows - आँखें, (brow) आँखें
"Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't," she said stoutly. "But when I CAN I'm all right. And what I believe is that we always could-if we practiced enough. I've been practicing a good deal lately, and it's beginning to be easier than it used to be. When things are horrible-just horrible-I think as hard as ever I can of being a princess.
I say to myself, 'I am a princess, and I am a fairy one, and because I am a fairy nothing can hurt me or make me uncomfortable.'You don't know how it makes you forget"-with a laugh.
She had many opportunities of making her mind think of something else, and many opportunities of proving to herself whether or not she was a princess. But one of the strongest tests she was ever put to came on a certain dreadful day which, she often thought afterward, would never quite fade out of her memory even in the years to come.
fade out - फेड आउट
For several days it had rained continuously; the streets were chilly and sloppy and full of dreary, cold mist; there was mud everywhere-sticky London mud-and over everything the pall of drizzle and fog. Of course there were several long and tiresome errands to be done-there always were on days like this-and Sara was sent out again and again, until her shabby clothes were damp through.
continuously - लगातार
chilly - रूखा, उदासीन, ठण्डा, उत्साह हीन
Pall - आवरण
drizzle - बूंदा बांदी होना, बूंदा बांदी
The absurd old feathers on her forlorn hat were more draggled and absurd than ever, and her downtrodden shoes were so wet that they could not hold any more water. Added to this, she had been deprived of her dinner, because Miss Minchin had chosen to punish her.
absurd - निरर्थक, बेतुका, असंगत
downtrodden - पददलित, दलित/पददलित
deprived - वंचित करना, वंचित करना
She was so cold and hungry and tired that her face began to have a pinched look, and now and then some kind-hearted person passing her in the street glanced at her with sudden sympathy. But she did not know that. She hurried on, trying to make her mind think of something else. It was really very necessary.
pinched - काटना, चुराना, चिकोटी काटना
Her way of doing it was to "pretend" and "suppose" with all the strength that was left in her. But really this time it was harder than she had ever found it, and once or twice she thought it almost made her more cold and hungry instead of less so.
But she persevered obstinately, and as the muddy water squelched through her broken shoes and the wind seemed trying to drag her thin jacket from her, she talked to herself as she walked, though she did not speak aloud or even move her lips.
persevered - डटा रहना, डटा रहना
obstinately - हठपूर्वक
squelched - कीचड़ में से जाना, फचाक
"Suppose I had dry clothes on," she thought. "Suppose I had good shoes and a long, thick coat and merino stockings and a whole umbrella. And suppose-suppose-just when I was near a baker's where they sold hot buns, I should find sixpence-which belonged to nobody. SUPPOSE if I did, I should go into the shop and buy six of the hottest buns and eat them all without stopping."
merino - भेड़ की एक जाति
buns - पावबन, मीठी रोटी, जुड़ा
Some very odd things happen in this world sometimes.
It certainly was an odd thing that happened to Sara. She had to cross the street just when she was saying this to herself. The mud was dreadful-she almost had to wade.
odd thing - अजीब चीज
wade - पैदल पार करना
She picked her way as carefully as she could, but she could not save herself much; only, in picking her way, she had to look down at her feet and the mud, and in looking down-just as she reached the pavement-she saw something shining in the gutter. It was actually a piece of silver-a tiny piece trodden upon by many feet, but still with spirit enough left to shine a little.
trodden - तल्ला, चाल, चलकर रास्ता बनाना
Not quite a sixpence, but the next thing to it-a fourpenny piece.
fourpenny - चार रुपये
In one second it was in her cold little red-and-blue hand.
"Oh," she gasped, "it is true! It is true!"
And then, if you will believe me, she looked straight at the shop directly facing her. And it was a baker's shop, and a cheerful, stout, motherly woman with rosy cheeks was putting into the window a tray of delicious newly baked hot buns, fresh from the oven-large, plump, shiny buns, with currants in them.
currants - रसभरी की झाड़ी, मुनक्का
It almost made Sara feel faint for a few seconds-the shock, and the sight of the buns, and the delightful odors of warm bread floating up through the baker's cellar window.
feel faint - उत्सुक होना
odors - दुर्गंध, गंध
cellar - तंग कोठरी
She knew she need not hesitate to use the little piece of money. It had evidently been lying in the mud for some time, and its owner was completely lost in the stream of passing people who crowded and jostled each other all day long.
jostled - धक्का देना, धकेलना, धक्का
"But I'll go and ask the baker woman if she has lost anything," she said to herself, rather faintly. So she crossed the pavement and put her wet foot on the step. As she did so she saw something that made her stop.
faintly - अस्पष्टतः, संदिग्धतः
It was a little figure more forlorn even than herself-a little figure which was not much more than a bundle of rags, from which small, bare, red muddy feet peeped out, only because the rags with which their owner was trying to cover them were not long enough. Above the rags appeared a shock head of tangled hair, and a dirty face with big, hollow, hungry eyes.
bundle - गठरी, गड्डी
tangled - उलझाना, उलझा देना, उलझ जाना
Sara knew they were hungry eyes the moment she saw them, and she felt a sudden sympathy.
"This," she said to herself, with a little sigh, "is one of the populace-and she is hungrier than I am."
The child-this "one of the populace"-stared up at Sara, and shuffled herself aside a little, so as to give her room to pass. She was used to being made to give room to everybody. She knew that if a policeman chanced to see her he would tell her to "move on."
Sara clutched her little fourpenny piece and hesitated for a few seconds. Then she spoke to her.
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
The child shuffled herself and her rags a little more.
"Ain't I jist?" she said in a hoarse voice. "Jist ain't I?"
hoarse - कर्कश
"Haven't you had any dinner?" said Sara.
"No dinner," more hoarsely still and with more shuffling. "Nor yet no bre'fast-nor yet no supper. No nothin'.
shuffling - पैर घसीट कर चलना, (shuffle)
"Since when?" asked Sara.
"Dunno. Never got nothin'today-nowhere. I've axed an'axed."
dunno - do (does) not know
axed - हटाना[कम करना], कटौती करना
Just to look at her made Sara more hungry and faint. But those queer little thoughts were at work in her brain, and she was talking to herself, though she was sick at heart.
"If I'm a princess," she was saying, "if I'm a princess-when they were poor and driven from their thrones-they always shared-with the populace-if they met one poorer and hungrier than themselves. They always shared. Buns are a penny each. If it had been sixpence I could have eaten six. It won't be enough for either of us. But it will be better than nothing."
thrones - तख्त, राजसिंहासन, शासक पद
"Wait a minute," she said to the beggar child.
She went into the shop. It was warm and smelled deliciously. The woman was just going to put some more hot buns into the window.
deliciously - स्वाद लेते हुये
"If you please," said Sara, "have you lost fourpence-a silver fourpence?" And she held the forlorn little piece of money out to her.
fourpence - चार पैसे
The woman looked at it and then at her-at her intense little face and draggled, once fine clothes.
"Bless us, no," she answered. "Did you find it?"
"Yes," said Sara. "In the gutter."
"Keep it, then," said the woman. "It may have been there for a week, and goodness knows who lost it. YOU could never find out."
"I know that," said Sara, "but I thought I would ask you."
"Not many would," said the woman, looking puzzled and interested and good-natured all at once.
"Do you want to buy something?" she added, as she saw Sara glance at the buns.
"Four buns, if you please," said Sara. "Those at a penny each."
The woman went to the window and put some in a paper bag.
Sara noticed that she put in six.
"I said four, if you please," she explained. "I have only fourpence."
"I'll throw in two for makeweight," said the woman with her good-natured look. "I dare say you can eat them sometime. Aren't you hungry?"
makeweight - भागीदार
A mist rose before Sara's eyes.
"Yes," she answered. "I am very hungry, and I am much obliged to you for your kindness; and"-she was going to add-"there is a child outside who is hungrier than I am." But just at that moment two or three customers came in at once, and each one seemed in a hurry, so she could only thank the woman again and go out.
customers - ग्राहक, असामी, खरीदनेवाला
The beggar girl was still huddled up in the corner of the step. She looked frightful in her wet and dirty rags. She was staring straight before her with a stupid look of suffering, and Sara saw her suddenly draw the back of her roughened black hand across her eyes to rub away the tears which seemed to have surprised her by forcing their way from under her lids. She was muttering to herself.
frightful - बहुत खराब, भयानक, बहुत खराब
lids - रोकना, ढक्कन, रूकावट, आच्छद
muttering - बड़बड़ाहट, (mutter) बड़बड़ाहट
Sara opened the paper bag and took out one of the hot buns, which had already warmed her own cold hands a little.
"See," she said, putting the bun in the ragged lap, "this is nice and hot. Eat it, and you will not feel so hungry."
ragged - विषम, अपरिष्कृत, क्लांत, फटीचर
lap - चपड़-पचड़ पीना, गटागट पी जाना
The child started and stared up at her, as if such sudden, amazing good luck almost frightened her; then she snatched up the bun and began to cram it into her mouth with great wolfish bites.
cram - रटना
wolfish - भेड़िये जैसा
"Oh, my! Oh, my!" Sara heard her say hoarsely, in wild delight. "OH my!"
Sara took out three more buns and put them down.
The sound in the hoarse, ravenous voice was awful.
ravenous - क्षुधातुर, भुक्खड़, भूखा
"She is hungrier than I am," she said to herself. "She's starving." But her hand trembled when she put down the fourth bun. "I'm not starving," she said-and she put down the fifth.
trembled - परेशान करना, हिलना, कम्पन
The little ravening London savage was still snatching and devouring when she turned away. She was too ravenous to give any thanks, even if she had ever been taught politeness-which she had not. She was only a poor little wild animal.
ravening - लालची, क्षुधातुर, हिंस्र
snatching - अंश, लेना, हटा लेना, छीनना
devouring - नष्ट करना, खा जाना
politeness - शिष्टता, अदब, नज़ाकत, सभ्यता
"Good-bye," said Sara.
Good-bye - (Good-bye) अलविदा
When she reached the other side of the street she looked back. The child had a bun in each hand and had stopped in the middle of a bite to watch her. Sara gave her a little nod, and the child, after another stare-a curious lingering stare-jerked her shaggy head in response, and until Sara was out of sight she did not take another bite or even finish the one she had begun.
nod - ऊँघना, झूमना, सिर हिलाना, हुक्म
Lingering - विलंब करने वाला
jerked - झटकना, झटका, मूर्ख
shaggy - खुरदार, रोएँदार, झबरा
At that moment the baker-woman looked out of her shop window.
"Well, I never!" she exclaimed. "If that young un hasn't given her buns to a beggar child! It wasn't because she didn't want them, either. Well, well, she looked hungry enough. I'd give something to know what she did it for."
She stood behind her window for a few moments and pondered. Then her curiosity got the better of her. She went to the door and spoke to the beggar child.
pondered - विचार करना
"Who gave you those buns?" she asked her. The child nodded her head toward Sara's vanishing figure.
vanishing - ओझल होता
"What did she say?" inquired the woman.
"Axed me if I was 'ungry," replied the hoarse voice.
axed - कटौती करना, कटौती करना
"What did you say?"
"Said I was jist."
"And then she came in and got the buns, and gave them to you, did she?"
The child nodded.
"How many?"
"Five."
The woman thought it over.
"Left just one for herself," she said in a low voice. "And she could have eaten the whole six-I saw it in her eyes."
She looked after the little draggled far-away figure and felt more disturbed in her usually comfortable mind than she had felt for many a day.
"I wish she hadn't gone so quick," she said. "I'm blest if she shouldn't have had a dozen." Then she turned to the child.
blest - आशीर्वादित, (bless) आशीर्वादित
"Are you hungry yet?" she said.
"I'm allus hungry," was the answer, "but 't ain't a