Prayer of the Night Shepherd

So they let him practise in the day-time, in the back-kitchen with all the doors shut (поэтому ему позволили заниматься в дневное время на кухне, закрыв все двери); but his more successful passages could generally be heard in the sitting-room, in spite of these precautions (но его наиболее удачные пассажи, как правило, могли быть слышны в гостиной, несмотря на эти меры предосторожности), and would affect his mother almost to tears (и волновали его мать почти до слез; to affect подвергать физическому воздействию; волновать, затрагивать, задевать). listen [xls(Ќ)n] precaution [prxk:3(Ќ)n] So he sat up at night instead, and played after the family had gone to bed, but that did not do, as it got the house such a bad name. People, going home late, would stop outside to listen, and then put it about all over the town, the next morning, that a fearful murder had been committed at Mr. Jefferson's the night before; and would describe how they had heard the victim's shrieks and the brutal oaths and curses of the murderer, followed by the prayer for mercy, and the last dying gurgle of the corpse ...»