In a case as unusual as Tina Ralston’s, however, it was no great surprise to any one that tradition should have been disregarded. In the first place, everybody knew that she was no more Tina Ralston than you or I; unless, indeed, one were to credit the rumours7 about poor Jim’s unsuspected “past,” and his widow’s magnanimity. But the opinion of the majority was against this. People were reluctant to charge a dead man with an offense8 from which he could not clear himself; and the Ralstons unanimously declared that, thoroughly9 as they disapproved10 of Mrs. James Ralston’s action, they were convinced that she would not have adopted Tina if her doing so could have been construed12 as “casting a slur” on her late husband.
No: the girl was perhaps a Lovell — though even that idea was not generally held — but she was certainly not a Ralston. Her brown eyes and flighty ways too obviously excluded her from the clan13 for any formal excommunication to be needful. In fact, most people believed that — as Dr. Lanskell had always affirmed — her origin was really undiscoverable, that she represented one of the unsolved mysteries which occasionally perplex and irritate well-regulated societies, and that her adoption14 by Delia Ralston was simply one more proof of the Lovell clannishness15, since the child had been taken in by Mrs. Ralston only because her cousin Charlotte was so attached to it. To say that Mrs. Ralston’s son and daughter were pleased with the idea of Tina’s adoption would be an exaggeration; but they abstained16 from comment, minimizing the effect of their mother’s whim17 by a dignified18 silence. It was the old New York way for families thus to screen the eccentricities19 of an individual member, and where there was “money enough to go round” the heirs would have been thought vulgarly grasping to protest at the alienation20 of a small sum from the general inheritance.
Nevertheless, Delia Ralston, from the moment of Tina’s adoption, was perfectly21 aware of a different attitude on the part of both her children. They dealt with her patiently, almost parentally, as with a minor22 in whom one juvenile23 lapse24 has been condoned25, but who must be subjected, in consequence, to a stricter vigilance; and society treated her in the same indulgent but guarded manner.
She had (it was Sillerton Jackson who first phrased it) an undoubted way of “carrying things off”; since that dauntless woman, Mrs. Manson Mingott, had broken her husband’s will, nothing so like her attitude had been seen in New York. But Mrs. Ralston’s method was different, and less easy to analyze26. What Mrs. Manson Mingott had accomplished27 by dint28 of epigram, invective29, insistency30 and runnings to and fro, the other achieved without raising her voice or seeming to take a step from the beaten path. When she had persuaded Jim Ralston to take in the foundling baby, it had been done in the turn of a hand, one didn’t know when or how; and the next day he and she were as untroubled and beaming as usual. And now, this adoption —! Well, she had pursued the same method; as Sillerton Jackson said, she behaved as if her adopting Tina had always been an understood thing, as if she wondered that people should wonder. And in face of her wonder theirs seemed foolish, and they gradually desisted.
In reality, behind Delia’s assurance there was a tumult31 of doubts and uncertainties32. But she had once learned that one can do almost anything (perhaps even murder) if one does not attempt to explain it; and the lesson had never been forgotten. She had never explained the taking over of the foundling baby; nor was she now going to explain its adoption. She was just going about her business as if nothing had happened that needed to be accounted for; and a long inheritance of moral modesty33 helped her to keep her questionings to herself.
These questionings were in fact less concerned with public opinion than with Charlotte Lovell’s private thoughts. Charlotte, after her first moment of tragic34 resistance, had shown herself pathetically, almost painfully, grateful. That she had reason to be, Tina’s attitude abundantly revealed. Tina, during the first days after her return from the Vandergrave ball, had shown a closed and darkened face that terribly reminded Delia of the ghastliness of Charlotte Lovell’s sudden reflection, years before, in Delia’s own bedroom mirror. The first chapter of the mother’s history was already written in the daughter’s eyes; and the Spender blood in Tina might well precipitate35 the sequence. During those few days of silent observation Delia discovered, with terror and compassion36, the justification37 of Charlotte’s fears. The girl had nearly been lost to them both: at all costs such a risk must not be renewed.
The Halsey’s, on the whole, had behaved admirably. Lanning wished to marry dear Delia Ralston’s protegee — who was shortly, it was understood, to take her adopted mother’s name, and inherit her fortune. To what better could a Halsey aspire38 than one more alliance with a Ralston? The families had always inter-married. The Halsey parents gave their blessing39 with a precipitation which showed that they too had their anxieties, and that the relief of seeing Lanning “settled” would more than compensate40 for the conceivable drawbacks of the marriage; though, once it was decided41 on, they would not admit even to themselves that such drawbacks existed. Old New York always thought away whatever interfered43 with the perfect propriety44 of its arrangements.
Charlotte Lovell of course perceived and recognized all this. She accepted the situation — in her private hours with Delia — as one more in the long list of mercies bestowed45 on an undeserving sinner. And one phrase of hers perhaps gave the clue to her acceptance: “Now at least she’ll never suspect the truth.” It had come to be the poor creature’s ruling purpose that her child should never guess the tie between them . . .
But Delia’s chief support was the sight of Tina. The older woman, whose whole life had been shaped and coloured by the faint reflection of a rejected happiness, hung dazzled in the light of bliss46 accepted. Sometimes, as she watched Tina’s changing face, she felt as though her own blood were beating in it, as though she could read every thought and emotion feeding those tumultuous currents. Tina’s love was a stormy affair, with continual ups and downs of rapture47 and depression, arrogance48 and self-abasement49; Delia saw displayed before her, with an artless frankness, all the visions, cravings and imaginings of her own stifled50 youth.
What the girl really thought of her adoption it was not easy to discover. She had been given, at fourteen, the current version of her origin, and had accepted it as carelessly as a happy child accepts some remote and inconceivable fact which does not alter the familiar order of things. And she accepted her adoption in the same spirit. She knew that the name of Ralston had been given to her to facilitate her marriage with Lanning Halsey; and Delia had the impression that all irrelevant51 questionings were submerged in an overwhelming gratitude52. “I’ve always thought of you as my Mamma; and now, you dearest, you really are,” Tina had whispered, her cheek against Delia’s; and Delia had laughed back: “Well, if the lawyers can make me so!” But there the matter dropped, swept away on the current of Tina’s bliss. They were all, in those days, Delia, Charlotte, even the gallant53 Lanning, rather like straws whirling about on a sunlit torrent54.
The golden flood bore them onward55, nearer and nearer to the enchanted56 date; and Delia, deep in bridal preparations, wondered at the comparative indifference57 with which she had ordered and inspected her own daughter’s twelve-dozen-of-everything. There had been nothing to quicken the pulse in young Delia’s placid58 bridal; but as Tina’s wedding day approached imagination burgeoned59 like the year. The wedding was to be celebrated60 at Lovell Place, the old house on the Sound where Delia Lovell had herself been married, and where, since her mother’s death, she spent her summers. Although the neighbourhood was already overspread with a net-work of mean streets, the old house, with its thin colonnaded61 verandah, still looked across an uncurtailed lawn and leafy shrubberies to the narrows of Hell Gate; and the drawing-rooms kept their frail62 slender settees, their Sheraton consoles and cabinets. It had been thought useless to discard them for more fashionable furniture, since the growth of the city made it certain that the place must eventually be sold.
Tina, like Mrs. Ralston, was to have a “house-wedding,” though Episcopalian society was beginning to disapprove11 of such ceremonies, which were regarded as the despised pis-aller of Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians and other altarless sects63. In Tina’s case, however, both Delia and Charlotte felt that the greater privacy of a marriage in the house made up for its more secular64 character; and the Halseys favoured their decision. The ladies accordingly settled themselves at Lovell Place before the end of June, and every morning young Lanning Halsey’s cat-boat was seen beating across the bay, and furling its sail at the anchorage below the lawn.
There had never been a fairer June in any one’s memory. The damask roses and mignonette below the verandah had never sent such a breath of summer through the tall French windows; the gnarled orange-trees brought out from the old arcaded65 orange-house had never been so thickly blossomed; the very haycocks on the lawn gave out whiffs of Araby.
The evening before the wedding Delia Ralston sat on the verandah watching the moon rise across the Sound. She was tired with the multitude of last preparations, and sad at the thought of Tina’s going. On the following evening the house would be empty: till death came, she and Charlotte would sit alone together beside the evening lamp. Such repinings were foolish — they were, she reminded herself, “not like her.” But too many memories stirred and murmured in her: her heart was haunted. As she closed the door on the silent drawing room — already transformed into a chapel67, with its lace-hung altar, the tall alabaster68 vases awaiting their white roses and June lilies, the strip of red carpet dividing the rows of chairs from door to chancel — she felt that it had perhaps been a mistake to come back to Lovell Place for the wedding. She saw herself again, in her high-waisted “India Mull” embroidered69 with daisies, her flat satin sandals, her Brussels veil — saw again her reflection in the sallow pier-glass as she had left that same room on Jim Ralston’s triumphant70 arm, and the one terrified glance she had exchanged with her own image before she took her stand under the bell of white roses in the hall, and smiled upon the congratulating company. Ah, what a different image the pier-glass would reflect tomorrow!
Charlotte Lovell’s brisk step sounded indoors, and she came out and joined Mrs. Ralston.
“I’ve been to the kitchen to tell Melissa Grimes that she’d better count on at least two hundred plates of ice-cream.”
“two hundred? Yes — I suppose she had, with all the Philadelphia connection coming.” Delia pondered. “How about the doylies?” she enquired71.
“With your aunt Cecila Vandergrave’s we shall manage beautifully.”
“Yes. Thank you, Charlotte, for taking all this trouble.”
“Oh — ” Charlotte protested, with her flitting sneer72; and Delia perceived the irony73 of thanking a mother for occupying herself with the details of her own daughter’s wedding.
“Do sit down, Chatty,” she murmured, feeling herself redden at her blunder.
Charlotte, with a sigh of fatigue74, sat down on the nearest chair.
“We shall have a beautiful day tomorrow,” she said, pensively75 surveying the placid heaven.
“Yes. Where is Tina?”
“She was very tired. I’ve sent her upstairs to lie down.”
This seemed so eminently76 suitable that Delia made no immediate77 answer. After an interval78 she said: “We shall miss her.”
Charlotte’s reply was an inarticulate murmur66.
The two cousins remained silent, Charlotte as usual bolt upright, her thin hands clutched on the arms of her old-fashioned rush-bottomed seat, Delia somewhat heavily sunk into the depths of a high-backed armchair. The two had exchanged their last remarks on the preparations for the morrow; nothing more remained to be said as to the number of guests, the brewing79 of the punch, the arrangements for the robing of the clergy80, and the disposal of the presents in the best spare-room.
Only one subject had not yet been touched upon, and Delia, as she watched her cousin’s profile grimly cut upon the melting twilight81, waited for Charlotte to speak. But Charlotte remained silent.
“I have been thinking,” Delia at length began, a slight tremor82 in her voice, “that I ought presently — ”
She fancied she saw Charlotte’s hands tighten83 on the knobs of the chair-arms.
“You ought presently —?”
“Well, before Tina goes to bed, perhaps go up for a few minutes — ”
Charlotte remained silent, visibly resolved on making no effort to assist her.
“Tomorrow,” Delia continued, “we shall be in such a rush from the earliest moment that I don’t see how, in the midst of all the interruptions and excitement, I can possibly — ”
“Possibly?” Charlotte monotonously84 echoed.
Delia felt her blush deepening through the dusk. “Well, I suppose you agree with me, don’t you, that a word ought to be said to the child as to the new duties and responsibilities that — well — what is usual, in fact, at such a time?” she falteringly85 ended.
“Yes, I have thought of that,” Charlotte answered. She said no more, but Delia divined in her tone the stirring of that obscure opposition86 which, at the crucial moments of Tina’s life, seemed automatically to declare itself. She could not understand why Charlotte should, at such times, grow so enigmatic and inaccessible87, and in the present case she saw no reason why this change of mood should interfere42 with what she deemed to be her own duty. Tina must long for her guiding hand into the new life as much as she herself yearned88 for the exchange of half-confidences which would be her real farewell to her adopted daughter. Her heart beating a little more quickly than usual, she rose and walked through the open window into the shadowy drawing-room. The moon, between the columns of the verandah, sent a broad band of light across the rows of chairs, irradiated the lace-decked altar with its empty candlesticks and vases, and outlined with silver Delia’s heavy reflection in the pier-glass.
She crossed the room toward the hall.
“Delia!” Charlotte’s voice sounded behind her. Delia turned, and the two women scrutinized89 each other in the revealing light. Charlotte’s face looked as it had looked on the dreadful day when Delia had suddenly seen it in the looking-glass above her shoulder.
“You were going up now to speak to Tina?” Charlotte asked.
“I— yes. It’s nearly nine. I thought . . . ”
“Yes; I understand.” Miss Lovell made a visible effort at self-control. “Please understand me too, Delia, if I ask you — not to.”
Delia looked at her cousin with a vague sense of apprehension90. What new mystery did this strange request conceal91? But no — such a doubt as flitted across her mind was inadmissible. She was too sure of her Tina!
“I confess I don’t understand, Charlotte. You surely feel that, on the night before her wedding, a girl ought to have a mother’s counsel, a mother’s . . . ”
“Yes; I feel that.” Charlotte Lovell took a hurried breath. “But the question is: WHICH OF US IS HER MOTHER?”
Delia drew back involuntarily. “Which of us —?” she stammered92.
“Yes. Oh, don’t imagine it’s the first time I’ve asked myself the question! There — I mean to be calm, quite calm. I don’t intend to go back to the past. I’ve accepted — accepted everything — gratefully. Only tonight — just tonight . . . ”
Delia felt the rush of pity which always prevailed over every other sensation in her rare interchanges of truth with Charlotte Lovell. Her throat filled with tears, and she remained silent.
“Just tonight,” Charlotte concluded, “I’M her mother.”
“Charlotte! You’re not going to tell her so — not now?” broke involuntarily from Delia.
Charlotte gave a faint laugh. “If I did, should you hate it as much as all that?”
“Hate it? What a word, between us!”
“Between us? But it’s the word that’s been between us since the beginning — the very beginning! Since the day when you discovered that Clement1 Spender hadn’t quite broken his heart because he wasn’t good enough for you; since you found your revenge and your triumph in keeping me at your mercy, and in taking his child from me!” Charlotte’s words flamed up as if from the depth of the infernal fires; then the blaze dropped, her head sank forward, and she stood before Delia dumb and stricken.
Delia’s first movement was one of an indignant recoil93. Where she had felt only tenderness, compassion, the impulse to help and befriend, these darknesses had been smouldering in the other’s breast! It was as if a poisonous smoke had swept over some pure summer landscape . . .
Usually such feelings were quickly followed by a reaction of sympathy. But now she felt none. An utter weariness possessed94 her.
“Yes,” she said slowly, “I sometimes believe you really have hated me from the very first; hated me for everything I’ve tried to do for you.”
Charlotte raised her head sharply. “To do for me? But everything you’ve done has been done for Clement Spender!”
Delia stared at her with a kind of terror. “You are horrible, Charlotte. Upon my honour, I haven’t thought of Clement Spender for years.”
“Ah, but you have — you have! You’ve always thought of him in thinking of Tina — of him and nobody else! A woman never stops thinking of the man she loves. She thinks of him years afterward95, in all sorts of unconscious ways, in thinking of all sorts of things — books, pictures, sunsets, a flower or a ribbon — or a clock on the mantelpiece,” Charlotte broke off with her sneering96 laugh. “That was what I gambled on, you see — that’s why I came to you that day. I knew I was giving Tina another mother.”
Again, the poisonous smoke seemed to envelop97 Delia: that she and Charlotte, two spent old women, should be standing98 before Tina’s bridal altar, and talking to each other of hatred99, seemed unimaginably hideous100 and degrading.
“You wicked woman — you ARE wicked!” she exclaimed.
Then the evil mist cleared away, and through it she saw the baffled pitiful figure of the mother who was not a mother, and who, for every benefit accepted, felt herself robbed of a privilege. She moved nearer to Charlotte and laid a hand on her arm.
“Not here! Don’t let us talk like this here.”
The other drew away from her. “Wherever you please, then. I’m not particular!”
“But tonight, Charlotte — the night before Tina’s wedding? Isn’t every place in this house full of her? How could we go on saying cruel things to each other anywhere?” Charlotte was silent, and Delia continued in a steadier voice: “Nothing you say can really hurt me — for long; and I don’t want to hurt you — I never did.”
“You tell me that — and you’ve left nothing undone101 to divide me from my daughter! Do you suppose it’s been easy, all these years, to hear her call you ‘mother’? Oh, I know, I know — it was agreed that she must never guess . . . but if you hadn’t perpetually come between us she’d have had no one but me, she’d have felt about me as a child feels about its mother, she’d have HAD to love me better than anyone else. With all your forbearances and your generosities102 you’ve ended by robbing me of my child. And I’ve put up with it all for her sake — because I knew I had to. But tonight — tonight she belongs to me. Tonight I can’t bear that she should call you ‘mother’.”
Delia Ralston made no immediate reply. It seemed to her that for the first time she had sounded the deepest depths of maternal103 passion, and she stood awed104 at the echoes it gave back.
“How you must love her — to say such things to me,” she murmured; then, with a final effort: “Yes, you’re right. I won’t go up to her. It’s you who must go.”
Charlotte started toward her impulsively105; but with a hand lifted as if in defense106, Delia moved across the room and out again to the verandah. As she sank down in her chair she heard the drawing-room door open and close, and the sound of Charlotte’s feet on the stairs.
Delia sat alone in the night. The last drop of her magnanimity had been spent, and she tried to avert107 her shuddering108 mind from Charlotte. What was happening at this moment upstairs? With what dark revelations were Tina’s bridal dreams to be defaced? Well, that was not matter for conjecture109 either. She, Delia Ralston, had played her part, done her utmost: there remained nothing now but to try to lift her spirit above the embittering110 sense of failure.
There was a strange element of truth in some of the things that Charlotte had said. With what divination111 her maternal passion had endowed her! Her jealousy112 seemed to have a million feelers. Yes; it was true that the sweetness and peace of Tina’s bridal eve had been filled, for Delia, with visions of her own unrealized past. Softly, imperceptibly, it had reconciled her to the memory of what she had missed. All these last days she had been living the girl’s life, she had been Tina, and Tina had been her own girlish self, the far-off Delia Lovell. Now for the first time, without shame, without self-reproach, without a pang113 or a scruple114, Delia could yield to that vision of requited115 love from which her imagination had always turned away. She had made her choice in youth, and she had accepted it in maturity116; and here in this bridal joy, so mysteriously her own, was the compensation for all she had missed and yet never renounced117.
Delia understood now that Charlotte had guessed all this, and that the knowledge had filled her with a fierce resentment118. Charlotte had said long ago that Clement Spender had never really belonged to her; now she had perceived that it was the same with Clement Spender’s child. As the truth stole upon Delia her heart melted with the old compassion for Charlotte. She saw that it was a terrible, a sacrilegious thing to interfere with another’s destiny, to lay the tenderest touch upon any human being’s right to love and suffer after his own fashion. Delia had twice intervened in Charlotte Lovell’s life: it was natural that Charlotte should be her enemy. If only she did not revenge herself by wounding Tina!
The adopted mother’s thoughts reverted119 painfully to the little white room upstairs. She had meant her half-hour with Tina to leave the girl with thoughts as fragrant120 as the flowers she was to find beside her when she woke. And now — .
Delia started up from her musing121. There was a step on the stair — Charlotte coming down through the silent house. Delia rose with a vague impulse of escape: she felt that she could not face her cousin’s eyes. She turned the corner of the verandah, hoping to find the shutters122 of the dining-room unlatched, and to slip away unnoticed to her room; but in a moment Charlotte was beside her.
“Delia!”
“Ah, it’s you? I was going up to bed.” For the life of her Delia could not keep an edge of hardness from her voice.
“Yes: it’s late. You must be very tired.” Charlotte paused; her own voice was strained and painful.
“I AM tired,” Delia acknowledged.
In the moonlit hush123 the other went up to her, laying a timid touch on her arm.
“Not till you’ve seen Tina.”
Delia stiffened124. “Tina? But it’s late! Isn’t she sleeping? I thought you’d stay with her until — ”
“I don’t know if she’s sleeping.” Charlotte paused. “I haven’t been in — but there’s a light under her door.”
“You haven’t been in?”
“No: I just stood in the passage, and tried — ”
“Tried —?”
“To think of something . . . something . . . to say to her without . . . without her guessing . . . ” A sob125 stopped her, but she pressed on with a final effort. “It’s no use. You were right: there’s nothing I can say. You’re her real mother. Go to her. It’s not your fault — or mine.”
“Oh — ” Delia cried.
Charlotte clung to her in inarticulate abasement. “You said I was wicked — I’m not wicked. After all, she was mine when she was little!”
Delia put an arm about her shoulder.
“Hush, dear! We’ll go to her together.”
The other yielded automatically to her touch, and side by side the two women mounted the stairs, Charlotte timing126 her impetuous step to Delia’s stiffened movements. They walked down the passage to Tina’s door; but there Charlotte Lovell paused and shook her head.
“No — you,” she whispered, and turned away.
Tina lay in bed, her arms folded under her head, her happy eyes reflecting the silver space of sky which filled the window. She smiled at Delia through her dream.
“I knew you’d come.”
Delia sat down beside her, and their clasped hands lay upon the coverlet. They did not say much, after all; or else their communion had no need of words. Delia never knew how long she sat by the child’s side: she abandoned herself to the spell of the moonlit hour.
But suddenly she thought of Charlotte, alone behind the shut door of her own room, watching, struggling, listening. Delia must not, for her own pleasure, prolong that tragic vigil. She bent127 down to kiss Tina goodnight; then she paused on the threshold and turned back.
“Darling! Just one thing more.”
“Yes?” Tina murmured through her dream.
“I want you to promise me — ”
“Everything, everything, you darling mother!”
“Well, then, that when you go away to morrow — at the very last moment, you understand — ”
“Yes?”
“After you’ve said goodbye to me, and to everybody else — just as Lanning helps you into the carriage — ”
“Yes?”
“That you’ll give your last kiss to Aunt Charlotte. Don’t forget — the very last.”
The End
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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consonant
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| n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的 | |
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sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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rumours
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offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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disapproved
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disapprove
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| v.不赞成，不同意，不批准 | |
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construed
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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clannishness
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abstained
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| v.戒（尤指酒），戒除( abstain的过去式和过去分词 )；弃权（不投票） | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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eccentricities
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| n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖 | |
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alienation
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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condoned
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analyze
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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invective
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| n.痛骂，恶意抨击 | |
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30
insistency
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| 强迫，坚决要求 | |
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31
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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32
uncertainties
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| 无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物 | |
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33
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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34
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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35
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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36
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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37
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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38
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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39
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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40
compensate
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| vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消 | |
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41
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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42
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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43
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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44
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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45
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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47
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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48
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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49
abasement
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| n.滥用 | |
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50
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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51
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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52
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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53
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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54
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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55
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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56
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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57
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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58
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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59
burgeoned
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| v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的过去式和过去分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝） | |
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60
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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61
colonnaded
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| adj.有列柱的，有柱廊的 | |
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62
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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63
sects
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| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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arcaded
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| adj.成为拱廊街道的，有列拱的 | |
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66
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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68
alabaster
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| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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70
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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72
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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73
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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76
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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77
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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78
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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79
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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80
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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81
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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82
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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83
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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84
monotonously
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| adv.单调地，无变化地 | |
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85
falteringly
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| 口吃地，支吾地 | |
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86
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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87
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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88
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
scrutinized
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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91
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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92
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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93
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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94
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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95
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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96
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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97
envelop
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| vt.包，封，遮盖；包围 | |
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98
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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99
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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100
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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101
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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102
generosities
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| n.慷慨( generosity的名词复数 )；大方；宽容；慷慨或宽容的行为 | |
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103
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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104
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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106
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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107
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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108
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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109
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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110
embittering
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的现在分词 ) | |
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111
divination
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| n.占卜，预测 | |
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112
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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113
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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114
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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115
requited
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| v.报答( requite的过去式和过去分词 )；酬谢；回报；报复 | |
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116
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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117
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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118
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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119
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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120
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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121
musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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122
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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123
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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124
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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125
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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126
timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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127
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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