EXPRESSION ECRIT POUR MARDI 20 SEPTEMBRE

Sujet du devoir

« Mr Eugene Foster, who was nearly seventy years old, lived with his wife in a large six-storey house in New York City, on East Sixty-second Street, and they had four servants. It was a gloomy place, and few people came to visit them. But on this particular morning in January, the house had come alive and there was a great deal of bustling about. The butler(1) was bringing suitcases and putting them in the hall. Mrs Foster was thinking of nothing at all except that she was going to miss her plane if her husband didn't come out of his study room and get ready. […] She began walking up and down the hall and whenever the butler came by, she asked him the time. This, she kept telling herself, was the one plane she must not miss. It had taken months to persuade her husband to allow her to go. If she missed it, he might easily decide that she should cancel the whole thing. And the trouble was that he insisted on coming to the airport to see her off. […] This was an important journey for Mrs Foster. She was going all alone to Paris to visit her daughter, her only child, who was married to a Frenchman. Mrs Foster didn't care much for the Frenchman, but she was fond of her daughter, and, more than that, she had developed a great yearning(2) to set eyes on her three grandchildren. She knew them only from the many photographs that she had received and that she kept putting up all over the house. They were beautiful, these children. She doted on them, and each time a new picture arrived she would carry it away and sit with it for a long time, staring at it lovingly. And now, lately, she had come more and more to feel that she did not really wish to live out her days in a place where she could not be near these children, and have them visit her, and take them for walks, and buy them presents, and watch them grow. She knew, of course, that it was wrong and in a way disloyal to have thoughts like these while her husband was still alive. She also knew that although he was no longer active in his many enterprises, he would never consent to leave New York and live in Paris. It was a miracle that he had ever agreed to let her fly over there alone for six weeks to visit them. But, oh, how she wished she could live there always, and be close to them! "Walker, what time is it?" "Twenty-two minutes past, Madam." As he spoke, a door opened and Mr Foster came into the hall […] "Well," he said. "I suppose perhaps we'd better get going fairly soon if you want to catch that plane." "Yes, dear – yes! Everything is ready. The car's waiting." "That's good," he said. With his head over to one side, he was watching her closely. […] "Here's Walker with your coat, dear. Put it on." "I'll be with you in a moment," he said. "I'm just going to wash my hands." She waited for him, and the tall butler stood beside her, holding the coat and the hat. "Walker, will I miss it?" "No, Madam," the butler said. "I think you'll make it all right." Then Mr Foster appeared again, and the butler helped him on with his coat. Mrs Foster hurried outside and got into the Cadillac. Her husband came after her, but he walked down the steps of the house slowly, pausing halfway to observe the sky and to sniff the cold morning air. "It looks a bit foggy," he said as he sat down beside her in the car. "And it's always worse out there at the airport. I shouldn't be surprised if the flight's cancelled already." "Don't say that, dear – please." »


Imagine Mrs Foster missed her plane. Write the conversation she had
with her husband at the airport. (80 mots)
What role can grandparents play in a child's life? (120 mots)

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

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