Eugene was roused from his musings by the voice of the stout1 Sylvie, who announced that the tailor had come, and Eugene therefore made his appearance before the man with the two money bags, and was not ill pleased that it should be so. When he had tried on his dress suit, he put on his new morning costume, which completely metamorphosed him.
"I am quite equal to M. de Trailles," he said to himself. "In short, I look like a gentleman."
"You asked me, sir, if I knew the houses where Mme. de Nucingen goes," Father Goriot's voice spoke2 from the doorway3 of Eugene's room."
"Yes."
"Very well then, she is going to the Marechale Carigliano's ball on Monday. If you can manage to be there, I shall hear from you whether my two girls enjoyed themselves, and how they were dressed, and all about it in fact."
"How did you find that out, my good Goriot?" said Eugene, putting a chair by the fire for his visitor.
"Her maid told me. I hear all about their doings from Therese and Constance," he added gleefully.
The old man looked like a lover who is still young enough to be made happy by the discovery of some little stratagem4 which brings him information of his lady-love without her knowledge.
"YOU will see them both!" he said, giving artless expression to a pang5 of jealousy6.
"I do not know," answered Eugene. "I will go to Mme. de Beauseant and ask her for an introduction to the Marechale."
Eugene felt a thrill of pleasure at the thought of appearing before the Vicomtesse, dressed as henceforward he always meant to be. The "abysses of the human heart," in the moralists' phrase, are only insidious7 thoughts, involuntary promptings of personal interest. The instinct of enjoyment8 turns the scale; those rapid changes of purpose which have furnished the text for so much rhetoric9 are calculations prompted by the hope of pleasure. Rastignac beholding10 himself well dressed and impeccable as to gloves and boots, forgot his virtuous12 resolutions. Youth, moreover, when bent13 upon wrongdoing does not dare to behold11 himself in the mirror of consciousness; mature age has seen itself; and therein lies the whole difference between these two phases of life.
A friendship between Eugene and his neighbor, Father Goriot, had been growing up for several days past. This secret friendship and the antipathy14 that the student had begun to entertain for Vautrin arose from the same psychological causes. The bold philosopher who shall investigate the effects of mental action upon the physical world will doubtless find more than one proof of the material nature of our sentiments in other animals. What physiognomist is as quick to discern character as a dog is to discover from a stranger's face whether this is a friend or no? Those by-words--"atoms," "affinities"--are facts surviving in modern languages for the confusion of philosophic15 wiseacres who amuse themselves by winnowing16 the chaff17 of language to find its grammatical roots. We FEEL that we are loved. Our sentiments make themselves felt in everything, even at a great distance. A letter is a living soul, and so faithful an echo of the voice that speaks in it, that finer natures look upon a letter as one of love's most precious treasures. Father Goriot's affection was of the instinctive19 order, a canine20 affection raised to a sublime21 pitch; he had scented22 compassion23 in the air, and the kindly24 respect and youthful sympathy in the student's heart. This friendship had, however, scarcely reached the stage at which confidences are made. Though Eugene had spoken of his wish to meet Mme. de Nucingen, it was not because he counted on the old man to introduce him to her house, for he hoped that his own audacity25 might stand him in good stead. All that Father Goriot had said as yet about his daughters had referred to the remarks that the student had made so freely in public on that day of the two visits.
"How could you think that Mme. de Restaud bore you a grudge26 for mentioning my name?" he had said on the day following that scene at dinner. "My daughters are very fond of me; I am a happy father; but my sons-in-law have behaved badly to me, and rather than make trouble between my darlings and their husbands, I choose to see my daughters secretly. Fathers who can see their daughters at any time have no idea of all the pleasure that all this mystery gives me; I cannot always see mine when I wish, do you understand? So when it is fine I walk out in the ChampsElysees, after finding out from their waiting-maids whether my daughters mean to go out. I wait near the entrance; my heart beats fast when the carriages begin to come; I admire them in their dresses, and as they pass they give me a little smile, and it seems as if everything was lighted up for me by a ray of `right sunlight. I wait, for they always go back the same way, and then I see them again; the fresh air has done them good and brought color into their cheeks; all about me people say, 'What a beautiful woman that is!' and it does my heart good to hear them.
"Are they not my own flesh and blood? I love the very horses that draw them; I envy the little lap-dog on their knees. Their happiness is my life. Every one loves after his own fashion, and mine does no one any harm; why should people trouble their heads about me? I am happy in my own way. Is there any law against going to see my girls in the evening when they are going out to a ball? And what a disappointment it is when I get there too late, and am told that 'Madame has gone out!' Once I waited till three o'clock in the morning for Nasie; I had not seen her for two whole days. I was so pleased, that it was almost too much for me! Please do not speak of me unless it is to say how good my daughters are to me. They are always wanting to heap presents upon me, but I will not have it. 'Just keep your money,' I tell them. 'What should I do with it? I want nothing.' And what am I, sir, after all? An old carcase, whose soul is always where my daughters are. When you have seen Mme. de Nucingen, tell me which you like the most," said the old man after a moment's pause, while Eugene put the last touches to his toilette. The student was about to go out to walk in the Garden of the Tuileries until the hour when he could venture to appear in Mme. de Beauseant's drawing-room.
That walk was a turning-point in Eugene's career. Several women noticed him; he looked so handsome, so young, and so well dressed. This almost admiring attention gave a new turn to his thoughts. He forgot his sisters and the aunt who had robbed herself for him; he no longer remembered his own virtuous scruples27. He had seen hovering28 above his head the fiend so easy to mistake for an angel, the Devil with rainbow wings, who scatters29 rubies30, and aims his golden shafts31 at palace fronts, who invests women with purple, and thrones with a glory that dazzles the eyes of fools till they forget the simple origins of royal dominion32; he had heard the rustle33 of that Vanity whose tinsel seems to us to be the symbol of power. However cynical34 Vautrin's words had been, they had made an impression on his mind, as the sordid35 features of the old crone who whispers, "A lover, and gold in torrents," remain engraven on a young girl's memory.
Eugene lounged about the walks till it was nearly five o'clock, then he went to Mme. de Beauseant, and received one of the terrible blows against which young hearts are defenceless. Hitherto the Vicomtesse had received him with the kindly urbanity, the bland36 grace of manner that is the result of fine breeding, but is only complete when it comes from the heart.
Today Mme. de Beauseant bowed constrainedly37, and spoke curtly38:
"M. de Rastignac, I cannot possibly see you, at least not at this moment. I am engaged . . ."
An observer, and Rastignac instantly became an observer, could read the whole history, the character and customs of caste, in the phrase, in the tones of her voice, in her glance and bearing. He caught a glimpse of the iron hand beneath the velvet39 glove-the personality, the egoism beneath the manner, the wood beneath the varnish40. In short, he heard that unmistakable I THE KING that issues from the plumed41 canopy42 of the throne, and finds its last echo under the crest43 of the simplest gentleman.
Eugene had trusted too implicitly44 to the generosity45 of a woman; he could not believe in her haughtiness46. Like all the unfortunate, he had subscribed47, in all good faith, the generous compact which should bind48 the benefactor49 to the recipient50, and the first article in that bond, between two large-hearted natures, is a perfect equality. The kindness which knits two souls together is as rare, as divine, and as little understood as the passion of love, for both love and kindness are the lavish51 generosity of noble natures. Rastignac was set upon going to the Duchesse de Carigliano's ball, so he swallowed down this rebuff.
"Madame," he faltered52 out, "I would not have come to trouble you about a trifling53 matter; be so kind as to permit me to see you later, I can wait."
"Very well, come and dine with me," she said, a little confused by the harsh way in which she had spoken, for this lady was as genuinely kind-hearted as she was high-born.
Eugene was touched by this sudden relenting, but none the less he said to himself as he went away, "Crawl in the dust, put up with every kind of treatment. What must the rest of the world be like when one of the kindest of women forgets all her promises of befriending me in a moment, and tosses me aside like an old shoe? So it is every one for himself? It is true that her house is not a shop, and I have put myself in the wrong by needing her help. You should cut your way through the world like a cannon54 ball, as Vautrin said."
But the student's bitter thoughts were soon dissipated by the pleasure which he promised himself in this dinner with the Vicomtesse. Fate seemed to determine that the smallest accidents in his life should combine to urge him into a career, which the terrible sphinx of the Maison Vauquer had described as a field of battle where you must either slay55 or be slain56, and cheat to avoid being cheated. You leave your conscience and your heart at the barriers, and wear a mask on entering into this game of grim earnest, where, as in ancient Sparta, you must snatch your prize without being detected if you would deserve the crown.
On his return he found the Vicomtesse gracious and kindly, as she had always been to him. They went together to the dining-room, where the Vicomte was waiting for his wife. In the time of the Restoration the luxury of the table was carried, as is well known, to the highest degree, and M. de Beauseant, like many jaded57 men of the world, had few pleasures left but those of good cheer; in this matter, in fact, he was a gourmand58 of the schools of Louis XVIII. and of the Duc d'Escars, and luxury was supplemented by splendor60. Eugene, dining for the first time in a house where the traditions of grandeur61 had descended62 through many generations, had never seen any spectacle like this that now met his eyes. In the time of the Empire, balls had always ended with a supper, because the officers who took part in them must be fortified63 for immediate64 service, and even in Paris might be called upon to leave the ballroom65 for the battlefield. This arrangement had gone out of fashion under the Monarchy66, and Eugene had so far only been asked to dances. The self-possession which pre-eminently distinguished67 him in later life already stood him in good stead, and he did not betray his amazement68. Yet as he saw for the first time the finely wrought69 silver plate, the completeness of every detail, the sumptuous70 dinner, noiselessly served, it was difficult for such an ardent71 imagination not to prefer this life of studied and refined luxury to the hardships of the life which he had chosen only that morning.
His thoughts went back for a moment to the lodging-house, and with a feeling of profound loathing72, he vowed73 to himself that at New Year he would go; prompted at least as much by a desire to live among cleaner surroundings as by a wish to shake off Vautrin, whose huge hand he seemed to feel on his shoulder at that moment. When you consider the numberless forms, clamorous74 or mute, that corruption75 takes in Paris, common-sense begins to wonder what mental aberration76 prompted the State to establish great colleges and schools there, and assemble young men in the capital; how it is that pretty women are respected, or that the gold coin displayed in the money-changer's wooden saucers does not take to itself wings in the twinkling of an eye; and when you come to think further, how comparatively few cases of crime there are, and to count up the misdemeanors committed by youth, is there not a certain amount of respect due to these patient Tantaluses who wrestle77 with themselves and nearly always come off victorious78? The struggles of the poor student in Paris, if skilfully79 drawn80, would furnish a most dramatic picture of modern civilization.
In vain Mme. de Beauseant looked at Eugene as if asking him to speak; the student was tongue-tied in the Vicomte's presence.
"Are you going to take me to the Italiens this evening?" the Vicomtesse asked her husband.
"You cannot doubt that I should obey you with pleasure," he answered, and there was a sarcastic81 tinge82 in his politeness which Eugene did not detect, "but I ought to go to meet some one at the Varietes."
"His mistress," said she to herself.
"Then, is not Ajuda coming for you this evening?" inquired the Vicomte.
"No," she answered, petulantly83.
"Very well, then, if you really must have an arm, take that of M. de Rastignac."
The Vicomtess turned to Eugene with a smile.
"That would be a very compromising step for you," she said.
" 'A Frenchman loves danger, because in danger there is glory,' to quote M. de Chateaubriand," said Rastignac, with a bow.
A few moments later he was sitting beside Mme. de Beauseant in a brougham, that whirled them through the streets of Paris to a fashionable theatre. It seemed to him that some fairy magic had suddenly transported him into a box facing the stage. All the lorgnettes of the house were pointed85 at him as he entered, and at the Vicomtesse in her charming toilette. He went from enchantment86 to enchantment.
"You must talk to me, you know," said Mme. de Beauseant. "Ah! look! There is Mme. de Nucingen in the third box from ours. Her sister and M. de Trailles are on the other side."
The Vicomtesse glanced as she spoke at the box where Mlle. de Rochefide should have been; M. d'Ajuda was not there, and Mme. de Beauseant's face lighted up in a marvelous way.
"She is charming," said Eugene, after looking at Mme. de Nucingen.
"She has white eyelashes."
"Yes, but she has such a pretty slender figure!"
"Her hands are large."
"Such beautiful eyes!"
"Her face is long."
"Yes, but length gives distinction."
"It is lucky for her that she has some distinction in her face. Just see how she fidgets with her opera-glass! The Goriot blood shows itself in every movement," said the Vicomtesse, much to Eugene's astonishment87.
Indeed, Mme. de Beauseant seemed to be engaged in making a survey of the house, and to be unconscious of Mme. Nucingen's existence; but no movement made by the latter was lost upon the Vicomtesse. The house was full of the loveliest women in Paris, so that Delphine de Nucingen was not a little flattered to receive the undivided attention of Mme. de Beauseant's young, handsome, and well-dressed cousin, who seemed to have no eyes for any one else.
"If you look at her so persistently88, you will make people talk, M. de Rastignac. You will never succeed if you fling yourself at any one's head like that."
"My dear cousin," said Eugene, "you have protected me indeed so far, and now if you would complete your work, I only ask of you a favor which will cost you but little, and be of very great service to me. I have lost my heart."
"Already!"
"Yes."
"And to that woman!"
"How could I aspire89 to find any one else to listen to me?" he asked, with a keen glance at his cousin. "Her Grace the Duchesse de Carigliano is a friend of the Duchesse de Berri," he went on, after a pause; "you are sure to see her, will you be so kind as to present me to her, and to take me to her ball on Monday? I shall meet Mme. de Nucingen there, and enter into my first skirmish."
"Willingly," she said. "If you have a liking90 for her already, your affairs of the heart are like to prosper91. That is de Marsay over there in the Princesse Galathionne's box. Mme. de Nucingen is racked with jealousy. There is no better time for approaching a woman, especially if she happens to be a banker's wife. All those ladies of the Chaussee-d'Antin love revenge."
"Then, what would you do yourself in such a case?"
"I should suffer in silence."
At this point the Marquis d'Ajuda appeared in Mme. de Beauseant's box.
"I have made a muddle92 of my affairs to come to you," he said, "and I am telling you about it, so that it may not be a sacrifice."
Eugene saw the glow of joy on the Vicomtesse's face, and knew that this was love, and learned the difference between love and the affectations of Parisian coquetry. He admired his cousin, grew mute, and yielded his place to M. d'Ajuda with a sigh.
"How noble, how sublime a woman is when she loves like that!" he said to himself. "And HE could forsake93 her for a doll! Oh! how could any one forsake her?"
There was a boy's passionate94 indignation in his heart. He could have flung himself at Mme. de Beauseant's feet; he longed for the power of the devil if he could snatch her away and hide her in his heart, as an eagle snatches up some white yeanling from the plains and bears it to its eyrie. It was humiliating to him to think that in all this gallery of fair pictures he had not one picture of his own. "To have a mistress and an almost royal position is a sign of power," he said to himself. And he looked at Mme. de Nucingen as a man measures another who has insulted him.
The Vicomtesse turned to him, and the expression of her eyes thanked him a thousand times for his discretion95. The first act came to an end just then.
"Do you know Mme. de Nucingen well enough to present M. de Rastignac to her?" she asked of the Marquis d'Ajuda.
"She will be delighted," said the Marquis. The handsome Portuguese96 rose as he spoke and took the student's arm, and in another moment Eugene found himself in Mme. de Nucingen's box.
"Madame," said the Marquis, "I have the honor of presenting to you the Chevalier Eugene de Rastignac; he is a cousin of Mme. de Beauseant's. You have made so deep an impression upon him, that I thought I would fill up the measure of his happiness by bringing him nearer to his divinity."
Words spoken half jestingly to cover their somewhat disrespectful import; but such an implication, if carefully disguised, never gives offence to a woman. Mme. de Nucingen smiled, and offered Eugene the place which her husband had just left.
"I do not venture to suggest that you should stay with me, monsieur," she said. "Those who are so fortunate as to be in Mme. de Beauseant's company do not desire to leave it."
"Madame," Eugene said, lowering his voice, "I think that to please my cousin I should remain with you. Before my lord Marquis came we were speaking of you and of your exceedingly distinguished appearance," he added aloud.
M. d'Ajuda turned and left them.
"Are you really going to stay with me, monsieur?" asked the Baroness97. "Then we shall make each other's acquaintance. Mme. de Restaud told me about you, and has made me anxious to meet you."
"She must be very insincere, then, for she has shut her door on me."
"What?"
"Madame, I will tell you honestly the reason why; but I must crave99 your indulgence before confiding100 such a secret to you. I am your father's neighbor; I had no idea that Mme. de Restaud was his daughter. I was rash enough to mention his name; I meant no harm, but I annoyed your sister and her husband very much. You cannot think how severely101 the Duchesse de Langeais and my cousin blamed this apostasy102 on a daughter's part, as a piece of bad taste. I told them all about it, and they both burst out laughing. Then Mme. de Beauseant made some comparison between you and your sister, speaking in high terms of you, and saying how very fond you were of my neighbor, M. Goriot. And, indeed, how could you help loving him? He adores you so passionately103 that I am jealous already. We talked about you this morning for two hours. So this evening I was quite full of all that your father had told me, and while I was dining with my cousin I said that you could not be as beautiful as affectionate. Mme. de Beauseant meant to gratify such warm admiration104, I think, when she brought me here, telling me, in her gracious way, that I should see you."
"Then, even now, I owe you a debt of gratitude105, monsieur," said the banker's wife. "We shall be quite old friends in a little while."
"Although a friendship with you could not be like an ordinary friendship," said Rastignac; "I should never wish to be your friend."
Such stereotyped106 phrases as these, in the mouths of beginners, possess an unfailing charm for women, and are insipid107 only when read coldly; for a young man's tone, glance and attitude give a surpassing eloquence108 to the banal109 phrases. Mme. de Nucingen thought that Rastignac was adorable. Then, woman-like, being at a loss how to reply to the student's outspoken110 admiration, she answered a previous remark.
"Yes, it is very wrong of my sister to treat our poor father as she does," she said; "he has been a Providence111 to us. It was not until M. de Nucingen positively112 ordered me only to receive him in the mornings that I yielded the point. But I have been unhappy about it for a long while; I have shed many tears over it. This violence to my feelings, with my husband's brutal113 treatment, have been two causes of my unhappy married life. There is certainly no woman in Paris whose lot seems more enviable than mine, and yet, in reality, there is not one so much to be pitied. You will think I must be out of my senses to talk to you like this; but you know my father, and I cannot regard you as a stranger."
"You will find no one," said Eugene, "who longs as eagerly as I do to be yours. What do all women seek? Happiness." (He answered his own question in low, vibrating tones.) "And if happiness for a woman means that she is to be loved and adored, to have a friend to whom she can pour out her wishes, her fancies, her sorrows and joys; to whom she can lay bare her heart and soul, and all her fair defects and her gracious virtues114, without fear of a betrayal; believe me, the devotion and the warmth that never fails can only be found in the heart of a young man who, at a bare sign from you, would go to his death, who neither knows nor cares to know anything as yet of the world, because you will be all the world to him. I myself, you see (you will laugh at my simplicity), have just come from a remote country district; I am quite new to this world of Paris; I have only known true and loving hearts; and I made up my mind that here I should find no love. Then I chanced to meet my cousin, and to see my cousin's heart from very near; I have divined the inexhaustible treasures of passion, and, like Cherubino, I am the lover of all women, until the day comes when I find THE woman to whom I may devote myself. As soon as I saw you, as soon as I came into the theatre this evening, I felt myself borne towards you as if by the current of a stream. I had so often thought of you already, but I had never dreamed that you would be so beautiful! Mme. de Beauseant told me that I must not look so much at you. She does not know the charm of your red lips, your fair face, nor see how soft your eyes are. . . . I also am beginning to talk nonsense; but let me talk."
Nothing pleases a woman better than to listen to such whispered words as these; the most puritanical115 among them listens even when she ought not to reply to them; and Rastignac, having once begun, continued to pour out his story, dropping his voice, that she might lean and listen; and Mme. de Nucingen, smiling, glanced from time to time at de Marsay, who still sat in the Princesse Galathionne's box.
Rastignac did not leave Mme. de Nucingen till her husband came to take her home.
"Madame," Eugene said, "I shall have the pleasure of calling upon you before the Duchesse de Carigliano's ball."
"If Matame infites you to come," said the Baron98, a thickset Alsatian, with indications of a sinister116 cunning in his full-moon countenance117, "you are quide sure of being well receifed."
"My affairs seem to be in a promising84 way," said Eugene to himself.--" 'Can you love me?' I asked her, and she did not resent it. The bit is in the horse's mouth, and I have only to mount and ride;" and with that he went to pay his respects to Mme. de Beauseant, who was leaving the theatre on d'Ajuda's arm.
The student did not know that the Baroness' thoughts had been wandering; that she was even then expecting a letter from de Marsay, one of those letters that bring about a rupture118 that rends119 the soul; so, happy in his delusion120, Eugene went with the Vicomtesse to the peristyle, where people were waiting till their carriages were announced.
"That cousin of yours is hardly recognizable for the same man," said the Portuguese laughingly to the Vicomtesse, when Eugene had taken leave of them. "He will break the bank. He is as supple59 as an eel18; he will go a long way, of that I am sure. Who else could have picked out a woman for him, as you did, just when she needed consolation121?"
"But it is not certain that she does not still love the faithless lover," said Mme. de Beauseant.
2 spoke | |
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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3 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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4 stratagem | |
n.诡计,计谋 | |
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5 pang | |
n.剧痛,悲痛,苦闷 | |
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6 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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7 insidious | |
adj.阴险的,隐匿的,暗中为害的,(疾病)不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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8 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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9 rhetoric | |
n.修辞学,浮夸之言语 | |
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10 beholding | |
v.看,注视( behold的现在分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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11 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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12 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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13 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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14 antipathy | |
n.憎恶;反感,引起反感的人或事物 | |
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15 philosophic | |
adj.哲学的,贤明的 | |
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16 winnowing | |
v.扬( winnow的现在分词 );辨别;选择;除去 | |
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17 chaff | |
v.取笑,嘲笑;n.谷壳 | |
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18 eel | |
n.鳗鲡 | |
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19 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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20 canine | |
adj.犬的,犬科的 | |
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21 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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22 scented | |
adj.有香味的;洒香水的;有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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23 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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24 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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25 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
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26 grudge | |
n.不满,怨恨,妒嫉;vt.勉强给,不情愿做 | |
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27 scruples | |
n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 );顾虑,顾忌v.感到于心不安,有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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28 hovering | |
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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29 scatters | |
v.(使)散开, (使)分散,驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 );撒 | |
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30 rubies | |
红宝石( ruby的名词复数 ); 红宝石色,深红色 | |
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31 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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32 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
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33 rustle | |
v.沙沙作响;偷盗(牛、马等);n.沙沙声声 | |
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34 cynical | |
adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的,不信世道向善的 | |
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35 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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36 bland | |
adj.淡而无味的,温和的,无刺激性的 | |
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37 constrainedly | |
不自然地,勉强地,强制地 | |
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38 curtly | |
adv.简短地 | |
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39 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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40 varnish | |
n.清漆;v.上清漆;粉饰 | |
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41 plumed | |
饰有羽毛的 | |
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42 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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43 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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44 implicitly | |
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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45 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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46 haughtiness | |
n.傲慢;傲气 | |
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47 subscribed | |
v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意 | |
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48 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
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49 benefactor | |
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
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50 recipient | |
a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器 | |
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51 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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52 faltered | |
(嗓音)颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 ); 支吾其词; 蹒跚; 摇晃 | |
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53 trifling | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
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54 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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55 slay | |
v.杀死,宰杀,杀戮 | |
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56 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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57 jaded | |
adj.精疲力竭的;厌倦的;(因过饱或过多而)腻烦的;迟钝的 | |
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58 gourmand | |
n.嗜食者 | |
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59 supple | |
adj.柔软的,易弯的,逢迎的,顺从的,灵活的;vt.使柔软,使柔顺,使顺从;vi.变柔软,变柔顺 | |
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60 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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61 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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62 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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63 fortified | |
adj. 加强的 | |
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64 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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65 ballroom | |
n.舞厅 | |
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66 monarchy | |
n.君主,最高统治者;君主政体,君主国 | |
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67 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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68 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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69 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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70 sumptuous | |
adj.豪华的,奢侈的,华丽的 | |
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71 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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72 loathing | |
n.厌恶,憎恨v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的现在分词);极不喜欢 | |
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73 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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74 clamorous | |
adj.吵闹的,喧哗的 | |
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75 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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76 aberration | |
n.离开正路,脱离常规,色差 | |
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77 wrestle | |
vi.摔跤,角力;搏斗;全力对付 | |
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78 victorious | |
adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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79 skilfully | |
adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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80 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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81 sarcastic | |
adj.讥讽的,讽刺的,嘲弄的 | |
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82 tinge | |
vt.(较淡)着色于,染色;使带有…气息;n.淡淡色彩,些微的气息 | |
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83 petulantly | |
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84 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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85 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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86 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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87 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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88 persistently | |
ad.坚持地;固执地 | |
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89 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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90 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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91 prosper | |
v.成功,兴隆,昌盛;使成功,使昌隆,繁荣 | |
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92 muddle | |
n.困惑,混浊状态;vt.使混乱,使糊涂,使惊呆;vi.胡乱应付,混乱 | |
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93 forsake | |
vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
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94 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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95 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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96 Portuguese | |
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语 | |
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97 baroness | |
n.男爵夫人,女男爵 | |
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98 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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99 crave | |
vt.渴望得到,迫切需要,恳求,请求 | |
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100 confiding | |
adj.相信人的,易于相信的v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的现在分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等) | |
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101 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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102 apostasy | |
n.背教,脱党 | |
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103 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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104 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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105 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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106 stereotyped | |
adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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107 insipid | |
adj.无味的,枯燥乏味的,单调的 | |
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108 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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109 banal | |
adj.陈腐的,平庸的 | |
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110 outspoken | |
adj.直言无讳的,坦率的,坦白无隐的 | |
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111 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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112 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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113 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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114 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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115 puritanical | |
adj.极端拘谨的;道德严格的 | |
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116 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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117 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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118 rupture | |
n.破裂;(关系的)决裂;v.(使)破裂 | |
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119 rends | |
v.撕碎( rend的第三人称单数 );分裂;(因愤怒、痛苦等而)揪扯(衣服或头发等);(声音等)刺破 | |
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120 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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121 consolation | |
n.安慰,慰问 | |
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