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Brief Contents
Preface
Useful Lists at a Glance
Introduction for Students
6 Grammar Basics
7 Phrases, Clauses and Sentences
8 Subjects and Objects
9 Verbs
10 Making the Parts Agree
11 Modifiers and Connecting Words
12 Getting Words in the Right Order
15 Punctuation
16 Spelling Relief
8
Contents
Preface
Useful Lists at a Glance
Introduction for Students;
9
Types of News Leads
Hard-News Leads
Who Was Involved?
What Happened?
When Did It Happen?
JOURNALISM TIP: Words to Avoid in Attributing Information
Where Did It Happen?
Problems With Hard-News Leads
What Comes After the Hard-News Lead?
Soft-News Leads
Soft-News Clichés
What Comes After the Soft-News Lead?
Using Paraphrases and Transitions to Build a Story
Web Resources: Journalism Reviews
10
Be Clear
Be Correct (and Credible)
Be Concise
Writing and Presenting News Online
SEO: Writing With Search Engines in Mind
Writing for International Audiences
Writing for Blogs
JOURNALISM TIP: Editing Your Own Copy
Promoting News on Social Media
Legal and Ethical Concerns
Corrections
Web Resources: Online Media
11
Chapter 8 Subjects and Objects
Solving Common Problems
1. Choose among that or which, or who or whom.
2. Understand how to use pronouns ending in self or selves.
3. Spell singulars, plurals and possessives correctly.
4. Choose the right pronoun case.
5. Make sure trademarks are capitalized.
JOURNALISM TIP: Using Trademarks
6. Know when to capitalize names that are neither clearly proper names nor common nouns.
7. Make nouns and pronouns possessive before a gerund.
Understanding in More Depth
Kinds of Subjects
Kinds of Objects
Verbal Nouns: Gerunds and Infinitives
More on Forming Singulars and Plurals of Nouns
More on Forming Possessives of Nouns
More on Common Trademarks Used Incorrectly
Chapter 9 Verbs
Solving Common Problems
1. Know when there should or should not be an s at the end of a verb.
2. Don’t confuse the verbs can, may, shall and will with could, might, would and should, or with
each other.
3. Don’t misuse helping verbs — the verbs added to a main verb.
4. Don’t misuse irregular verbs — those that don’t make their past forms by adding ed.
5. Normally, avoid passive voice.
6. Avoid using nouns as verbs that editors dislike.
Understanding in More Depth
What’s the Difference Between a Verb and a Predicate?
What Are Helping Verbs and Main Verbs?
What Are Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs?
Understanding Verb Tenses
Principal Parts of Common Irregular and Other Confusing Verbs
Sequence of Tenses
Keeping Verb Tenses Consistent
More on Active Voice Versus Passive Voice
What Is Verb Mood?
JOURNALISM TIP: Verb Moods
What Are Verbals?
2. Make sure each pronoun agrees with its antecedent in number, gender and person.
12
3. Make sure each sentence’s words, phrases and clauses have parallel structure.
Understanding in More Depth
More on Subject-Verb Agreement With Conjunctions
More on Subject-Verb Agreement With Uncountable Nouns
More on Subject-Verb Agreement With Other Confusing Nouns
More on Prepositional Phrases
More on Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
More on Making Verbs Parallel
13
A Shifting “Center of Gravity”
Principles for Choosing Up-to-Date Language
Language Turns to the Future
New Players in the New Millennium
A Brief History of “Isms”
Dealing With Current Reality
Sexism
Racism and Religious Bias
Ageism
Other Stereotyping
The Nonbias Rule
Up to Date or Out of Date
Dumping Today’s Stereotypes
Bias-Related Terms
Web-Resources: Competent Language
14
Chapter 16 Spelling Relief
Spelling Rules
Prefixes
Suffixes
JOURNALISM TIP: Spelling and Your Career
The Silent e
Other Spelling Rules
Words Often Misspelled
Hyphenation as a Spelling Problem
Rules for Hyphenation
Looking Up Words for Hyphenation
One Word, Two Words or Hyphenated?
American Versus British Spelling
Web Resource: Language Skills
15
Useful Lists at a Glance
Clarity checklist
Modifiers to be avoided
What to tighten, A to Z
Preparing your manuscript for radio
Preparing your manuscript for television
Writing and presenting news online
Brand names and their generic equivalents
Nouns to avoid using as verbs
Common helping verbs
Linking verbs
Simple tenses
Perfect tenses
Principal parts of common irregular verbs
Correlative conjunctions
Misused and confused words and phrases
Language standards for writing about Islamic extremists
Vocabulary for nonbiased writing
Common conjunctive adverbs
Words often misspelled
Prefixes generally not hyphenated
Words commonly using hyphens
American versus British vocabulary
16
Introduction for Students
When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the
other represents opportunity.
— President John F. Kennedy
Although some Chinese speakers say the linguistic analysis by President Kennedy in that quote is mistaken, the idea
itself — often repeated by politicians, business people and motivational speakers — has truth to it. Certainly, it
accurately describes the situation facing journalism today: not just danger for those who fail to make an effective
transition to the digital world but also opportunity for those who figure out how to do it well.
The seismic shifts that have hit journalism within the past two decades, especially since 2008, continue to
reverberate. Even though digital is and will continue to be the new reality, journalists and media organizations are
still grappling with changes they must make. They still need to preserve and advance journalism not only for
themselves, but also for our nation as a whole. Democracy relies on a well-informed public to function.
Historically, media companies often enjoyed profit margins two or three times those of most companies. At one
point in the 1990s, for example, newspapers were averaging 15 cents profit on each dollar after expenses compared
to a mere 5 cents for Fortune 500 companies, with one of the most profitable papers at the time, The Buffalo News,
earning 34.6 percent (see http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=69).
But by 2008, media profits in general had declined so much that newspapers, broadcast stations and wire
services began layoffs. Newspapers also went to smaller formats on cheaper paper to cut costs. By 2012, newspaper
profit margins were down to an average 3.6 percent, while Internet companies averaged 21.8 percent (see
http://theresourcefulceo.com/2013/04/average-profit-margins-for-media-companies/). And by 2015, the top 10
newspaper companies in the United States took in an estimated net total of no more than $50 million in the first
quarter of the year, whereas 10 years earlier, Gannett, the company that owns such newspapers as USA Today, took
in $1.8 billion that year alone (see http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/05/newsonomics-razor-thin-profits-are-cutting-
into-newspapers-chances-at-innovation/).
Various reasons have been offered for the sudden, steep downturn in nondigital media profitability, particularly
newspapers. Most often blamed is the Internet. Why buy a local newspaper when you can read the news free online
and in a timelier, more interactive manner? In addition, with sites like Craigslist offering free want ads,
Monster.com offering job listings and eBay hosting auctions, the Internet has taken away much of the profitable
classified-ad business, which used to be a big part of newspaper revenue. As for broadcast media, they, too, face
competition from Internet-based radio like Pandora and Spotify, and from video sources like YouTube.
As Internet sources continue to siphon off traditional income streams, newspapers have lost more print ad
revenue than they’ve gained in digital ad revenue. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2005 newspapers
made more than $47 billion in print ad revenue and just over $2 billion in online revenue; by 2012, print ad revenue
was down to just under $19 billion, but online revenue had not even hit $3.4 billion (see
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2013/newspapers-stabilizing-but-still-threatened/newspapers-by-the-numbers/).
As a result, some daily newspapers have either closed or gone online only. Others have cut back to a print
edition just a few days a week and other days refer readers to their website. According to Kristen Hare, writing for
the Poynter Institute on Oct. 21, 2015: “In 1989, there were 56,900 people employed by newspapers. In 2013,
according to Pew Research Center, there were 36,700. In 1990, weekday circulation at newspapers was about 62.3
million, according to Pew. In 2014, it was 44.1 million” (http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/379841/the-
future-is-today/).
17
Where does that leave the news industry? The consensus is that the future of journalism — as well as other
media content — lies increasingly with the Web. To many people, especially those growing up now who see
Internet journalism as the norm, everything else looks obsolete and irrelevant. Many of them ask, “Why didn’t the
news media see this change coming and prepare?”
The answer is that they did. In the 1990s, many newspapers recognized the Internet as the future and proactively
started their own websites. In fact, in the 1980s, they had supported the idea of delivering the news electronically
over dial-up computer bulletin boards, and in the 1970s, over a special cable TV box. Believe it or not, a St. Louis
newspaper had even experimented with electronic home delivery over a dedicated device back in the late 1940s!
Why all this interest in electronic delivery? Because it would eliminate or at least reduce newspapers’ two biggest
expenditures: production costs from buying newsprint, ink and printing presses, and personnel costs for people to
run the presses and deliver the papers.
Even so, media companies had thought they’d simply transfer their brand and audience to a different medium
and did not anticipate fresh competition online. As a result, when the future arrived, they were not clear how to
adjust their business model to this new world.
In his 2011 Kindle e-book “The Business of Media: A Survival Guide,” Larry Dignan explained that newspapers
still made most of their income from the print editions, despite many readers canceling subscriptions and going to
the Web for their news. But the Web also offered lower production costs for news providers, and as a result, greater
potential profit margins. The industry’s problem, Dignan said, was figuring out how to get the two to mesh — that
is, to reach the point when most newspaper income came from online, where the profit margin could also be higher.
Dignan’s dream is still far from realized. As of 2012, only about 15 percent of newspapers’ average profits came
from online editions, according to Pew, with some papers reporting only about 5 percent. By 2015, even The New
York Times was only making 28.2 percent of its earnings online and Tribune Publishing only 12 percent. Those
2015 figures are from Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst, who writes: “All these companies still find themselves
more dependent on print than digital, and they haven’t weaned themselves off of it fast enough to absorb the now-
brutal print losses” (http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/05/newsonomics-razor-thin-profits-are-cutting-into-
newspapers-chances-at-innovation/).
Many ideas have been offered for new business models: online ads, of course; charging for access to Web
content; “crowdfunding” through individual donations to projects the public chooses; a donation approach like the
one National Public Radio has used for years with fund drives to raise money; and even government subsidies.
Those who figure out the most effective strategies to reach the point Dignan envisioned will create the new business
models that reap the rewards by turning danger into opportunity and earn a place in journalism history.
Although the media are changing, the basic skills of journalism — interviewing, evaluating facts, and organizing
and presenting information — remain the same.
Still, change brings with it the increased likelihood that you’ll work not only at a variety of media outlets during
your life but also in a variety of media careers. We in journalism are in fact just now catching up with others in the
general public who for decades have changed careers — not just jobs — an average of seven times during their
lives.
As a journalist you will have to become a lifelong learner, adapting by mastering new knowledge and skills. And
you will also face less job security and greater responsibility for your own health benefits and retirement plans.
On the positive side, though, you’ll have the chance to influence the important changes facing journalism and
experience the excitement and stimulation of this new journalism frontier. And many of you will take advantage of
the opportunity to become entrepreneurs, creating your own blogs or other online publications, publishing your own
e-books, writing Web applets, and so on.
In this changing climate, students studying journalism or public relations, as well as working journalists and PR
professionals hoping to keep their jobs, ask themselves: Will writing and editing skills still be important in an
increasingly online world? Or will the informal standards of blogs and other websites written by nonjournalists, of
social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as email, instant messaging and text messaging, make
style, grammar, usage and even spelling rules increasingly irrelevant?
We think there has been and will continue to be a lessening of formality in the writing we read each day. But we
also think this is true: Journalism sites that want to distinguish themselves by their professionalism will seek to
establish their credibility by the quality of their writing as well as of their research and reporting. Further, with
fewer gatekeepers between you and your audience to check your work, you’ll be more and more responsible for
editing yourself, which means that, even more than before, in this new world we’re all editors now.
This book teaches the language skills we think are still needed to be successful in this new era of journalism and,
we should add, of public relations. Professional PR practitioners have long been trained to write like journalists to
increase the chance that their announcements will be picked up as news.
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Of course, the Web offers people in PR the exciting chance of reaching an audience directly through their own
websites. But PR students are best advised to learn and follow journalistic style in their writings, and when it comes
to the Web, follow whatever new standards evolve in both fields.
In much of this book, we focus on those underappreciated, misunderstood parts of writing and editing grouped
together by many instructors under the name “mechanics” and by many in the media as the “micro,” or detailed,
part of the job — grammar, usage, style, punctuation, spelling, tightening and so on. Of course, these things don’t
strike most of us as nearly so much fun or so important as the more creative “macro,” or big picture, parts.
In fact, professionals may tell you they were hired for their creative skills rather than for their knowledge of
mechanics. But they also tend to appreciate that a strong knowledge of fundamentals is what separates the pros
from the amateurs.
Many writers admit they still have things to learn about grammar, but they have a respect for the subject gained
from experience. Novelist, journalist and essayist Joan Didion, for example, said, “All I know about grammar is its
power.” We don’t pretend that mere knowledge of grammar and other mechanics can turn a mediocre writer into a
great one, but we’re convinced it can help empower any writer to strengthen whatever talent he or she has.
Of course, what you have to say and how freshly you say it are of the utmost importance. But even when the
topic of your story is compelling and important, readers can become confused or distracted if the word order is
unclear, if the wrong word has been used or if the punctuation or spelling is incorrect. Because of this carelessness,
readers might even become distrustful of what you’re trying to say. And in this faster-paced media world with
people who are accustomed to list-based Web material and infographics, and skim articles for information, your
audience will stop reading poorly written, wordy or unclear stories in search of something better.
For this reason, if you want to work as a professional writer or editor, your chances are better if you’ve mastered
the power of such details. And remember, when you apply for media internships or jobs, potential employers almost
always test you on mechanics.
We’ve tried to offer rules in this book not so much as “thou shalt not” commandments limiting your creativity
but rather as the codified experience of writers and editors who, through the years, have noticed what works and
what doesn’t work. Although some of the specifics you learn here may change as the language, dictionaries and
stylebooks change, the principles will remain basically the same, and this book can serve you as a guide throughout
your career — even through different careers.
In the length of one quarter or semester, no one is going to be able to master all the rules in this book. Realistically,
what you can achieve is an overview of the issues and familiarity with the most important points. Once you have
that general understanding, you’ll find yourself thinking, “I don’t remember the rule, but I remember there is one.”
Then, if you use this book as a reference and look things up as you run into them in your work, you’ll find yourself
effortlessly learning many more of the rules.
Here are some tips for those who want to accelerate the process:
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1. Get excited.
The key to mastering anything is getting yourself excited about it.
Don’t think you can get excited right now about grammar and usage and style? Then get excited about writing
and editing. Get excited about the medium in which you plan to work. Get excited about your field: journalism,
public relations, advertising or creative writing. But most important, get excited about language.
A big part of getting excited involves reading. For example, want to be a great political writer? Then read all the
political writing you can in newspapers and magazines and on the Web, especially by the best in the field. Listen to
all the political analysis you can on 24-hour cable-news channels, podcasts and talk radio. And then read
biographies of political reporters and commentators you admire to learn how they succeeded.
Reading is not only fun and informational in itself but also a way of subconsciously absorbing good habits of
thought, organizing patterns, language rhythms, vocabulary — and even grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling.
5. Take fixing problems seriously, but shake off those you miss.
When you’re editing, think of yourself like a goalie in soccer, lacrosse or hockey. Your job is to stop the mistakes
that have made it this far. Good goalies are ones with a low goals-against average — that is, few goals are scored
against them. But even the best goalies can’t have a zero goals-against average for long.
No matter how good you are, you’re going to miss some shots or let some mistakes slip through. And when that
20
happens, you’re likely to feel frustrated and wonder whether you’re as good at this as you should be. The trick is in
learning to treat each potential “scoring” opportunity against you more seriously as it happens, when there’s still
something you can do to stop it, rather than beating yourself up afterward if you missed.
When you do miss something — and everyone does — it may help to say to yourself, “Good thing I’m not a
brain surgeon!” Take the miss as a challenge for next time, not as justification for self-flagellation now. As they say
in hockey, “Keep your stick on the ice.”
21
PART ONE
22
23
CHAPTER 1
William Faulkner, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1949, once praised Mark Twain as “the father of
American literature.” That’s high praise, but remember that before writing classic novels like “The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain first crafted his writing skills at newspapers.
There, he learned the value of clear, simple writing, and he passed along that lesson to others:
...Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English. It is the modern
way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective,
kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they
are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.
That advice is as valid today as it was a century ago, when Twain offered it. In this passage by another famous
author, note not the absence of adjectives, but their judicious use to make the passage more understandable and
appealing:
The night ambulance attendants shuffled down the long, dark corridors at the General Hospital with an inert
burden on the stretcher. They turned in at the receiving ward and lifted the unconscious man to the operating
table. His hands were calloused, and he was unkempt and ragged, a victim of a street brawl near the city market.
No one knew who he was, but a receipt, bearing the name of George Anderson, for $10 paid on a home out in a
little Nebraska town served to identify him.
The surgeon opened the swollen eyelids. The eyes were turned to the left. “A fracture on the left side of the
skull,” he said to the attendants who stood about the table. “Well, George, you’re not going to finish paying for that
home of yours.”
“George” merely lifted a hand as though groping for something. Attendants hurriedly caught hold of him to keep
him from rolling from the table. But he scratched his face in a tired, resigned way that seemed almost ridiculous and
placed his hand again at his side. Four hours later he died.
— Ernest Hemingway
The Kansas City Star, Jan. 20, 1918
Many who choose journalism as a career dream of writing the great American novel, as Mark Twain and Ernest
Hemingway did. In the meantime, becoming a reporter or an editor is a great way to earn a steady paycheck, as
Hemingway was doing when he wrote this feature story on a hospital emergency room. Like Hemingway and
Twain, many great authors get their start in journalism, which gives a budding writer the chance to see all sides of
life while learning to write about it.
In addition to Twain and Hemingway, those who began as journalists include Ambrose Bierce, Willa Cather,
Stephen Crane, Charles Dickens, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gabriel García
Márquez, William Dean Howells, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Frank Norris, George Orwell, Katherine Anne
Porter, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eudora Welty, Tom Wolfe, Richard Wright and Émile
Zola.
More contemporary authors who started as journalists include Tom Brokaw, Amanda Craig, Joan Didion, Gavin
Esler, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Friedman, David Gates, Zoë Heller, Carl Hiaasen, Wendy Holden, Rachel
Johnson, India Knight, Richard Littlejohn, Jane Moore, Will Self and Susan Sontag.
Many great writers, of course, remain in journalism. Often, their names are not so well-known, but readers
appreciate good writing when they see it, whether from Saul Pett, James J. Kilpatrick, Tom Wicker, Edna
Buchanan, Jacqui Banaszynski, Simon Rogers, Steve Fainaru, Maria Hinojosa or Tad Bartimus. Those who do stay
in journalism are addicted to recording the big stories of our day — the assassination of a president, a spacecraft
probe into the far reaches of our galaxy, the pursuit of a cure for cancer, terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington, or war in the Middle East. These events, after all, are human triumphs and tragedies that are
compelling partly because of their reality.
In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to the basic tenets of journalistic writing. In subsequent chapters, we’ll study
24
the use and misuse of language and widely used formulas that help journalists write well on deadline. Finally, we’ll
conclude with the basics of grammar. We don’t apologize for using the word grammar because it’s the foundation
of all good writing. Just as carpenters must learn to use saws, hammers and nails, journalists must learn grammar
and punctuation. They are the tools of our trade.
Today’s journalism makes liberal use of advanced writing techniques more often associated with novels. Despite
the literary license afforded Hemingway in The Kansas City Star almost a century ago, never more than today have
journalists enjoyed such immense freedom to strut their stuff — to chronicle the news of the day with compelling
prose filled with metaphors, similes and good old-fashioned storytelling. Journalists today often refer to that simply
as narrative writing, but it is writing that borrows heavily from the repertoire of the novelist.
Make no mistake, however: Fundamental differences remain between writing news stories and writing novels,
just as differences exist between all kinds of writing. The purpose of journalism is to convey information clearly,
correctly and concisely. Literary license to invent fictitious scenarios is forbidden in journalism. As one form of
nonfiction writing, journalism has much in common with technical writing — writing reports, manuals and
instructions — especially in straightforward news stories aimed at conveying information.
Some journalism, of course, such as features, columns, blogs and reviews, has much in common with creative
writing, such as novels, short stories, plays and poems. But for those with literary aspirations, here are some
differences between journalistic writing and creative writing.
Clear, simple writing. Straight-news reporting stresses the clear, correct and concise statement of facts, rather
than an expression of imagination or vision. Creative writers take license with language for literary effect, and
ambiguity is often praised. True, literary critics value writing that is ambiguous (which means it has multiple
meanings) but usually not writing that is obscure (which means readers have no idea what it means). People
reading the news, however, want neither obscurity to confuse them nor multiple meanings to puzzle them.
Instead, they want the facts, clearly and quickly. Of course, when people read features, columns and reviews,
whether in print or online, they also expect to be entertained.
Quick, efficient writing. Hard-news journalism, which we see in objective news accounts, is more formulaic
than creative writing is. Other than feature writers, reviewers, columnists and bloggers, journalists place less
emphasis on originality of style and more on knowing story formulas that help them write quickly while
covering a subject logically and thoroughly. As we’ll see in Chapters 3 and 4, however, journalists often use
formulas even in soft-news stories.
Emphasis on mechanics. Journalism places greater emphasis on mechanics (grammar, usage, spelling, style
and tight writing) than creative writing because adherence to such rules keeps the news reader from being
distracted by irregularities. The poet e.e. cummings avoided capitalization and punctuation in his poems to
develop an original style that could sometimes make use of the double meanings that were created when such
guideposts were missing. A journalist, however, would never do that. Using correct mechanics helps to
maintain a journalist’s credibility. If people find mistakes or inconsis-tencies of any kind in journalism, they
start wondering whether they can trust the accuracy of the news presented.
Good, tight journalistic writing demands that the writer and editor:
Be clear.
Be correct.
Be concise.
In this chapter, we look at the first two rules in detail. We’ll discuss the third in Chapter 2.
Clarity
It’s especially important for journalistic writing to be clear. News consumers don’t want to be confused about what
they are reading in print or online, or listening to on radio and television. Here’s a checklist of some key reminders
about making your writing clear:
25
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
AU DELA DU MUR
LE PROBLÈME
II
C’était un matin, une semaine plus tard. Après avoir, dès son
lever et comme de coutume, parcouru la maison pour réveiller ses
filles et houspiller la servante, Mme Joudas, en tenue d’intérieur,
peignoir vert et pas de faux cheveux, revint dans la chambre à
coucher où son mari, M. Octave Joudas, achevait de s’habiller.
Maigre et blafard, en bras de chemise et un peu grelottant, ses
rares mèches grises encore ébouriffées, M. Joudas offrait un triste
spectacle ; il tourna les yeux vers sa femme. Elle prit un temps et
parla :
— Il faut en finir. Ce mystère me tue. Depuis que ton frère est
tombé chez nous…
— Chut… prends garde qu’il n’entende…
— Il dort, je viens de m’arrêter à sa porte…
Mme Joudas avait pourtant baissé la voix. Elle continua :
« Cette situation ne peut se prolonger. Nous ne sommes pas plus
avancés qu’au premier jour. Il est impossible de rien deviner… Mais
l’argent file, file… c’en est fou… Nous dépensons le double pour les
repas depuis qu’il est là. Ça ne peut pas durer. Nous sommes
pauvres. Notre droit est de savoir à quoi nous en tenir… Si ton frère
est sans le sou, nous ne pouvons l’héberger plus longtemps…
— C’est ce que j’ai toujours dit…
— Mais s’il est riche, on ne peut risquer de le mécontenter, de
paraître durs, indifférents… Pourtant, il faut en finir. D’autant plus
que, dans la ville, la nouvelle s’est répandue…
— Tout le monde est au courant, dit M. Joudas. Au bureau, mes
collègues m’en ont parlé. Ils ont même organisé des paris… Duport
tient ce qu’on veut contre l’hypothèse de mon frère millionnaire…
— C’est insultant…
— Non, au contraire, on nous montre plus de considération. Mon
chef de bureau m’a dit de te rappeler le jour de sa femme…
— A t’entendre, on va demander la main de mes filles, à cause
de la fortune supposée de leur oncle, ricana Mme Joudas. — Non, il
faut en finir ! Voici mon plan : Paule et Christiane dînent ce soir chez
leur ancienne maîtresse de pension… Profitons-en, faisons faire à
ton frère Arthur un bon dîner avec du bon vin qu’on ne ménagera
pas… et tu pourras adroitement le faire parler… Oh ! pas de
grimaces !… j’ai autant de délicatesse que toi, j’imagine !… Il nous
faut la vérité !
Mme Aubil avait été attendre son mari à la gare et, pendant les
premiers moments, elle fut tout à la joie de le revoir. Ils regagnèrent
en voiture leur confortable appartement des Ternes et le déjeuner fut
gai et sans nuages.
M. Aubil parla de ses affaires. La maison de commerce où il était
associé fonctionnait à souhait et le poste qu’il occupait depuis la
guerre, dans l’administration militaire d’une grande ville du centre, lui
laissait assez de loisirs pour qu’il puisse surveiller ses intérêts. Il
manifesta l’intention d’expédier, dès l’après-midi même, quelques
courses urgentes, afin de pouvoir, le lendemain, sortir librement avec
sa femme.
— A propos, dit soudain Mme Aubil, tu sais que je me suis
brouillée avec les cousins Dertal…
M. Aubil eut un léger mouvement.
— Non, dit-il, je ne savais pas…
— Ah ! je croyais te l’avoir écrit. C’est à propos de mon œuvre. La
cousine Dertal s’est fait nommer vice-présidente sans m’en parler,
acheva-t-elle, les yeux étincelants de courroux.
M. Aubil, quadragénaire placide, d’esprit fin et de tempérament
nonchalant, ne put s’empêcher de sourire tant il la trouvait jolie et
tant, après six années de mariage, il était encore émerveillé de
l’extraordinaire désaccord qui existait entre la beauté délicate, frêle
et vaporeusement blonde de Mme Aubil et son caractère irascible
dont l’agressive susceptibilité était sans bornes.
« Et je me suis brouillée aussi, continua-t-elle, avec la tante
Blaise parce qu’elle n’a pas rompu avec eux en même temps que
moi. Elle voulait les ménager parce qu’elle y dîne le dimanche…
Alors, tu comprends, il a fallu qu’elle choisisse : eux ou moi. Ce
serait trop commode d’être bien avec tout le monde.
— Avec la tante Blaise aussi… répéta M. Aubil. — Mais alors il
ne reste que l’oncle Armand ?…
— Oui, il ne reste que l’oncle Armand… Pourquoi hausses-tu les
épaules d’un air malheureux ? Pourquoi fouilles-tu dans ta poche ?…
— Pour prendre des notes, dit M. Aubil, résigné. Je m’y perds…
Notre famille est très nombreuse et tes rapports avec ses divers
membres sont un peu variables.
— Ce n’est pas de ma faute si j’ai le sentiment de de la famille
très développé, interrompit Mme Aubil frémissante. Je ressens très
vivement ce qu’on me fait… Certes, si c’étaient des indifférents je ne
m’en inquiéterais guère…
— Sans doute, sans doute, dit M. Aubil, qui consultait son carnet.
Il reprit :
« Ma petite Mathilde, au moment où la guerre a commencé tu
t’es réconciliée avec tous ceux de nos parents qui étaient mal avec
toi. Quelque temps après, exactement au mois de janvier 1915, tu
m’as écrit de ne plus envoyer de cartes postales à ta belle-sœur
Madeleine parce que tu ne la voyais plus…
— Je m’en souviens très bien, elle avait dit, dans son salon, que
je passais mes journées dans les magasins ou dans des thés, au
lieu de tricoter, ce qui était un mensonge.
— Peu après, poursuivit M. Aubil, première brouille avec la tante
Blaise…
— Elle avait dit, selon ce qu’on m’avait raconté, que tu occupais
un poste où tu n’étais pas exposé…
— Mais c’est vrai que mon poste n’est pas exposé, et il est vrai
aussi que j’y suis à ma place…
— Du reste, la tante Blaise ne l’avait pas dit. C’était une invention
de cette petite peste de Germaine…
— Avec qui tu te brouilles aussitôt, sans pour cela te réconcilier
avec la tante Blaise. Puis tu m’interdis une première fois d’écrire aux
Dertal. Puis, à ma première permission, tu t’es remise avec
Madeleine et tu as rompu avec sa sœur. Puis je reviens à Paris, tu
vois de nouveau les Dertal… Puis…
— Assez ! interrompit Mme Aubil. Assez ! tu t’amuses à
m’exaspérer, moi qui étais si heureuse de te revoir ! Tu sais aussi
bien que moi que tout ce qui est arrivé c’est par la faute des autres !
Tu ne vas pas leur donner raison contre moi, je présume !…
Elle avait rougi, ses grands yeux bleus flambaient. M. Aubil
l’admira et tenta de l’apaiser.
— Tu as des délicatesses que tout le monde ne comprend pas,
ma chérie, explique-t-il avec douceur, et on te blesse parfois sans le
vouloir. Mais je vais les voir et en s’expliquant…
— Les voir ! Aller les voir ! Tu n’y penses pas ! Des insolents que
je ne salue plus, des pintades hypocrites et envieuses ! Je te le
défends bien, par exemple !
— C’est que je n’étais pas au courant, n’est-ce pas ! Je leur ai
écrit pour annoncer mon arrivée ; alors ce sera une grossièreté qui
aggravera la brouille… remarqua M. Aubil ennuyé.
Mathilde eut un rire sec.
— Justement, comme cela ils comprendront mieux. J’en ai assez
d’être leur victime… Va voir l’oncle Armand. C’est un brave homme,
lui. Il ne fait pas de cancans, et il est fidèle à ses affections. Il est le
seul de tous qui nous ait toujours aimés et qui n’ait jamais dit de mal
de nous… Va le voir dès aujourd’hui… C’est le seul parent qui nous
reste, acheva-t-elle gravement.
— En effet, en effet, constata M. Aubil, un peu ahuri de cette
brusque abolition de toute une famille qui était abondante.
Afin d’en conserver au moins le dernier vestige, et pour obéir à
sa femme, il alla le même jour rendre visite à l’oncle Armand.
Dans une rue triste, à l’entresol d’une maison sombre, une
servante très âgée précéda M. Aubil à travers des pièces délabrées