Till the time she was twenty-one Princess Sophia lived quietly enough at Amandos, paying visits occasionally abroad, but passing a full ten months of the year in Rhodopé. Though she was often bored, she was usually employed, for Prince Demetrius’ health had now for a year or two been failing, and many of the lesser1 cares of state devolved on his daughter. It must be confessed that during her father’s lifetime she discharged these duties admirably, and has not always had the credit for this, for the complete neglect of all her duties when she herself was on the throne has effaced2 the memory of these earlier years. She presided over the National Assembly—except on the comparatively few occasions when her father was present—with a wonderful great dignity and grace, and while listening to their debates and considering their resolutions with all the care that they deserved, she never let the autocratic power wielded3 by the Crown seem to pass from her control or grow effete4. More than once she used her power of veto, more than once she insisted on a measure thrown out only by{34} a narrow number of votes being put into effect. But never—and in this she showed the true and right understanding of autocratic government—did she reverse the decision of a substantial majority.
But what the poor girl went through, what agonies of boredom5, what screaming tortures of ennui6, what clenching7 of jaws8 which ached for a yawn, what twitching9 of limbs which longed for the saddle, that august body never guessed. The language of Rhodopé contains no such expression as ‘local jurisdiction’ or ‘county council,’ and all questions which can be thought to bear in the minutest way upon the interests of the country are solemnly brought before the House.
‘My dear Blanche,’ she cried in despair, after a five hours’ sitting one afternoon, ‘unless I die of it, I shall go stark10 mad. I have had to-day to give a casting-vote as to whether the second book of Euclid shall be included in the third standard of schools. What do I know of third standards? And, indeed, I know as little of Euclid. On the top of that it appeared that Yanni Tsimovak wished to grow vines on his twopenny estate instead of tobacco. To this, too, I had to give my serious consideration. It would be a bad precedent11, said one, and would seem to point to the fact that the cultivation12 of tobacco was going out. This would be deplorable, for it yields higher profits than the growth of vines. “Then why does Yanni Tsimovak prefer vines?”—I asked them that, they did not know. Nor did I know, nor do I care. And{35} who under the sun is Yanni Tsimovak—he sounds like a patent medicine—and what is his tobacco to me? Yes, tea, please, and three lumps of sugar.’
‘Not three, Sophy,’ objected the other. ‘You are getting stout13, or you soon will.’
‘Blanche, another word, and I eat the whole contents of the sugar-basin, lump by lump. And Prince Petros comes this evening!’
‘He won a fortune at Homburg last year,’ remarked Blanche.
‘Fortunate man! Why can’t I go to Homburg, and win a fortune, instead of including the second book of Euclid in the third standard? Why should he play roulette, and I wrestle15 with the Assembly over the affairs of a patent medicine? I hate medicine.’
‘“Uneasy lies the head——”’ began Blanche.
‘But I don’t wear a crown,’ cried Sophia, upsetting her tea; ‘and if you bore me with any more of your odious16 quotations17 from your absurd Shakespeare, I shall scream.’
She rang the bell for another cup, as her own was broken. ‘And to-morrow, what a programme!’ she sighed. ‘There is a review in the morning. Well, I don’t mind that; but afterwards I have to open the new town-hall, and go to the mayor’s lunch afterwards, which will last hours, when I be on the hills. An inconceivable man, Blanche—like a wet toad18; and his wife beggars the imagination. She will wear a velvet19 dress like a sofa-cover, and a string of coral, rather short of{36} beads20, on black elastic21 round her neck. Her face will grow red and shiny during lunch, she will eat till a proper person would burst, and she will confide22 in me afterwards that she, too, is a descendant of princes. She may be a descendant of the four major prophets for all I care! And then—oh, I know so well—I shall feel it laid upon me to tell her that Methuselah is my lineal grandfather, and she will say, “Indeed, your Royal Highness!” and not see that I am making fun of her. She won’t see it—she will never see anything as long as she lives; and I shall want to shake her till her coral necklace bursts and runs all over the floor. Give me a bun with sugar on the top.’
Now, Prince Petros, who was the second son of the reigning23 Duke of Herzegovina, and was expected at Amandos that night, was a young man altogether unlike the most of those who had tried and failed to touch the Princess’s heart or win her hand. He came of a strangely mixed race, which it would be kind to call cosmopolitan24, and cruel to call mongrel, one grandmother being a Jewess, another a Greek, while his mother was English and of obscure origin. But Princess Sophia, as she had told Mr. Buckhurst when she tried to induce him to elope with her, had enough pedigree for two. Furthermore, he had ridden his own horse to the winning-post in the Austrian Derby, and won a fortune at Homburg, and was universally allowed to be excellent company. Indeed, the Princess on the hill of glass could hear the thunderings of the horse-hoofs growing nearer.{37} The world also knew of him as a very ambitious man, and the world’s opinion, as so often happens, was entirely25 true. He was quite prepared to fall in love with the Princess Sophia, and he was equally determined26 to marry her. The husband of the reigning Princess of Rhodopé, so he thought, had the right to be considered a very enviable man, and provided he was moderately clever, and as ambitious as himself, should bid fair to hold the theatre of the world intent on a piece which it was in his power to produce. The piece should be heroic and magnificent, and should have all the characters but one left out, but that one was to play the title-r?le. The name he had not certainly decided27 on, but ‘The Emperor of the East’ gave an idea of its scope. From this it will be seen that Prince Petros, with all his horsemanship, and ambition and luck at the cards, had also all the makings of an exceedingly foolish man.
Dinner that night passed off pleasantly enough. Prince Petros sat next Sophia; the English Minister, Lady Blanche, and Madame Amygdale, a celebrated28 French singer of the variety stage, who steered29 between propriety30 and riskiness31 with a skill worthy32 the helmsman of a racing33 yacht, were the only other guests besides the ladies and gentlemen in waiting. The Amygdale devoted34 herself to the entertainment of Prince Demetrius with such success that he laughed seven times during dinner, and did not swear once. Prince Petros was an essentially35 conceited37 man; but as his conceit36 took the subtle form{38} of self-depreciation, it passed unchallenged for the time. He told them that the man who had ridden second to him at Vienna was a far better horseman than himself, and that he was only a beginner at bezique, but was most anxious to learn more of the game under the tutelage of Princess Sophia.
For a beginner, so it appeared after dinner, he was certainly a very notable performer. At any period of the game he could have told you without hesitation38 or error not only how many kings, aces39, queens, and knaves40 were still left in, but how many small trumps41, an important factor at the close of the game, as beginners are apt to discover. He tossed for napoleons, and lost every time; he acquiesced42 in and welcomed any raising of the stakes, saying that he was about to propose it himself. Before the first game was over, Princess Sophia knew she had met her match—at the cards, at least.
‘You are far better than I,’ she said, with her habitual43 frankness. ‘With ordinary luck, I could scarcely give you a decently fought game. Cut, please.’
‘I am a beginner merely,’ murmured the Prince, thereby45 betraying his foolishness, for he had said that often enough for mere44 modesty46.
The second game showed his quality still better. Trumps were most unkindly against him, and about the middle of the game he threw them to the winds, and escaped the rubicon by a continual scorning of kings and aces.
‘I could not have got sequence, as it turned out,{39}’ he said apologetically at the end. ‘You had already shown me three queens, and the fourth you took in two tricks later.’
‘Tell me how you knew that,’ asked Sophia.
‘It was the only card you could have had any reason for holding up,’ he said. ‘Any other card you might safely have shown me, but this you held till the end of the game.’
Princess Sophia beamed at him.
‘I will play with you till it shall be you who says you have had enough. Oh, I love the cards!’ she cried in a sort of ecstasy47, gathering48 up her hand.
‘The sun shall first be quenched,’ said Petros.
It was the month of June, and the earliest daylight stealing into the room about four of the morning saw a quaint50 sight. In an armchair sat Princess Sophia’s lady-in-waiting, fast asleep with mouth wide open, and snoring stertorously51, and on a divan52 near the window lay Prince Petros’s gentleman-in-waiting, with his face on his hand, sleeping like a tired child. The candles on the table by which the two played had already once been replenished53, and as the light of morning grew clearer they were again burned to their sockets54. A large silver ash-tray by the Prince’s side was heaped with a pyramid of ends of cigarettes, two empty siphons stood on the floor, and two trays with the débris of supper stood on a side-table. It had been a hot night, and the curtains were undrawn over the open windows. Every now and then a footman in scarlet55 livery, with eyelids56, like La Giaconda’s, a little weary, looked in through the{40} open door and stole away again. Outside, the garden was still dreaming under its blanket of dew-laden gossamer57 webs; a hundred feet below slept the red roofs of the town; and the birds had not yet begun to tune14 their voices for the day.
Just before the sun rose, Prince Petros cut to Sophia.
‘Shall I extinguish the candles?’ he asked; ‘it is already light enough to play without. How delicious the morning air is!’
‘If you will be so kind,’ said Sophia, dealing58. ‘For the twenty-first time you have cut exactly eighteen cards.’
An hour later it was broad day; the birds were awake, and the footman was asleep. The Prince still looked fresh enough, but his chin (he had arrived too late to shave before dinner) was dark with his twenty-four hours’ beard; but Sophia looked as fresh and brilliant as a child glowing from its morning bath. A little excitement burned in her beautiful eyes, and her breath came slightly quicker than its wont59. But the risen sun, still cool and invigorating, shone searchingly on the smooth white skin of her half-turned face as if to find some ravage60 wrought61 by this unnatural62 night, and confessed its impotence. She was radiant, an embodiment of the goddess of the morning, and, looking up, Prince Petros was fairly blinded with her. He hesitated—it was towards the end of the game—failed to count the remaining tricks, and she put down in turn the three and the four beziques.{41}
‘Admirable,’ he said; ‘I made a bad mistake. I have paid for it. Yes, you rubicon me as well. Yet, believe me, I have not played so rotten a card for years.’
‘You are very modest,’ said she, ‘for you said you were only a beginner. Yet I like modesty in a man.’
‘I am more fortunate than I deserve,’ said he.
Once or twice during the next game he passed his hand over his chin, and frowned. At last he could bear it no more, and at the end of the game, ‘If you will excuse me,’ he said, ‘for ten minutes—it shall not be more, I swear to you—I will get shaved, if my idle scoundrel of a valet has not gone to bed, then I will return to you. I am no sight for the morning. But you—you look like morning itself,’ and again he gazed at her.
She met his eye, then dropped her own, and played with the cards a moment. Then she rose, and breaking out into a laugh:
‘I am beaten,’ she said, ‘and I retract63 my words. Oh, Prince, I would play with you till the crack of Judgment64; but if I stop for ten minutes I shall be asleep. Let us make a bargain; you want to stop for ten minutes, and for me that is impossible. We will yield to each other, and thus there is no yielding. Let us both agree to stop.’
‘I have no wish but yours,’ said he. ‘And indeed an hour or two of sleep would be refreshing65. I travelled all yesterday.’
Sophia stretched herself gracefully66, like a fawn{42} that is stiff with lying down. Then she looked round the room, and broke into a little suppressed bubble of laughter.
‘Look, oh, look!’ she whispered. ‘There is your gentleman and there is my lady. Let us go quietly, ever so quietly, to our rooms, and what will be their embarrassment67 and dismay when they awake! We ride at ten to see the review. Will you join us? It would interest you, I think. You will see some fine horses and some fine horsemen.’
‘And you—you will be there?’ he asked.
‘Surely. Now come away on tiptoe.’
The party in the house met again at ten to ride to the review on the occasion of the Prince Demetrius’s birthday. The gentleman of Prince Petros and the lady of Princess Sophia seemed strangely ill at ease with each other, for they had awoke simultaneously68; but the two bezique players, riding one on each side of the Prince, were in the best of spirits. Never, so it seemed to Sophia, had a night involved so little waste of time; for, being a sound and lengthy69 sleeper70 by nature, each morning presented her with a dismaying expenditure71 of eight and a half blank and unfruitful hours. Never, so thought her father, had she shown so charming a gaiety, and the cause of it, so he concluded, rode on his right hand. As for Prince Petros, he saw ambition already nearly ripe for the attempted plucking; and to do him justice, it was at this moment Sophia herself, the charm and delicious freshness of her, the wit and happy gaiety of her, that he coveted72, and not her kingdom.{43}
To right and left of them stretched fields of tobacco in full flower, and vineyards promising73 a marvellous harvest. By the side of the road was a grassy74 ride, and the three cantered gently past the far-famed plots. To their right, steeply terraced up to prevent a grain of that soil of gold slipping away in the autumn rains, rose the enclosure of the Chateau75 Vryssi—land as valuable as the streets of the City of London. On the left, a liberal ten acres of ground, stood the volcanic76 patch which nurtured77 the vines of the Clos Royal grape, brought, so it was said, by the first Albanian emigrants78 from the vineyard of Omar. Further down the hill the vineyards gave place to the culture of tobacco; and the Prince pointed79 out in turn to his admiring guest the birthplace and nursery of the Eastern Gem80, the Joy of the Harem, and the darker-leaved Prince Seracour. The last of these stretched down to the river-bank, and from there a noble stone bridge rose in a stately span across the foaming81 water, and gave them access to the level parade-ground.
Prince Petros had been prepared to find a large body of fine and well-drilled men; but schooled as he was to the surprises of the tables, he could scarce his exclamations82 of delight as regiment83 after regiment wheeled, saluted84, and passed. Not a man of the 1st Infantry85 was under six feet in height, and not one but would have done credit to the crack regiment of any nation. With what a crisp ripple86 the ranks of firm-footed men, fit, weather-tanned, moving mechanically, yet individually, swung past!{44} And this array, it must be remembered, was then but a half of the tale Rhodopé could to-day put into the field; yet how great a multiple of those who would have appeared on parade ten years later, had there been a parade at such a time! Like the Queen of Sheba, Prince Petros had no spirit left in him at the end; he was enchanted87 at what he had seen, and with Sophia, intoxicated88.
Thereafter followed the opening of the new town-hall, and the luncheon89 by the mayor. Prince Demetrius did not propose to attend either of these functions; and, turning to ride home, he inquired of Prince Petros whether he would come with him or go to the town-hall and the tedious lunch with Sophia. The town-hall, he reminded him, was like every other town-hall, only newer, and the mayor’s luncheon would be similar, only perhaps a shade more so.
But the ring of his cri du c?ur—‘Oh, let me go with her!’—pleased the old man, and he rode home satisfied.
Indeed, of late Sophia’s future had been something of an anxiety to him. In each individual case, it is true, he had so sympathized with the girl in her rejection90 of men who were superlatively eligible91, except as husbands, that he had not had the conviction to ‘preach down her heart’; nor, he was aware, would his preaching have had the slightest effect. But he himself, as he guessed, was suffering from an incurable92 malady93, of which the end, he hoped, would not be far distant; and it would have{45} pleased him more than anything in the world which had power to please, to see Sophia married to some suitable husband, who was neither cad nor nincompoop. Prince Petros did not appear to him to be within measurable distance of either, and he was gratified to see that the rhadamanthine attitude which Sophia usually adopted to her wooers was here absent.
The two returned about five in the afternoon, after a reckless scamper94 over the rough country. The embarrassed lady and gentleman had been left far behind, unless, indeed, they had been wise, and returned home soberly by the road; but neither gave them even a passing thought. Sophia, with experiment in her mind, had mounted Prince Petros on a vicious cross-grained brute95, and she knew that the horse’s seeming amenity96 that afternoon could not be natural to it. Petros had a seat; he had hands. In Sophia’s eyes there were few gifts of God more ennobling than these. The last mile up to the stable gates she had challenged him to race, following an old grass-grown track, intersected with hedges and fences; and Sophia, to her soul’s delight, had won. She had dismounted by the time he came up, and sitting on the horse-block, where she had made her first experiment in cigarettes ten years ago, breathless and triumphant97 at having beaten the jockey of the Austrian winner. He dismounted at the stable gate, and came up to her. A great braid of her black hair had escaped, and hung gloriously on the shoulder of her riding jacket; her face was{46} flushed. She was divinely beautiful; and in a sudden spasm98 of admiration99:
‘Ah, you are enchanting100!’ he cried, and the discreet101 groom102 led their horses away.
Sophia no longer doubted that she had found the companion of her life. The Prince had thundered up the hill of glass, and all the lore103 of fairy-tales made him hers. Personally she was attracted by him, by his slim, straight person, his dark, animated104 face, the languor105 of indolence and movement which cloaked his athleticism106, his apt and ready conversation, and, above all—for she was something of an observer—by a certain indulgence of expression, habitual to him, which she did not wholly understand, but which suggested that the pursuits at which he so excelled were no more than toys to him. Moreover, it is charming to charm; the charmer usually feels kindly—out of her generosity—to the enslaved, and his involuntary cry, ‘Ah, you are enchanting!’ was delicious to her.
After dinner this pretty game of love-making had to yield place to the sterner and more serious duties of life, and the cards again occupied their undivided attention. Prince Petros acknowledged to an acquaintance with the rules of vingt-et-un, and all the varieties of that charming game, which he said he had sometimes played at home with his sisters. The betting was high, the guests of the evening were amusing, and disposed to be well amused; the Guards’ band in the gallery of the ballroom107 next door was playing delightfully108, and Luck was{47} in her most capricious mood. Later on the Prince gave a dance, and Sophia was only waiting for the announcement of the arrival of the first guests to leave the table and perform the much less congenial duty of receiving them.
Eleven struck, and a footman came to tell her that the first carriage was already coming up to the portico109. Sophia was just at the end of her deal; the Prince was sitting on her right. He had lost once and gained once at rouge110 et noir. She held the pack ready to give him his third and last card.
‘For the last, Prince, and then I must go,’ she said. ‘No limit to the stake, if you wish.’
‘I stake all I possess and am on noir,’ said he gravely.
‘You have lost,’ said Sophia, laughing. ‘It is a heart.’
‘Then have I won?’ he said in a low voice, looking at her.
She stood still a moment (the others had heard his stake, though not his last reply), and a faint flush spread over her face.
‘I was but jesting, and I will not beggar you,’ she said. ‘Now, alas111! I must go. Oh for half an hour more! But, Prince, I think there will be time for one short game at bezique when the ball is over.’
‘But I was not jesting—I never jest when I am playing cards,’ he said. ‘Yes, let us play one game after the ball.’
The two danced with each other more than once{48} during the evening, but for the most part Prince Petros was a model of sedulous112 gallantry to the official ladies of Rhodopé. The wife of the mayor, a stout, immovable lady, entirely lost her heart to him. Twice had he waltzed with her, or, rather, twice had he skipped round and round her, as a child may skip round a firmly-rooted tree. She, like the tree which is planted in the whirling earth, seemed to do little more than revolve113 on her axis114 once in twenty-four hours; but she enjoyed dancing, she said, very much, and it certainly made her very hot. Nor was he wanting here; he poured ices and exhilarating drinks down her capacious throat, as if to quench49 some wild internal conflagration115, and the mayoress, so he told Sophia afterwards, had confided116 to him that she, too, was of princely line.
With the younger ladies he was no less successful. He was never tired of dancing, his steering117 was of so fine an order that it seemed an exhibition of luck, and the step of each of his partners he gaily118 asserted—as, indeed, he had shamelessly declared to the mayoress—suited his own exactly. He admired everything, and he flattered everybody, yet so adroitly119 that his partners only thought that they themselves were exceptionally enchanting that night. He told a young, ?sthetically-dressed woman, the wife of the Prince’s aide-de-camp, that she reminded him of Whistler’s symphony in green, a title which his ready invention had coined on the spur of the moment, but which earned him a life-long gratitude120, for Madame Elsprach had been secretly afraid that{49} she had rather overdone121 it. In a word, when the ball was over, he felt that he had earned his game at bezique, and he got it.
Next morning he asked an audience of Prince Demetrius, and this was granted him. Armed with a permission from him, he inquired for Sophia, for they were soon to ride together. He found her in the garden, dressed for the ride, and alone.
‘Princess,’ he said, ‘I have come to pay you my stake. Will you accept it? Sophia, will you accept it?’
‘Yes, Petros,’ she replied.
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1
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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effete
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| adj.无生产力的，虚弱的 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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ennui
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| n.怠倦，无聊 | |
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clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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twitching
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stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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beads
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elastic
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confide
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reigning
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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entirely
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determined
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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celebrated
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steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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propriety
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riskiness
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worthy
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racing
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devoted
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essentially
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conceit
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conceited
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hesitation
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39
aces
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| abbr.adjustable convertible-rate equity security (units) 可调节的股本证券兑换率；aircraft ejection seat 飞机弹射座椅；automatic control evaluation simulator 自动控制评估模拟器n.擅长…的人( ace的名词复数 )；精于…的人；（ 网球 ）（对手接不到发球的）发球得分；爱司球 | |
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40
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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41
trumps
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| abbr.trumpets 喇叭；小号；喇叭形状的东西；喇叭筒v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去式 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造 | |
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42
acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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44
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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45
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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46
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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47
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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48
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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49
quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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50
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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51
stertorously
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52
divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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53
replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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54
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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55
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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56
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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57
gossamer
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| n.薄纱，游丝 | |
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58
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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59
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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60
ravage
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| vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废 | |
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61
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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62
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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63
retract
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| vt.缩回，撤回收回，取消 | |
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64
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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65
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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66
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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67
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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68
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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69
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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70
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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71
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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73
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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74
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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75
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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76
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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80
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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81
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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82
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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83
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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84
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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85
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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86
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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87
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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88
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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89
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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90
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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91
eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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92
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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93
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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94
scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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95
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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96
amenity
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| n.pl.生活福利设施，文娱康乐场所；（不可数）愉快，适意 | |
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97
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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98
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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99
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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100
enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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101
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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102
groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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103
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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104
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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105
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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106
athleticism
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| n.运动竞赛，崇尚运动，竞技热 | |
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107
ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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108
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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109
portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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110
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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111
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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112
sedulous
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| adj.勤勉的，努力的 | |
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113
revolve
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| vi.(使)旋转；循环出现 | |
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114
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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115
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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116
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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117
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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118
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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119
adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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120
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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121
overdone
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| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
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