There ran through all his confused thoughts the exasperating1 consciousness that it was nonsense to be frightened, or even disturbed; that, in truth, nothing whatever had happened. But he could not lay hold of it to any comforting purpose. Some perverse2 force within him insisted on raising new phantoms3 in his path, and directing his reluctant gaze to their unpleasant shapes. Forgotten terrors pushed themselves upon his recollection. It was as if he stood again in the Board Room, with the telegram telling of old Tavender's death in his hands, waiting to hear the knock of Scotland Yard upon the door.
The coming of Gafferson took on a kind of supernatural aspect, when Thorpe recalled its circumstances. His own curious mental ferment4, which had made this present week a period apart in his life, had begun in the very hour of this man's approach to the house. His memory reconstructed a vivid picture of that approach—of the old ramshackle village trap, and the boy and the bags and the yellow tin trunk, and that decent, red-bearded, plebeian6 figure, so commonplace and yet so elusively7 suggestive of something out of the ordinary. It seemed to him now that he had at the time discerned a certain fateful quality in the apparition8. And he and his wife had actually been talking of old Kervick at the moment! It was their disagreement over him which had prevented her explaining about the new head-gardener. There was an effect of the uncanny in all this.
And what did Gafferson want? How much did he know? The idea that perhaps old Kervick had found him out, and patched up with him a scheme of blackmail9, occurred to him, and in the unreal atmosphere of his mood, became a thing of substance. With blackmail, however, one could always deal; it was almost a relief to see the complication assume that guise10. But if Gafferson was intent upon revenge and exposure instead? With such a slug-like, patient, tenacious11 fool, was that not more likely?
Reasonable arguments presented themselves to his mind ever and again: his wife had known of Gafferson's work, and thought highly of it, and had been in a position to learn of his leaving Hadlow. What more natural than that she should hasten to employ him? And what was it, after all, that Gafferson could possibly know or prove? His brother-in-law had gone off, and got too drunk to live, and had died. What in the name of all that was sensible had this to do with Thorpe? Why should it even be supposed that Gafferson associated Thorpe with any phase of the business? And if he had any notion of a hostile movement, why should he have delayed action so long? Why indeed!
Reassurance12 did not come to him, but at last an impulse to definite action turned his footsteps toward the cluster of greenhouses in the deepening shadow of the mansion14. He would find Gafferson, and probe this business to the uttermost. If there was discoverable in the man's manner or glance the least evidence of a malevolent15 intention—he would know what to do. Ah, what was it that he would do? He could not say, beyond that it would be bad for Gafferson. He instinctively16 clenched17 the fists in the pockets of his jacket as he quickened his pace. Inside the congeries of glazed18 houses he was somewhat at sea. It was still light enough to make one's way about in the passages between the stagings, but he had no idea of the general plan of the buildings, and it seemed to him that he frequently got back to places he had traversed before. There were two or three subordinate gardeners in or about the houses, but upon reflection he forbore to question them. He tried to assume an idly indifferent air as he sauntered past, nodding almost imperceptible acknowledgment of the forefingers19 they jerked upward in salutation.
He came at last upon a locked door, the key of which had been removed. The fact vaguely20 surprised him, and he looked with awakened21 interest through the panes22 of this door. The air inside seemed slightly thickened—and then his eye caught the flicker23 of a flame, straight ahead. It was nothing but the fumigation24 of a house; the burning spirits in the lamp underneath25 the brazier were filling the structure with vapours fatal to all insect life. In two or three hours the men would come and open the doors and windows and ventilate the place. The operation was quite familiar to him; it had indeed interested him more when he first saw it done than had anything else connected with the greenhouses.
His abstracted gaze happened to take note of the fact that the door-key was hanging on a nail overhead, and then suddenly this seemed to be related to something else in his thoughts—some obscure impression or memory which evaded26 him. Continuing to look at the key, a certain recollection all at once assumed great definiteness in his mind: it came to him that the labels on this patent fumigator27 they were using warned people against exposing themselves to its fumes28 more than was absolutely necessary. That meant, of course, that their full force would kill a human being. It was very interesting. He looked through the glass again, but could not see that the air was any thicker. The lamp still burned brightly.
He turned away, and beheld29 a man, in an old cap and apron30, at the further end of the palm-house he was in, doing something to a plant. Thorpe noted31 the fact that he felt no surprise in seeing that it was Gafferson. Somehow the sight of the key, and of the poison-spreading flame inside the locked door, seemed to have prepared him for the spectacle of Gafferson close at hand. He moved forward slowly toward the head-gardener, and luminous32 plans rose in his mind, ready-made at each step. He could strangle this annoying fool, or smother33 him, into non-resisting insensibility, and then put him inside that death-house, and let it be supposed that he had been asphyxiated34 by accident. The men when they came back would find him there. But ah! they would know that they had not left him there; they would have seen him outside, no doubt, after the fire had been lighted. Well, the key could be left in the unlocked door. Then it could be supposed that he had rashly entered, and been overcome by the vapours. He approached the man silently, his brain arranging the details of the deed with calm celerity.
Then some objections to the plan rose up before him: they dealt almost exclusively with the social nuisance the thing would entail35. There was to be a house-party, with that Duke and Duchess in it, of whom his wife talked so much, and it would be a miserable36 kind of bore to have a suffocated37 gardener forced upon them as a principal topic of conversation. Of course, too, it would more or less throw the whole household into confusion. And its effect upon his wife!—the progress of his thoughts was checked abruptly38 by this suggestion. A vision of the shock such a catastrophe39 might involve to her—or at the best, of the gross unpleasantness she would find in it—flashed over his mind, and then yielded to a softening40, radiant consciousness of how much this meant to him. It seemed to efface41 everything else upon the instant. A profoundly tender desire for her happiness was in complete possession. Already the notion of doing anything to wound or grieve her appeared incredible to him.
“Well, Gafferson,” he heard himself saying, in one of the more reserved tones of his patriarchal manner. He had halted close to the inattentive man, and stood looking down upon him. His glance was at once tolerant and watchful42.
Gafferson slowly rose from his slouching posture43, surveyed the other while his faculties44 in leisurely45 fashion worked out the problem of recognition, aud then raised his finger to his cap-brim. “Good-evening, sir,” he said.
This gesture of deference46 was eloquently47 convincing. Thorpe, after an instant's alert scrutiny48, smiled upon him. “I was glad to hear that you had come to us,” he said with benevolent49 affability. “We shall expect great things of a man of your reputation.”
“It'll be a fair comfort, sir,” the other replied, “to be in a place where what one does is appreciated. What use is it to succeed in hybridizing a Hippeastrum procera with a Pancratium Amancaes, after over six hundred attempts in ten years, and then spend three years a-hand-nursing the seedlings50, and then your master won't take enough interest in the thing to pay your fare up to London to the exhibition with 'em? That's what 'ud break any man's heart.”
“Quite true,” Thorpe assented51, with patrician52 kindliness53. “You need fear nothing of that sort here, Gafferson. We give you a free hand. Whatever you want, you have only to let us know. And you can't do things too well to please us.” “Thank you, sir,” said Gafferson, and really, as Thorpe thought about it, the interview seemed at an end.
The master turned upon his heel, with a brief, oblique54 nod over his shoulder, and made his way out into the open air. Here, as he walked, he drew a succession of long consolatory55 breaths. It was almost as if he had emerged from the lethal56 presence of the fumigator itself. He took the largest cigar from his case, lighted it, and sighed smoke-laden new relief as he strolled back toward the terrace.
But a few minutes before he had been struggling helplessly in the coils of an evil nightmare. These terrors seemed infinitely57 far behind him now. He gave an indifferent parting glance backward at them, as one might over his after-breakfast cigar at the confused alarms of an early awakening58 hours before. There was nothing worth remembering—only the shapeless and foolish burden of a bad dream.
The assurance rose within him that he was not to have any more such trouble. With a singular clearness of mental vision he perceived that the part of him which brought bad dreams had been sloughed59 off, like a serpent's skin. There had been two Thorpes, and one of them—the Thorpe who had always been willing to profit by knavery60, and at last in a splendid coup61 as a master thief had stolen nearly a million, and would have shrunk not at all from adding murder to the rest, to protect that plunder—this vicious Thorpe had gone away altogether. There was no longer a place for him in life; he would never be seen again by mortal eye....There remained only the good Thorpe, the pleasant, well-intentioned opulent gentleman; the excellent citizen; the beneficent master, to whom, even Gafferson like the others, touched a respectful forelock.
It passed in the procession of his reverie as a kind of triumph of virtue62 that the good Thorpe retained the fortune which the bad Thorpe had stolen. It was in all senses a fortunate fact, because now it would be put to worthy63 uses. Considering that he had but dimly drifted about heretofore on the outskirts64 of the altruistic65 impulse, it was surprisingly plain to him now that he intended to be a philanthropist. Even as he mentioned the word to himself, the possibilities suggested by it expanded in his thoughts. His old dormant66, formless lust13 for power stirred again in his pulses. What other phase of power carried with it such rewards, such gratitudes, such humble67 subservience68 on all sides as far as the eye could reach—as that exercised by the intelligently munificent69 philanthropist?
Intelligence! that was the note of it all. Many rich people dabbled70 at the giving of money, but they did it so stupidly, in such a slip-shod fashion, that they got no credit for it. Even millionaires more or less in public life, great newspaper-owners, great brewer-peers, and the like, men who should know how to do things well, gave huge sums in bulk for public charities, such as the housing of the poor, and yet contrived71 somehow to let the kudos72 that should have been theirs evaporate. He would make no such mistake as that.
It was easy enough to see wherein they erred73. They gave superciliously74, handing down their alms from a top lofty altitude of Tory superiority, and the Radicals75 down below sniffed76 or growled77 even while they grudgingly78 took these gifts—that was all nonsense. These aristocratic or tuft-hunting philanthropists were the veriest duffers. They laid out millions of pounds in the vain attempt to secure what might easily be had for mere79 thousands, if they went sensibly to work. Their vast benefactions yielded them at the most bare thanks, or more often no thanks at all, because they lacked the wit to lay aside certain little trivial but annoying pretensions80, and waive81 a few empty prejudices. They went on, year after year, tossing their fortunes into a sink of contemptuous ingratitude82, wondering feebly why they were not beloved in return. It was because they were fools. They could not, or they would not, understand the people they sought to manipulate.
What could not a man of real brain, of real breadth and energy and force of character, do in London with two hundred thousand pounds? Why, he could make himself master of the town! He could break into fragments the political ascendency of the snob83, “semi-detached” villa5 classes, in half the Parliamentary divisions they now controlled. He could reverse the partisan84 complexion85 of the Metropolitan86 delegation87, and lead to Westminster a party of his own, a solid phalanx of disciplined men, standing88 for the implacable Democracy of reawakened London. With such a backing, he could coerce89 ministries90 at will, and remake the politics of England. The role of Great Oliver himself was not too hopelessly beyond the scope of such a vision.
Thorpe threw his cigar-end aside, and then noted that it was almost dark. He strode up to the terrace two steps at a time, and swung along its length with a vigour91 and exhilaration of movement he had not known, it seemed to him, for years. He felt the excitement of a new incentive92 bubbling in his veins93.
“Her Ladyship is in her sitting-room94, sir,” a domestic replied to his enquiry in the hall. The title arrested his attention from some fresh point of view, and he pondered it, as he made his way along the corridor, and knocked at a door. At the sound of a voice he pushed open the door, and went in.
Lady Cressage, looking up, noted, with aroused interest, a marked change in his carriage. He stood aggressively erect95, his big shoulders squared, and his head held high. On his massive face there was the smile, at once buoyant and contained, of a strong man satisfied with himself.
Something impelled96 her to rise, and to put a certain wistfulness of enquiry into her answering smile.
“Your headache is better then?” she asked him.
He looked puzzled for a moment, then laughed lightly. “Oh—yes,” he answered. Advancing, he caught her suddenly, almost vehemently97, in his arms, aud covered the face that was perforce upturned with kisses. When she was released from this overwhelming embrace, and stood panting and flushed, regarding him with narrowed, intent eyes, in which mystification was mellowed98 by the gleam of not-displeased curiosity, he preferred a request which completed her bewilderment.
“Mrs. Thorpe,” he began, with significant deliberation, but smiling with his eyes to show the tenderness underlying99 his words—“would you mind if we didn't dress for dinner this evening, and if we dined in the little breakfast-room—or here, for that matter—instead of the big place?”
“Why, not at all, if you wish it,” she answered readily enough, but viewing him still with a puzzled glance.
“I'm full of new ideas,” he explained, impulsively100 impatient of the necessity to arrange a sequence among his thoughts. “I see great things ahead. It's all come to me in a minute, but I couldn't see it clearer if I'd thought it out for a year. Perhaps I was thinking of it all the time and didn't know it. But anyhow, I see my way straight ahead. You don't know what it means to me to have something to do. It makes another man of me, just to think about it. Another man?—yes, twenty men! It's a thing that can be done, and by God! I'm going to do it!”
She beheld in his face, as she scrutinized101 it, a stormy glow of the man's native, coarse, imperious virility102, reasserting itself through the mask of torpor103 which this vacuous104 year had superimposed. The large features were somehow grown larger still; they dominated the countenance105 as rough bold headlands dominate a shore. It was the visage of a conqueror—of a man gathering106 within himself, to expend107 upon his fellows, the appetites, energies, insensibilities, audacities108 of a beast of prey109. Her glance fluttered a little, and almost quailed110, before the frank barbarism of power in the look he bent111 upon her. Then it came to her that something more was to be read in this look; there was in it a reservation of magnanimity, of protection, of entreating112 invitation, for her special self. He might tear down with his claws, and pull to pieces and devour113 others; but his mate he would shelter and defend and love with all his strength. An involuntary trembling thrill ran through her—and then she smiled up at him.
“What is it you're going to do?” she asked him, mechanically. Her mind roved far afield.
“Rule England!” he told her with gravity.
For the moment there seemed to her nothing positively114 incongruous in the statement. To look at him, as he loomed115 before her, uplifted by his refreshed and soaring self-confidence, it appeared not easy to say what would be impossible to him.
She laughed, after a fleeting116 pause, with a plainer note of good-fellowship than he had ever heard in her voice before. “Delightful,” she said gayly. “But I'm not sure that I quite understand the—the precise connection of morning-dress and dinner in a small room with the project.” He nodded pleased comprehension of the spirit in which she took him. “Just a whim,” he explained. “The things I've got in mind don't fit at all with ceremony, and that big barn of a room, and men standing about. What I want more than anything else is a quiet snug117 little evening with you alone, where I can talk to you and—and we can be together by ourselves. You'd like it, wouldn't you?”
She hesitated, and there was a novel confession118 of embarrassment119 in her mantling120 colour and down-spread lashes121. It had always to his eyes been, from the moment he first beheld it, the most beautiful face in the world—exquisitely matchless in its form and delicacy122 of line and serene123 yet sensitive grace. But he had not seen in it before, or guessed that there could come to it, this crowning added loveliness of feminine confusion.
“You would like it, wouldn't you?” he repeated in a lower, more strenuous124 tone.
She lifted her eyes slowly, and looked, not into his, but over his shoulder, as in a reverie, half meditation125, half languorous126 dreaming. She swayed rather than stepped toward him.
“I think,” she answered, in a musing127 murmur,—“I think I shall like—everything.”
点击收听单词发音
1 exasperating | |
adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 perverse | |
adj.刚愎的;坚持错误的,行为反常的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 phantoms | |
n.鬼怪,幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 ferment | |
vt.使发酵;n./vt.(使)激动,(使)动乱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 plebeian | |
adj.粗俗的;平民的;n.平民;庶民 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 elusively | |
adv.巧妙逃避地,易忘记地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 blackmail | |
n.讹诈,敲诈,勒索,胁迫,恫吓 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 guise | |
n.外表,伪装的姿态 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 tenacious | |
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 reassurance | |
n.使放心,使消除疑虑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 malevolent | |
adj.有恶意的,恶毒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 clenched | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 glazed | |
adj.光滑的,像玻璃的;上过釉的;呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式);上釉于,上光;(目光)变得呆滞无神 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 forefingers | |
n.食指( forefinger的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 panes | |
窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 flicker | |
vi./n.闪烁,摇曳,闪现 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 fumigation | |
n.烟熏,熏蒸;忿恨 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 evaded | |
逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 ); 避开; 回避; 想不出 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 fumigator | |
熏蒸消毒器,烟熏器 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 fumes | |
n.(强烈而刺激的)气味,气体 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 smother | |
vt./vi.使窒息;抑制;闷死;n.浓烟;窒息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 asphyxiated | |
v.渴望的,有抱负的,追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的过去式和过去分词 );有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 entail | |
vt.使承担,使成为必要,需要 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 suffocated | |
(使某人)窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 ); (将某人)闷死; 让人感觉闷热; 憋气 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 efface | |
v.擦掉,抹去 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 posture | |
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 leisurely | |
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 deference | |
n.尊重,顺从;敬意 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 eloquently | |
adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 scrutiny | |
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 benevolent | |
adj.仁慈的,乐善好施的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 seedlings | |
n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 assented | |
同意,赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 patrician | |
adj.贵族的,显贵的;n.贵族;有教养的人;罗马帝国的地方官 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 kindliness | |
n.厚道,亲切,友好的行为 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 oblique | |
adj.斜的,倾斜的,无诚意的,不坦率的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 consolatory | |
adj.慰问的,可藉慰的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 lethal | |
adj.致死的;毁灭性的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 awakening | |
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 sloughed | |
v.使蜕下或脱落( slough的过去式和过去分词 );舍弃;除掉;摒弃 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 knavery | |
n.恶行,欺诈的行为 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 coup | |
n.政变;突然而成功的行动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 altruistic | |
adj.无私的,为他人着想的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 dormant | |
adj.暂停活动的;休眠的;潜伏的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 subservience | |
n.有利,有益;从属(地位),附属性;屈从,恭顺;媚态 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 munificent | |
adj.慷慨的,大方的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 dabbled | |
v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 );涉足;浅尝;少量投资 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 kudos | |
n.荣誉,名声 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 erred | |
犯错误,做错事( err的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 superciliously | |
adv.高傲地;傲慢地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 radicals | |
n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 sniffed | |
v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 growled | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 grudgingly | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81 waive | |
vt.放弃,不坚持(规定、要求、权力等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82 ingratitude | |
n.忘恩负义 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83 snob | |
n.势利小人,自以为高雅、有学问的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84 partisan | |
adj.党派性的;游击队的;n.游击队员;党徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86 metropolitan | |
adj.大城市的,大都会的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
87 delegation | |
n.代表团;派遣 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
88 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
89 coerce | |
v.强迫,压制 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
90 ministries | |
(政府的)部( ministry的名词复数 ); 神职; 牧师职位; 神职任期 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
91 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
92 incentive | |
n.刺激;动力;鼓励;诱因;动机 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
93 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
94 sitting-room | |
n.(BrE)客厅,起居室 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
95 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
96 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: |
|
|
97 vehemently | |
adv. 热烈地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
98 mellowed | |
(使)成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 ); 使色彩更加柔和,使酒更加醇香 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
99 underlying | |
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
100 impulsively | |
adv.冲动地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
101 scrutinized | |
v.仔细检查,详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
102 virility | |
n.雄劲,丈夫气 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
103 torpor | |
n.迟钝;麻木;(动物的)冬眠 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
104 vacuous | |
adj.空的,漫散的,无聊的,愚蠢的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
105 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
106 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
107 expend | |
vt.花费,消费,消耗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
108 audacities | |
n.大胆( audacity的名词复数 );鲁莽;胆大妄为;鲁莽行为 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
109 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
110 quailed | |
害怕,发抖,畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
111 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
112 entreating | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
113 devour | |
v.吞没;贪婪地注视或谛听,贪读;使着迷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
114 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
115 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
116 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
117 snug | |
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 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
118 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
119 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
120 mantling | |
覆巾 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
121 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
122 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
123 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
124 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
125 meditation | |
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
126 languorous | |
adj.怠惰的,没精打采的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
127 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |