Cat in the Rain

by Ernest Hemingway
There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of
the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their
room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the
war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In
the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the
palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea.
Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of
bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm
trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the
rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in
the rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across
the square in the doorway of the caf? a waiter stood looking out at the empty
square. 
The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their
window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was
trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on. 
‘I’m going down and get that kitty,’ the American wife said. 
‘I’ll do it,’ her husband offered from the bed. 
‘No, I’ll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table.’ 
The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of
the bed. 
‘Don’t get wet,’ he said. 
The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as
she passed the office. His desk was at the far end of the office. He was an old man
and very tall.
‘Il piove,’ the wife said. She liked the hotel-keeper.
‘Si, Si, Signora, brutto tempo. It is very bad weather.’
He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She
liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She
liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-
keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands.
Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining harder. A man in a
rubber cape was crossing the empty square to the caf?. The cat would be around to
the right. Perhaps she could go along under the eaves.
As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who
looked after their room.
‘You must not get wet,’ she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper
had sent her.
With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path
until she was under their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the
rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked up at
her.
‘Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?’
‘There was a cat,’ said the American girl.
‘A cat?’
‘Si, il gatto.’
‘A cat?’ the maid laughed. ‘A cat in the rain?’
‘Yes, –’ she said, ‘under the table.’ Then, ‘Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a
kitty.’
When she talked English the maid’s face tightened.
‘Come, Signora,’ she said. ‘We must get back inside. You will be wet.’
‘I suppose so,’ said the American girl.
They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed
outside to close the umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone
bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The
padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a
momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs.
She opened the door of the room.
George was on the bed, reading.
‘Did you get the cat?’ he asked, putting the book down.
‘It was gone.’
‘Wonder where it went to,’ he said, resting his eyes from reading.
She sat down on the bed.
‘I wanted it so much,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted
that poor kitty. It isn’t any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain.’
George was reading again.
She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at herself
with the hand glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then
she studied the back of her head and her neck.
‘Don’t you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?’ she asked,
looking at her profile again.
George looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy’s.
‘I like it the way it is.’
‘I get so tired of it,’ she said. ‘I get so tired of looking like a boy.’
George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn’t looked away from her since she
started to speak.
‘You look pretty darn nice,’ he said.
She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked
out. It was getting dark.
‘I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that
I can feel,’ she said. ‘I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke
her.’
‘Yeah?’ George said from the bed.
‘And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it
to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty
and I want some new clothes.’
‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again.
His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in
the palm trees.
‘Anyway, I want a cat,’ she said, ‘I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have
long hair or any fun, I can have a cat.’
George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the
window where the light had come on in the square.
Someone knocked at the door.
‘Avanti,’ George said. He looked up from his book.
In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoiseshell cat pressed tight against
her and swung down against her body.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora.’
Vocabulary Exercises
ex. 1 Define the following words and word combinations. Make up your own
sentences with them.
to face
to glisten
easel
compact
dignity
to bow
supreme importance
to shift one's position
clipped
ex. 2 Give derivatives to the following words.
face
compact
dry
dignity
dead
complain
disappoint
supreme
tight
Comprehension Exercises
ex. 1 Answer the questions
1. Where was the couple staying? Did they know anybody there?
2. Who usually visited the public garden near the hotel? Why?
3. What was the weather like that day?
4. Was there anybody on the square?
5. What did the American wife see outside?
6. How did her husband react to it? And what did the girl reply?
7. Who did she see when she went downstairs?
8. What did she like about the hotel-keeper?
9. Who opened the umbrella in the doorway for her? Why?
10. Was the cat outside?
11. What did the girl feel when she was going back to her room?
12. What did she say about her hair in the room? What did her husband think about
her hair?
13. What else did she want?
14. Who knocked at their door? Why?
ex. 2 Discussion points
1. Describe the setting of the story: the place and the time. Why does the author
mention both the artists and the colours in the garden and the war monument?
Does it tell anything about the time of the narration?
2. Why doesn't the author set his story on a typical sunny day on vacation? Why
rain?
3. Describe the writing style of Hemingway. What is his tone in the story? Do you
think the simplicity of his writing helps and adds to the meaning of the story? Do
you like his style?
4. Explain the title of the story. Why is it called "Cat in the Rain" not "The Cat in
the Rain"? Why is this cat so important to the American wife? Why does the
woman sympathize it so much?
5. What can you guess about the background of this couple? Why did Hemingway
choose the American couple in the Italian village? Can you guess: Why are they
there in this Italian town? How long have they been there? How long have they
been married? What do they feel and think about each other?
6. Why does she have all these different desires? Do you think she is happy? Is he
interested in her desires?
7. What was this feeling of "great importance"? How does she feel about the
padrone?
8. Do you think it is the same cat? Why did the padrone send the maid with the
cat? What kind of a gesture is it?
9. What do you think is going to happen next?