So it was with us. Sawing and hammering and steam fitting and plumbing7 and stone-lying and brick-lying were presumed to be going on; laborers8 were wielding10 the languid pick; a roof layer was defying the laws of gravitation on our ridgepole; at stated intervals11 there were great gobs of payments on account of this or that to be met and still and yet and notwithstanding, to the lay eye the progress appeared infinitesimal. For the first time I could understand why Pharaoh or Rameses or whoever it was that built the Pyramids displayed peevishness13 toward the Children of Israel. Indeed I developed a cordial sympathy for him. He had my best wishes. They were four or five thousand years late, but even so he had 'em and welcome.
Accordingly when the matter of investing in furnishings was broached14 I stoutly15 demurred16. As I recall, I spoke17 substantially as follows:
"Why all this mad haste? Rome wasn't built in a day, as I have often heard, and in view of my own recent experiences I am ready to make affidavit18 to the fact. I'll go further than that. I'll bet any sum within reason, up to a million dollars, that the meanest smokehouse in Rome was not built in a day. No Roman smokehouse—Ionic, Doric, Corinthian or Old Line Etruscan—is barred.
"Unless workingmen have changed a whole lot since those times, it was not possible to begin to start to commence to get ready to go ahead to proceed to advance with that smokehouse or any other smokehouse in a day. And after they did get started they dallied19 along and dallied along and killed time until process curing came into fashion among the best families of Ancient Rome and smokehouses lost their vogue20 altogether. Let us not be too impetuous about the detail of furnishings. I have a feeling—a feeling based on my own observations over yonder at the site of our own little undertaking21—that when that house is really done the only furnishings we'll require will be a couple of wheel chairs and something to warm up spoon victuals22 in.
"Anyhow, what's wrong with the furnishings we already have in storage? Judging by the present rate of non-progress—of static advancement23, if I may use such a phrase—long before we have a place to set them up in our furnishings will be so entirely24 out of style that they'll be back in style all over again, if you get me. These things move in cycles, you know. One generation buys furniture and uses it. The next generation finding it hopelessly old-fashioned and out of date burns it up or casts it away or gives it away or stores it in the attic25—anything to get rid of it. The third generation spends vast sums of money trying to restore it or the likes of it, for by that time the stuff which was despised and discarded is in strong demand and fetching fancy prices.
"The only mistake is to belong to the middle generation, which curiously26 enough is always the present one. We crave27 what our grandparents owned but our parents did not. Our grandchildren will crave what we had but our own children won't. They'll junk it. To-day's monstrosity is day-after-tomorrow's art treasure just as today's museum piece is day-before-yesterday's monstrosity. Therefore, I repeat, let us remain calm. I figure that when we actually get into that house our grandchildren will be of a proper age to appreciate the belongings29 now appertaining to us, and all will be well."
Thus in substance I spoke. The counter argument offered was that—conceding what I said to be true—the fact remained and was not to be gainsaid30 that we did not have anywhere near enough of furnishings to equip the house we hoped at some distant date to occupy.
"You must remember," I was told, "that for the six or eight years before we decided31 to move out here to the country we lived in a flat."
"What of it?" I retorted instantly. "What of it?" I repeated, for when in the heat of controversy32 I think up an apt bit of repartee33 like that I am apt to utter it a second time for the sake of emphasis. Pausing only to see if my stroke of instantaneous retort had struck in, I continued:
"That last flat we had swallowed up furniture as a rat hole swallows sand. First and last we must have poured enough stuff into that flat to furnish the state of Rhode Island. And what about the monthly statements we are getting now from the storage warehouse34 signed by the president of the company, old man Pl. Remit36? Doesn't the size of them prove that in the furniture-owning line at least we are to be regarded as persons of considerable consequence?"
"Don't be absurd," I was admonished37. "Just compare the size of the largest bedroom in that last flat we had in One Hundred and Tenth Street with the size of the smallest bedroom we expect to have in the new place. Why, you could put the biggest bedroom we had there into the smallest bedroom we are going to have here and lose it! And then think of the halls we must furnish and the living room and the breakfast porch and everything. Did we have a breakfast porch in the flat? We did not! Did we have a living room forty feet one way and twenty-eight the other? We did not! Did we have a dining room in that flat that was big enough to swing a cat in?"
"We didn't have any cat."
"All the same, we—"
"I doubt whether any of the neighbors would have loaned us a cat just for that purpose." I felt I had the upper hand and I meant to keep it. "Besides, you know I don't like cats. What is the use of importing foreign matters such as cats—and purely38 problematical cats at that—into a discussion about something else? What relation does a cat bear to furniture, I ask you? Still, speaking of cats, I'm reminded—"
"Never mind trying to be funny. And never mind trying to steer39 the conversation off the right track either. Please pay attention to what I am saying—let's see, where was I? Oh, yes: Did we have a hall in that flat worthy40 to be dignified41 by the name of a hall? We did not! We had a passageway—that's what it was—a passageway. Now there is a difference between furnishing a mere passageway and a regular hall, as you are about to discover before you are many months older."
On second thought I had to concede there was something in what had just been said. One could not have swung one's cat in our dining room in the flat with any expectation of doing the cat any real good. And the hallway we had in our flat was like nearly all halls in New York flats. It was comfortably filled when you hung a water-color picture up on its wall and uncomfortably crowded if you put a clarionet in the corner. It would have been bad luck to open an umbrella anywhere in our flat—bad luck for the umbrella if for nothing else. Despite its enormous capacity for inhaling42 furniture it had been, when you came right down to cases, a form-fitting fiat43. So mentally confessing myself worsted at this angle of the controversy, I fell back on my original argument that certainly it would be years and years and it might be forever before we possibly could expect—at the current rate of speed of the building operations, or speaking exactly, at the current rate of the lack of speed—to move in.
"But the architect has promised us on his solemn word of honor—"
"Don't tell me what the architect has promised!" I said bitterly. "Next to waiters, architects are the most optimistic creatures on earth. A waiter is always morally certain that twenty minutes is the extreme limit of time that will be required to cook anything. You think that you would like, say, to have a fish that is not listed on the bill of fare under the subheading 'Ready Dishes'—it may be a whale or it may be a minnow: that detail makes no difference to him—and you ask the waiter how about it, and he is absolutely certain that it will be possible to borrow a fishing pole somewhere and dig bait and send out and catch that fish and bring it back in and clean it and take the scales and the fins45 off and garnish46 it with sprigs of parsley and potatoes and lemon and make some drawn47 butter sauce to pour over it and bring it to you in twenty minutes. If he didn't think so he would not be a waiter. An architect is exactly like a waiter, except that he thinks in terms of days instead of terms of minutes. Don't tell me about architects! I only wish I were as sure of heaven as the average architect is regarding that which no mortal possibly can be sure of, labor9 conditions being what chronically48 they are."
But conceded that the reader is but a humble49 husbandman—meaning by that a man who is married—he doubtless has already figured out the result of this debate. Himself, he knows how such debates usually do terminate. In the end I surrendered, and the final upshot was that we set about the task of furnishing the rooms that were to be. From that hour dated the beginning of my wider and fuller education into the system commonly in vogue these times in or near the larger cities along our Atlantic seaboard for the furnishing of homes. I have learned though. It has cost me a good deal of time and some money and my nervous system is not what it was, having suffered a series of abrupt50 shocks, but I have learned. I know something now—not much, but a little—about period furniture.
A period, as you may recall, is equal to a full stop; in fact a period is a full stop. This is a rule in punctuation51 which applies in other departments of life, as I have discovered. Go in extensively for the period stuff in your interior equipments and presently you will be coming to a full stop in your funds on hand. The thing works out the same way every time. I care not how voluminously large and plethoric52 your cash balance may be, period furniture carried to an excess will convert it into a recent site and then the bank will be sending you one of those little printed notices politely intimating that "your account appears overdrawn53." And any time a banker goes so far as to hint that your account appears overdrawn you may bet the last cent you haven't left that he is correct. He knows darned good and well it is overdrawn and this merely is his kindly54 way of softening55 the blow to you.
I have a theory that when checks begin to roll in from the clearing house made out to this or that dealer56 in period furniture the paying teller57 hastens to the adjusting department to see how your deposits seem to be bearing up under the strain. It is as though he heard you were buying oil stocks or playing the races out of your savings58 and he might as well begin figuring now about how long approximately it will be before your account will become absolutely vacant in appearance.
As I was remarking, I know a trifle about period furniture. Offhand59 now, I can distinguish a piece which dates back to Battle Abbey from something which goes back no farther than Battle Creek60. Before I could not do this. I was forever getting stuff of the time of the Grand Monarch61 confused with something right fresh out of Grand Rapids. Generally speaking, all antiques—whether handed down from antiquity62 or made on the premises—looked alike to me. But in the light of my painfully acquired knowledge I now can see the difference almost at a glance. Sometimes I may waver a trifle. I look at a piece of furniture which purports64 to be an authentic65 antique. It is decrepit66 and creaky and infirm; the upholstering is frayed67 and faded and stained; the legs are splayed and tottery68; the seams gape69 and there are cracks in the paneling. If it is a chair, no plump person in his or her right mind would dare sit down in it. If it is a bedstead, any sizable adult undertaking to sleep in it would do so at his peril70. So, outwardly and visibly it seems to bear the stamp of authenticity71. Yet still I doubt. It may be a craftily72 devised counterfeit73. It may be something of comparatively recent manufacture which has undergone careless handling. In such a case I seek for the wormholes—if any—the same as any other seasoned collector would.
Up until comparatively recently wormholes, considered as such, had no great lure74 to me. If I thought of them at all I thought of them as a topic which was rather lacking in interest to begin with and one easily exhausted75. If you had asked me about wormholes I—speaking offhand—probably would say that this was a matter which naturally might appeal to a worm but would probably hold forth76 no great attraction for a human being, unless he happened to be thinking of going fishing. But this was in my more ignorant, cruder days, before I took a beginner's easy course in the general science of wormholes. I am proud of my progress, but I would not go so far just yet as to say that I am a professional. Still I am out of the amateur class. I suppose you might call me a semi-pro, able under ordinary circumstances to do any given wormhole in par28.
For example, at present I have an average of three correct guesses out of five chances—which is a very high average for one who but a little while ago was the veriest novice77 at distinguishing between ancient wormholes, as made by a worm, and modern wormholing done by piece-work. I cannot explain to you just how I do this—it is a thing which after a while just seems to come to you. But of course you must have a natural gift for it to start with—an inherent affinity79 for wormholes, as it were.
However, I will say that I did not thoroughly80 master the cardinal81 principles of this art until after I had studied under one of the leading wormhole experts in this country—a man who has devoted82 years of his life just to wormholes. True, like most great specialists he is a person of one idea. Get him off of wormholes and the conversation is apt to drag, but discussing his own topic he can go on for hours and hours. I really believe he gets more pleasure out of one first-class, sixteenth-century wormhole than the original worm did. And as Kipling would say: I learned about wormholes from him.
At the outset I must confess I rather leaned toward a nice, neat, up-to-date wormhole as produced amid sanitary83 surroundings in an inspected factory out in Michigan, where no scab wormholes would be tolerated, rather than toward one which had been done by an unorganized foreign worm—possibly even a pauperized worm—two or three hundred years ago, when there was no such thing as a closed shop and no protection against germs. Whenever possible I believe in patronizing the products of union labor. But the expert speedily set me right on this point. He made me see that in furnishings and decorations nothing modern can possibly compare with something which is crumbly and tottery with the accumulated weight of the hoary84 years.
He taught me about patina85, too. Patina is a most fascinating subject, once you get thoroughly into it. Everybody who goes in for period furniture must get into it sooner or later, and the sooner the better, because if you are not able to recognize patina at a glance you are as good as lost when you undertake to appraise86 antique furniture. When a connoisseur87 lays hold upon a piece of furniture al-leged to have rightful claims to antiquity the first thing he does is to run his hand along the exposed surfaces to ascertain88 by the practiced touch of his fingers whether the patina is on the level or was applied89 by a crafty90 counterfeiter91. After that he upends it to look for the wormholes. If both are orthodox he gives it his validation92 as the genuine article. If they are not he brands the article a spurious imitation and rejects it with ill-concealed scorn. There are other tests, but these two are the surest ones.
For the benefit of those who may not have had any advantages as recently and expensively enjoyed I will state that patina is the gloss93 or film which certain sorts of metal and certain sorts of polished woods acquire through age, long usage and wear. With the passage of time fabrics94 also may acquire it. You may have noticed it in connection with a pair of black diagonal trousers that had seen long and severe wear or on the elbows of summer-before-last's blue serge coat. However, patina in pants or on the braided seams of a presiding elder's Sunday suit is not so highly valued as when it occurs in relation to a Jacobean church pew or a William-and-Mary what-not.
When I look back on my untutored state before we began to patronize the antique shops and the auction95 shops I am ashamed—honestly I am. The only excuse I can offer is based on the grounds of my earlier training. Like so many of my fellow countrymen, born and reared as I was in the crude raw atmosphere of interior America—anyhow, almost any wealthy New Yorker will tell you it is a crude raw atmosphere and not in any way to be compared with the refined atmosphere which is about the only thing you can get for nothing in Europe—as I say, brought up as I was amid such raw surroundings and from the cradle made the unconscious victim of this environment, I had an idea that when a person craved96 furniture he went for it to a regular furniture store having ice boxes and porch hammocks and unparalleled bargains in golden oak dining-room sets in the show windows, and there he made his selection and gave his order and paid a deposit down and the people at the shop sent it up to his house in a truck with historic scenes such as Washington Crossing the Delaware and Daniel in the Lions' Den35 painted on the sides of the truck, and after that he had nothing to worry about in connection with the transaction except the monthly installments97.
You see, I date back to the Rutherford B. Hayes period of American architecture and applied designing—-a period which had a solid background of mid-Victorian influence with a trace of Philadelphia Centennial running through it, being bounded at the farther end by such sterling98 examples of parlor99 statuary as the popular pieces respectively entitled, "Welcoming the New Minister," "Bringing Home the Bride," and "Baby's First Bath," and bounded at the nearer end by burnt-wood plaques100 and frames for family portraits with plush insets and hand-painted flowers on the moldings. By the conceptions of those primitive101 times nothing so set off the likeness102 of a departed great-aunt as a few red-plush insets.
Some of my most cherished boyhood memories centered about bird's-eye-maple103 bedroom sets and parlor furniture of heavy black walnut104 trimmed in a manner which subsequently came to be popular among undertakers for the adornment105 of the casket when they had orders to spare no expense for a really fashionable or—as the saying went then—a tony funeral. Tony subsequently became nobby and nobby is now swagger, but though the idioms change with the years the meaning remains106 the same. When the parlor was opened for a formal occasion—it remained closed while the ordinary life of the household went on—its interior gave off a rich deep turpentiny smell like a paint-and-varnish store on a hot day. And the bird's-eye maple, as I recall, had a high slick finish which, however, did not dim the staring, unwinking effect of the round knots which so plentifully108 dappled its graining. Lying on the bed and contemplating109 the footboard gave one the feeling that countless110 eyes were looking at one, which in those days was regarded as highly desirable.
I remember all our best people favored bird's-eye maple for the company room. They clung to it, too. East Aurora111 had a hard struggle before it made any noticeable impress upon the decorative112 tendencies of West Kentucky, for we were a conservative breed and slow to take up the mission styles featuring armchairs weighing a couple of hundred pounds apiece and art-craft designs in hammered metals and semi-tanned leathers. Moreover, a second-hand113 shop in our town was not an antique shop; it was what its name implied—a second-hand shop. You didn't go there to buy things you wanted, but to sell things you did not want.
So in view of these youthful influences it should be patent to all that, having other things to think of—such, for example, as making a living—I did not realize that in New York at least those wishful of following the modes did not go to a good live shop making a specialty114 of easy payments when they had a house-furnishing proposition on their hands. That might be all very well for the pedestrian classes and for those living in the remote districts who kept a mail-order catalogue on the center table and wrote on from time to time with the money order enclosed.
I soon was made to understand that the really correct thing was first of all to call in a professional decorator, if one could afford it. A professional decorator is a person of either sex who can think up more ways and quicker ways of spending other people's money than the director of a shipping115 board can. But whether you retained the services of a regular decorator or elected to struggle along on your own, you went for your purchases to specialty shops or to antique shops, or—best of all—to the smart auction shops on or hard by Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue.
Than the auction rooms in the Fifth Avenue district I know of no places better adapted for studying patina, wormholing and human nature in a variety of interesting phases. To such an establishment, on the days when a sale is announced—which means two or three times a week for a good part of the year—repair wealthy patrons, patrons who were wealthy before the mania116 for bidding in things came upon them, as it does come upon so many, and patrons who are trying to look as though they were wealthy. The third group are in the majority.
Amateur collectors come, on the lookout117 for lace fans or Japanese bronzes or Chinese ceramics118 or furniture or pictures or hangings or rugs or tapestries119, or whatever it is that constitutes their favorite hobby. There are sure to be prominent actor folk and author folk in this category. Dealers120 are on hand, each as wise looking as a barnful of hoot-owls and talking the jargon121 of the craft.
Agents from rival auction houses are sometimes seen, ready, should the opportunity present itself, to snap up a bargain with intent to reauction it at their own houses at a profit. With the resident proprietor122 one of this gentry123 is about as popular as a bat in a boarding school, but since there is no law to bar him out and since it is in the line of business for him to be present, why present he generally is.
Rich women drive up in their town cars and shabby purveyors of antique wares124 from little clutter-hole shops on cross streets at the fringe of the East Side shamble in on their fiat arches. Then, too, there are the habitu閟 of the auction room habit; women mostly, but some men too, unfortunate creatures who have fallen victim to an incurable125 vice78 and to whom the announcement in the papers of an unusual sale is lure sufficient to draw them hither whether or not they hope to buy anything; and finally there are representatives of a common class in any big city—individuals who go wherever free entertainment is provided and especially to spots where they are likely to see assembled notables of the stage or society or of high financial circles.
The auctioneer almost invariably is of a compounded and composite type that might be described as part matin閑 idol126, part professional revivalist, part floor walker, part court jester and part jury pleader, with just a trace of a suggestion of the official manner of the well-to-do undertaker stirred into the mixture. By sight at least he knows all of his regular customers and is inclined with a special touch of respectful affection toward such of them as prefer on these occasions to be known by an initial rather than by name.
"And sold to Mr. B.," he says with a gracious smile. Or—"Now then, Mrs. H., doesn't this bea-u-tiful varse mean anything to you?" he inquires deferentially127 when the bidding lags. "Did I hear you offer seven hundred and fifty, Colonel J.?" he asks in a tone of deep solicitude128.
By long acquaintance with his regular client鑜e, or perhaps by a sort of intuition which is not the least of his gifts, he is able to interpret into sums of currency a nod, a wink107, a raised finger, a shrug129 or the lift of an eyebrow130, at a distance of anywhere from ten to sixty feet.
In the face of disappointments manifolded a thousand times a month this man yet remains an unfailing optimist44. Watching him in action one gets the impression that he reads none but glad books, goes to none save glad plays and when the weather is inclement131 shares the viewpoint of that sweet singer of the Sunny South who wrote to the effect that it is not raining rain to-day, it's raining daffodils, and then two lines further along corrects his botany to state that having been convinced of his error of a moment before he now wishes to take advantage of this opportunity to inform the public that it is not raining rain to-day, but on the contrary is raining roses down, or metrical words to that general tenor132. He was a good poet, as poets go, but not the sort of person you would care to loan your best umbrella to.
In another noticeable regard our auctioneer friend betrays somewhat the same abrupt shiftings of temperamental manifestations133 that are reputed to have been shown by Ben Bolt's lady friend. I am speaking of the late lamented134 Sweet Alice, who—as will be recalled—would weep with delight when you gave her a smile, but trembled with fear at your frown. Apparently135 Alice couldn't help behaving in this curious way—one gathers that she must have been the village idiot, harmless enough but undoubtedly136 an annoying sort of person to have hanging round, weeping copiously137 whenever anybody else was cheerful, and perhaps immediately afterward139 trembling in a disconcerting sort of way. She must have spoiled many a pleasant party in her day, so probably it was just as well that the community saw fit to file her away in the old churchyard in the obscure corner mentioned more or less rhythmically140 in the disclosures recorded as having been made to Mr. Bolt upon the occasion of his return to his native shire after what presumably had been a considerable absence.
The poet chronicler, Mr. English, is a trifle vague on this point, but considering everything it is but fair to infer that Alice's funeral was practically by acclamation. Beyond question it must have been a relief to all concerned, including the family of deceased, to feel that a person so grievously afflicted141 mentally was at last permanently142 planted under a certain slab143 of stone rather loosely described in the conversation just referred to as granite144 so gray. One wishes Mr. English had been a trifle more exact in furnishing the particular details of this sad case. Still, I suppose it is hard for a poet to be technical and poetical145 at the same time. And though he failed to go into particulars I am quite sure that when asked if he didn't remember Alice, Mr. Bolt answered in the decided affirmative. It is a cinch he couldn't have forgotten her, the official half-wit and lightning-change artist of the county.
But whereas this unfortunate young woman's conduct may only be accounted for on the grounds of a total irresponsibility, there is method behind the same sharply contrasted shift of mood as displayed by the chief salesman of the auction room. He is thrilled—visibly and physically146 thrilled—at each rapidly recurring147 opportunity of presenting an article for disposal to the highest bidder148; hardly can he control his emotions of joy at the prospect149 of offering this particular object to an audience of discriminating150 tastes and balanced judgment151. But mark the change: How instantly, how completely does a devastating152 and poignant153 distress154 overcome him when his hearers perversely155 decline to enter into spirited competition for a thing so priceless! A sob156 rises in his throat, choking his utterance157 to a degree where it becomes impossible for him to speak more than three or four hundred words per minute; grief dims his eye; regret—not on his own account but for others—droops his shoulders. When it comes to showing distress he makes that poor feeble-minded Alice girl look like a beginner. Yet repeated shocks of this character fail to daunt158 the sunniness of his true nature. The harder his spirits are dashed down to earth the greater the resiliency and the buoyancy with which they bounce up again. The man has a soul of new rubber!
Let us draw near and scrutinize159 the scene that unfolds itself at each presentation: The attendants fetch out an offering described in the printed catalogue, let us say, as Number 77 A: Oriental Lamp with Silk Shade. Reverently160 they place it upon a velvet-covered stand in a space at the back end of the salesroom, where a platform is inclosed in draperies with lights so disposed overhead and in the wings as to shed a soft radiance upon the inclosed area. The helpers fade out of the picture respectfully. A tiny pause ensues; this stage wait has been skillfully timed; a suitable atmosphere subtly has been created. Oh, believe me, in New York we do these things with a proper regard for the dramatic values—culture governs all!
The withdrawal161 of the attendants is the cue for our sunny friend, perched up as he is behind his little pulpit with his little gavel in his hand, to fall gracefully162 into a posture163 bespeaking164 in every curve of it a worshipful, almost an idolatrous admiration165.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen"—hear him say it—"I have the pleasure and the privilege of submitting for your approval one of the absolute gems166 of this splendid collection. A magnificent example of the Ming period—mind you, a genuine Ming. I am confidentially167 informed by the executors of the estate of the late Mr. Gezinks, the former owner of these wonderful belongings, that it was the prize piece of his entire collection. Look at the color—just look at the shape! Worth a thousand dollars if it is worth a cent. Try to buy it in one of the antique shops round the corner for that—just try, that's all I ask you to do. Now then"—this with a cheery, inviting168, confident smile—"now then, what am I offered? Who'll start it off at five hundred?"
There is no answer. A look of surprise not unmixed with chagrin169 crosses his mobile countenance170. From his play of expression you feel that what he feels, underlying171 his other feelings, is a sympathy for people so blinded to their own good luck as not to leap headlong and en masse at this unparalleled chance.
"Tut tut!" he exclaims and again, "tut tut! Very well, then,"—his tone is resigned—"do I hear four hundred and seventy-five—four hundred and fifty? Who'll start it at four twenty-five?"
His gaze sweeps the faces of the assemblage. It is a compelling gaze, indeed you might say mes-meristic. There is a touch of pathos172 in it, though, an unuttered appeal to the gathering173 to consider its own several interests.
"Do I hear four hundred?" He speaks of four hundred as an ostrich174 might speak of a tomtit's egg—as something comparatively insignificant175 and puny176.
"Twenty dollars!" pipes a voice.
He clasps his hand to his brow. This is too much; it is much too much. But business is business. He rallies; he smiles bitterly, wanly177. His soul within him is crushed and bruised178, but he rallies. Rallying is one of the best things he does and one of the most frequent. The bidding livens, slackens, lags, then finally ceases. With a gesture betokening179 utter despair, with lineaments bathed in the very waters of woe180, he heart-brokenly knocks the vase down to somebody for $88.50.
But by the time the hired men have fetched forth Lot 78 he miraculously181 has recovered his former confidence and for the forty-oddth time since two o'clock—it is now nearly three forty-five—is his old cheerful beaming self. Thirty seconds later his heart has been broken in a fresh place; yet we may be sure that to-morrow morning when he rises he will be whistling a merry roundelay, his faith in the innate182 goodness of human nature all made new and fully63 restored to him. He would make a perfectly183 bully184 selection if you were sending a messenger to a home to break to an unsuspecting household some such tragic185 tidings, say; as that the head of the family, while rounding a turn on high, had skidded186 and was now being removed from the front elevation187 of an adjacent brick wall with a putty knife. If example counted for anything at all, he would have the mourners all cheered up again and the females among them discussing the most becoming modes in black crepe in less than no time at all.
My, my, but how my sense of understanding did broaden under the influence of the auction sales we attended through the spring and on into the Summer. When the morning paper came we would turn to the advertising188 section and look for auction announcements. If there was to be one, and generally there was—one or more—we canceled all other plans and attended. Going to auctions189 became our regular employment, our pastime, our entertainment. It became our obsession190. It almost became our joint191 calling in life. To our besetting192 mania we sacrificed all else.
I remember there was one afternoon when John McCormack was billed to sing. I am very fond of hearing John McCormack. For one thing, he generally sings in a language which I can understand, and for another, I like his way of singing. He sings very much as I would sing if I had decided to take up singing for a living instead of writing. This is only one of the sacrifices I have made for the sake of English literature.
McCormack that day had to struggle through without me. Because there was a sale of Italian antiques billed for three p. m., and we were going to have an Italian hall and an Italian living room in the new house, and we felt it to be our bounden duty to attend.
It took some time and considerable work on the part of those fitted to guide me in the matter of decorations before I fell entirely into the idea of an Italian room, this possibly being due to the fact that I was born so far away from Italy and passed through childhood with so few Italian influences coming into my life. Even now I balk193 at the idea of hanging any faded red-silk stoles or copes, or whatever those ecclesiastical garments are, on my walls. I reserve the right to admire such a vestment when it is worn by the officiating cleric at church, but for the life of me and despite all that has repeatedly been said to me on the subject I fail to see where it belongs in a simple household as a part of the scheme of ornamentation.
I do not think it proper to display a strange clergyman's cast-off costume in my little home any more than I would expect the canon of a cathedral to let me hang up a pair of my old overalls194 in his cathedral. Nor—if I must confess it—have I felt myself greatly drawn to the suggestion that we should have a lot of tall hand-painted candles sitting or standing12 round in odd spots. I mean those candlesticks which are painted in faded colors, with touches of dull gilt195 here and there on them and which are called after a lady named Polly Crome—their original inventor, I suppose she was, though her name does sound more as if Arnold Bennett had written her than as if she were a native Italian. I imagine she thought up this idea of a hand-painted candlestick nine feet tall and eighteen inches through at the base, and then in her honor the design was called after her, which in my humble opinion was compounding one mistake on top of another. Likewise I fear that I shall never become entirely reconciled to these old-model Italian chairs. My notion of a chair is something on which a body can sit for as long as half an hour without anesthetics. In most other details concerning antique furniture they have made a true believer out of me, but as regards chairs I am still some distance from being thoroughly converted. In chairs I favor a chair that is willing to meet you halfway196, as it were, in an effort to be mutually comfortable. The other kind—the kind with a hard flat wooden seat and short legs and a stiff high back, a chair which looks as though originally it had been designed to be used by a clown dog in a trained animal act—may be artistic198 and beautiful in the chasteness199 of its lines and all this and that; but as for me, I say give me the kind of chair that has fewer admirers and more friends in the fireside circle. I take it that the early Italians were not a sedentary race. They could not have figured on staying long in one place.
I suppose the trouble with me is that I was born and brought up on the American plan and have never entirely got over it. In fact I was told as much, though not perhaps in exactly those words, when antiques first became a vital issue in our domestic life. In no uncertain terms I was informed that everybody who is anybody goes in for the Italian these times. I believe the only conspicuous200 exceptions to the rule are the Italians who have emigrated to these shores. They, it would appear, are amply satisfied with American fixtures201 and fittings. I have a suspicion that possibly some of them in coming hither may have been actuated by a desire to get as far away as possible from those medieval effects in plumbing which seem to be inseparable from Old World architecture.
My education progressed another step forward on the occasion of my first visit to an auction room where presumably desirable pieces of Italian workmanship were displayed as a preliminary to their being disposed of by public outcry. I was accompanied by a friend—the wormholeist already mentioned—and when he lapsed203 into rhapsodies over a pair of gilt mirrors, or rather mirrors which once upon a time, say about the time of the Fall of the Roman Empire, had been gilded204, I was astonished.
"Surely," I said, "nobody would want those things. See where the glass is flawed—the quicksilver must be pretty nearly all gone from the backs of them. And the molding is falling off in chunks205 and what molding is left is so dingy206 and stained that it doesn't look like anything at all. If you're asking me, I'd call those mirrors a couple of total losses."
"Exactly!" he said. "That is precisely207 what makes them so desirable. You can't counterfeit such age as these things show, my boy."
"I shouldn't care to try," I said. "Where I came from, when a mirror got in such shape that you couldn't see yourself in it it was just the same to us as a chorus girl that had both legs cut off in a railroad accident—it was regarded as having lost most of its practical use in life. Still, it is not for me, a raw green novice, a sub-novice as you might say, to set myself up against an expert like you. Anyhow, as the fellow said, live and learn. Let us move along to the next display of moldy208 remains."
We did so. We came to a refectory table. Ordinarily a refectory table mainly differs in outline from the ordinary dining table by being constructed on the model of a dachshund. But this table, I should guess offhand, had seen about four centuries of good hard steady refecting at the hands of succeeding generations of careless but earnest feeders. Its top was chipped and marred209 by a million scars, more or less. Its legs were scored and worn down. Its seams gaped210. From sheer weakness it canted far down to one side. The pressure of a hand upon it set the poor, slanted211, crippled wreck212 to shaking as though along with all its other infirmities it had a touch of buck213 ague.
"What about this incurable invalid214?" I asked. "Unless the fellow who buys it sends it up in a padded ambulance it'll be hard to get it home all in one piece. I suppose that makes it all the more valuable, eh?"
"Absolutely!" he said. "It's a perfectly marvelous thing! I figure it should bring at least six hundred dollars."
"And cheap enough," I said. "Why, it must have at least six hundred dollars' worth of things the matter with it. A good cabinet-maker could put in a nice busy month just patching—"
"You don't understand," he said. "You surely wouldn't touch it?"
"I shouldn't dare to," I said. "I was speaking of a regular cabinet-maker. No green hand should touch it—he'd have it all in chunks in no time."
"But the main value of it lies in leaving it in its present shape," he told me. "Don't you realize that this is a condition which could never be duplicated by a workman?"
"Well, I've seen some house wreckers in my time who could produce a pretty fair imitation," I retorted playfully. I continued in a musing215 vein216, for the sight of that hopelessly damaged wreck all worn down and dented217 in and slivered218 off had sent my mind backward to a memory of early childhood. I said:
"I can see now how my parents made a mistake in stopping me from doing something I tackled when I was not more than six years old. I was an antiquer, but I didn't know it and they didn't know it. They thought that I was damaging the furniture, when as a matter of fact in my happy, innocent, childish way I was adding touches to it which would have been worth considerable money by now."
What I was thinking of was this: On my sixth birthday, I think it was, an uncle of mine for whom I was named gave me a toy tool chest containing a complete outfit219 of tools. There was a miniature hammer and a plane and a set of wooden vises and a gimlet and the rest of the things which belong in a carpenter's kit220, but the prize of the entire collection to my way of thinking was a cross-cut saw measuring about eight inches from tip to tip.
Armed with this saw, I went round sawing things, or rather trying to. I could not exactly saw with it, but I could haggle221 the edges and corners of wood, producing a gnawed222, frazzled effect. My quest for stuff suitable to exercise my handicraft on led me into the spare, or company room, where I found material to my liking223. I was raking away at the legs of a rosewood center table—had one leg pretty well damaged to my liking and was preparing to start on another—when some officious grown person happened in on me and stopped me with violent words. If I had but been left undisturbed for half an hour or so I doubtless would have achieved a result which now after a lapse202 of thirty-odd years would have thrilled a lover of antiques to the core of his being. But this was not to be.
My present recollection of the incident is that I was chided in a painful physical way. The latter-day system of inculcating lessons in the mind of the child according to a printed form chart of soothing224 words was not known in our community at that time. The old-fashioned method of using the back of a hairbrush and imparting the lesson at the other end of the child from where the mind is and letting it travel all the way through him was employed. I was then ordered to go outdoors where there would be fewer opportunities for engaging in what adults mistakenly called mischief225.
Regretting that the nurse that morning had seen fit to encase me in snug-fitting linen226 breeches instead of woolen227 ones, I wandered about carrying my saw in one hand and with the other hand from time to time rubbing a certain well-defined area of my small person to allay228 the afterglow. In the barnyard I came upon an egg lying on the edge of a mud puddle229 under the protecting lee of the chicken-yard fence. I can shut my eyes and see that egg right now. It was rather an abandoned-looking egg, stained and blotched with brownish-yellow spots. It had the look about it of an egg with a past—a fallen egg, as you might say.
Some impulse moved me to squat230 down and draw the toothed blade of my saw thwartwise across the bulge231 of that egg. For the first time in my little life I was about to have dealings with a genuine antique, but naturally at my age and with my limited experience I did not realize that. Probably I was actuated only by a desire to find out whether I could saw right through the shell of an egg amidships. That phase of the proceedings232 is somewhat blurred233 in my mind, though the d閚ouement remains a vivid memory spot to this very day.
I imparted a brisk raking movement to the saw. It is my distinct recollection that a fairly loud explosion immediately occurred. I was greatly shocked. One too young to know aught of the chemical effect on the reactions following the admission of fresh air to gaseous234 matter, which has been forming to the fulminating point within a tightly sealed casing, would naturally be shocked to have an egg go off suddenly in that violent manner. Modern military science, I suppose, would classify it as having been a contact egg.
Not only was I badly shocked, but also I had a profound conviction that in some way I had been taken advantage of—that my confidence had in some strange fashion been betrayed. I left my saw where I had dropped it. At the moment I felt that never again would I care to have anything to do with a tool so dangerous. I also left the immediate138 vicinity of where the accident had occurred and for some minutes wandered about in rather a distracted fashion. There did not seem to be any place in particular for me to go, and yet I could not bear to stay wherever I was. I wished, as it were, to get entirely away from myself—a morbid235 fancy perhaps for a mere six-year-old to be having, and yet, I think, a natural one under the circumstances.
I had a conviction that I would not be welcomed indoors and at the same time realized that even out in the great open where I could get air—and air was what I especially craved—I was likely to be shunned236 by such persons as I might accidentally encounter. Indeed I rather shunned myself, if you get what I mean. I was filled with a general shunning237 sensation. I felt mortified238, too. And this emotion, I found a few minutes later, was shared by the black cook, who, issuing from the kitchen door, happened upon me in the act of endeavoring to freshen up myself somewhat from a barrel of rain water which stood under the eaves. She evidently decided offhand that not only had mortification239 set in but that it had reached an advanced stage. Her language so indicated.
And now, after more than three and a half decades, here on Fifth Avenue more than a thousand miles remote from those infantile scenes, I was gleaning240 another memorable241 lesson about antiques. I was learning that junk ceases to be junk if only it costs enough money, and thereafter becomes treasure.
Having had this great principal fact firmly implanted in my consciousness, I shortly thereafter embarked242 in congenial company upon the auction-room life upon which already I have touched. We went to sales when we had anything to buy and when we had nothing to buy—somehow we did not seem to be able to stay away. The joy of bidding a thing up and maybe of having it knocked down to us undermined our pooled will power; it weakened our joint resistance.
"And sold to——" became our slogan, our shibboleth243 and our most familiar sentence. By day we heard it, by night it dinned244 in our ears as we slept, dreaming dreams of going bankrupt in this mad, delirious245 pursuit which had mastered us and spending our last days in a poorhouse entirely furnished in Italian antiques.
But taking everything into consideration, I must say the game was worth the candle. By degrees we acquired the furnishings for our two Italian rooms and our other rooms—which, thank heaven, are not Italian but what you might call fancy-mixed! And by degrees likewise I perfected my artistic education. Of course we made mistakes in selection, as who does not? We have a few auction-room skeletons tucked away in our closet, or to speak more exactly, in the attic of the new house. But in the main we are satisfied with what we have done and no doubt will continue to be until Italian-style furniture goes out and Aztec Indian or Peruvian Inca or Thibetan Grand Llama or some other style comes in.
And when our friends drop in for an evening we talk decorations and furnishings—it is a subject which never wears out. Mostly the women callers favor discussions of tapestries and brocades with intervals spent in fits of mutual197 wonder over the terrible taste shown by some other woman—not present—in buying the stuff for her house; and the men are likely to be interested in carvings246 or paintings; but my strong suit is wormholing in all its branches—that and patina. I am very strong on the latter subject, also. In fact among friends I am now getting to be known as the Patina Kid.
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1
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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plumbing
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| n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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wielding
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的现在分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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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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peevishness
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| 脾气不好；爱发牢骚 | |
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broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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demurred
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| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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affidavit
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| n.宣誓书 | |
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dallied
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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gainsaid
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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repartee
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| n.机敏的应答 | |
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warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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remit
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| v.汇款，汇寄；豁免（债务），免除（处罚等） | |
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admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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42
inhaling
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| v.吸入( inhale的现在分词 ) | |
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fiat
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| n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布 | |
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optimist
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| n.乐观的人，乐观主义者 | |
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45
fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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garnish
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| n.装饰，添饰，配菜 | |
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47
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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chronically
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| ad.长期地 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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51
punctuation
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| n.标点符号，标点法 | |
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52
plethoric
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| adj.过多的，多血症的 | |
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53
overdrawn
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| 透支( overdraw的过去分词 )； (overdraw的过去分词) | |
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54
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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teller
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| n.银行出纳员；(选举)计票员 | |
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58
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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64
purports
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| v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的第三人称单数 ) | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tottery
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| adj.蹒跚的，摇摇欲倒 | |
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gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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70
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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72
craftily
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| 狡猾地，狡诈地 | |
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73
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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76
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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77
novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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78
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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79
affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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80
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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81
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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82
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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83
sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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84
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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85
patina
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| n.铜器上的绿锈，年久而产生的光泽 | |
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86
appraise
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| v.估价，评价，鉴定 | |
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87
connoisseur
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| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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88
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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89
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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90
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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91
counterfeiter
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| n.伪造者 | |
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92
validation
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| n.确认 | |
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93
gloss
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| n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰 | |
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94
fabrics
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| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
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95
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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96
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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97
installments
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| 部分( installment的名词复数 ) | |
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98
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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99
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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100
plaques
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| （纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑 | |
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101
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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102
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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103
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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104
walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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105
adornment
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| n.装饰；装饰品 | |
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106
remains
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|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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107
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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108
plentifully
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| adv. 许多地，丰饶地 | |
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109
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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110
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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111
aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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112
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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113
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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114
specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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115
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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116
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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117
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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118
ceramics
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| n.制陶业；陶器 | |
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119
tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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120
dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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121
jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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122
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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123
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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124
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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125
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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126
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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127
deferentially
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| adv.表示敬意地，谦恭地 | |
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128
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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129
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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130
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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131
inclement
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| adj.严酷的，严厉的，恶劣的 | |
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132
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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133
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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134
lamented
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|
| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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136
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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137
copiously
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| adv.丰富地，充裕地 | |
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138
immediate
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|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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139
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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140
rhythmically
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|
| adv.有节奏地 | |
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141
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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142
permanently
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|
| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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143
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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144
granite
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|
| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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145
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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146
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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147
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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148
bidder
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| n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人 | |
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149
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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150
discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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151
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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152
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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153
poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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154
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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155
perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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156
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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157
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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158
daunt
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| vt.使胆怯，使气馁 | |
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159
scrutinize
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| n.详细检查，细读 | |
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160
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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161
withdrawal
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|
| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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162
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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163
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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164
bespeaking
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| v.预定( bespeak的现在分词 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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165
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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166
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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167
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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168
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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169
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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170
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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171
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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172
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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173
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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174
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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175
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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176
puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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177
wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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178
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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179
betokening
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的现在分词 ) | |
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180
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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181
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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182
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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183
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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184
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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185
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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186
skidded
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| v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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187
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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188
advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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189
auctions
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| n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 ) | |
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190
obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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191
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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192
besetting
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| adj.不断攻击的v.困扰( beset的现在分词 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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193
balk
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| n.大方木料；v.妨碍；不愿前进或从事某事 | |
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194
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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195
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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196
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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197
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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198
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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199
chasteness
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|
| n.贞操，纯洁，简洁 | |
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200
conspicuous
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|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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201
fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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202
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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203
lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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204
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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205
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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206
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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207
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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208
moldy
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| adj.发霉的 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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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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216
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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dented
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| v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
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slivered
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| 使成薄片（sliver的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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haggle
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| vi.讨价还价，争论不休 | |
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gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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woolen
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| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
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allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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puddle
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| n.(雨)水坑，泥潭 | |
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230
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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234
gaseous
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| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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236
shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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237
shunning
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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238
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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239
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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240
gleaning
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| n.拾落穗，拾遗，落穗v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的现在分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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241
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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243
shibboleth
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| n.陈规陋习；口令；暗语 | |
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244
dinned
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| vt.喧闹（din的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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carvings
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| n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 )；雕刻术；雕刻品；雕刻物 | |
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