It was an awful dilemma8, indeed, for a confirmed and convicted poacher. Should he give the alarm then and there, boldly, trusting to his innocence9 for vindication10, and helping11 the police to discover the murderer? Why, that would be sheer suicide, no doubt; "for who but would believe," he thought, "'twas me as done it?" Or should he slink away quietly and say nothing, leaving others to find the body as best they might? That was dangerous enough in its way if anybody saw him, but not so dangerous as the other course. In an evil hour for his own chances Joe Harley chose that worse counsel, and slank off in his familiar crouching12 fashion towards the opposite corner of the copse.
On the way he heard John's voice holloaing for his master, and kept close to the hedge till he had quite turned the corner. But John had caught a glimpse of him too, and John did not forget it when, a few minutes later, he came upon the horrid13 sight beside the gate of Selbury Copse.
Meanwhile Walter had taken King Charlie to the veterinary's, and had his leg bound and bandaged securely. He had also gone down to the church, got out his surplice, and begun to put it on in the vestry for evensong, when a messenger came at hot haste from the vicarage, with news that Master Walter must come up at once, for the vicar was murdered.
"Murdered!" Walter Dene said to himself slowly half aloud; "murdered! how horrible! Murdered!" It was an ugly word, and he turned it over with a genuine thrill of horror. That was what they would say of him if ever the thing came to be discovered! What an inappropriate classification!
He threw aside the surplice, and rushed up hurriedly to the vicarage.[Pg 87] Already the servants had brought in the body, and laid it out in the clothes it wore, on the vicar's own bed. Walter Dene went in, shuddering14, to look at it. To his utter amazement15, the face was battered16 in horribly and almost unrecognizably by a blow or kick! What could that hideous17 mutilation mean? He could not imagine. It was an awful mystery. Great heavens! just fancy if any one were to take it into his head that he, Walter Dene, had done that—had kicked a defenceless old gentleman brutally18 about the face like a common London ruffian! The idea was too horrible to be borne for a moment. It unmanned him utterly19, and he hid his face between his two hands and sobbed20 aloud like one broken-hearted. "This day's work has been too much for my nerves," he thought to himself between the sobs21; "but perhaps it is just as well I should give way now completely."
That night was mainly taken up with the formalities of all such cases; and when at last Walter Dene went off, tired and nerve-worn, to bed, about midnight, he could not sleep much for thinking of the mystery. The murder itself didn't trouble him greatly; that was over and past now, and he felt sure his precautions had been amply sufficient to protect him even from the barest suspicion; but he couldn't fathom22 the mystery of that battered and mutilated face! Somebody must have seen the corpse23 between the time of the murder and the discovery! Who could that somebody have been? and what possible motive24 could he have had for such a horrible piece of purposeless brutality25?
As for the servants, in solemn conclave26 in the hall, they had unanimously but one theory to account for all the facts: some poacher or other, for choice Joe Harley, had come across the vicar in the copse, with gun and traps in hand. The wretch27 had seen he was discovered, had felled the poor old vicar by a blow in the face with the butt-end of[Pg 88] his rifle, and after he fell, fainting, had stabbed him for greater security in the back. That was such an obvious solution of the difficulty, that nobody in the servants' hall had a moment's hesitation28 in accepting it.
When Walter heard next morning early that Joe Harley had been arrested overnight, on John's information, his horror and surprise at the news were wholly unaffected. Here was another new difficulty, indeed. "When I did the thing," he said to himself, "I never thought of that possibility. I took it for granted it would be a mystery, a problem for the local police (who, of course, could no more solve it than they could solve the pons-asinorum), but it never struck me they would arrest an innocent person on the charge instead of me. This is horrible. It's so easy to make out a case against a poacher, and hang him for it, on suspicion. One's whole sense of justice revolts against the thing. After all, there's a great deal to be said in favour of the ordinary commonplace morality: it prevents complications. A man of delicate sensibilities oughtn't to kill anybody; he lets himself in for all kinds of unexpected contingencies29, without knowing it."
At the coroner's inquest things looked very black indeed for Joe Harley. Walter gave his evidence first, showing how he had found King Charlie wounded in the lane; and then the others gave theirs, as to the search for and finding of the body. John in particular swore to having seen a man's back and head slinking away by the hedge while they were looking for the vicar; and that back and head he felt sure were Joe Harley's. To Walter's infinite horror and disgust, the coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful30 murder against the poor poacher. What other verdict could they possibly have given in accordance with such evidence?
The trial of Joe Harley for the wilful murder of the Reverend Arthur Dene was fixed31 for the next Dorchester Assizes. In the interval32, Walter Dene, for the first time in his placid33 life, knew what it was to undergo a mental struggle. Whatever happened, he could not let Joe Harley be[Pg 89] hanged for this murder. His whole soul rose up within him in loathing34 for such an act of hideous injustice35. For though Walter Dene's code of morality was certainly not the conventional one, as he so often boasted to himself, he was not by any means without any code of morals of any sort. He could commit a murder where he thought it necessary, but he could not let an innocent man suffer in his stead. His ethical36 judgment37 on that point was just as clear and categorical as the judgment which told him he was in duty bound to murder his uncle. For Walter did not argue with himself on moral questions: he perceived the right and necessary thing intuitively; he was a law to himself, and he obeyed his own law implicitly38, for good or for evil. Such men are capable of horrible and diabolically39 deliberate crimes; but they are capable of great and genuine self-sacrifices also.
Walter made no secret in the village of his disinclination to believe in Joe Harley's guilt40. Joe was a rough fellow, he said, certainly, and he had no objection to taking a pheasant or two, and even to having a free fight with the keepers; but, after all, our game laws were an outrageous41 piece of class legislation, and he could easily understand how the poor, whose sense of justice they outraged42, should be so set against them. He could not think Joe Harley was capable of a detestable crime. Besides, he had seen him himself within a few minutes before and after the murder. Everybody thought it such a proof of the young parson's generous and kindly43 disposition44; he had certainly the charity which thinketh no evil. Even though his own uncle had been brutally murdered on his own estate, he checked his natural feelings of resentment45, and refused to believe that one of his own parishioners could have been guilty of the crime. Nay46, more, so anxious was he that substantial justice should be done the accused, and so confident was he of his innocence, that he promised to provide counsel for him at his own expense; and he provided[Pg 90] two of the ablest barristers on the Western circuit.
Before the trial, Walter Dene had come, after a terrible internal struggle, to an awful resolution. He would do everything he could for Joe Harley; but if the verdict went against him, he was resolved, then and there, in open court, to confess, before judge and jury, the whole truth. It would be a horrible thing for Christina; he knew that; but he could not love Christina so much, "loved he not honour more;" and honour, after his own fashion, he certainly loved dearly. Though he might be false to all that all the world thought right, it was ingrained in the very fibre of his soul to be true to his own inner nature at least. Night after night he lay awake, tossing on his bed, and picturing to his mind's eye every detail of that terrible disclosure. The jury would bring in a verdict of guilty: then, before the judge put on his black cap, he, Walter, would stand up, and tell them that he could not let another man hang for his crime; he would have the whole truth out before them; and then he would die, for he would have taken a little bottle of poison at the first sound of the verdict. As for Christina—oh, Christina!—Walter Dene could not dare to let himself think upon that. It was horrible; it was unendurable; it was torture a thousand times worse than dying: but still, he must and would face it. For in certain phases, Walter Dene, forger47 and murderer as he was, could be positively48 heroic.
The day of the trial came, and Walter Dene, pale and haggard with much vigil, walked in a dream and faintly from his hotel to the court-house. Everybody present noticed what a deep effect the shock of his uncle's death had had upon him. He was thinner and more bloodless than usual, and his dulled eyes looked black and sunken in their sockets49. Indeed, he seemed to have suffered far more intensely than the prisoner himself,[Pg 91] who walked in firmer and more erect50, and took his seat doggedly51 in the familiar dock. He had been there more than once before, to say the truth, though never before on such an errand. Yet mere52 habit, when he got there, made him at once assume the hang-dog look of the consciously guilty.
Walter sat and watched and listened, still in a dream, but without once betraying in his face the real depth of his innermost feelings. In the body of the court he saw Joe's wife, weeping profusely53 and ostentatiously, after the fashion considered to be correct by her class; and though he pitied her from the bottom of his heart, he could only think by contrast of Christina. What were that good woman's fears and sorrows by the side of the grief and shame and unspeakable horror he might have to bring upon his Christina? Pray Heaven the shock, if it came, might kill her outright54; that would at least be better than that she should live long years to remember. More than judge, or jury, or prisoner, Walter Dene saw everywhere, behind the visible shadows that thronged55 the court, that one persistent56 prospective57 picture of heart-broken Christina.
The evidence for the prosecution58 told with damning force against the prisoner. He was a notorious poacher; the vicar was a game-preserver. He had poached more than once on the ground of the vicarage. He was shown by numerous witnesses to have had an animus59 against the vicar. He had been seen, not in the face, to be sure, but still seen and recognized, slinking away, immediately after the fact, from the scene of the murder. And the prosecution had found stains of blood, believed by scientific experts to be human, on the clothing he had worn when he was arrested. Walter Dene listened now with terrible, unabated earnestness, for he knew that in reality it was he himself who was upon his trial. He himself, and Christina's happiness; for if the poacher were found[Pg 92] guilty, he was firmly resolved, beyond hope of respite60, to tell all, and face the unspeakable.
The defence seemed indeed a weak and feeble theory. Somebody unknown had committed the murder, and this somebody, seen from behind, had been mistaken by John for Joe Harley. The blood-stains need not be human, as the cross-examination went to show, but were only known by counter-experts to be mammalian—perhaps a rabbit's. Every poacher—and it was admitted that Joe was a poacher—was liable to get his clothes blood-stained. Grant they were human, Joe, it appeared, had himself once shot off his little finger. All these points came out from the examination of the earlier witnesses. At last, counsel put the curate himself into the box, and proceeded to examine him briefly61 as a witness for the defence.
Walter Dene stepped, pale and haggard still, into the witness-box. He had made up his mind to make one final effort "for Christina's happiness." He fumbled62 nervously63 all the time at a small glass phial in his pocket, but he answered all questions without a moment's hesitation, and he kept down his emotions with a wonderful composure which excited the admiration64 of everybody present. There was a general hush65 to hear him. Did he see the prisoner, Joseph Harley, on the day of the murder? Yes, three times. When was the first occasion? From the library window, just before the vicar left the house. What was Joseph Harley then doing? Walking in the opposite direction from the copse. Did Joseph Harley recognize him? Yes, he touched his hat to him. When was the second occasion? About ten minutes later, when he, Walter, was leaving the vicarage for a stroll. Did Joseph Harley then recognize him? Yes, he touched his hat again, and the curate said, "Good morning, Joe; a fine day for walking." When was the third time? Ten minutes later again, when he was returning from the lane, carrying wounded little King Charlie. Would it have been physically66 possible for the prisoner to go from the[Pg 93] vicarage to the spot where the murder was committed, and back again, in the interval between the first two occasions? It would not. Would it have been physically possible for the prisoner to do so in the interval between the second and third occasions? It would not.
"Then in your opinion, Mr. Dene, it is physically impossible that Joseph Harley can have committed this murder?"
"In my opinion, it is physically impossible."
While Walter Dene solemnly swore amid dead silence to this treble lie, he did not dare to look Joe Harley once in the face; and while Joe Harley listened in amazement to this unexpected assistance to his case—for counsel, suspecting a mistaken identity, had not questioned him too closely on the subject—he had presence of mind enough not to let his astonishment67 show upon his stolid68 features. But when Walter had finished his evidence in chief, he stole a glance at Joe; and for a moment their eyes met. Then Walter's fell in utter self-humiliation; and he said to himself fiercely, "I would not so have debased and degraded myself before any man to save my own life—what is my life worth me, after all?—but to save Christina, to save Christina, to save Christina! I have brought all this upon myself for Christina's sake."
Meanwhile, Joe Harley was asking himself curiously69 what could be the meaning of this new move on parson's part. It was deliberate perjury70, Joe felt sure, for parson could not have mistaken another person for him three times over; but what good end for himself could parson hope to gain by it? If it was he who had murdered the vicar (as Joe strongly suspected), why did he not try to press the charge home against the first person who happened to be accused, instead of committing a distinct perjury on purpose to compass his acquittal? Joe Harley, with his simple everyday criminal mind, could not be expected to unravel71 the[Pg 94] intricacies of so complex a personality as Walter Dene's. But even there, on trial for his life, he could not help wondering what on earth young parson could be driving at in this business.
The judge summed up with the usual luminously72 obvious alternate platitudes73. If the jury thought that John had really seen Joe Harley, and that the curate was mistaken in the person whom he thrice saw, or was mistaken once only out of the thrice, or had miscalculated the time between each occurrence, or the time necessary to cover the ground to the gate, then they would find the prisoner guilty of wilful murder. If, on the other hand, they believed John had judged hastily, and that the curate had really seen the prisoner three separate times, and that he had rightly calculated all the intervals74, then they would find the prisoner not guilty. The prisoner's case rested entirely75 upon the alibi76. Supposing they thought there was a doubt in the matter, they should give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt. Walter noticed that the judge said in every other case, "If you believe the witness So-and-so," but that in his case he made no such discourteous77 reservation. As a matter of fact, the one person whose conduct nobody for a moment dreamt of calling in question was the real murderer.
The jury retired78 for more than an hour. During all that time two men stood there in mortal suspense79, intent and haggard, both upon their trial, but not both equally. The prisoner in the dock fixed his arms in a dogged and sullen80 attitude, the colour half gone from his brown cheek, and his eyes straining with excitement, but showing no outward sign of any emotion except the craven fear of death. Walter Dene stood almost fainting in the body of the court, his bloodless fingers still fumbling81 nervously at the little phial, and his face deadly pale with the awful pallor of a devouring82 horror. His heart scarcely beat at all, but at each long slow pulsation83 he could feel it throb84 distinctly within his[Pg 95] bosom85. He saw or heard nothing before him, but kept his aching eyes fixed steadily86 on the door by which the jury were to enter. Junior counsel nudged one another to notice his agitation87, and whispered that that poor young curate had evidently never seen a man tried for his life before.
At last the jury entered. Joe and Walter waited, each in his own manner, breathless for the verdict. "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty of wilful murder?" Walter took the little phial from his pocket, and held it carefully between his finger and thumb. The awful moment had come; the next word would decide the fate of himself and Christina. The foreman of the jury looked up solemnly, and answered with slow distinctness, "Not guilty." The prisoner leaned back vacantly, and wiped his forehead; but there was an awful cry of relief from one mouth in the body of the court, and Walter Dene sank back into the arms of the bystanders, exhausted88 with suspense and overcome by the reaction. The crowd remarked among themselves that young Parson Dene was too tender-hearted a man to come into court at a criminal trial. He would break his heart to see even a dog hanged, let alone his fellow-Christians. As for Joe Harley, it was universally admitted that he had had a narrow squeak89 of it, and that he had got off better than he deserved. The jury gave him the benefit of the doubt.
As soon as all the persons concerned had returned to Churnside, Walter sent at once for Joe Harley. The poacher came to see him in the vicarage library. He was elated and coarsely exultant90 with his victory, as a relief from the strain he had suffered, after the manner of all vulgar natures.
"Joe," said the clergyman slowly, motioning him into a chair at the other side of the desk, "I know that after this trial Churnside will not be a pleasant place to hold you. All your neighbours believe, in spite of the verdict, that you killed the vicar. I feel sure, however, that[Pg 96] you did not commit this murder. Therefore, as some compensation for the suffering of mind to which you have been put, I think it well to send you and your wife and family to Australia or Canada, whichever you like best. I propose also to make you a present of a hundred pounds, to set you up in your new home."
"Make it five hundred, passon," Joe said, looking at him significantly.
Walter smiled quietly, and did not flinch91 in any way. "I said a hundred," he continued calmly, "and I will make it only a hundred. I should have had no objection to making it five, except for the manner in which you ask it. But you evidently mistake the motive of my gift. I give it out of pure compassion92 for you, and not out of any other feeling whatsoever93."
"Very well, passon," said Joe sullenly94, "I accept it."
"You mistake again," Walter went on blandly95, for he was himself again now. "You are not to accept it as terms; you are to thank me for it as a pure present. I see we two partially96 understand each other; but it is important you should understand me exactly as I mean it. Joe Harley, listen to me seriously. I have saved your life. If I had been a man of a coarse and vulgar nature, if I had been like you in a similar predicament, I would have pressed the case against you for obvious personal reasons, and you would have been hanged for it. But I did not press it, because I felt convinced of your innocence, and my sense of justice rose irresistibly97 against it. I did the best I could to save you; I risked my own reputation to save you; and I have no hesitation now in telling you that to the best of my belief, if the verdict had gone against you, the person who really killed the vicar, accidentally or intentionally98, meant to have given himself up to the police, rather than let an innocent man suffer."
"Passon," said Joe Harley, looking at him intently, "I believe as[Pg 97] you're tellin' me the truth. I zeen as much in that person's face afore the verdict."
There was a solemn pause for a moment; and then Walter Dene said slowly, "Now that you have withdrawn99 your claim as a claim, I will stretch a point and make it five hundred. It is little enough for what you have suffered. But I, too, have suffered terribly, terribly."
"Thank you, passon," Joe answered. "I zeen as you were turble anxious."
There was again a moment's pause. Then Walter Dene asked quietly, "How did the vicar's face come to be so bruised and battered?"
"I stumbled up agin 'im accidental like, and didn't know I'd kicked 'un till I'd done it. Must 'a been just a few minutes after you'd 'a left 'un."
"Joe," said the curate in his calmest tone, "you had better go; the money will be sent to you shortly. But if you ever see my face again, or speak or write a word of this to me, you shall not have a penny of it, but shall be prosecuted101 for intimidation102. A hundred before you leave, four hundred in Australia. Now go."
"Very well, passon," Joe answered; and he went.
"Pah!" said the curate with a face of disgust, shutting the door after him, and lighting103 a perfumed pastille in his little Chinese porcelain104 incense-burner, as if to fumigate105 the room from the poacher's offensive presence. "Pah! to think that these affairs should compel one to humiliate106 and abase107 one's self before a vulgar clod like that! To think that all his life long that fellow will virtually know—and misinterpret—my secret. He is incapable108 of understanding that I did it as a duty to Christina. Well, he will never dare to tell it, that's certain, for nobody would believe him if he did; and he may congratulate himself heartily109 that he's got well out of this difficulty. It will be the luckiest thing in the end that ever happened to him. And now I hope this little episode is finally over."
When the Churnside public learned that Walter Dene meant to carry his[Pg 98] belief in Joe Harley's innocence so far as to send him and his family at his own expense out to Australia, they held that the young parson's charity and guilelessness was really, as the doctor said, almost Quixotic. And when, in his anxiety to detect and punish the real murderer, he offered a reward of five hundred pounds from his own pocket for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the criminal, the Churnside people laughed quietly at his extraordinary childlike simplicity110 of heart. The real murderer had been caught and tried at Dorchester Assizes, they said, and had only got off by the skin of his teeth because Walter himself had come forward and sworn to a quite improbable and inconclusive alibi. There was plenty of time for Joe to have got to the gate by the short cut, and that he did so everybody at Churnside felt morally certain. Indeed, a few years later a blood-stained bowie-knife was found in the hedge not far from the scene of the murder, and the gamekeeper "could almost 'a took his Bible oath he'd zeen just such a knife along o' Joe Harley."
That was not the end of Walter Dene's Quixotisms, however. When the will was read, it turned out that almost everything was left to the young parson; and who could deserve it better, or spend it more charitably? But Walter, though he would not for the world seem to cast any slight or disrespect upon his dear uncle's memory, did not approve of customs of primogeniture, and felt bound to share the estate equally with his brother Arthur. "Strange," said the head of the firm of Watson and Blenkiron to himself, when he read the little paragraph about this generous conduct in the paper; "I thought the instructions were to leave it to his nephew Arthur, not to his nephew Walter; but there, one forgets and confuses names of people that one does not know so easily." "Gracious goodness!" thought the engrossing111 clerk; "surely it was the[Pg 99] other way on. I wonder if I can have gone and copied the wrong names in the wrong places?" But in a big London business, nobody notes these things as they would have been noted112 in Churnside; the vicar was always a changeable, pernickety, huffy old fellow, and very likely he had had a reverse will drawn100 up afterwards by his country lawyer. All the world only thought that Walter Dene's generosity113 was really almost ridiculous, even in a parson. When he was married to Christina, six months afterwards, everybody said so charming a girl was well mated with so excellent and admirable a husband.
And he really did make a very tender and loving husband and father. Christina believed in him always, for he did his best to foster and keep alive her faith. He would have given up active clerical duty if he could, never having liked it (for he was above hypocrisy), but Christina was against the project, and his bishop114 would not hear of it. The Church could ill afford to lose such a man as Mr. Dene, the bishop said, in these troubled times; and he begged him as a personal favour to accept the living of Churnside, which was in his gift. But Walter did not like the place, and asked for another living instead, which, being of less value—"so like Mr. Dene to think nothing of the temporalities,"—the bishop even more graciously granted. He has since published a small volume of dainty little poems on uncut paper, considered by some critics as rather pagan in tone for a clergyman, but universally allowed to be extremely graceful115, the perfection of poetical116 form with much delicate mastery of poetical matter. And everybody knows that the author is almost certain to be offered the first vacant canonry in his own cathedral. As for the little episode, he himself has almost forgotten all about it; for those who think a murderer must feel remorse117 his whole life long, are trying to read their own emotional nature into the wholly dispassionate character of Walter Dene.
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skulked
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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idyllic
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| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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helping
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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amazement
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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hideous
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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brutality
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conclave
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| n.秘密会议，红衣主教团 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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hesitation
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contingencies
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wilful
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| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
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31
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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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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33
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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34
loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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35
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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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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37
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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38
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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39
diabolically
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40
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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41
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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42
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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43
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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44
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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45
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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46
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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47
forger
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| v.伪造；n.（钱、文件等的）伪造者 | |
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48
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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49
sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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50
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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51
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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52
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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53
profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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54
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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57
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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58
prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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59
animus
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| n.恶意；意图 | |
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60
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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62
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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65
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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perjury
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| n.伪证；伪证罪 | |
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71
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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luminously
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| 发光的； 明亮的； 清楚的； 辉赫 | |
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platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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75
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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76
alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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discourteous
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| adj.不恭的，不敬的 | |
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78
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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79
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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80
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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81
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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82
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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83
pulsation
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| n.脉搏，悸动，脉动；搏动性 | |
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84
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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85
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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86
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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87
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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88
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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89
squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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90
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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91
flinch
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| v.畏缩，退缩 | |
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92
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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93
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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94
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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95
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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96
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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97
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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98
intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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99
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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100
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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101
prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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102
intimidation
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| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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103
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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104
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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105
fumigate
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| v.烟熏；用香薰 | |
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106
humiliate
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| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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107
abase
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| v.降低，贬抑 | |
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108
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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109
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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110
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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111
engrossing
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| adj.使人全神贯注的，引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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112
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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113
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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114
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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115
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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116
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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117
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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