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Business Benchmark 2nd Ed Upper Intermediate
Business Vantage Personal Study Book 2nd Edition Guy
Brook-Hart Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Guy Brook-Hart
ISBN(s): 9781107686601, 1107686601
Edition: 2
File Details: PDF, 29.16 MB
Year: 2013
Language: english
 ~ .....CAMBRIDGE
.....
::: UNIVERSITY PRESS

(~) Guy Brook-Hart~~

A
~
1!iii:~ilj;:•11u&tt
XI'AN JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY PRESS
This is a reprint edition of the followingtitle published by Cambridge University Press and Cambridge
English Language Assessment:
Business Benchmark 2nd Edition Upper Intermediate BULATS and Business Vantage Personal Study
Book (ISBN: 9781107686601)
© Cambridge University Press 2013

This reprint edition for the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan)
is published by arrangement with Cambridge University Press and Cambridge English Language
Assessment.
© Cambridge University Press and Xi'an Jiaotong University Press 2017
This reprint edition is authorised for sale in the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan) only. Unauthorised export of this reprint edition is a violation of the Copyright Act.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed by any means, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Cambridge University Press and Xi'an Jiaotong
University Press.
Not for sale separately.
Jlt/\&:;$:-Otm't'1/',.Ai%~lll00:llP-!
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a
Tothe student
This Personal Study Book provides you with two pages of extra exercises
and activities for each unit of the Student's Book. The exercises and activities
are designed to reinforce what you have studied and they cover vocabulary,
grammar, reading and writing.
It is a good idea to do the work in each unit of the Personal Study Book after
you have finished the corresponding unit in the Student's Book. This will help
you to remember things you have studied. You will need to write your answers
in your notebook. Do the exercises regularly while the things you have studied
in the Student's Book are still fresh in your memory.
Check your answers by looking in the key on pages 69-80. If you are not
sure why an answer in the key is correct, ask your teacher to explain.
When you do the writing exercises, you can compare your answer with a
sample answer in the key. If your teacher agrees, you can give him/her your
answer to correct.
If you are preparing for the Cambridge English: Business Vantage exam,
many of the exercises are designed to give you exam practice.
The Personal Study Book also contains a 15-page Writing supplement,
which covers a number of areas that students at your level often have difficulty
with. These are: punctuation and spelling; writing in paragraphs; and generally
organising your writing in a clear and logical manner. Take time to work through
the Writing supplement methodically, doing all the tasks. Don't leave it till the
end of your course. When you're not sure about what you have written, hand
your writing in to your teacher and ask him/her to correct it and comment on it
with you. The sooner you start work on it and the more you write, the sooner
your writing will improve, giving you greater satisfaction and leading to higher
grades in homework and exams.

Acknowledgements
The author and publishers acknowledge the following sources of copyright
material and are grateful for the permissions granted. While every effort has been
made, it has not always been possible to identify the sources of all the material
used, or to trace all copyright holders. If any omissions are brought to our notice,
we will be happy to include the appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting.
Petpals (UK) Limited for the text on p.24 adapted from 'Why Brendan is Animal
Crackers', www.petpals.com. Reproduced with permission; Time Inc for the text
on p.38 adapted from 'What the Web Taught FedEX' by Owen Thomas, Business
2.0 Magazine, 18/11/04. Copyright«:>2004 Time Inc. Used under licence.

Front cover photography by: Shutterstock/Serp Editor: Catriona Watson-Brown

Illustrationsby: Simon Tegg Production controller:Llz Knowelden
Designand layout: Hart McLeodLtd. Managingeditor: Una Yeung
Project manager: Jane Coates Publisher: Karen Barns

Author'snote 3
Unit1 6 Unit7 18
Staffdevelopment andtraining A standat a tradefair
Vocabulary: staff training Vocabulary: compound nouns
Grammar:countable vs. uncountable; Writing: completing an email;
a/an; forming questions; word order writing a reply
in questions Reading: editing skills
Grammar:formal requests
Unit2 8
Jobdescriptions andjobsatisfaction Unit 8 20
Vocabulary: projects; word formation Beingpersuasive
Grammar:past simple or present Vocabulary: saying figures as words;
perfect; writing a report prices
Grammar:first and second conditional
Unit3 10 Reading: editing skills
Gettingthe rightjob Writing: email replying to a complaint
Grammar:prepositions
Reading: editing skills Unit9 22
Vocabulary: phrases for expressing Startinga business
enthusiasm; adjectives Vocabulary: finance; franchises;
do/make/go
Unit4 12 Grammar:prepositions in time phrases
Makingcontact Writing: email making arrangements
Reading: completing a phone
conversation gap-fill Unit10 24
Grammar:comparatives and Financinga start-up
superlatives; expressing large and Vocabulary: multiple-choice doze;
small differences finance
Writing: completing a reply to an
Unit5 14 application; writing a letter of invitation
Breakingintothe market
Vocabulary: launching new products Unit 11 26
Grammar:-ing form or infinitive Expanding intoEurope
Writing: a reply to an email Vocabulary: odd word out; compound
nouns
Unit6 16 Reading: editing skills
Launching a product Grammar:linking words
Vocabulary: word formation;
marketing vocabulary Unit12 28
Grammarand writing: prepositions Presenting yourbusinessidea
in phrases describing trends; a brief Vocabulary: presentation equipment;
report describing bar charts signalling phrases
Grammar:verb forms; can vs. could

4 Contents
Unit 13 30 Unit 20 44
Arrangingbusinesstravel Offshoring andoutsourcing
Vocabulary and writing: booking Vocabulary: financial phrases
accommodation Grammar:third-conditional verb forms
Grammar:should have Reading: editing skills
Writing: letter responding to enquiry
Unit 14 32
Businessconferences Unit 21 46
Vocabulary: phrasal verbs; opposites Customersatisfactionandloyalty
of adjectives; word formation; positive Vocabulary: multiple-choice doze
and negative adjectives Grammar:relative pronouns and
clauses
Unit 15 34
Businessmeetings Unit 22 48
Vocabulary: meetings; compound Communication with customers
nouns; meetings verbs Vocabulary: adjective-noun
Grammar:using pronouns for reference collocations
Grammar:prepositions
Un~16 36 Writing: completing and writing sales
Spendingthe salesbudget reports
Vocabulary: multiple-choice doze;
verbs to express increases and Unit 23 50
decreases Corresponding with customers
Grammar:the passive Vocabulary: last vs. latest; verb-noun
collocations; word formation
Un~17 38 Grammar:causes and results
Socialmediaandbusiness
Vocabulary: verb-noun collocations Unit 24 52
Grammar:definite article Businessacrosscultures
Reading: editing skills Vocabulary: collocations revision;
Writing: report presentation expressions
Grammar:expressions with
Unit 18 40 verb +-ing
Businessandthe environment
Vocabulary: metlwd vs. way; Writing supplement
environmental collocations Punctuation andspelling
Grammar:linking phrases introducing Punctuation 54
reasons Spelling 56
Writing: proposal Organising yourwriting
Paragraphing 58
Unit 19 42 Linking paragraphs and ideas 60
A staffsurvey Planning letters and emails 61
Vocabulary: working conditions; Linking ideas in short emails 62
expressing quantities Planning reports and proposals 64
Grammar:reported speech; error Sampleanswers 66
correction
Answer key 69

Contents 5
;::,
1 Staffdevelopment
andtraining
Vocabulary
Complete the text below with the words and phrases in the box.

certificates degree development employees experience qualifications f86Fl:lit

skills training trainingcourse

Our company uses a professionalagency to 1 ..rc.«.rnit.

new 2 .. . ..... The
company is a managementconsultancy,so most new workers have a university
3 .. .. ...., even if they are too young to have very much work 4 .. ............The
company reallybelievesin staff 5 ................All new employeesare given a two-week
6 ... ............, when they start to learn about the company and its working methods.
so that they can learn the necessary
This is followed by further on-the-job 7 ...................
8 ................
to do their work well. They also need the professional
9 ... .. ...which are expected by our clients-10 .. . ..... and diplomasand so on.

Grammar
1 Are these words countable (C) or uncountable (U)? Where necessary,
use a dictionary to help you.

1 advice U 18 machine
2 cargo 19 postal mail
3 comment 20 page
4 computer program 21 printing paper
5 cost 22 price
6 email 23 recruitment
7 equipment 24 research
8 fact 25 software
9 feedback 26 spending
10 freight 27 study
11 holiday 28 team
12 information 29 teamwork
13 job 30 training
14 journey 31 training course
15 knowledge 32 transport
16 sick leave (time off work) 33 travel
17 lorry 34 work

6 Unit1 Staffdevelopment
andtraining
2 Complete this job advertisement with a/an if the noun is countable and
singular. Leave the gap blank if the noun is uncountable or plural.

Looking for 1 . .. .... work in 2 @n . advertisingagency? Publicity Plus is

recruiting3 ................
traineewriter to work with the creativeteam on 4 ..
advertisementsin a range of sectors. You may also from time to time be asked
to write 5 ................
advertisementor leaflet. 6 .. formal qualificationsare
..........
not necessary,but 7 .. ...experiencein 8 .. ........marketing is desirable.
We are offering 9 ..................
permanentcontract to the right person. 10 ....
satisfactoryperformancewill lead to 11 ..................
quick promotion. For the right
businesswith 13 .... . ...future! For more
person, our company is 12 ..................
information,write to info@publicityplus.com.
14 ..................

3 Complete the questions below with the question words or phrases in the
box. You will not need all the words/phrases.

how how long how many how much how often what when where
which woo· why

1 Who.
..is your boss? Ms Jones?
2 ....have you worked for this company?
3 .................
office would you prefer to work in: company headquarters or a
regional office?
4 ...................
did you go to school - in this country or abroad?
S ...................
do you go on holiday - once a year or more often?
6 ..................
job would you like to be doing in ten years' time?
7 ...................
people work in your office?
8 ..............
would you like to earn?
4 Put the words into the correct order to form questions.
1 enjoy / job / do / about / What / your / most / you / ?
Whatdoyou enjoymost aboutyourjob?
2 your / there / about / you / job / anything / Is / dislike / ?
3 How / travel / you / to / often / job / for / have / do / your / ?
4 many / are / your / employees / there / How / company / in / ?
S work / of / line / this / into / get / you / did / How / ?
6 What/ think/ years'/ you/ time/ you/ in/ will/ be/ do/ doing/ ten/?

Unit1 Staff developmentandtraining 7

;::::,
2 Jobdescriptions
andjobsatisfaction
Vocabulary
1 Complete the text below with the words and phrases in the box.

budget deadlines launch projects results targets team leaders teams

In my company, nearlyall work is done in 1 ..teame.,so all our managersare

I found this quite easy to adapt to, becauseat BusinessSchool we
2 ..................
worked together a lot on 3 ..................
, and this got me used to working towards
goals or 4 . . .... ....and meeting5 .....
I work in Researchand Development,and we get real satisfactionfrom taking
new products through from the originalidea to the 6 .............perhaps one or two
years later. I'm a financialmanager,so a lot of my work involvesensuringthat we
get the best possible7 .................
from our projects while keepingwithin 8 ..
limits - and that involvesstrict cost control.

2 Complete this table with the missing word forms.

develop
supervise
manage
recruit

promote 18
effect 20

8 Unit2 Job descriptionsandjob satisfaction

Grammar
1 a Complete the text below with a verb from the box in the correct tense -
past simple or present perfect.

be become do encourage jeiReEI move pass spend work

11 Jo./r,_t,q
BP as a graduate trainee four years ago. I 2 ................
just three
months in the production department and then they 3 ...................
me to marketing.
Since then, I 4 ...................
in three different divisions of the company and
I 5 ...................
an overseas posting as well - I 6 ...................
Assistant Divisional
Manager in Venezuela for six months last year. The company 7 ..................
me to
continue training, and last month I 8 ...................
my professional exams and
9 .................
a member of the Institute of Chartered Engineers.

b Write a similar paragraph to describe your own student or professional

career.

2 Study this chart, which Tirolteknik: employees

300
shows staff numbers in
an Austrian engineering 250

company, and complete 200

the extract below from the 150
report by putting the verbs
100
in brackets into the correct
tenses. 50

0
two years ago last year this year

Two years ago, Tirolteknik 1 ~mp/py(!d

(employ)230 members of staff, most of
(work)on large-scale state-funded projects in western Austria.
whom 2 ..................
(decide)to reduce its budget, so the
However, last year the government 3 ..................
(have)to temporarily lay off 40 employees. Fortunately, this
company 4 ...................
year the company 5 .. . ..... (sign)contracts to equip two large factories in the
region, with the result that it 6 ..................
(be) necessary to take on 50 extra staff.

3 Write a paragraph for a Pekov Steel

Graduate recruitment
report on this Russian 60
company using the 50
handwritten notes. Use the
40
paragraph from Exercise 2
as a model. 30

20

0
two years ago last year this year

Unit2 Job descriptionsand job satisfaction 9

~ 3 Gettingtherightjob
Grammar
Complete this email of enquiry by putting the correct preposition in each gap.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a 22-year-old student 1 JJL .. psychology 2 .................
the Universityof
Hanover in Germany and I am writing to enquire 3 ...................
career opportunities
your company. I have visited your website and I see that you have an
4 ...................
the recruitment and management
innovativeand open-minded approach 5 .. ...........
6 ...................
personnel within your company. I am 7 .. ............
my final year of a five-year
course of studies and am particularlyinterested 8 .. ...........
working 9 .................
the
area of personnel recruitment. My particular specialisationis psychometric testing,
my final project, I have investigatedthe efficiencyof such tests
and 10 .. ............
11 . .. predicting the work performanceof prospective employees. I would be
most grateful if you could send me information 12 .. ........what opportunities exist
in your company, either 13 ...................
a graduate trainee 14 ...................
a year's time or
for an internship 15 ............. the near future. Could you also tell me how I should
apply?
advance.
Thanking you 16 ...................
Yours faithfully,

Reading
Read this email of application. In most lines, there is one extra word. It is
either grammatically incorrect or does not fit in with the meaning of the text.
Some lines, however, are correct. If a line is correct, put a tick (,/). If there is
an extra word in the line, cross it out.

DearSir,
I am writingfef to applyfor the post of managerin your new branch 1 for
to be openedin Lewisham,as advertisedin the Daily Gazette of 5 November. 2 ✓
As you will now see from my enclosedcurriculumvitae, I am a 3
33-year-oldgraduatequalificationin socialsciencesfrom the 4
Universityof Bristol,with eightyears' of experiencein management 5
posts withinthe retailtrade, my currentpositionis beingthat of 6
AssistantManagerat a branchof Dixonsin Southampton. 7
Sincemy leavinguniversity,apart from practicalexperiencein the 8
variousposts I haveheld, althoughI havestudiedextensivelyat 9
night school,attendingcoursesin NegotiatingSkills,Personnel 10

10 Unit3 Gettingthe rightjob

 Managementand Marketing.Dixonshave also sent for me on 11
various of inJernalcourses in the same areas. 12
I am so interestedin the post advertisedbecauseit seemsto me 13
to representthe type of opportunity I am looking for - to move into a 14
large internationalretailingorganisationand going to have_the 15
;i ... ·~ i• ,i,;" /,: ~

experienceof setting up a new store from the start. 16

I hope for my applicationand my curriculumvitae will be of 17
interestto you. I am availablefor interviewat any other time, 18
and my present employerswould be happy to supply you a reference. 19
I am look
,, forward to hearingfrom you. 20
Yours faithfully,

Vocabulary
1 Complete the sentences below with the words from the box. In some
cases, more than one answer is possible.

contribute happy interested lucky j3aSsieA pride rewarding value

1 I have a real PEIS.S.iCJr,

about people and helping them to develop.
2 I take real ...................
in my company's products and being able to present
them to customers.
3 I think what I ...................
most to my project team is my analytic mindset.
4 ...................
the help and support I get from my colleagues in meetings.
S I'm ...................
to be working with a global company which offers work
opportunities across five continents.
6 I've always been.... . .. in working in IT, right from when I was a small
child.
7 It's ...................
for us to see tangible results for the work we put in.
8 Learning new skills is what really makes me ...................
- if I go home at the
end of the day feeling I've learnt something new, I'm euphoric.
2 Complete these sentences by fonning an adjective from the word in
brackets.
1 I found the training course very int§r:~s_ting (interest) but a little too long.
2 The report was very ...................
(detail) and highly ...................
(inform).
3 The staff canteen isn't ..................
(open) until ten o'clock.
4 What would be a ............. (convenience) time for us to meet?
S I offered her promotion, but she wasn't.. ......(interest).
6 If you are ..................
(absence) from work for more than two days, it's taken
out of your annual leave.

Unit3 Gettingthe right job 11

Reading
Complete these two telephone conversations by putting one word in
each gap.

Maribel: Finance department. 1 ...How

..can I help you?
Manfred: Good morning. Can I speak 2 ............. Maribel Arroyo, please?
Maribel: 3 ..
Manfred: Oh, hello. 4 ...................
is Manfred Steiner from Arts International.
Maribel: Hello, Mr Steiner. What can I do 5 ......... ... you?
Manfred: Well, it's about an invoice - you sent the order we placed, but you forgot
to include the invoice, so we can't pay you.
Maribel: Oh, that's not my department, I'm 6 .. ...., Mr Steiner. That's Mary
Slade in Invoicing.
Manfred: OK. Can I speak to her, then, please?
Maribel: Sure. I'll put you 7
Manfred: Thanks very much.
Maribel: Not at 8

Jane: Jane Ashley.

Alan: Oh, hello, Jane, I've been trying to call Tracy, but she's not answering the
phone, and it's rather urgent.
Jane: Who is 9 ..................
, please?
Alan: 10 .. ......is Alan Searle.
Jane: Oh, hello, Alan, I didn't recognise your voice. I'm 11 ..................
she's in a
meeting at the moment and she's left instructions that she's not to be
disturbed. Can 112 ..................
a message?
Alan: Yes, can you ask her to call me as soon as 13 ..................
?
Jane: Yes, of14
Alan: 15 .. ......you very much. Bye.
Jane: Goodbye.

Grammar
1 Look at the leaflet on the next page from the Skills Development College
and complete the report below it by putting the adjectives in brackets into
the comparative or superlative form.

12 Unit4 Makingcontact
 SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT
COLLEGE
course Basic::
Computer Advanced Introductionto
Skills ComputerSkills Account!
length 4 weeks 6 weeks 10 weeks
hours per week .,
4 6 8
timetable Fri. 4-8 p.m. Mon. and Weds. Mon.-Thurs.
9 a.m.-12 p.m. 8-10 p.m.
traineesper cla~s max.. 6max. 20 max.
pricl(per s!~dent) €200 · €300 v > €150

The Skills DevelopmentCollegeoffers three courses (seeaccompanying leaflet)

which might·meet our staff training needs during the next year. The one which is
1 fe.iilS.t.LJS.ef.t!/
(usetun is the Basic Computer Skills course, since all our staff have
basic computer literacy.The Advanced Computer Skills course could be
2 f11.0..r.e..
qppr.qprJa..~
(appropriate), especiailyfor some senior managerswho
have had little time for intensivetraining. However,it is scheduled at the 3 ...
(inconvenient) time on Monday and Wednesdaymornings,just when managersare
likelyto be 4 ................
(busy). In addition, the course is 5 ...................
(expensive), which
means that we will be able to give training to 6 .................
(few)staff on our present
budget. The course which 7 ............(many) of our junior staff could benefit from is
the Introductionto Accounting. This is run outside office hours (8-1 O p.m. Mon.-
Thurs.),which means th,atit will have 8 ..................
(little) effect on the running of our
(costly) than it appears, as we will
offices. However, it is likelyto prove 9 ..................
have to pay overtimeto staff attending the course. Also, the 10 ................
(large) size
(theoretican than the
of the classes reflectsthe fact that the course is 11 .. .. . .......
computer-skills courses, which have a 12 .............(hands-on) approach.

2 Each of the sentences in this extract from an in-company training manual

contains wrong information for new staff. Correct them by changing the
phrases in italics to the exact opposite. In some cases, more than one
answer may be possible.

Remember,when greeting clients choosing the right words is 1 much ffleffl less
important than the way you dress and your body language.This is because it
takes 2 a little more than a minute for you to make a first impression and often
3 much later than you have had a chance to speak. Once you've made a first
impression, it's 4 much easier to change it than you think. So, 5 you needn't
prepare well for that meeting. Dress 6 slightly less formally than you normally
would in the office. If the meeting is on the phone, remember that your choice
of words is 7 a lot more important than your tone of voice, so 8 it really doesn't
matter at all if you sound tired or uninterested.

Unit4 Makingcontact 13
~ 5 Breakinginto the market
Vocabulary
1 Read this text about inventors and choose the best word - A, B, C or D -
to fill each gap.

It is not easy for inventors to 1 ...~...a new product, especiallywhen they have to
with large consumer-products companies which have a marketing
2 .........
3 ..........
of millionsof pounds. Essentially,inventors have to carry out market 4 ..
beforehand in order to discover who might need or want their product, and what
5 .........
they might be prepared to pay. For a small company, the most effective
marketing 6 ........is to demonstrate the product to potential customers first, so
that they know what they are buying. 7 ........your marketing efforts on existing
customers in order to ensure their 8 ........ If you can do that, you will discover
that they talk about the product to other people, and 9 ..........
recommendationis
the most cost-effective way of extending your customer base.
Before undertaking costly 10 .. ....activities,such as printing brochures and taking
out advertisements,use your imaginationto see if you can reach your 11 .........
.
customers without spending so much. You can 12 ..........
your product at relatively
low cost by handing out free 13 ........at big events, and sending your product to
journalists,who, if the product intereststhem, may write an article about it in a
magazineor newspaper. All these activitieswill raise brand 14-.........
Be ready to sell directly to customers, but, if your product is a consumer
product, it is worth approaching retail stores to see if they will 15 .........
it, too.

1
2
A
A
introduce
compete
~
B win
C establish
C oppose
D
D
start
struggle
3 A resource B fund C budget D account
4 A research B investigations C tests D studies
5 A money B cost C total D price
6 A manoeuvre B scheme C move D ploy
7 A Employ B Focus C Aim D Direct
8 A constancy B presence C loyalty D faithfulness
9 A word-of-mouth B mouth-to-mouth C face-to-face D eye-to-eye
10 A publicity B promotional C selling D sales
11 A end B direct C target D objective
12 A communicate B inform C announce D market
13 A examples B copies C samples D pieces
14 A understanding B awareness C knowledge D information
15 A hold B shelve C keep D stock

14 Unit5 Breakingintothe market

2 Find these phrases (1-8) in the Reading text in the Student's Book on
page 29, then match them with their definitions (a-h).
1 take risks ~ a accept a particular job or responsibility
2 word gets around b ask someone to do a particular job
3 go digital c do something that might be harmful or
4 bring in dangerous
5 brand ambassador d lots of people hear about it
6 cross over e move across to another side
7 take on f put on the Internet
8 fit into g someone who represents the product
h suit

Grammar
Complete this email from the CEO of a company to the Finance Director by
putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form: -ing form or infinitive.

• •·. ~ ~ a;-, ~ l(' "" - 4, ~ --

~ M ~ ' ~ - 0. .., - ; ' ._

Dear Colin,
I am writing 1 tq.tJ><pr.e.~~
(express)my concern about the situation of several of
our product lines. Sales appear 2 ................
(be) falling in several of them. I suggest
3 .... ..........
(increase)our marketing budget this year by about 20%. I think we
(spend) more on advertising in order 5 ..
will have 4 .................. ....(raise)brand
awareness. Competition in our sector has been increasing, and we have to avoid
6 .... .........
(lose) market share to our competitors, which is something we risk
(do) by 8 ...................
7 .. ............ (fol/ow)our present strategy. Also, by 9 ..
(contact) our main customers directly, we may be able 10 ................... (find out) why
our products are losing competitiveness. I think it would be worth 11 ...
(think)about 13 ...................
(do) this, and also 12 ................... (develop)new lines and
(innovate)a bit more. Perhaps we could arrange 15 ..
14 ................. . .. (meet)
I'.
(discuss)this. I would be happy 17 ..
sometime 16 . .............. .........
(see)you any
time next week.
(hear)from you,
Looking forward to 18 ................
Vince

Writing
Write a short reply to Vince's email above.
• Agree to a meeting.
• Explain why it may be difficult to increase the budget.
• Suggest a suitable time.

Unit5 Breakinginto the market 15

Vocabulary
1 Complete this table with the missing word forms.

verb noun
1 found founder
entrepreneur 2
skill 3
commute 4
launch 5
establish 6
opt 8
rely 10

distribute 12

2 Choose the correct answer - A, B or C.

1 A luxury product which is high quality and expensive is a(n) . A ...
product.
~ B downmarket C middle-market
2 A product which only appeals to a very specialist group of customers is a
product.
A special B niche C reserved
3 The percentage of the market which your company has is your market

A quota B segment C share

4 What is a brand called which has the supermarket's name on it?
A an own brand B a white brand C a proprietary brand
5 Which word has these three meanings: start (a company), put (a product)
on the market, start (an advertising campaign)?
A throw B begin C launch
6 What do marketers call the place where the product reaches the consumer?
A an end-user B a final stop C an outlet
7 What is another word for direct mail?
A correspondence B junk mail C snail mail
8 When a company subsidises a football team or a music concert, what is
this called?
A endorsement B subvention C sponsorship
9 Which of these publicity materials is likely to look like a colour magazine?
A a brochure B a leaflet C a newsletter

16 Unit6 Launchinga product

Grammarandwriting
1 You work in the marketing department of Turbodrinks. Study these charts
which show Turbodrinks' spending on promotion of their energy bar.
Complete the sentences below by writing a preposition in each gap.

Turbobuzz energy bar

600
• last year
this year
500
01 m icGames
1/) 400
e::, this year so ...
Q) 300
0
0 slight fall as a result of. ..
0
200

100

0
advertising in sponsorship of free samples at
sports magazines football athletics
tournament championships

Turbobuzz energy bar - total promotional spend

1,200~--------------------

1,000-+----------

800
1/)

e
as 600
0
0
0
400

200

0-+---
last year this year next year
(projected)

1 Our spending on advertising in sports magazines has risen b.y....€50,000

.............
€550,000.
2 We have reduced the amount we spend .. ........ football sponsorship ....
€230,000 .................
€180,000.
3 Our spending .. ...free samples at athletics championships this year has
been €350,000, an increase.. .............
€170,000 ................last year.

2 Now use both the charts and all the handwritten notes to write a brief
report for your manager.

Unit6 Launching a product 17

~ 7 A standat a tradefair
Vocabulary
1 How many compound nouns can you make by combininga word from
box A with a word from box B?
Example: exhibitionorganisers
A 8

customer event exhibition base centre exhibition markets

export floor furniture publicity material organisers space stand

2 Complete each of these sentences with a compound noun from Exercise 1.

1 Can you contact the e.><hiPitiO.tJQrgqr7_if3e.rf3
to find out how much it would
cost to exhibit?
2 How long does it take to get from the airport to the .. .. ?
3 I'd prefer to hire an.. ..rather buy than custom-build one because we
don't have room to store it when it's not in use.
4 It's a good opportunity to meet foreign buyers and have a chance to open
new
5 We shall need about 40 square metres of... ......for our stand.
6 We try to expand our ...................
by exhibiting at trade fairs.
7 We will need quite a lot of shelves for all our .... ........, such as leaflets,
catalogues and brochures.

Writing
1 Complete this email by writing one word in each gap.

Dear Sir/Madam,
1 .... We. ....are a medium-sized business based in Riga, Latvia, specialising
2 ...................
the development and production of marine electronic instruments. We
are interested in the possibility 3 ... .........
marketing our products in your country
and are contacting companies in the sector 4 .. ...........
might be willing to act as
agents or distributors for 5 ... ......products. We wonder 6 .. ...you would be
interested in acting in this role for us. I 7 . . .... . .. be visiting your country during the
first fortnight of next month and would welcome the chance of a meeting with you.
8 ..... .......you suggest a day and a time 9 ... ...would be convenient for you?
I look 10 .. . .....to hearing from you.
Brigita Skuja
Export Sales Director

18 Unit7 A standat a trade fair

2 Your boss has asked you to write a reply to the email in Exercise 1.
Write the email:
• saying that you would be interested in acting as agents
• saying that your boss would like a meeting
• suggesting a day and a time.
Write 40-50 words.

Reading
There is one extra word in every numbered line of this email. Cross out the
extra words.

Dear Ms Maguire,
I am delighted to hear that you are interested in beiAg acting as our agent in New 1
Zealand and I look forward very much to my meeting you at 10:30 on Monday 2
7 October. It would also give me a great pleasure to invite you and the Marketing 3
Director to lunch after the meeting if you are then free. Do let me know if this is 4
possible, and, if is so, can I ask you to book a table at your favourite restaurant? 5
For your interest, I am not attaching details and technical specifications of some 6
of our main products on the following pages, also together with a price list. I am 7
sending to you a complete catalogue by post. 8
Yours sincerely,
Brigita Skuja
Export Sales Director

Grammar
Complete these formal requests by writing one word in each gap.
1 Can you please t?J.II. me how much floor space ................
per metre at the
exhibition?
2 We . . . . .. appreciate it ...................
you could send us details of hotels in the
area which offer discounts.
3 I would be very..... . ......if you.. .. .... give me information on the other
companies exhibiting at the show.
4 I wonder ..................
you could let me .. . ......what time the exhibition opens and
closes to the public.
5 We would be pleased if ..................
could inform us about ..... . .....to obtain
complimentary entrance tickets for our clients.

Unit7 A stand at a trade fair 19

Other documents randomly have
different content
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chambers's
Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art,
No. 739, February 23, 1878
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
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are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and

Art, No. 739, February 23, 1878

Author: Various

Editor: Robert Chambers

William Chambers

Release date: May 25, 2020 [eBook #62226]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S

JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, NO. 739,
FEBRUARY 23, 1878 ***
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND
ART.
 CONTENTS
A WORD ABOUT BIRD-KEEPING.
MY KITMITGHAR ‘SAM.’
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
COAL AND ITS PRODUCTS.
MALAPROPOS.
THEODOR MINTROP.
THE MONTH:
SPRING.
ERRATUM.

No. 739. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1878. Price 1½d.

 A WORD ABOUT BIRD-KEEPING.
We have never looked with perfect complacency on the keeping of
birds in cages; for it looks very much like an unnatural
imprisonment. They have not space to fly about, and there is
something painful in seeing them flitting up and down on two or
three spars within very narrow bounds, or looking through the wires
of their cage as if wishful to get out. It would, however, be of no use
to remonstrate against a practice that is common not only over all
England but over the whole civilised world. Besides, the keepers of
pet birds are not without arguments in their favour. Most of the birds
to be seen in cages, such as canaries, goldfinches, or siskins, have
been bred in confinement. They never knew what it was to be at
liberty, and in their helpless inexperience, if let loose, they would
inevitably perish. There is much truth in this species of excuse for
bird-keeping. Some weight is also to be attached to the plea that the
little creatures are, generally speaking, so happy in their captivity
that many of them live to an old age—say twelve or thirteen years,
and keep on piping their ‘wood-notes wild’ to the last. There may be
the further apology, that the maintenance of birds in cages
communicates happiness to invalids, or to persons who do not go
much from home. There is cheerfulness in their song, and a degree
of amusement in witnessing their movements, as well as in
attending to their simple wants. Altogether, therefore, there is a
good deal to say for bird-keeping. It is not quite so inhumane a
practice as it at first appears. In short, birds, like dogs, may be
viewed in the light of domestic solacements kindly sent by
Providence. Their society and grateful attachment help to fill up
many a melancholy gap.
These ideas have been suggested to us by an accidental interview
with a Dealer in Birds, who in his own way was apt in the philosophy
of the subject. If people would have birds, it was his business to
supply them with what they wanted, and he did so with as great
tenderness of feeling as the fragile nature of the article dealt in
demanded. He had much to explain respecting the importation of
song-birds, and the breeding of them in cages. But on neither of
these points shall we say anything. What especially interested us
were this intelligent dealer’s observations on the proper method of
keeping birds. Some folks, he said, have a notion that all you have
to do is to buy a bird, put it into a cage, and give it food and water
as directed. That is far from being enough. The habits of the animal
must be studied. The climate of the room in which it lives, the
amount of daylight it should enjoy, the atmosphere it breathes, its
freedom from sudden alarms—all have to be thought of, if you wish
the bird to be happy; and without that it has little chance of being a
pleasant companion.
When the dealer began business many years ago, he was very
unfortunate as concerns his stock. He occupied as good a shop as
any one in the trade. The birds arranged all around in their
respective cages, ready for the inspection of customers, were as
merry as birds could be. They sung in full pipe, as if rivalling each
other in their gaiety. Provided with appropriate food, with pure
water, and fresh air, they had not a want unsupplied. Without any
apparent reason, they began to droop and to moult. This did not
alone occur at the season when such might be expected. Their
moulting was often fatal. Vexed at cases of mortality
notwithstanding all his care, the dealer bethought himself that the
use of gas in his shop might be injurious, so for gas he substituted
an oil-lamp light. Still they drooped and died. He next in various
ways and at some expense improved the ventilation of his shop. Still
they drooped and died.
What could be the matter? Puzzled to the last extent, the bird-dealer
at length conjectured what might be the cause of these numerous
deaths. Could it be that the birds wore themselves out singing? If so,
the only way to stop them was to shorten the time they were
exposed to the light, for if kept in the dark they are not inclined to
sing.
The supposition proved to be correct. He shut up his shop at an
early hour, and from that time the mortality of the birds ceased.
During the day they had just that amount of singing that suited their
constitutions, and in the evening they were left to their repose. This
bird-dealer’s ingenious discovery seems exceedingly rational. In a
state of nature, small birds flit about and sing only during daylight.
They retire to rest at sundown. This procedure requires to be
imitated in keeping birds artificially. If you let them sing all day and
several hours additional by lamp-light, you over-fatigue them. The
labour is too much. Of course the birds do not understand that they
had better be silent when the lamp or candles are lit. They
instinctively keep singing on, as if it were still daylight. The
immediate effect of this over-fatigue is that the poor birds are apt to
moult, and become attenuated; and suffering from premature
exhaustion, they speedily perish.
The dealer mentions that few birds subject to the exhaustion of
singing beyond ordinary daylight survive more than two years. This
does not surprise us. How could any of our public vocalists, male or
female, and of even a robust constitution, endure the tear and wear
of singing under a mental strain for any great length of time, as
much as eighteen hours a day? If human beings would thus sink
under the effort of over-work, we need not wonder that the fragile
creatures we are speaking of should succumb and drop from their
perch.
As a means, therefore, of protecting the lives of pet birds, the
recommendation is, to remove the cages to a darkened apartment at
nightfall, or if they are not removed, to cover up every cage with a
dark cloth before lighting the gas or oil-lamps. In shifting birds from
one room to another, it is important to see that there be no change
in the temperature. If removed to a different temperature, there is a
chance of their moulting, which may be preliminary to something
more serious. Let it be always kept in mind that Nature supplies a
coat to suit the heat or cold in which the creatures are placed. By
changing a bird from a warm to a cold climate, birds change their
coat and get one that is heavier, and vice versâ, so, by repeated
changes they are kept continually moulting, instead of once a year,
as they ought to do.
We have referred principally to the treatment of small song-birds,
the delicacy of which calls for particular attention. But our
observations in the main apply to all birds whatsoever. If it be wrong
to keep a little bird singing beyond its constitutional capacity, so it
would be wrong to over-work a parrot by causing it to speak
eighteen hours on a stretch. It would seem that by this degree of
loquacity, the parrot has a tendency to take some kind of bronchial
affection, analogous to the ailment of preachers, usually known as
‘the minister’s sore throat,’ and which, if not checked in time, may
prove equally disastrous.
We have thrown these interesting facts together not only in the
interest of bird-keepers, but for the sake of inculcating kindness to
animals.
W. C.
 MY KITMITGHAR ‘SAM.’
For nearly three years my Kitmitghar, as that functionary is called,
was cook, butler, and factotum of my then small bachelor
establishment in India. A cunning concocter of mulligatawnies,
curries, and chutnies—as cunning a hand too in ‘cooking’ his daily
bazaar accounts, adding annas and pice, for his own particular
benefit, to the prime cost of as many articles as possible. Mildly
remonstrated with, and petty larceny hinted at, his honest
indignation would be aroused. ‘Master tink I cheat,’ he would say;
‘master can inquire bazaar-mans;’ well knowing, the rogue, the
moral and almost physical impossibility of ‘master’—a swell in his
way—going to the distant market in a broiling sun, and finding out
the ruling prices of flesh and fowl.
This worthy, whose original cognomen of Mootoosammy was
shortened into ‘Sam’ for convenience and euphony sakes, was a
Tamil from the Malabar Coast. Au reste, a dark, handsome, stoutly-
built, clean-looking native, on whose polished skin water and coarse
country soap were evidently no strangers. In his early youth, fated
to earn his own living, he had been ejected from the paternal hut
and placed as a chokerah or dressing-boy to a fiery and impecunious
lieutenant of infantry; and under the fostering care of that
impetuous and coinless officer, his indoctrination into the art and
mystery of a valet had been advanced and improved by sundry
‘lickings,’ and by frequent applications to his ebon person of boot-
heels, backs of brushes, and heavy lexicons of the English and
Hindustani languages. This education completed, and when he had
learned to appreciate the difference between uniform and mufti,
mess-dress and parade-dress, and indeed to master the intricacies
of his employer’s scanty wardrobe—non sine lacrymis, not without
‘howls’—then he emerged from dressing-boyhood, was promoted
matie or under-butler, and got translated into more pretentious
bungalows than those of indigent subalterns. By-and-by further
preferment awaited him; he became kitmitghar (major-domo) in the
households of unmarried civilian or military swells, and
thenceforward led a life free from kicks and cuffs, canes and whips,
and impromptu missiles snatched from toilet or study tables. I have
said advisedly ‘unmarried,’ for except under financial difficulties, Sam
would not take service with the Benedicts of Indian society, and the
actual presence or possible advent of a wife was the signal for his
departure. ‘Plenty too much bodder wid lady; too much want ebery
day, ebery day measure curry stuff, oil, ghee [butter]; too much
make say always dis ting too dear, dat ting too dear; too much
trouble take count. Now, Colonel Sahib he good man; he call, he
say: “Sam! how much this week you eespend? [spend].” He just look
book; he give rupee; no one single word bobberee [fuss] make.’ And
so, for a palpable reason, my worthy cook-butler eschewed those
households where a better-half took the reckoning.
English, after the rickety fashion of a Madrassee, Sam spoke fairly
enough; he also read and wrote the language, the latter
accomplishment phonetically, but yet sufficiently near to the rules of
orthography to make you fully understand and pay for ‘tirty seers
wrice’ as thirty seers (measures) of rice. What if he did elect to spell
rice with a w? Is it not recorded that an eminent member of a large
mercantile firm, in days long gone by, invariably included an h in the
word sugar? And is it not also chronicled how he chastised almost to
the death his son and heir for omitting that letter when invoicing a
cargo of best Jamaica moist? If then Blank Blank, Esq. of the city of
London opined that sugar required an h, why not the same liberty as
regards the w to Mootoosammy of the city of Madras?
A sad waverer in religious opinions Master Sam, I fear. A very
Pharisee of a Hindu, a rigid stickler for the worship of Vishnu or Siva
on the high-days and holidays of those deities, when his forehead
and arms would be spotted and streaked with coloured ashes, his
garments would smell of saffron and sandal-wood, his English
diminutive name would be put aside for its more lengthy and
sonorous native patronymic, and he would be off to the temple to
make poojah (prayer) to his swamis (gods). But yet, somehow or
other, all these symptoms and signs of Hinduism would disappear at
Christmas, Easter, or Whitsuntide. At those seasons of the Christian
year, Sam was no longer Mootoosammy, but Sam pure and simple.
No more the believer he in the Vedahs and Shastras, but a pinner of
faith on Aves and Credos; no poojah for him now in the temple, but
crossings and genuflections in the little chapel of the station. Not a
trace in these days of idolatrous scents clinging to cloths and turban,
or of ‘caste’ marks disfiguring brow or limb. Dole in hand—obtained
either from pickings at master’s ’counts or from bazaar-man’s
dustoor (custom)—he is off to join Father Chasuble’s small flock, and
to bow down and formalise with the best or worst of that good
priest’s congregation. I really think and believe, that to secure a
holiday and an ‘outing,’ Sam would have professed himself a
Mohammedan during the Ramadan, a Hebrew during the Passover, a
Heathen Chinee during the feast of Lanterns, and a Buddhist during
the Perihara or other high-jinks of the yellow-robed priests of
Gautama Buddha.
I never before or since met any man into whose household death
was so constantly making inroads, and strange to say, carrying away
the same individual. I suppose that, on a rough estimate, all Sam’s
kith and kin died at least twice during the thirty months or so that he
was in my service.
‘Master please’—thus Sam howling and weeping after his kind
—‘scuse [excuse] me. Gib tree day leave go Madras; too much
trouble my house. My poor old mudder—booh! ooh!—plenty long
time sick; master know well; too much old got; die last night. Booh!
ooh! o-o-g-h!’
‘Why, what tomfoolery is this?’ I reply. ‘Your mother dead! Dead
again! Why, man, how can that be? Four months ago you came and
told me your mother was dead; you got four rupees advance; you
went off, leaving the boy to do your work, and put me to no end of
inconvenience. How can the old woman be dead again?’
But the fellow is not the least put out, and is quite equal to the ‘fix.’
‘Master Sahib,’ he says, ‘I beg you scuse me. Sahib quite wrong.
That time you speak I get leave, not my mudder—my wife’s mudder
die. Master can look book!’
This random shot anent the ‘book’ alludes to my diary, in which the
disbursement of the money has been entered, but not of course the
casualty in his family. But I don’t lose the hint nevertheless, and I jot
down a memorandum for future reference, should occasion require.
Then Sam goes on: ‘I no tell lie, sar. Plenty true; too much bobberee
my house make. My fader gone Mysore’——
‘Why, bless my heart!’ I put in, ‘you told me ages ago your father
died of cholera in Masulipatam.’
‘No, sar,’ says Sam; ‘never, sar! My grand-fader, scuse me. My wife
she catch bad fever. No one single person my home got, make
funeral-feast. Please, my master, advance half-month’s pay; gib four
days’ leave. I too much hurry come back.’ Then he falls down, clasps
my feet, calls me his father, brother; gets my consent to be absent,
handles the rupees, and is off like a shot; not of course to his
mother’s obsequies, for the old harridan has either been buried or
burned years ago, or even now is all alive and kicking; but to some
spun-out native theatricals, nautch, or tamasha (entertainment) in
Black Town, where he feasts, drinks, and sleeps, and for a week at
least I see his face no more.
History repeats itself; so does Sam. Months and months have
passed; I am away from the neighbourhood of the Presidency town,
and on the cool Neilgherry Hills. Enters one morning my man into
my sitting-room, a letter in his hand, written in Tamil, and which he
asks me to read, well knowing that I can’t, that except a very few of
the commonest words of the language, which I speak with an
uncertain not to say incorrect idea of their meaning, the tongue of
his forebears, scriptural and oral, is to me Chaldee or Arabic.
‘Well! what’s up now?’ I say ‘Ennah?’ airing one of the expressions I
know.
‘Master can see self. My uncle he send chit [note]; just now tappal-
man [postman] bring. He write, say: “Sam! you plenty quick come
Madras.” He put inside letter one five-rupee government note. Sahib
can see. He tell me no one minute lose; take fire-road [railway]; too
soon come; plenty, plenty trouble. My mudder dead.’
‘You awful blackguard!’ I exclaim. ‘Your mother dead—dead again!
Look here—look here!’ And I turn up my diary and shew him, under
date August 9, 186-, nearly two years past and gone: ‘Sam’s mother
reported dead for the second time by Sam, &c.’
Then he slinks away discomfited; and I hear him in his smoky
kitchen growling and grumbling, and no doubt anathematising me
and mine past, present, and future.
My first introduction to Sam was after this wise. I had come down
from Bombay to Beypore with troops in a small steamer, and Mr
Sam, who had either deserted or been sent away from the
Abyssinian Expedition, in which he had been a camp-follower, was
also a passenger in the same ship. Of this craft a word en passant,
for I have to this day a lively and by no means pleasant olfactory
recollection of her. She was the dirtiest vessel in which I ever put
foot; guiltless of paint from keel to truck; all grime, coal-soot, and
tar from stem to stern. She had but recently taken a cargo of mules
to Annesley Bay; and but scant if any application of water and
deodorants had followed the disembarkation of the animals. The
‘muley’ flavour still therefore clung closely to bulkhead and planking;
it hung about cordage and canvas; it penetrated saloon and
sleeping-berth; it even overpowered the smell of the rancid grease
with which pistons and wheels were lubricated. Worthy Captain B
—— the skipper assured us that deck and hold, sides and bulwarks,
had been well scoured in Bombay; but as the old salt’s views of
scrubbing, judging from his personal appearance, were
infinitesimally limited, we opined that the ship’s ablution had been as
little as was that of its commander’s diurnal tub.
But to return to Sam. The poor fellow was wandering about the
streets of Beypore coinless and curry-and-rice-less, when he
stumbled upon me. He was seeking, he told me, from some good
Samaritan of an officer, a free convoy to Madras as his servant; and
as I happened to be in a position entitled to passes for some three
or four followers at government expense, I was enabled to pour oil
and wine into Sam’s wounds, and without even the disbursement to
mine host the assistant-quartermaster-general, of the traditional
‘tuppence,’ to get him across from terminus to terminus—some four
hundred long miles—and without once casting eyes on him. But at
Lucifer’s hotel in Madras where I stayed—— What a memory of
mosquitoes, fleas, and other nimble insects doth it bring! What a
night-band of croaking frogs and howling jackals it kept! What packs
of prowling pariah dogs and daringly thieving crows congregated
about its yards and outhouses! What repulsive nude mendicants and
fakeers strolled almost into its very verandahs! What a staff of lazy
sweepers, slow-footed ‘boys,’ and sleepy punkah-pullers crawled
about it generally! And last, though not least, what a wretched
‘coolie-cook’ superintended its flesh-pots, from which not even the
every-day stereotyped prawn curry, boiled seer-fish, and grilled
morghee (fowl) could creditably and palatably issue. At this Stygian
caravanserai then, Sam, whom I thought I had bid adieu to for ever
and a day on the railway platform, turns up again clean and smirk,
salaams, asks for permanent employment, produces a thick packet
of highly laudatory characters (mostly, I had no doubt, either
fabricated by a native scribe in the Thieves’ Bazaar at Black Town, or
borrowed for the occasion from some other brother-butler), gets
engaged; and from that moment, both figuratively and literally,
begins to eat my salt. Nor did the saline feasting fail to give him a
taste for liquor—for alcoholic, decidedly alcoholic were Sam’s
proclivities. He drank at all times and in all places; but his favourite
day and locality was Tuesday, at the weekly market of the
cantonment. Then and there he imbibed right royally, and staggering
home—the coolies with the supplies following him as tipsy as himself
—went straight to his mat-spread charpoy (bedstead).
‘Hollo, Sam!’ I exclaim; ‘at it again; drunk as usual from shandy
[market].’
‘No, shar! Dis time no shrunk! Shun too mush hot! Splenshy head
pain gib! Too mush make shake, sthagger, shar! No, mash-err, no!
Sham not shrunk! Plenty shick! Shmall glass brandy—all right, shar!’
But I decline to add ‘the sum of more to that which hath too much,’
and I leave Sam to sober himself as he best can, and which, truth to
say, he quickly does.
In the way of intoxicants nothing came amiss to my man’s
unfastidious palate. He had no particular ‘wanity,’ like Old Weller’s
friend the red-nosed Shepherd: Henneysey’s brandy, Kinahan’s
whisky, Boord’s gin, Bass’s ale, Guinness’s stout, champagne, sherry,
claret—all and each were equally acceptable; and failing these
European liquors, then the vile palm-toddy and killing mango-spirit
of the neighbouring native stills supplied their place. Bar the toddy
and mango stuff, which were cheap and easily obtained, Sam did not
disburse much for his wine-cellar; master’s sideboard and stores,
guard them as he would, came cheaper and handier. Every bottle,
somehow or other, got ‘other lips’ than mine and my friends’ applied
to it, and its contents went into and warmed other ‘hollow hearts’
than ours. Sam laid an embargo on and helped himself from all. He
it is, I fancy, to whom Aliph Cheem alludes in his Lay of Ind entitled
The Faithful Abboo, that trusty servant who, habitually stealing his
master’s liquor, and accusing his brother-domestics, got caught and
half-poisoned by mistaking in his prowls Kerosine for Old Tom. A
misadventure not unlike befell Sam; but in that instance he did not
‘strike oil,’ but came upon a very nauseating dose of tartar emetic,
and was ‘plenty sick’ and ‘plenty shame’ for some hours after.
Another predilection of my factotum’s was tobacco, which he
smoked without ceasing, and without the least regard to quality or
fabric. ‘Long-cut or short-cut’ to him ‘were all the same.’ But as I did
not happen to be addicted to the ‘nicotian weed’ Sam could not draw
on any resources of mine, but had to depend on his own means,
supplemented by the surreptitious abstraction of Trichys and
Manillas, of Latakia and Bird’s-eye, from the boxes and pouches of
my chum and visitors.
Every native gambles; so it could hardly be expected that Sam
should differ from his brethren in this respect. In the words of the
old ditty anent Ally Croker:

He’d game till he lost the coat from his shoulder.

I don’t think he cared much for cards or dice; but the game that he
delighted in was played with a red and white checkered square of
cloth, and with round pieces like draughtsmen. Whenever the advent
of a friend and opportunity served, down the two squatted with this
board between their legs, and a pile of copper pieces of money by
their sides; and so intent would they be on their play, that nothing
short of a gentle kick, or tap on the head, would arouse them to
master’s wants and needings.
My readers will naturally inquire why, with all these delinquencies,
Sam so long remained my henchman. Well, first, had I discharged
him, another and probably greater robber would have stepped into
his shoes, and bazaar accounts and inroads on alcohol and tobacco
would have remained undiminished. ‘They all do it;’ so better the
de’il I knew, than the de’il whose acquaintance I would have to
make. Again, Sam had his redeeming points; he was, as I have said
before, clean, handy, and deft at the creature comforts, which,
having appetisingly compounded, he could serve up with taste and
elegance. Then he was a good nurse; and during a serious illness
that befell me at one of the vilest stations in Madras, he tended me
closely and carefully, keeping a watchful eye and a ready stick on
punkah-pullers and wetters of kus-kus tatties (scented grass mats),
without the cooling aid of which the heat of that grilling July would
have been my death on that fever-bed. Once more, on those military
inspections which fell to my lot, and which had to be undertaken
partly over the Nizam’s very sandy and rough highways, and in those
close comfortless bone-breaking vehicles called byle-nibbs (bullock-
carts), my man became invaluable. Seated on the narrow perch
alongside the almost garmentless and highly odoriferous native
driver, he urged him on by promises of ‘backsheesh’ and cheroots;
he helped to whip and tail-twist the slow-footed oxen; he roused up
lazy byle-wallahs (bullock-men) sleeping in their hovels, and assisted
them in driving from the fields and in yoking to the cart refractory
and kicking cattle. He stirred up with the long pole the peons
(keepers) in charge of the road-side travellers’ bungalows at which
we halted, aiding these officials in chasing, slaughtering, and
‘spatch-cocking’ the ever-waiting-to-be-killed-and-cooked gaunt and
fleshless morghee (fowl); he saw that the chatties for the bath were
not filled with the very dirtiest of tank water; that the numerous and
hard-biting insects, out and taking the air from their thickly
populated homes in the crevices of cane-bottomed chair and
bedstead, met with sudden and violent death; and lastly, that no
man’s hand but his own should be put into master’s money-bag and
stores.
But as all things come to an end more or less, so did Sam’s career
with me actually terminate. My wife and family came ‘out’ from
England. The ‘Mem Saab,’ sometimes even the ‘Missee Saab,’ took
bazaar ’count; the current bachelor rates for chillies, cocoa-nuts, first
and second sorts wrice, gram, and such-like necessaries underwent
a fall. Sam’s occupation and gain were gone. He quitted my
homestead under this new and unprofitable régime. ‘I discharge
you, sar!’ said he; and away he went, I know not where.
 HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
CHAPTER XI.—AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
The De Vere Arms at Pebworth, fourth-rate hotel though it
necessarily was in a place where any hotel of the first or even of the
second magnitude would have been as an oak in a flower-pot, was
well and neatly kept. There was the commercial connection, and
there was the county connection, both dear to the landlord, but on
grounds wholly dissimilar. Biggles had been butler to the present,
under-butler and knife-boy to the late Earl of Wolverhampton; and
had he but had his own way, the De Vere Arms would have been
strictly the family hotel which its address-cards proclaimed it, and
the obnoxious word ‘commercial’ would have found no place there.
Mr Biggles, however, was in the position of one of those unfortunate
managers of English country theatres who tell their friends, perhaps
truly, that they would play nothing, save the legitimate drama, if
they could help it. They cannot help it, and scared by the dismal
spectre of Insolvency, they shelve Shakspeare in favour of newer
idols of the public. So did Biggles and worthy Mrs B. to boot lay
themselves out in practice to secure the lucrative custom of the
ready-money, constantly moving, commercial gentlemen, while in
theory devoting all their loyalty to those of their patrons who came
in their own carriages, with armorial bearings on their panels and
liveried servants on the driving-seat.
To this hostelry was borne, in Sir Gruntley Pigbury’s carriage, the
insensible form of Jasper Denzil, supported by the sturdy arm of
Captain Prodgers, while little Dr Aulfus, on the opposite seat, kept
the patient’s nerveless wrist between his own thin fingers all the way
from the race-course to the inn. Then Jasper, amidst spasmodic
gaspings from the landlady and sympathetic exclamations from the
chambermaids, was carried into the De Vere Arms and established in
one of the best rooms, whence were summarily dislodged the effects
of some well-to-do customer who had had a horse in the race, but
who was unlikely under the circumstances to resent the invasion of
his apartment. Jack Prodgers and the doctor seemed to have taken
joint possession of the invalid; the former as prochain ami (and it is
to the credit of such ne’er-do-wells as Captain Prodgers that the very
wildest of them never do leave a friend untended in a scrape), and
the other professionally.
Other friends came not. Lord Harrogate did indeed tap at the door,
and so did four or five officers of the Lancer regiment, but contented
themselves with an assurance that Jasper was in no immediate
danger. And when Blanche Denzil’s tearful entreaties induced the
Earl to solicit admittance to the sick-room for her at least, the
surgeon went out and politely deprecated her entrance. Anything
which might excite the patient should, he truly said, be as far as
possible avoided. It was not exactly possible just yet to ascertain the
amount of damage done; but he, the doctor, anticipated no serious
consequences. And with this assurance the poor sister was
compelled to be content. They say that every educated man of fifty
is a fool or a physician. Jack Prodgers had seen the light some half-
century since, and his worst enemies—the men whose cash he
pouched at play—would not have taxed him with folly.
‘Now, doctor,’ he said quietly, ‘don’t you think the best we can do for
the poor fellow is to get his left shoulder into the socket again before
the muscles stiffen?’
The surgeon winced. He knew by the cursory examination he had
made that no bones—unless it might be the collar-bone, an injury to
which is not always promptly ascertained—were broken; but here,
annoying circumstance! was a dislocation which he had left to be
discovered by an outsider to the profession.
‘Bless my soul!’ he exclaimed, adjusting his spectacles, ‘so it is. We
have no time to lose.’
As it was, time enough had been lost to bring about a contraction of
the muscles, that rendered it necessary to call in the aid of James
the waiter and Joe the boots, before the hurt shoulder could be
reinstated in its normal position.
The pain of the operation roused Jasper from his stupor. He moaned
several times and stirred feebly to and fro, and when the wrench
was over, opened his eyes and gazed with a bewildered stare about
him. Very pale and ghastly he looked, lying thus, with the blood
slowly oozing from a cut on his right temple, and his hair stained
and matted. They sprinkled water on his face and put brandy to his
lips; but he merely groaned again, and his eyes closed.
‘That’s a very ugly knock on the temple; I hope there’s no more
mischief,’ said the doctor in a whisper, but speaking more openly
than medicine-men, beside a patient’s bed, often speak to the laity.
Jack Prodgers shook his head. He was a man of experience, and had
in his time seen some prompt and easy recoveries, and other cases
in which there was no recovery at all. It was with some remorse that
he looked down at the bruised and helpless form lying on the bed.
His heart had been case-hardened by the rubs of a worldly career,
but there was a soft spot in it after all, and it was with sincere joy
that he saw at length the sick man’s eyes open with a glance of
evident recognition, while a wan smile played about his lips.
‘I say, Jack,’ said Jasper feebly, ‘we’re in a hole, old man, after
all’—— Then he fainted.
‘Nothing the matter with his reason, thank goodness! It was the
shock to the brain I feared the most for him,’ said the doctor, as
again brandy was administered.
The regular clock-work routine of social machinery must go on in
despite of accidents, and accordingly the down-train reached
Pebworth at 3.40 (or, to tell the truth, a few minutes behind time)
with its usual punctuality. There was no omnibus, whether from the
De Vere Arms or from the opposition or White Hart hotel, in waiting
at the station, wherefore the few arrivals had to consign their bales
and bags and boxes of samples to the wheelbarrows of porters, for
conveyance to whichever house of entertainment they designed to
patronise. Amongst these was a thickset middle-aged man, with trim
whiskers, a dust-coloured overcoat, a slim umbrella, and a plump
black bag, which he preferred to carry as he trudged from the
station to the hotel.
There was nothing very noteworthy about the new-comer, who was
neatly dressed in black, and wore a hat that was just old enough to
have lost its first tell-tale gloss, except that he had evidently striven
to look some years younger than the parish register would have
proclaimed him. Thus the purplish tint of his thick whiskers and
thinned hair, heedfully brushed and parted so as to make the most
of it, savoured of art rather than nature. His cravat too, instead of
being black, was what haberdashers call a scarf of blue silk, of a
dark shade certainly, but still blue, and was secured by a massive
golden horse-shoe. Glittering trinkets rattled at his watch-chain, and
his boots were tighter and brighter than the boots of men of
business usually are. There is or ought to be a sort of fitness
between clothes and their wearer, but in the case of this traveller,
obviously bound for the De Vere Arms, no such fitness existed. That
cold gray eye, those deeply marked crow’s-feet, the coarse mouth,
and mottled complexion, consorted ill with the pretensions to
dandyism indicated by a portion of their owner’s attire. Altogether,
the man might have been set down as a corn-doctor, a quack, a
projector of bubble companies, or possibly an auctioneer whose
hammer seldom fell to a purely legitimate bid in a fair market.
As the stranger drew near to the hotel, having inquired his way once
or twice from such of the natives as the great attraction of the day
had not allured to the race-course, a carriage dashed past him at a
very fast pace indeed, and drew up with a jerk in front of the De
Vere Arms. The gentleman who alighted from it, tall, and of a goodly
presence, lingered for an instant in the doorway to give some order
to his servants. As he did so, his eyes encountered those of the
traveller freshly arrived by the train, and who by this time was
beneath the pillars of the porch. Sir Sykes Denzil, for it was he
whose carriage had just brought him in hot haste to the place where
his son lay ill, started perceptibly and hesitated, then turned abruptly
on his heel and disappeared within the hotel, greeted by the
obsequious Mr and Mrs Biggles.
Recognition, as we can all avouch, is in the immense majority of
cases simultaneous, one memory seeming as it were to take fire at
the spark of recollection kindled in the other. In this instance such
was not exactly what occurred. Yet the traveller with the bag was
perfectly certain that he had seen before the tall gentleman who had
started at the sight of him, and that a diligent searching of the
mental archives would elicit the answer to the riddle.
‘Have I written or telegraphed to order rooms here?’ repeated the
new arrival testily, after the flippant waiter who came, flourishing his
napkin, to see what the stranger wanted. ‘No, I have not. And to
judge by the size of your town, my friend, and the general look of
affairs, I should say that on any other day of the year but this such a
precaution would be wholly superfluous.’
The waiter, who had been slightly puffed up by the ephemeral vogue
of Pebworth and its chief hotel, took the rebuke meekly. ‘Would you
step into the coffee-room, sir?’ he said. ‘I’ll ask Mrs Biggles about
accommodation likely to be vacant. Any name I could mention, sir?’
‘Name—yes, Wilkins,’ returned the traveller, pushing open the door
of the coffee-room, in which, at various tables, some dozen of
sporting-men were making a scrambling meal. One or two of these
looking up from their plates, nodded a greeting, with a ‘How d’ ye
do, Wilkins?’ or ‘How goes it, old fellow?’ salutations which the
recipient of them returned in kind. Then the waiter bustled in to say,
more respectfully than before, that so soon as No. 28 should be
vacated by a gentleman leaving by the 6.25 train, it would be at the
disposal of Mr Wilkins. Further, here was a note for Mr Wilkins; into
whose hand he proceeded to thrust a half-sheet of letter-paper,
roughly folded in four, and containing but some two or three lines of
blotted handwriting. ‘If you will so far oblige me’—thus ran the
words, shaky and blurred as to their caligraphy, but tolerably legible
—‘I shall be glad of a few moments’ interview with you, at once if
not inconvenient, in No. 11. I will not detain you.’
There was no signature, but no reasonable doubt could exist in the
mind of Mr Wilkins as to the note having been penned by the owner
of the carriage that had so lately driven up to the door of the De
Vere Arms.
‘Why, this is taking the bull by the horns,’ said Mr Wilkins, as he rose
to obey the summons.

CHAPTER XII.—IN NO. XI.

No. 11 was a sitting-room of a class peculiar to those old-fashioned
inns which are rapidly being improved off the length and breadth of
Britain, large, low-ceiled, with a sloping floor that attained its highest
elevation beside the broad bay-window. A dark room, it must be
confessed, and an airless, but snug and warm on winter-nights,
when the glow of the firelight combined with the lustre of many
wax-candles to defy the storm and blackness without. There had
been jovial dinners in that room, and drawing together of arm-chairs
around the huge fireplace, and tapping of dusty magnums of rare
old port, and calling for more punch as the night waned, in those
hard-living days of which so many of us innocent, pay the penalty in
neuralgia and dyspepsia.
In No. 11 stood Sir Sykes, pale but resolute. The traveller with the
black bag came in, and for the second time their eyes met. ‘You
wished to see me, sir,’ began Mr Wilkins, with a slight bow. ‘Ah! I
remember you now, sir, as it happens,’ he added in a different tone;
‘remember you very distinctly indeed, Mr’——
‘Hush!’ interrupted Sir Sykes, with uplifted fore-finger. ‘A place like
this is the very last in which to mention anything best left unspoken
—the very walls, I believe, have ears to hear and tongues to tattle. I
am Sir Sykes Denzil, of Carbery Chase, within a very few miles of
this, at your service, Mr Wilkins.’
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