His triumph was so sweeping1 and comprehensive as to be somewhat shapeless to the view. He had a sense of fascinated pain when he tried to define to himself what its limits would probably be. Vistas2 of unchecked, expanding conquest stretched away in every direction. He held at his mercy everything within sight. Indeed, it rested entirely3 with him to say whether there should be any such thing as mercy at all—and until he chose to utter the restraining word the rout4 of the vanquished5 would go on with multiplying terrors and ruin. He could crush and torture and despoil6 his enemies until he was tired. The responsibility of having to decide when he would stop grinding their faces might come to weigh upon him later on, but he would not give it room in his mind to-night.
A picture of these faces of his victims shaped itself out of the flames in the grate. They were moulded in a family likeness7, these phantom8 visages: they were all Jewish, all malignant9, all distorted with fright. They implored10 him with eyes in which panic asserted itself above rage and cunning. Only here and there did he recall a name with which to label one of these countenances11; very few of them raised a memory of individual rancour. The faces were those of men he had seen, no doubt, but their persecution13 of him had been impersonal14; his great revenge was equally so. As he looked, in truth, there was only one face—a composite mask of what he had done battle with, and overthrown15, and would trample16 implacably under foot. He stared with a conqueror's cold frown at it, and gave an abrupt17 laugh which started harsh echoes in the stillness of the Board Room. Then he shook off the reverie, and got to his feet. He shivered a little at the sudden touch of a chill.
A bottle of brandy, surrounded by glasses, stood on the table where the two least-considered of his lieutenants18, the dummy19 Directors, had left it. He poured a small quantity and sipped20 it. During the whole eventful day it had not occurred to him before to drink; the taste of the neat liquor seemed on the instant to calm and refresh his brain. With more deliberation, he took a cigar from the broad, floridly-decorated open box beside the bottle, lit it, and blew a long draught21 of smoke thoughtfully through his nostrils22. Then he put his hands in his pockets, looked again into the fire, and sighed a wondering smile. God in heaven! it was actually true!
This man of forty found himself fluttering with a novel exhilaration, which yet was not novel. Upon reflection, he perceived that he felt as if he were a boy again—a boy excited by pleasure. It surprised as much as it delighted him to experience this frank and direct joy of a child. He caught the inkling of an idea that perhaps his years were an illusion. He had latterly been thinking of himself as middle-aged23; the grey hairs thickening at his temples had vaguely24 depressed25 him. Now all at once he saw that he was not old at all. The buoyancy of veritable youth bubbled in his veins26. He began walking up and down the room, regarding new halcyon27 visions with a sparkling eye. He was no longer conscious of the hated foe28 beneath his feet; they trod instead elastic29 upon the clouds.
The sound of someone moving about in the hallway outside, and of trying a door near by, suddenly caught his attention. He stood still and listened with alertness for a surprised instant, then shrugged30 his shoulders and began moving again. It must be nearly seven o'clock; although the allotment work had kept the clerks later than usual that day, everybody connected with the offices had certainly gone home. He realized that his nerves had played him a trick in giving that alarmed momentary31 start—and smiled almost tenderly as he remembered how notable and even glorious a warrant those nerves had for their unsettled state. They would be all right after a night's real rest. He would know how to sleep NOW, thank God!
But yes—there was somebody outside—and this time knocking with assurance at the right door, the entrance to the outer office. After a second's consideration, he went into this unlighted outer office, and called out through the opaque32 glass an enquiry. The sound of his voice, as it analyzed33 itself in his own ears, seemed unduly34 peremptory35. The answer which came back brought a flash of wonderment to his eyes. He hurriedly unlocked and opened the door.
“I saw the lights in what I made out to be the Board Room,” said the newcomer, as he entered. “I assumed it must be you. Hope I don't interrupt anything.”
“Nothing could have given me greater pleasure, Lord Plowden,” replied the other, leading the way back to the inner apartment. “In fact, I couldn't have asked anything better.”
The tone of his voice had a certain anxious note in it not quite in harmony with this declaration. He turned, under the drop-light overhanging the Board-table, and shook hands with his guest, as if to atone36 for this doubtful accent. “I shake hands with you again,” he said, speaking rapidly, “because this afternoon it was what you may call formal; it didn't count. And—my God!—you're the man I owe it all to.”
“Oh, you mustn't go as far as that—even in the absence of witnesses,” replied Lord Plowden, lightly. “I'll take off my coat for a few minutes,” he went on, very much at his ease. “It's hot in here. It's by the merest chance I happened to be detained in the City—and I saw your lights, and this afternoon we had no opportunity whatever for a quiet talk. No—I won't drink anything before dinner, but I'll light a cigar. I want to say to you, Thorpe,” he concluded, as he seated himself “that I think what you've done is very wonderful. The Marquis thinks so too—but I shouldn't like to swear that he understands much about it.”
The implication that the speaker did understand remained in the air like a tangible37 object. Thorpe took a chair, and the two men exchanged a silent, intent look. Their faces, dusky red on the side of the glow from the fire, pallid38 where the electric light fell slantwise upon them from above, had for a moment a mysterious something in common. Then the tension of the glance was relaxed—and on the instant no two men in London looked less alike.
Lord Plowden was familiarly spoken of as a handsome man. Thorpe had even heard him called the handsomest man in England—though this seemed in all likelihood an exaggeration. But handsome he undoubtedly40 was—tall without suggesting the thought of height to the observer, erect41 yet graceful42, powerfully built, while preserving the effect of slenderness. His face in repose43 had the outline of the more youthful guardsman-type—regular, finely-cut, impassive to hardness. When he talked, or followed with interest the talk of others, it revealed almost an excess of animation44. Then one noted45 the flashing subtlety46 of his glance, the swift facility of his smile and comprehending brows, and saw that it was not the guardsman face at all. His skin was fresh-hued, and there was a shade of warm brown in his small, well-ordered moustasche, but his hair, wavy47 and worn longer than the fashion, seemed black. There were perceptible veins of grey in it, though he had only entered his thirty-fifth year. He was dressed habitually48 with the utmost possible care.
The contrast between this personage and the older man confronting him was abrupt. Thorpe was also tall, but of a burly and slouching figure. His face, shrouded49 in a high-growing, dust-coloured beard, invited no attention. One seemed always to have known this face—thick-featured, immobile, undistinguished. Its accessories for the time being were even more than ordinarily unimpressive. Both hair and beard were ragged50 with neglect. His commonplace, dark clothes looked as if he had slept in them. The hands resting on his big knees were coarse in shape, and roughened, and ill-kept.
“I couldn't have asked anything better than your dropping in,” he repeated now, speaking with a drag, as of caution, on his words. “Witnesses or no witnesses, I'm anxious to have you understand that I realize what I owe to you.”
“I only wish it were a great deal more than it is,” replied the other, with a frank smile.
“Oh, it'll mount up to considerable, as it stands,” said Thorpe.
He could hear that there was a kind of reservation in his voice; the suspicion that his companion detected it embarrassed him. He found himself in the position of fencing with a man to whom all his feelings impelled51 him to be perfectly52 open. He paused, and was awkwardly conscious of constraint53 in the silence which ensued. “You are very kind to put it in that way,” said Lord Plowden, at last. He seemed also to be finding words for his thoughts with a certain difficulty. He turned his cigar round in his white fingers meditatively54. “I gather that your success has been complete—as complete as you yourself could have desired. I congratulate you with all my heart.”
“No—don't say my success—say our success,” put in Thorpe.
“But, my dear man,” the other corrected him, “my interest, compared with yours, is hardly more than nominal55. I'm a Director, of course, and I'm not displeased56 that my few shares should be worth something instead of nothing, but——”
Thorpe lifted one of his heavy hands. “That isn't my view of the thing at all. To be frank, I was turning over in my mind, just awhile ago, before you came in, some way of arranging all that on a different footing. If you'll trust it to me, I think you'll find it's all right.”
Something in the form of this remark seemed to restore to Lord Plowden his accustomed fluency57 of speech.
“I came here to say precisely58 that thing,” he began—“that I do trust it to you. We have never had any very definite talk on the subject—and pray don't think that I want to go into details now. I'd much rather not, in fact. But what I do want to say to you is this: I believe in you. I feel sure that you are going to go far, as the saying is. Well, I want to tie myself to your star. Do you see what I mean? You are going to be a power in finance. You are going to be able to make and unmake men as you choose. I should be very much obliged indeed if you would make me.”
Thorpe regarded the handsome and titled man of fashion with what seemed to the other a lethargic59 gaze. In truth, his mind was toiling60 with strenuous61 activity to master, in all its bearings, the significance of what had been said. This habit of the abstracted and lack-lustre eye, the while he was hard at work thinking, was a fortuitous asset which he had never up to that time learned that he possessed62. Unconsciously, he dampened the spirits of his companion.
“Don't imagine I'm trying to force myself upon you,” Lord Plowden said, growing cool in the face of this slow stare. “I'm asking nothing at all. I had the impulse to come and say to you that you are a great man, and that you've done a great thing—and done it, moreover, in a very great way.”
“You know how it was done!” The wondering exclamation63 forced itself from Thorpe's unready lips. He bent64 forward a little, and took a new visual hold, as it were, of his companion's countenance12.
Lord Plowden smiled. “Did you think I was such a hopeless duffer, then?” he rejoined.
For answer, Thorpe leant back in his chair, crossed his legs, and patted his knee contentedly65. All at once his face had lightened; a genial66 speculation67 returned to his grey eyes.
“Well, I was in a curious position about you, you see,” he began to explain. The relief with which he spoke39 was palpable. “I could not for the life of me make up my mind whether to tell you about it or not. Let's see—this is Thursday; did I see you Tuesday? At any rate, the scheme didn't dawn on me myself until toward evening Tuesday. But yesterday, of course, I could have told you—and again this afternoon—but, as I say, I couldn't make up my mind. Once I had it on the tip of my tongue—but somehow I didn't. And you—you never gave me a hint that you saw what was going on.”
Again Lord Plowden smiled. “I voted with you,” he put in softly.
Thorpe laughed, and relit his cigar. “Well, I couldn't have asked anything better than this,” he declared once again. “It beats all the rest put together, to my mind.”
“Perhaps I don't quite follow your meaning,” commented the other tentatively.
“Why man,” Thorpe explained, hesitating a little in his choice of words, but speaking with evident fervour; “I was more anxious about you—and the way you'd take it—than about anything else. I give you my word I was. I couldn't tell at all how you'd feel about the thing. You might think that it was all right, and then again you might round on me—or no, I don't mean quite that—but you might say it wasn't good enough for you, and wash your hands of the whole affair. And I can't tell you what a relief it is to find that you—that you're satisfied. Now I can go ahead.”
“Ah, yes—ahead,” said the younger man, thoughtfully. “Do you mind telling me—you see I'm quite in the dark as to details—how much further ahead we are likely to go? I comprehend the general nature of our advance—but how far off is the goal you have in sight?”
“God knows!” answered Thorpe, with a rising thrill of excitement in his voice. “I don't give it any limit. I don't see why we should stop at all. We've got them in such a position that—why, good heavens! we can squeeze them to death, crush them like quartz68.” He chuckled69 grimly at the suggestion of his simile70. “We'll get more ounces to the ton out of our crushings than they ever heard of on the Rand, too.”
“Might I ask,” interposed the other, “who may 'they' be?”
Thorpe hesitated, and knitted his brows in the effort to remember names. “Oh, there are a lot of them,” he said, vaguely. “I think I told you of the way that Kaffir crowd pretended to think well of me, and let me believe they were going to take me up, and then, because I wouldn't give them everything—the very shirt off my back—turned and put their knife into me. I don't know them apart, hardly—they've all got names like Rhine wines—but I know the gang as a whole, and if I don't lift the roof clean off their particular synagogue, then my name is mud.”
Lord Plowden smiled. “I've always the greatest difficulty to remember that you are an Englishman—a Londoner born,” he declared pleasantly. “You don't talk in the least like one. On shipboard I made sure you were an American—a very characteristic one, I thought—of some curious Western variety, you know. I never was more surprised in my life than when you told me, the other day, that you only left England a few years ago.”
“Oh, hardly a 'few years'; more like fifteen,” Thorpe corrected him. He studied his companion's face with slow deliberation.
“I'm going to say something that you mustn't take amiss,” he remarked, after a little pause. “If you'd known that I was an Englishman, when we first met, there on the steamer, I kind o' suspect that you and I'd never have got much beyond a nodding acquaintance—and even that mostly on my side. I don't mean that I intended to conceal71 anything—that is, not specially—but I've often thought since that it was a mighty72 good thing I did. Now isn't that true—that if you had taken me for one of your own countrymen you'd have given me the cold shoulder?”
“I dare say there's a good deal in what you say,” the other admitted, gently enough, but without contrition73. “Things naturally shape themselves that way, rather, you know. If they didn't, why then the whole position would become difficult. But you are an American, to all intents and purposes.”
“Oh, no—I never took any step towards getting naturalized,” Thorpe protested. “I always intended to come back here. Or no, I won't say that—because most of the time I was dog-poor—and this isn't the place for a poor man. But I always said to myself that if ever I pulled it off—if I ever found my self a rich man—THEN I'd come piking across the Atlantic as fast as triple-expansion engines would carry me.”
The young man smiled again, with a whimsical gleam in his eye. “And you ARE a rich man, now,” he observed, after a momentary pause.
“We are both rich men,” replied Thorpe, gravely.
He held up a dissuading74 hand, as the other would have spoken. “This is how it seems to me the thing figures itself out: It can't be said that your name on the Board, or the Marquis's either, was of much use so far as the public were concerned. To tell the truth, I saw some time ago that they wouldn't be. Titles on prospectuses75 are played out in London. I've rather a notion, indeed, that they're apt to do more harm than good—just at present, at least. But all that aside—you are the man who was civil to me at the start, when you knew nothing whatever about my scheme, and you are the man who was good to me later on, when I didn't know where to turn for a friendly word. Very well; here I am! I've made my coup76! And I'd be a sweep, wouldn't I? to forget to-day what I was so glad to remember a week ago. But you see, I don't forget! The capital of the Company is 500,000 pounds, all in pound shares. We offered the public only a fifth of them. The other four hundred thousand shares are mine as vendor—and I have ear-marked in my mind one hundred thousand of them to be yours.”
Lord Plowden's face paled at the significance of these words. “It is too much—you don't reflect what it is you are saying,” he murmured confusedly. “Not a bit of it,” the other reassured77 him. “Everything that I've said goes.”
The peer, trembling a little, rose to his feet. “It is a preposterously78 big reward for the merest act of courtesy,” he insisted. “Of course it takes my breath away for joy—and yet I feel I oughtn't to be consenting to it at all. And it has its unpleasant side—it buries me under a mountain of obligation. I don't know what to do or what to say.”
“Well, leave the saying and doing to me, then,” replied Thorpe, with a gesture before which the other resumed his seat. “Just a word more—and then I suppose we'd better be going. Look at it in this way. Your grandfather was Lord Chancellor79 of England, and your father was a General in the Crimea. My grandfather kept a small second-hand80 book-shop, and my father followed him in the business. In one sense, that puts us ten thousand miles apart. But in another sense, we'll say that we like each other, and that there are ways in which we can be of immense use to each other, and that brings us close together. You need money—and here it is for you. I need—what shall I say?—a kind of friendly lead in the matter of establishing myself on the right footing, among the right people—and that's what you can do for me. Mind—I'd prefer to put it all in quite another way; I'd like to say it was all niceness on your part, all gratitude81 on mine. But if you want to consider it on a business basis—why there you have it also—perfectly plain and clear.”
He got up as he finished, and Lord Plowden rose as well. The two men shook hands in silence.
When the latter spoke, it was to say: “Do you know how to open one of those soda-water bottles? I've tried, but I can never get the trick. I think I should like to have a drink—after this.”
When they had put down their glasses, and the younger man was getting into his great-coat, Thorpe bestowed82 the brandy and cigars within a cabinet at the corner of the room, and carefully turned a key upon them.
“If you're going West, let me give you a lift,” said Lord Plowden, hat in hand. “I can set you down wherever you like. Unfortunately I've to go out to dinner, and I must race, as it is, to get dressed.”
Thorpe shook his head. “No, go along,” he bade him. “I've some odds83 and ends of things to do on the way.”
“Then when shall I see you?”—began the other, and halted suddenly with a new thought in his glance. “But what are you doing Saturday?” he asked, in a brisker tone. “It's a dies non here. Come down with me to-morrow evening, to my place in Kent. We will shoot on Saturday, and drive about on Sunday, if you like—and there we can talk at our leisure. Yes, that is what you must do. I have a gun for you. Shall we say, then—Charing84 Cross at 9:55? Or better still, say 5:15, and we will dine at home.”
The elder man pondered his answer—frowning at the problem before him with visible anxiety. “I'm afraid I'd better not come—it's very good of you all the same.”
“Nonsense,” retorted the other. “My mother will be very glad indeed to see you. There is no one else there—unless, perhaps, my sister has some friend down. We shall make a purely85 family party.”
Thorpe hesitated for only a further second. “All right. Charing Cross, 5:15,” he said then, with the grave brevity of one who announces a momentous86 decision.
He stood still, looking into the fire, for a few moments after his companion had gone. Then, going to a closet at the end of the room, he brought forth87 his coat and hat; something prompted him to hold them up, and scrutinize88 them under the bright light of the electric globe. He put them on, then, with a smile, half-scornful, half-amused, playing in his beard.
The touch of a button precipitated89 darkness upon the Board Room. He made his way out, and downstairs to the street. It was a rainy, windy October night, sloppy90 underfoot, dripping overhead. At the corner before him, a cabman, motionless under his unshapely covered hat and glistening91 rubber cape92, sat perched aloft on his seat, apparently93 asleep. Thorpe hailed him, with a peremptory tone, and gave the brusque order, “Strand!” as he clambered into the hansom.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
vistas
|
|
| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
rout
|
|
| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
vanquished
|
|
| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
despoil
|
|
| v.夺取，抢夺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
likeness
|
|
| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
phantom
|
|
| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
malignant
|
|
| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
implored
|
|
| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
countenances
|
|
| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
persecution
|
|
| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
impersonal
|
|
| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
overthrown
|
|
| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
trample
|
|
| vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
abrupt
|
|
| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
lieutenants
|
|
| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
dummy
|
|
| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sipped
|
|
| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
draught
|
|
| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
nostrils
|
|
| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
depressed
|
|
| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
veins
|
|
| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
halcyon
|
|
| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
foe
|
|
| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
elastic
|
|
| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
momentary
|
|
| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
opaque
|
|
| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
analyzed
|
|
| v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
unduly
|
|
| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
peremptory
|
|
| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
atone
|
|
| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
tangible
|
|
| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
pallid
|
|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
repose
|
|
| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
subtlety
|
|
| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
wavy
|
|
| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
habitually
|
|
| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
shrouded
|
|
| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
ragged
|
|
| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
impelled
|
|
| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
constraint
|
|
| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
meditatively
|
|
| adv.冥想地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
nominal
|
|
| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
displeased
|
|
| a.不快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
fluency
|
|
| n.流畅，雄辩，善辩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
lethargic
|
|
| adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
toiling
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
strenuous
|
|
| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
exclamation
|
|
| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
contentedly
|
|
| adv.心满意足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
genial
|
|
| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
quartz
|
|
| n.石英 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
simile
|
|
| n.直喻，明喻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
contrition
|
|
| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
dissuading
|
|
| 劝（某人）勿做某事，劝阻( dissuade的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
prospectuses
|
|
| n.章程，简章，简介( prospectus的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
coup
|
|
| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
preposterously
|
|
| adv.反常地；荒谬地；荒谬可笑地；不合理地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
chancellor
|
|
| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
second-hand
|
|
| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
bestowed
|
|
| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
odds
|
|
| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
charing
|
|
| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
momentous
|
|
| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
scrutinize
|
|
| n.详细检查，细读 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
precipitated
|
|
| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
sloppy
|
|
| adj.邋遢的，不整洁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
glistening
|
|
| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
cape
|
|
| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |