Rastignac deposited his money on the table, and sat down. He was consumed with curiosity, which the sudden change in the manner of the man before him had excited to the highest pitch. Here was a strange being who, a moment ago, had talked of killing1 him, and now posed as his protector.
"You would like to know who I really am, what I was, and what I do now," Vautrin went on. "You want to know too much, youngster. Come! come! keep cool! You will hear more astonishing things than that. I have had my misfortunes. Just hear me out first, and you shall have your turn afterwards. Here is my past in three words. Who am I? Vautrin. What do I do? Just what I please. Let us change the subject. You want to know my character. I am goodnatured to those who do me a good turn, or to those whose hearts speak to mine. These last may do anything they like with me; they may bruise2 my shins, and I shall not tell them to 'mind what they are about'; but, nom d'une pipe, the devil himself is not an uglier customer than I can be if people annoy me, or if I don't happen to take to them; and you may just as well know at once that I think no more of killing a man than of that," and he spat3 before him as he spoke4. "Only when it is absolutely necessary to do so, I do my best to kill him properly. I am what you call an artist. I have read Benvenuto Cellini's Memoirs5, such as you see me; and, what is more, in Italian: A fine-spirited fellow he was! From him I learned to follow the example set us by Providence6, who strikes us down at random7, and to admire the beautiful whenever and wherever it is found. And, setting other questions aside, is it not a glorious part to play, when you pit yourself against mankind, and the luck is on your side? I have thought a good deal about the constitution of your present social Disorder8. A duel9 is downright childish, my boy! utter nonsense and folly10! When one of two living men must be got out of the way, none but an idiot would leave chance to decide which it is to be; and in a duel it is a toss-up--heads or tails--and there you are! Now I, for instance, can hit the ace11 in the middle of a card five times running, send one bullet after another through the same hole, and at thirty-five paces, moreover! With that little accomplishment12 you might think yourself certain of killing your man, mightn
't you. Well, I have fired, at twenty paces, and missed, and the rogue13 who had never handled a pistol in his life-look here!"--(he unbuttoned his waistcoat and exposed his chest, covered, like a bear's back, with a shaggy fell; the student gave a startled shudder)--"he was a raw lad, but he made his mark on me," the extraordinary man went on, drawing Rastignac's fingers over a deep scar on his breast. But that happened when I myself was a mere14 boy; I was one-and-twenty then (your age), and I had some beliefs left--in a woman's love, and in a pack of rubbish that you will be over head and ears in directly. You and I were to have fought just now, weren't we? You might have killed me. Suppose that I were put under the earth, where would you be? You would have to clear out of this, go to Switzerland, draw on papa's purse--and he has none too much in it as it is. I mean to open your eyes to your real position, that is what I am going to do: but I shall do it from the point of view of a man who, after studying the world very closely, sees that there are but two alternatives--stupid obedience15 or revolt. I obey nobody; is that clear? Now, do you know how much you will want at the pace you are going? A million; and promptly16, too, or that little head of ours will be swaying to and fro in the drag-nets at Saint-Cloud, while we are gone to find out whether or no there is a Supreme17 Being. I will put you in the way of that million."
He stopped for a moment and looked at Eugene.
"Aha! you do not look so sourly at papa Vautrin now! At the mention of the million you look like a young girl when somebody has said, 'I will come for you this evening!' and she betakes herself to her toilette as a cat licks its whiskers over a saucer of milk. All right. Come, now, let us go into the question, young man; all between ourselves, you know. We have a papa and mamma down yonder, a great-aunt, two sisters (aged eighteen and seventeen), two young brothers (one fifteen, and the other ten), that is about the roll-call of the crew. The aunt brings up the two sisters; the cure comes and teaches the boys Latin. Boiled chestnuts18 are oftener on the table than white bread. Papa makes a suit of clothes last a long while; if mamma has a different dress winter and summer, it is about as much as she has; the sisters manage as best they can. I know all about it; I have lived in the south.
"That is how things are at home. They send you twelve hundred francs a year, and the whole property only brings in three thousand francs all told. We have a cook and a manservant; papa is a baron19, and we must keep up appearances. Then we have our ambitions; we are connected with the Beauseants, and we go afoot through the streets; we want to be rich, and we have not a penny; we eat Mme. Vauquer's messes, and we like grand dinners in the Faubourg Saint-Germain; we sleep on a truckle-bed, and dream of a mansion20! I do not blame you for wanting these things. What sort of men do the women run after? Men of ambition. Men of ambition have stronger frames, their blood is richer in iron, their hearts are warmer than those of ordinary men. Women feel that when their power is greatest, they look their best, and that those are their happiest hours; they like power in men, and prefer the strongest even if it is a power that may be their own destruction. I am going to make an inventory21 of your desires in order to put the question at issue before you. Here it is:-
"We are as hungry as a wolf, and those newly-cut teeth of ours are sharp; what are we to do to keep the pot boiling? In the first place, we have the Code to browse22 upon; it is not amusing, and we are none the wiser for it, but that cannot be helped. So far so good. We mean to make an advocate of ourselves with a prospect23 of one day being made President of a Court of Assize, when we shall send poor devils, our betters, to the galleys24 with a T.F.' ['Travaux forces.] on their shoulders, so that the rich may be convinced that they can sleep in peace. There is no fun in that; and you are a long while coming to it; for, to begin with, there are two years of nauseous drudgery25 in Paris, we see all the lollipops26 that we long for out of our reach. It is tiresome27 to want things and never to have them. If you were a pallid28 creature of the mollusk29 order, you would have nothing to fear, but it is different when you have the hot blood of a lion and are ready to get into a score of scrapes every day of your life. This is the ghastliest form of torture known in this inferno30 of God's making, and you will give in to it. Or suppose that you are a good boy, drink nothing stronger than milk, and bemoan31 your hard lot; you, with your generous nature, will endure hardships that would drive a dog mad, and make a start, after long waiting, as deputy to some rascal32 or other in a hole of a place where the Government will fling you a thousand francs a year like the scraps33 that are thrown to the butcher's dog. Bark at thieves, plead the cause of the rich, send men of heart to the guillotine, that is your work! Many thanks! If you have no influence, you may rot in your provincial34 tribunal. At thirty you will be a Justice with twelve hundred francs a year (if you have not flung off the gown for good before then). By the time you are forty you may look to marry a miller's daughter, an heiress with some six thousand livres a year. Much obliged! If you have influence, you may possibly be a Public Prosecutor35 by the time you are thirty; with a salar
y of a thousand crowns, you could look to marry the mayor's daughter. Some petty piece of political trickery, such as mistaking Villele for Manuel in a bulletin (the names rhyme, and that quiets your conscience), and you will probably be a Procureur General by the time you are forty, with a chance of becoming a deputy. Please to observe, my dear boy, that our conscience will have been a little damaged in the process, and that we shall endure twenty years of drudgery and hidden poverty, and that our sisters are wearing Dian's livery. I have the honor to call your attention to another fact: to wit, that there are but twenty Procureurs Generaux at a time in all France, while there are some twenty thousand of you young men who aspire36 to that elevated position; that there are some mountebanks among you who would sell their family to screw their fortunes a peg37 higher. If this sort of thing sickens you, try another course. The Baron de Rastignac thinks of becoming an advocate, does he? There's a nice prospect for you! Ten years of drudgery straight away. You are obliged to live at the rate of a thousand francs a month; you must have a library of law books, live in chambers38, go into society, go down on your knees to ask a solicitor40 for briefs, lick the dust off the floor of the Palais de Justice. If this kind of business led to anything, I should not say no; but just give me the names of five advocates here in Paris who by the time that they are fifty are making fifty thousand francs a year! Bah! I would sooner turn pirate on the high seas than have my soul shrivel up inside me like that. How will you find the capital? There is but one way, marry a woman who has money. There is no fun in it. Have you a mind to marry? You hang a stone around your neck; for if you marry for money, what becomes of our exalted41 notions of honor and so forth42? You might as well fly in the face of social conventions at once. Is it nothing to crawl like a serpent before your wife, to lick her mother's feet, to descend43 to dirty actions that would
sicken swine--faugh!--never mind if you at least make your fortune. But you will be as doleful as a dripstone if you marry for money. It is better to wrestle44 with men than to wrangle45 at home with your wife. You are at the crossway of the roads of life, my boy; choose your way.
"But you have chosen already. You have gone to see your cousin of Beauseant, and you have had an inkling of luxury; you have been to Mme. de Restaud's house, and in Father Goriot's daughter you have seen a glimpse of the Parisienne for the first time. That day you came back with a word written on your forehead. I knew it, I could read it--'SUCCESS!' Yes, success at any price. 'Bravo,' said I to myself, 'here is the sort of fellow for me.' You wanted money. Where was it all to come from? You have drained your sisters' little hoard46 (all brothers sponge more or less on their sisters). Those fifteen hundred francs of yours (got together, God knows how! in a country where there are more chestnuts than five-franc pieces) will slip away like soldiers after pillage47. And, then, what will you do? Shall you begin to work? Work, or what you understand by work at this moment, means, for a man of Poiret's calibre, an old age in Mamma Vauquer's lodging-house. There are fifty thousand young men in your position at this moment, all bent48 as you are on solving one and the same problem--how to acquire a fortune rapidly. You are but a unit in that aggregate49. You can guess, therefore, what efforts you must make, how desperate the struggle is. There are not fifty thousand good positions for you; you must fight and devour50 one another like spiders in a pot. Do you know how a man makes his way here? By brilliant genius or by skilful51 corruption52. You must either cut your way through these masses of men like a cannon53 `all, or steal among them like a plague. Honesty is nothing to the purpose. Men bow before the power of genius; they hate it, and try to slander54 it, because genius does not divide the spoil; but if genius persists, they bow before it. To sum it all up in a phrase, if they fail to smother55 genius in the mud, they fall on their knees and worship it. Corruption is a great power in the world, and talent is scarce. So corruption is the weapon of superfluous56 mediocrity; you will be made to feel the point of it everywhere. You will see
women who spend more than ten thousand francs a year on dress, while their husband's salary (his whole income) is six thousand francs. You will see officials buying estates on twelve thousand francs a year. You will see women who sell themselves body and soul to drive in a carriage belonging to the son of a peer of France, who has a right to drive in the middle rank at Longchamp. You have seen that poor simpleton of a Goriot obliged to meet a bill with his daughter's name at the back of it, though her husband has fifty thousand francs a year. I defy you to walk a couple of yards anywhere in Paris without stumbling on some infernal complication. I'll bet my head to a head of that salad that you will stir up a hornet's nest by taking a fancy to the first young, rich, and pretty woman you meet. They are all dodging57 the law, all at loggerheads with their husbands. If I were to begin to tell you all that vanity or necessity (virtue58 is not often mixed up in it, you may be sure), all that vanity and necessity drive them to do for lovers, finery, housekeeping, or children, I should never come to an end. So an honest man is the common enemy.
"But do you know what an honest man is? Here, in Paris, an honest man is the man who keeps his own counsel, and will not divide the plunder59. I am not speaking now of those poor bond-slaves who do the work of the world without a reward for their toil--God Almighty's outcasts, I call them. Among them, I grant you, is virtue in all the flower of its stupidity, but poverty is no less their portion. At this moment, I think I see the long faces those good folk would pull if God played a practical joke on them and stayed away at the Last Judgment60.
"Well, then, if you mean to make a fortune quickly, you must either be rich to begin with, or make people believe that you are rich. It is no use playing here except for high stakes; once take to low play, it is all up with you. If in the scores of professions that are open to you, there are ten men who rise very rapidly, people are sure to call them thieves. You can draw your own conclusions. Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks61 like a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is in getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch62. If I take this tone in speaking of the world to you, I have the right to do so; I know it well. Do you think that I am blaming it? Far from it; the world has always been as it is now. Moralists' strictures will never change it. Mankind are not perfect, but one age is more or less hypocritical than another, and then simpletons say that its morality is high or low. I do not think that the rich are any worse than the poor; man is much the same, high or low, or wherever he is. In a million of these human cattle there may be half a score of bold spirits who rise above the rest, above the laws; I am one of them. And you, if you are cleverer than your fellows, make straight to your end, and hold your head high. But you must lay your account with envy and slander and mediocrity, and every man's hand will be against you. Napoleon met with a Minister of War, Aubry by name, who all but sent him to the colonies.
"Feel your pulse. Think whether you can get up morning after morning, strengthened in yesterday's purpose. In that case I will make you an offer that no one would decline. Listen attentively63. You see, I have an idea of my own. My idea is to live a patriarchal life on a vast estate, say a hundred thousand acres, somewhere in the Southern States of America. I mean to be a planter, to have slaves, to make a few snug64 millions by selling my cattle, timber, and tobacco; I want to live an absolute monarch65, and to do just as I please; to lead such a life as no one here in these squalid dens66 of lath and plaster ever imagines. I am a great poet; I do not write my poems, I feel them, and act them. At this moment I have fifty thousand francs, which might possibly buy forty negroes. I want two hundred thousand francs, because I want to have two hundred negroes to carry out my notions of the patriarachal life properly. Negroes, you see, are like a sort of family ready grown, and there are no inquisitive67 public prosecutors68 out there to interfere69 with you. That investment in ebony ought to mean three or four million francs in ten years' time. If I am successful, no one will ask me who I am. I shall be Mr. Four Millions, an American citizen. I shall be fifty years old by then, and sound and hearty70 still; I shall enjoy life after my own fashion. In two words, if I find you an heiress with a million, will you give me two hundred thousand francs? Twenty per cent commission, eh? Is that too much? Your little wife will be very much in love with you. Once married, you will show signs of uneasiness and remorse71; for a couple of weeks you will be depressed72. Then, some night after sundry73 grimacings, comes the confession74, between two kisses, 'Two hundred thousand francs of debts, my darling!' This sort of farce75 is played every day in Paris, and by young men of the highest fashion. When a young wife has given her heart, she will not refuse her purse. Perhaps you are thinking that you will lose the money for good? Not you. You will make two
hundred thousand francs again by some stroke of business. With your capital and your brains you should be able to accumulate as large a fortune as you could wish. ERGO, in six months you will have made your own fortune, and our old friend Vautrin's, and made an amiable76 woman very happy, to say nothing of your people at home, who must blow on their fingers to warm them, in the winter, for lack of firewood. You need not be surprised at my proposal, nor at the demand I make. Forty-seven out of every sixty great matches here in Paris are made after hust such a bargain as this. The Chamber39 of Notaries77 compels my gentleman to----"
"What must I do?" said Rastignac, eagerly interrupting Vautrin's speech.
"Next to nothing," returned the other, with a slight involuntary movement, the suppressed exultation78 of the angler when he feels a bite at the end of his line. "Follow me carefully! The heart of a girl whose life is wretched and unhappy is a sponge that will thirstily absorb love; a dry sponge that swells79 at the first drop of sentiment. If you pay court to a young girl whose existence is a compound of loneliness, despair, and poverty, and who has no suspicion that she will come into a fortune, good Lord! it is quint and quatorze at piquet; it is knowing the numbers of the lottery80 before-hand; it is speculating in the funds when you have news from a sure source; it is building up a marriage on an indestructible foundation. The girl may come in for millions, and she will fling them, as if they were so many pebbles81, at your feet. 'Take it, my beloved! Take it, Alfred, Adolphe, Eugene!' or whoever it was that showed his sense by sacrificing himself for her. And as for sacrificing himself, this is how I understand it. You sell a coat that is getting shabby, so that you can take her to the Cadran bleu, treat her to mushrooms on toast, and then go to the Ambigu-Comique in the evening; you pawn82 your watch to buy her a shawl. I need not remind you of the fiddle-faddle sentimentality that goes down so well with all women; you spill a few drops of water on your stationery83, for instance; those are the tears you shed while far away from her. You look to me as if you were perfectly84 acquainted with the argot85 of the heart. Paris, you see, is like a forest in the New World, where you have to deal with a score of varieties of savages--Illinois and Hurons, who live on the proceed of their social hunting. You are a hunter of millions; you set your snares86; you use lures87 and nets; there are many ways of hunting. Some hunt heiresses, others a legacy88; some fish for souls, yet others sell their clients, bound hand and foot. Every one who comes back from the chase with his gamebag well filled meets with a warm welcome in good society. In
justice to this hospitable89 part of the world, it must be said that you have to do with the most easy and good-natured of great cities. If the proud aristocracies of the rest of Europe refuse admittance among their ranks to a disreputable millionaire, Paris stretches out a hand to him, goes to his banquets, eats his dinners, and hobnobs with his infamy90."
"But where is such a girl to be found?" asked Eugene.
"Under your eyes; she is yours already."
"Mlle. Victorine?"
"And what was that you said?"
"She is in love with you already, your little Baronne de Rastignac!"
"She has not a penny," Eugene continued, much mystified.
"Ah! now we are coming to it! Just another word or two, and it will all be clear enough. Her father, Taillefer, is an old scoundrel; it is said that he murdered one of his friends at the time of the Revolution. He is one of your comedians92 that sets up to have opinions of his own. He is a banker--senior partner in the house of Frederic Taillefer and Company. He has one son, and means to leave all he has to the boy, to the prejudice of Victorine. For my part, I don't like to see injustice93 of this sort. I am like Don Quixote, I have a fancy for defending the weak against the strong. If it should please God to take that youth away from him, Daillefer would have only his daughter left; he would want to leave his money to some one or other; an absurd notion, but it is only human nature, and he is not likely to have any more children, as I know. Victorine is gentle and amiable; she will soon twist her father round her fingers, and set his head spinning like a German top by plying94 him with sentiment! She will be too much touched by your devotion to forget you; you will marry her. I mean to play Providence for you, and Providence is to do my will. I have a friend whom I have attached closely to myself, a colonel in the Army of the Loire, who has just been transferred into the garde royale. He has taken my advice and turned ultra-royalist; he is not one of those fools who never change their opinions. Of all pieces of advice, my cherub95, I would give you this--don't stick to your opinions any more than to your words. If any one asks you for them, let him have them-at a price. A man who prides himself on going in a straight line through life is an idiot who believes in infallibility. There are no such things as principles; there are only events, and there are no laws but those of expediency96: a man of talent accepts events and the circumstances in which he finds himself, and turns everything to his own ends. If laws and principles were fixed97 and invariable, nations would not change them as readily as we change our shirts. Th
e individual is not obliged to be more particular than the nation. A man whose services to France have been of the very slightest is a fetich looked on with superstitious98 awe99 because he has always seen everything in red; but he is good, at the most, to be put into the Museum of Arts and Crafts, among the automatic machines, and labeled La Fayette; while the prince at whom everybody flings a stone, the man who despises humanity so much that he spits as many oaths as he is asked for in the face of humanity, saved France from being torn in pieces at the Congress of Vienna; and they who should have given him laurels100 fling mud at him. Oh! I know something of affairs, I can tell you; I have the secrets of many men! Enough. When I find three minds in agreement as to the application of a principle, I shall have a fixed and immovable opinion--I shall have to wait a long while first. In the Tribunals you will not find three judges of the same opinion on a single point of law. To return to the man I was telling you of. He would crucify Jesus Christ again, if I bade him. At a word from his old chum Vautrin he will pick a quarrel with a scamp that will not send so much as five francs to his sister, poor girl, and" (here Vautrin rose to his feet and stood like a fencing-master about to lunge)--"turn him off into the dark!" he added.
"How frightful101!" said Eugene. "You do not really mean it? M. Vautrin, you are joking!"
"There! there! Keep cool!" said the other. "Don't behave like a baby. But if you find any amusement in it, be indignant, flare102 up! Say that I am a scoundrel, a rascal, a rogue, a bandit; but do not call me a blackleg nor a spy! There, out with it, fire away! I forgive you; it is quite natural at your age. I was like that myself once. Only remember this, you will do worse things yourself some day. You will flirt103 with some pretty woman and take her money. You have thought of that, of course," said Vautrin, "for how are you to succeed unless love is laid under contribution? There are no two ways about virtue, my dear student; it either is, or it is not. Talk of doing penance104 for your sins! It is a nice system of business, when you pay for your crime by an act of contrition105! You seduce106 a woman that you may set your foot on such and such a rung of the social ladder; you sow dissension among the children of a family; you descend, in short, to every base action that can be committed at home or abroad, to gain your own ends for your own pleasure or your profit; and can you imagine that these are acts of faith, hope, or charity? How is it that a dandy, who in a night has robbed a boy of half his fortune, gets only a couple of months in prison; while a poor devil who steals a banknote for a thousand francs, with aggravating107 circumstances, is condemned108 to penal109 servitude? Those are your laws. Not a single provision but lands you in some absurdity110. That man with yellow gloves and a golden tongue commits many a murder; he sheds no blood, but he drains his victim's veins111 as surely; a desperado forces open a door with a crowbar, dark deeds both of them! You yourself will do every one of those things that I suggest to you to-day, bar the bloodshed. Do you believe that there is any absolute standard in this world? Despise mankind and find out the meshes112 that you can slip through in the net of the Code. The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was p
roperly executed."
"Silence, sir! I will not hear any more; you make me doubt myself. At this moment my sentiments are all my science."
"Just as you please, my fine fellow; I did think you were so weak-minded," said Vautrin, "I shall say no more about it. One last word, however," and he looked hard at the student--"you have my secret," he said.
"A young man who refuses your offer knows that he must forget it."
"Quite right, quite right; I am glad to hear you say so. Somebody else might not be so scrupulous113, you see. Keep in mind what I want to do for you. I will give you a fortnight. The offer is still open."
"What a head of iron the man has!" said Eugene to himself, as he watched Vautrin walk unconcernedly away with his cane114 under his arm. "Yet Mme. de Beauseant said as much more gracefully115; he has only stated the case in cruder language. He would tear my heart with claws of steel. What made me think of going to Mme. de Nucingen? He guessed my motives116 before I knew them myself. To sum it up, that outlaw117 has told me more about virtue than all I have learned from men and books. If virtue admits of no compromises, I have certainly robbed my sisters," he said, throwing down the `ags on the table.
He sat down again and fell, unconscious of his surroundings, into deep thought.
"To be faithful to an ideal of virtue! A heroic martyrdom! Pshaw! every one believes in virtue, but who is virtuous118? Nations have made an idol119 of Liberty, but what nation on the face of the earth is free? My youth is still like a blue and cloudless sky. If I set myself to obtain wealth or power, does it mean that I must make up my mind to lie, and fawn120, and cringe, and swagger, and flatter, and dissemble? To consent to be the servant of others who have likewise fawned121, and lied, and flattered? Must I cringe to them before I can hope to be their accomplice122? Well, then, I decline. I mean to work nobly and with a single heart. I will work day and night; I will owe my fortune to nothing but my own exertions123. It may be the slowest of all roads to success, but I shall lay my head on the pillow at night untroubled by evil thoughts. Is there a greater thing than this--to look back over your life and know that it is stainless124 as a lily? I and my life are like a young man and his betrothed125. Vautrin has put before me all that comes after ten years of marriage. The devil! my head is swimming. I do not want to think at all; the heart is a sure guide."
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bruise
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spat
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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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memoirs
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providence
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random
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disorder
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duel
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folly
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accomplishment
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rogue
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mere
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obedience
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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17
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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18
chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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19
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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20
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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21
inventory
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| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
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22
browse
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| vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草 | |
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23
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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24
galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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25
drudgery
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| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
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26
lollipops
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| n.棒糖，棒棒糖( lollipop的名词复数 )；（用交通指挥牌让车辆暂停以便儿童安全通过马路的）交通纠察 | |
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27
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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28
pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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29
mollusk
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| n.软体动物 | |
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30
inferno
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| n.火海；地狱般的场所 | |
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31
bemoan
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| v.悲叹，哀泣，痛哭；惋惜，不满于 | |
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32
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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33
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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34
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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35
prosecutor
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| n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人 | |
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36
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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37
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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38
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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39
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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40
solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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41
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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42
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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43
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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44
wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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45
wrangle
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| vi.争吵 | |
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46
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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47
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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48
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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49
aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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50
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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51
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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52
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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53
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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54
slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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55
smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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56
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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57
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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58
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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59
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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60
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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61
reeks
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| n.恶臭( reek的名词复数 )v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的第三人称单数 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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62
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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63
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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64
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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65
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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66
dens
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| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
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67
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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68
prosecutors
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| 检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人 | |
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69
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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70
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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71
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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72
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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73
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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74
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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75
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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76
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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77
notaries
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| n.公证人，公证员( notary的名词复数 ) | |
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78
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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79
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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80
lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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81
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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82
pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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83
stationery
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| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
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84
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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85
argot
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| n.隐语，黑话 | |
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86
snares
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| n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 )；圈套；诱人遭受失败（丢脸、损失等）的东西；诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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87
lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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88
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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89
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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90
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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91
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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92
comedians
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| n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 ) | |
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93
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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94
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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95
cherub
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| n.小天使，胖娃娃 | |
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96
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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97
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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98
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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99
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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100
laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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101
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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102
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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103
flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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104
penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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105
contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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106
seduce
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| vt.勾引，诱奸，诱惑，引诱 | |
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107
aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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108
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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109
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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110
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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111
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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112
meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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113
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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114
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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115
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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116
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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117
outlaw
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| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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118
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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119
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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120
fawn
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| n.未满周岁的小鹿；v.巴结，奉承 | |
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121
fawned
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| v.（尤指狗等）跳过来往人身上蹭以示亲热( fawn的过去式和过去分词 )；巴结；讨好 | |
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122
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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123
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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124
stainless
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| adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的 | |
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125
betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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