Norton made a desperate effort to pull himself together for his appeal to Helen. On its outcome hung the possibility of saving himself from the terror that haunted him. If he could tell the girl the truth and make her see that a marriage with Tom was utterly1 out of the question because her blood was stained with that of a negro, it might be possible to save himself the humiliation2 of the full confession3 of their relationship and of his bitter shame.
He had made a fearful mistake in not telling her this at their first interview, and a still more frightful4 mistake in rearing her in ignorance of the truth. No life built on a lie could endure. He was still trying desperately5 to hold his own on its shifting sands, but in his soul of souls he had begun to despair of the end. He was clutching at straws. In moments of sanity6 he realized it, but there was nothing else to do. The act was instinctive7.
The girl's sensitive mind was the key to a possible solution. He had felt instinctively8 on the day he told her the first fact about the disgrace of her birth, vague and shadowy as he had left it, that she could never adjust herself to the certainty that negro blood flowed in her veins9. He had observed that her aversion to negroes was peculiarly acute. If her love for the boy[Pg 373] were genuine, if it belonged to the big things of the soul, and were not the mere10 animal impulse she had inherited from her mother, he would have a ground of most powerful appeal. Love seeks not its own. If she really loved she would sink her own life to save his.
It was a big divine thing to demand of her and his heart sank at the thought of her possible inheritance from Cleo. Yet he knew by an instinct deeper and truer than reason, that the ruling power in this sensitive, lonely creature was in the spirit, not the flesh. He recalled in vivid flashes the moments he had felt this so keenly in their first pitiful meeting. If he could win her consent to an immediate11 flight and the sacrifice of her own desires to save the boy! It was only a hope—it was a desperate one—but he clung to it with painful eagerness.
Why didn't she come? The minutes seemed hours and there were minutes in which he lived a life.
He rose nervously12 and walked toward the mantel, lifted his eyes and they rested on the portrait of his wife.
"'My brooding spirit will watch and guard!'"
He repeated the promise of her last scrawled13 message. He leaned heavily against the mantel, his eyes burning with an unusual brightness.
"Oh, Jean, darling," he groaned15, "if you see and hear and know, let me feel your presence! Your dear eyes are softer and kinder than the world's to-night. Help me, I'm alone, heartsick and broken!"
He choked down a sob16, walked back to the chair and sank in silence. His eyes were staring into space, his imagination on fire, passing in stern review the events[Pg 374] of his life. How futile17, childish and absurd it all seemed! What a vain and foolish thing its hope and struggles, its dreams and ambitions! What a failure for all its surface brilliance18! He was standing19 again at the window behind the dais of the President of the Senate, watching the little drooping20 figure of the Governor staggering away into oblivion, and his heart went out to him in a great tenderness and pity. He longed to roll back the years that he might follow the impulse he had felt to hurry down the steps of the Capitol, draw the broken man into a sheltered spot, slip his arms about him and say:
"Who am I to judge? You're my brother—I'm sorry! Come, we'll try it again and help one another!"
The dream ended in a sudden start. He had heard the rustle21 of a dress at the door and knew without lifting his head that she was in the room.
Only the slightest sound had come from her dry throat, a little muffled22 attempt to clear it of the tightening23 bands. It was scarcely audible, yet his keen ear had caught it instantly, not only caught the excitement under which she was struggling, but in it the painful consciousness of his hostility24 and her pathetic desire to be friends.
He rose trembling and turned his dark eyes on her white uplifted face.
A feeling of terror suddenly weakened her knees. He was evidently not angry as she had feared. There was something bigger and more terrible than anger behind the mask he was struggling to draw over his mobile features.
"What has happened, major?" she asked in a subdued25 voice.
"Only the slightest sound came from her dry throat." "Only the slightest sound came from her dry throat."
[Pg 375]
"That is what I must know of you, child," he replied, watching her intently.
She pressed closer with sudden desperate courage, her voice full of wistful friendliness26:
"Oh, major, what have I done to offend you? I've tried so hard to win your love and respect. All my life I've been alone in a world of strangers, friendless and homesick——"
He lifted his hand with a firm gesture:
"Come, child, to the point! I must know the truth now. Tom has made love to you?"
She blushed:
"I—I—wish to see Tom before I answer——"
Norton dropped his uplifted arm with a groan14:
"Thank you," he murmured in tones scarcely audible. "I have your answer!"—he paused and looked at her curiously—"And you love him?"
The girl hesitated for just an instant, her blue eyes flashed and she drew her strong, young figure erect27:
"Yes! And I'm proud of it. His love has lifted me into the sunlight and made the world glorious—made me love everything in it—every tree and every flower and every living thing that moves and feels——-"
She stopped abruptly28 and lifted her flushed face to his:
"I've learned to love you, in spite of your harshness to me—I love you because you are his father!"
He turned from her and then wheeled suddenly, his face drawn29 with pain:
"Now, I must be frank, I must be brutal30. I must know the truth without reservation—how far has this thing gone?"
"I—I—don't understand you!"[Pg 376]
"Marriage is impossible! I told you that and you must have realized it."
Her head drooped31:
"You said so——"
"Impossible—utterly impossible! And you know it"—he drew a deep breath. "What—what are your real relations?"
"My—real—relations?" she gasped32.
"Answer me now, before God! I'll hold your secret sacred—your life and his may depend on it"—his voice dropped to a tense whisper. "Your love is pure and unsullied?"
The girl's eyes flashed with rage:
"As pure and unsullied as his dead mother's for you!"
"Thank God!" he breathed. "I believe you—but I had to know, child! I had to know—there are big, terrible reasons why I had to know."
A tear slowly stole down Helen's flushed cheeks as she quietly asked:
"Why—why should you insult and shame me by asking that question?"
"My knowledge of your birth."
The girl smiled sadly:
"Yet you might have guessed that I had learned to cherish honor and purity before I knew I might not claim them as my birthright!"
"Forgive me, child," he said contritely34, "if in my eagerness, my fear, my anguish35, I hurt you. But I had to ask that question! I had to know. Your answer gives me courage"—he paused and his voice quivered with deep intensity36—"you really love Tom?"
"With a love beyond words!"[Pg 377]
"The big, wonderful love that comes to the human soul but once?"
"Yes!"
His eyes were piercing to the depths now:
"With the deep, unselfish yearning37 that asks nothing for itself and seeks only the highest good of its beloved?"
"Yes—yes," she answered mechanically and, pausing, looked again into his burning eyes; "but you frighten me—" she grasped a chair for support, recovered herself and went on rapidly—"you mustn't ask me to give him up—I won't give him up! Poor and friendless, with a shadow over my life and everything against me, I have won him and he's mine! I have the right to his love—I didn't ask to be born. I must live my own life. I have as much right to happiness as you. Why must I bear the sins of my father and mother? Have I broken the law? Haven't I a heart that can ache and break and cry for joy?"
He allowed the first paroxysm of her emotion to spend itself before he replied, and then in quiet tones said:
"You must give him up!"
"I won't! I won't, I tell you!" she said through her set teeth as she suddenly swung her strong, young form before him. "I won't give him up! His love has made life worth living and I'm going to live it! I don't care what you say—he's mine—and you shall not take him from me!"
Norton was stunned38 by the fiery39 intensity with which her answer had been given. There was no mistaking the strength of her character. Every vibrant40 note of her voice had rung with sincerity41, purity, the justice[Pg 378] of her cause, and the consciousness of power. He was dealing42 with no trembling schoolgirl's mind, filled with sentimental43 dreams. A woman, in the tragic44 strength of a great nature, stood before him. He felt this greatness instinctively and met it with reverence45. It could only be met thus, and as he realized its strength, his heart took fresh courage. His own voice became tender, eager, persuasive46:
"But suppose, my dear, I show you that you will destroy the happiness and wreck47 the life of the man you love?"
"Impossible! He knows that I'm nameless and his love is all the deeper, truer and more manly48 because he realizes that I am defenseless."
"But suppose I convince you?"
"You can't!"
"Suppose," he said in a queer tone, "I tell you that the barrier between you is so real, so loathsome49——"
"Loathsome?" she repeated with a start.
"So loathsome," he went on evenly, "that when he knows the truth, whether he wishes it or not, he will instinctively turn from you with a shudder50."
"I won't believe it!"
"Suppose I prove to you that marriage would wreck both your life and his"—he gazed at her with trembling intensity—"would you give him up to save him?"
She held his eye steadily51:
"Yes—I'd die to save him!"
A pitiful stillness followed. The man scarcely moved. His lips quivered and his eyes grew dim. He looked at her pathetically and motioned her to a seat.
"And if I convince you," he went on tenderly, "you will submit yourself to my advice and leave America?"[Pg 379]
The blue eyes never flinched52 as she firmly replied:
"Yes. But I warn you that no such barrier can exist."
"Then I must prove to you that it does." He drew a deep breath and watched her. "You realize the fact that a man who marries a nameless girl bars himself from all careers of honor?"
"The honor of fools, yes—of the noble and wise, no!"
"You refuse to see that the shame which shadows a mother's life will smirch her children, and like a deadly gangrene at last eat the heart out of her husband's love?"
"My faith in him is too big——"
"You can conceive of no such barrier?"
"No!"
"In the first rush of love," he replied kindly53, "you feel this. Emotion obscures reason. But there are such barriers between men and women."
"Name one!"
His brow clouded, his lips moved to speak and stopped. It was more difficult to frame in speech than he had thought. His jaw54 closed with firm decision at last and he began calmly:
"I take an extreme case. Suppose, for example, your father, a proud Southern white man, of culture, refinement55 and high breeding, forgot for a moment that he was white and heard the call of the Beast, and your mother were an octoroon—what then?"
The girl flushed with anger:
"Such a barrier, yes! Nothing could be more loathsome. But why ask me so disgusting a question? No such barrier could possibly exist between us!"[Pg 380]
Norton's eyes were again burning into her soul as he asked in a low voice:
"Suppose it does?"
The girl smiled with a puzzled look:
"Suppose it does? Of course, you're only trying to prove that such an impossible barrier might exist! And for the sake of argument I agree that it would be real"—she paused and her breath came in a quick gasp33. She sprang to her feet clutching at her throat, trembling from head to foot—"What do you mean by looking at me like that?"
Norton lowered his head and barely breathed the words:
"That is the barrier between you!"
Helen looked at him dazed. The meaning was too big and stupefying to be grasped at once.
"Why, of course, major," she faltered56, "you just say that to crush me in the argument. But I've given up the point. I've granted that such a barrier may exist and would be real. But you haven't told me the one between us."
The man steeled his heart, turned his face away and spoke57 in gentle tones:
"I am telling you the pitiful, tragic truth—your mother is a negress——"
With a smothered58 cry of horror the girl threw herself on him and covered his mouth with her hand, half gasping59, half screaming her desperate appeal:
"Stop! don't—don't say it!—take it back! Tell me that it's not true—tell me that you only said it to convince me and I'll believe you. If the hideous60 thing is true—for the love of God deny it now! If it's true—lie to me"—her voice broke and she clung to Norton's[Pg 381] arms with cruel grip—"lie to me! Tell me that you didn't mean it, and I'll believe you—truth or lie, I'll never question it! I'll never cross your purpose again—I'll do anything you tell me, major"—she lifted her streaming eyes and began slowly to sink to her knees—"see how humble—how obedient I am! You don't hate me, do you? I'm just a poor, lonely girl, helpless and friendless now at your feet"—her head sank into her hands until the beautiful brown hair touched the floor—"have mercy! have mercy on me!"
Norton bent61 low and fumbled62 for the trembling hand. He couldn't see and for a moment words were impossible.
He found her hand and pressed it gently:
"I'm sorry, little girl! I'd lie to you if I could—but you know a lie don't last long in this world. I've lied about you before—I'd lie now to save you this anguish, but it's no use—we all have to face things in the end!"
With a mad cry of pain, the girl sprang to her feet and staggered to the table:
"Oh, God, how could any man with a soul—any living creature, even a beast of the field—bring me into the world—teach me to think and feel, to laugh and cry, and thrust me into such a hell alone! My proud father—I could kill him!"
Norton extended his hands to her in a gesture of instinctive sympathy:
"Come, you'll see things in a calm light to-morrow, you are young and life is all before you!"
"Yes!" she cried fiercely, "a life of shame—a life of insult, of taunts63, of humiliation, of horror! The one thing I've always loathed64 was the touch of a negro——"[Pg 382]
She stopped suddenly and lifted her hand, staring with wildly dilated65 eyes at the nails of her finely shaped fingers to find if the telltale marks of negro blood were there which she had seen on Cleo's. Finding none, the horror in her eyes slowly softened66 into a look of despairing tenderness as she went on:
"The one passionate67 yearning of my soul has been to be a mother—to feel the breath of a babe on my heart, to hear it lisp my name and know a mother's love—the love I've starved for—and now, it can never be!"
She had moved beyond the table in her last desperate cry and Norton followed with a look of tenderness:
"Nonsense," he cried persuasively68, "you're but a child yourself. You can go abroad where no such problem of white and black race exists. You can marry there and be happy in your home and little ones, if God shall give them!"
She turned on him savagely69:
"Well, God shall not give them! I'll see to that! I'm young, but I'm not a fool. I know something of the laws of life. I know that Tom is not like you"—she turned and pointed70 to the portrait on the wall—"he is like his great-grandfather! Mine may have been——"
Her voice choked with passion. She grasped a chair with one hand and tore at the collar of her dress with the other. She had started to say "mine may have been a black cannibal!" and the sheer horror of its possibility had strangled her. When she had sufficiently71 mastered her feelings to speak she said in a strange muffled tone:[Pg 383]
"I ask nothing of God now—if I could see Him, I'd curse Him to His face!"
"Come, come!" Norton exclaimed, "this is but a passing ugly fancy—such things rarely happen——"
"But they do happen!" she retorted slowly. "I've known one such tragedy, of a white mother's child coming into the world with the thick lips, kinky hair, flat nose and black skin of a cannibal ancestor! She killed herself when she was strong enough to leap out the window"—her voice dropped to a dreamy chant—"yes, blood will tell—there's but one thing for me to do! I wonder, with the yellow in me, if I'll have the courage."
Norton spoke with persuasive tenderness:
"You mustn't think of such madness! I'll send you abroad at once and you can begin life over again——"
Helen suddenly snatched the chair to which she had been holding out of her way and faced Norton with flaming eyes:
"I don't want to be an exile! I've been alone all my miserable72 orphan73 life! I don't want to go abroad and die among strangers! I've just begun to live since I came here! I love the South—it's mine—I feel it—I know it! I love its blue skies and its fields—I love its people—they are mine! I think as you think, feel as you feel——"
She paused and looked at him queerly:
"I've learned to honor, respect and love you because I've grown to feel that you stand for what I hold highest, noblest and best in life"—the voice died in a sob and she was silent.
The man turned away, crying in his soul:[Pg 384]
"O God, I'm paying the price now!"
"What can I do!" she went on at last. "What is life worth since I know this leper's shame? There are millions like me, yes. If I could bend my back and be a slave there are men and women who need my services. And there are men I might know—yes—but I can't—I can't! I'm not a slave. I'm not bad. I can't stoop. There's but one thing!"
Norton's face was white with emotion:
"I can't tell you, little girl, how sorry I am"—his voice broke. He turned, suddenly extended his hand and cried hoarsely74: "Tell me what I can do to help you—I'll do anything on this earth that's within reason!"
The girl looked up surprised at his anguish, wondering vaguely75 if he could mean what he had said, and then threw herself at him in a burst of sudden, fierce rebellion, her voice, low and quivering at first, rising to the tragic power of a defiant76 soul in combat with overwhelming odds77:
"Then give me back the man I love—he's mine! He's mine, I tell you, body and soul! God—gave—him—to—me! He's your son, but I love him! He's my mate! He's of age—he's no longer yours! His time has come to build his own home—he's mine—not yours! He's my life—and you're tearing the very heart out of my body!"
The white, trembling figure slowly crumpled78 at his feet.
He took both of her hands, and lifted her gently:
"Pull yourself together, child. It's hard, I know, but you begin to realize that you must bear it. You must look things calmly in the face now."[Pg 385]
The girl's mouth hardened and she answered with bitterness:
"Yes, of course—I'm nobody! We must consider you"—she staggered to a chair and dropped limply into it, her voice a whisper—"we must consider Tom—yes—yes—we must, too—I know that——"
Norton pressed eagerly to her side and leaned over the drooping figure:
"You can begin to see now that I was right," he pleaded. "You love Tom—he's worth saving—you'll do as I ask and give him up?"
The sensitive young face was convulsed with an agony words could not express and the silence was pitiful. The man bending over her could hear the throb79 of his own heart. A quartet of serenaders celebrating the victory of the election stopped at the gate and the soft strains of the music came through the open window. Norton felt that he must scream in a moment if she did not answer. He bent low and softly repeated:
"You'll do as I ask now, and give him up?"
The tangled80 mass of brown hair sank lower and her answer was a sigh of despair:
"Yes!"
The man couldn't speak at once. His eyes filled. When he had mastered his voice he said eagerly:
"There's but one way, you know. You must leave at once without seeing him."
She lifted her face with a pleading look:
"Just a moment—without letting him know what has passed between us—just one last look into his dear face?"
He shook his head kindly:
"It isn't wise——"[Pg 386]
"Yes, I know," she sighed. "I'll go at once."
He drew his watch and looked at it hurriedly:
"The first train leaves in thirty minutes. Get your hat, a coat and travelling bag and go just as you are. I'll send your things——"
"Yes—yes"—she murmured.
"I'll join you in a few days in New York and arrange your future. Leave the house immediately. Tom mustn't see you. Avoid him as you cross the lawn. I'll have a carriage at the gate in a few minutes."
The little head sank again:
"I understand."
He looked uncertainly at the white drooping figure. The serenaders were repeating the chorus of the old song in low, sweet strains that floated over the lawn and stole through the house in weird81 ghost-like echoes. He returned to her chair and bent over her:
"You won't stop to change your dress, you'll get your hat and coat and go just as you are—at once?"
The brown head nodded slowly and he gazed at her tenderly:
"You've been a brave little girl to-night"—he lifted his hand to place it on her shoulder in the first expression of love he had ever given. The hand paused, held by the struggle of the feelings of centuries of racial pride and the memories of his own bitter tragedy. But the pathos82 of her suffering and the heroism83 of her beautiful spirit won. The hand was gently lowered and pressed the soft, round shoulder.
A sob broke from the lonely heart, and her head drooped until it lay prostrate84 on the table, the beautiful arms outstretched in helpless surrender.[Pg 387]
Norton staggered blindly to the door, looked back, lifted his hand and in a quivering voice, said:
"I can never forget this!"
His long stride quickly measured the distance to the gate, and a loud cheer from the serenaders roused the girl from her stupor85 of pain.
In a moment they began singing again, a love song, that tore her heart with cruel power.
"Oh, God, will they never stop?" she cried, closing her ears with her hands in sheer desperation.
She rose, crossed slowly to the window and looked out on the beautiful moonlit lawn at the old rustic86 seat where her lover was waiting. She pressed her hand on her throbbing87 forehead, walked to the center of the room, looked about her in a helpless way and her eye rested on the miniature portrait of Tom. She picked it up and gazed at it tenderly, pressed it to her heart, and with a low sob felt her way through the door and up the stairs to her room.
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1
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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nervously
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scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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futile
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brilliance
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standing
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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rustle
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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tightening
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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subdued
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friendliness
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erect
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abruptly
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drawn
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brutal
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drooped
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gasped
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gasp
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contritely
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anguish
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intensity
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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57
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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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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taunts
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| 嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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persuasively
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| adv.口才好地；令人信服地 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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79
throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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82
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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83
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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84
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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85
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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86
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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