She had determined1 to treat John Graham’s first visit as a purely2 business one, and make her approach to him by the more subtle way of child-like dependence3 on his help and advice.
She wore on purpose the same simple green dimity dress in which she had called at his office. Each step in her plans must be taken with the utmost care. He had masked his feelings with an iron will and she could as yet form no conception of the impression she had made.
Seated beside the table, idly turning the papers, she awaited his coming to-night with the keenest interest, every faculty4 of her being keyed to the highest pitch of power.
A letter from Ackerman had aroused anew her curiosity over every detail of the murder of her father and had given her a definite purpose toward which to work during John’s visit. She studied carefully again the paragraph in which he said:
“I have made several important discoveries in the past twenty-four hours. (1) That old Isaac has left the county and is not holding a sanctification meeting as he told his wife. (2) That Larkin and your father had a violent quarrel on the day of the Convention. (3) That a dozen young men, one at a time, have left Independence recently. (4) And most important, that the tradition that there is a secret passage somewhere into the Graham house must be true. If you can confirm this fourth fact for me by its discovery my work will be greatly helped.”
Stella had quietly ransacked5 the house from cellar to attic6 in vain searching for this secret way. She had questioned Aunt Julie Ann without results, and had made up her mind to gain from John first this important fact.
The brass7 knocker struck three sharp strokes on the front door. With a quick, cat-like movement she concealed8 Ackerman’s letter in her bosom10, smoothed her dress, and as the young lawyer entered, rose and greeted him with a gracious smile.
“I must thank you again for undertaking11 this work for me,” she said, taking his hand. “It is such a relief to feel that it is now in the hands of one who understands—one I can trust implicitly12.”
“It will be a pleasure if I can serve you,” he answered gravely.
“I have the papers all spread out here ready for you.”
“Pardon me, if I look about the room a moment,” John said with deep emotion. “You see I haven’t been in this room before for years. I spent many happy hours in it, in the old days.”
“I hope this will not be the last time you will enter, now that we are going to be friends. When we have time you must take me all through in every nook and corner—show me all the secret closets and dark passageways and tell me its history.”
“Yes, of course”—he answered with an absent look.
“I don’t believe you were listening to what I said at all,” she exclaimed with mock anger. “A penny for your real thoughts!”
“May I be bold enough to tell you just what I was thinking?”
“Yes.”
“I was thinking,” he said with a sober smile, “what a beautiful picture you make in this old oak panelled room. The delicate lines of your face seem at home here as though the master workman who carved the figure in that mantel had seen you in a vision while he was at work.”
“What a dreamer you are!” she laughed.
“And you are willing to trust me as a lawyer?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then I must prove myself worthy14, mustn’t I?”
“The papers are ready”—she said, bustling15 about the table and mixing the bundles in greater confusion with an attempt at arranging them in business order.
John seated himself and began to examine them. She bent16 over his shoulder saying with a light laugh:
“I’ll do my best to explain them—they are all Greek to me—but you’ll understand.”
“I’m sure there will be no great difficulty.”
He ran rapidly over the bundles and in half an hour had made memorandums of each division of the work before him. He took up one of the packages and began its careful reading, but the writing faded. He could hear Stella softly breathing as she bent near him and see the beautiful little hand resting on the table. He was seized with a mad impulse to grasp it and clasp her in his arms. He smiled and placed his hand on his forehead a moment lest she might see his confusion. He could endure it no longer. He must leave and regain17 control of himself.
He tied the packages of papers together and rose.
“You are going so soon?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ll take them down to my office. It will require several hours to go over them.”
“You will come again to-morrow?” she said softly.
“I’ll report to you again to-morrow evening.”
“I shall expect you at eight,” she said, extending her hand.
He held it unconsciously for an instant, and wondered if she could feel the pounding of his heart.
He came each evening for a week and spent two hours in the library with Stella until every letter and paper had been thoroughly18 examined. In a hundred little ways she had made him feel the power and charm of her personality; in no way so keenly, perhaps, as in the long silences during which she sat near with her great brown eyes watching him intently. He could feel their deep mysterious light in whatever direction he turned. In no other way could she have made so powerful an appeal to his imagination. To his poetic19 fancy, this capacity for silent comradeship in a girl so young revealed a depth of character which he had not suspected.
The real depth of its meaning he could not dream. The moments of exultant20 triumph, of breathless suspense21, of merciless cruelty with which she watched him slowly entering the trap she had set, were safely concealed beneath the childlike expression of her beautiful face.
Each night he felt his resolution to allow no word of love to pass his lips harder and harder to keep. And each night she watched with increasing excitement his gradual approach to the brink22 of the precipice23 to which she silently beckoned24.
On the night of his final report when the work was finished, she looked at him intently and said: “Now, I’m going to hold you to your promise.”
“And have I broken one?”
“Only forgotten it, I think—you must go over the old house with me—every nook and corner. But before we start, come, you are tired, I’ve some refreshments25 for you.”
She led the way into the dining room where she had prepared a dainty supper. Aunt Julie Ann in spotless white cap and apron26, stood smiling her welcome. The table was lighted with a dozen wax candles set in two old silver candelabra which had belonged to the Graham family more than a hundred years, until they had fallen with the house and its furnishings into the Judge’s hands.
Stella seated herself at one end of the table which had been shortened to its smallest size and placed John at the other. Her position, the lights and the effects of the picture in his imagination, she had carefully planned and rehearsed before his arrival. She meant to win to-night.
Behind her stood the rich old mahogany sideboard of Colonial pattern, the Graham silver flashing in the quaint27 gold mirror which hung above it. In the mirror her own image was clearly reflected. The man opposite could look into her face and at the same time see in the shining silvery picture above the sideboard the black ringlets of curling hair at the back of her neck, as well as the exquisite28 lines of her figure.
John gazed at her in silent wonder. Never had he seen a picture so appealing in its beauty to every sense of his being. He felt that she was born to sit at that table amid such surroundings.
She lifted the teapot to fill his cup:
“This little feast is to celebrate the completion of our work.”
“And seal our friendship, may I hope?” he broke in with a smile.
“Yes,” she answered in a whisper.
These soft notes of her voice thrilled the man before her, and his whole being quivered in response to their call. He wondered if he could conceal9 the hunger with which he was looking into her eyes.
He had always thought her the most beautiful being he had ever seen, but to-night for the first time she had dressed specially29 to receive him, and his imagination had not dreamed the picture—Her beauty fairly stunned30 him.
Her dress was of filmy zephyr-like white chiffon, cut low to show the full lines of the neck and shoulders. Around the upper part of her beautiful bare arms, where they melted into the shoulders, was drawn31 a scarf of delicate lace. Where it crossed the waist line in V shape, was pinned an ivorytype miniature portrait of her proud mother, painted at her own age of twenty, which looked so strikingly like the living form above, it might have been taken for the image of a twin sister. A sash of pink ribbon encircled her figure. The skirt hung in full puffy lines draped over a number of under-skirts after the fashion of the period. The bottom of the skirt was finished with a border of lace on the top of which were set at intervals32 clusters of little pink roses wrought33 in silk.
Her curly crown of black hair was parted in the middle and drawn low on the side of the face in two great waves and tied behind with a pink ribbon. The long ends were curled into four strands34 and thrown carelessly around her neck in front and hung to the waist. Her head was circled with a tiny wreath of the living pink roses from which the silk ones had been modelled. To John’s fancy this wreath against her black hair seemed the jewelled crown of a queen set in priceless rubies35.
She poured the tea with her bare arm uplifted in a fascinating pose, the right arm curved just enough to tilt36 the teapot and yet preserve the dimple at her elbow. In all his life he could not remember an arm like these—so graceful37, so seductive each little movement, they seemed to possess a conscious soul of their own. Her whole being spoke38 the charm of the boundless39 vitality40 of youth just budding into perfect womanhood. Her delicate skin flashed its tints41 in harmony with every mood of thought in her voice. She had as a divine gift a sensitiveness of expression, so acute that it could be controlled by the fierce will which hid beneath the velvet42 surface. She could blush at will because her imagination was so vivid that she could direct its powers by a subtle process of auto-suggestion.
John had not realised until he saw her eat how wonderful were the lines of her luscious43 lips. He felt that he could sit there forever and watch her dainty wrist and tapering44 fingers lift the cup. Her eyes were friendly to-night! They looked at him with dreamy tenderness, a childlike trust, and perfect faith.
How could he live through the evening without telling her of his love! Yet he must keep silent. He felt with deep foreboding an approaching catastrophe45 which must soon overwhelm the men who had created an Empire whose power they could not control. That Empire had left a stain of blood on the floor of this house—a stain that must forever darken his own life and hers—and yet—how could he give her up?
He rose from the table at her suggestion and followed her in a spell as she lifted a silver candlestick above her head and started to explore the house.
He found his tongue at last and told her with boyish enthusiasm the legends of the old mansion46, the associations of each room, and sketched47 with good-humoured criticism the peculiarities48 of his people. In the gallery of the observatory49 he showed her the spots from which the slightest sounds were echoed to the hall below, and explained the origin of many of the ghost stories which the Negroes believed with such implicit13 faith.
Stella leaned over the railing and looked down into the hall at the chair in which her father had fallen the night of the dance, and a curious smile played about her lips.
“And what are you smiling at?” he asked softly.
Without the quiver of an eyelid50, either in surprise or recognition of the fact that he had caught her in a moment off her guard, she replied:
“I was just wondering if you ever believed in ghosts?”
“Of course,” he laughed.
“Really?”
“Yes. When Aunt Julie Ann used to tell them to me at night in the nursery they were vivid and terrible realities.”
“And you’ve laughed away all the romances of childhood now?”
“No,” he answered firmly. “I halfway51 believe in ghosts still, and the old dreams of beauty and love, of honour and truth, seem to me more and more the only things in human life that have any value.”
They had returned to the hall. Stella placed the candle on the table and sat down on the davenport. John followed her instinctively52 and seated himself by her side.
Suddenly she placed her soft hand on his, exclaiming:
“Oh! There’s one thing we’ve forgotten!” She felt him tremble at her touch.
“What?”
“The legend of the secret way—tell me about it—how it originated and all—of course, I know it is only a legend. Such things are only found in stories.”
John looked at her, with a smile playing about the corners of his mouth.
“You have ceased to believe in romance, ghosts and fairies?”
“I’ll believe it if you tell me,” she said softly.
John took her hand and lifted her from the lounge.
“Have you faith enough to follow me through the dark secret way to-night if I can find it for you?”
“Yes!” she whispered, leaning toward him trustingly.
“Then I’m going to do what was never done before—show this secret way to one who does not answer to the name of Graham.”
Stella’s bosom rose and fell with deep emotion as she turned her brown eyes on John.
“But why not?” he continued. “The house is yours. And I’m haunted with the strange fancy that your spirit has lived here before.”
“I have grown to love it,” she said hesitatingly, “in spite of the tragedy. It’s strange. I wonder at myself for it.”
John turned toward the panel in the wainscoting whose location he knew so well, paused and said:
“I’d better wait and let you change your dress. You’ll soil it against the damp narrow walls.”
Stella’s eyes were sparkling now with excitement.
“No matter. I can’t wait a minute. The mystery and romance will be worth a dress. Show me the way. I’ll follow.”
“All right,” John answered, as he extended his hand and pressed the moulding behind which lay the spring. The panel flew open and a rush of cool air took Stella’s breath.
“Heavens!” she exclaimed, clinging suddenly to John’s arm, “why, I had no idea it could open here just behind us in the hall!”
He could feel her tremble.
“There’s not the slightest danger—you need not be afraid,” he said, tenderly. “Wait, I’ll get the candle and go before you.”
He took the candle from the centre table and entered the passage-way, closing the panel.
“Wait, you must hold my hand,” Stella cried timidly.
He took the soft little hand in his with a throb53 of joy and carefully led her down the tiny stairs into the basement, where the passage turned between two walls and again descended54 a half dozen steps to another door which led out of the house into the long straight way to the vault55.
Trembling with excitement, she clung in silence to his hand as they entered the long damp passage. He closed the door suddenly, the sound crashing through the narrow walls in a thousand startling echoes.
Stella sprang into his arms, nestling close and whispered:
“Mercy! what was that?”
“Only the door,” he laughed.
“It scared me nearly to death,” she faltered56, slowly withdrawing from his sheltering protection while she skilfully57 managed to press her soft bare arm against his hand. She felt him tremble, his breath deepen and quicken at the touch of her flesh.
“You’re sure there’s no danger?” she asked.
“Not the slightest,” he replied cheerily. “Just one more little surprise and we are out in the moonlight on the lawn.”
He led her clinging to his hand along the dark way, holding the flickering58 candle above her head, a hundred mad impulses of love surging through his brain.
They stopped at the stoneset door leading into the tomb, and he handed her the candle, gently disengaging his other hand. He drew the heavy door back, Stella stepped through and he followed close behind her.
She raised the candle high and looked about the vault. With a sudden cry, she staggered into his arms gasping59:
“Why,—we’re—in—the—vault!”
The candle dropped from her hand and she threw her arm around John’s neck clinging to him frantically61. Her hold relaxed and her head drooped62 against his breast. He clasped her tenderly for a moment and his lips instinctively touched the curling mass of her hair, as he cried in agony:
“God help me—I’m lost!”
She revived as quickly as she had collapsed63 and murmured:
“I was about to faint—quick, let’s get out!”
He led her through the iron grilled64 door into the moonlit shadows of the lawn.
“Oh!” she cried with a gasp60 of relief. “What a wild experience! I hope I didn’t do anything very silly—did I?” she asked dreamily.
“You did just what any little girl of your age might do under such conditions,” he replied, gazing at her with deep seriousness. “Come, let us find a seat on the lawn and I’ll tell you the story of the vault and the secret way.”
He led her to the seat on which he had sunk in despair the night he came half-mad with pain to watch the masqueraders whirl past her lighted windows.
The full moon wrapped the earth in the white mantle65 of Southern midsummer glory, and the night wind stirred, its breath laden66 with the rich perfume of every flower in full bloom. A katydid was singing a plaintive67 song in the tree above, and in the rose bushes near the porch a mocking-bird rehearsed in a burst of mad joy every love song of the feathered world.
In low, rapid tones John told her the story of Robert Graham’s great love for his Huguenot grandmother and why he built the vault and secret way.
She listened and furtively68 watched him struggling with his emotions.
Suddenly he turned, looked tenderly into her eyes and took her hand.
“After all, Miss Stella, what else matters on earth, when life has once been made glorious by a great, deathless love—such a love as that which has grown in my own heart for you.”
Stella turned away to hide the flash of triumph with which her face was flushed.
“Ah! don’t answer me now,” he rushed on. “I don’t ask it. I only beg the privilege of telling you—telling you how you have lifted my soul from the shadows of self and hate, and made life radiant and beautiful. I dare not hope that you love me yet—that you only hear me is enough. That I sit by your side and tell you is all I ask. My love is so deep, so full, so rich, so great, it is glory and life and strength within itself. I could die to-night and count my life a triumph, because I’ve seen you and loved you, and you have heard me. May I tell you all that is in my heart?”
He leaned closer and pressed her hand gently.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Why not?”
“I dare not tell you why I pause to ask the question. I’ve sometimes thought that an impassable gulf69 yawned between us. To-night I’ve thrown such rubbish to the winds. There’s no gulf so wide, so deep and dark the heart of love may not leap it. Nothing matters save that I love you, that you smile and hear me!”
“I am honoured in your love,” she answered gently.
“Ah! you can never know how sweet it is to hear that from your dear lips. I cannot tell you the madness of the joy that fills me, when I realise that I have found in you all I’ve ever dreamed of beauty, tenderness and purity. All the songs of life that poets dream and find no words in which to sing, I feel within. If you should send me from your presence now, I’d laugh at Death for I have tasted Life! To win your love is all I ask of this world or the next—You will let me try?”
“Yes,” said the low voice, as she placed her hand again in his.
“Then I must go,” he said, rising and lifting her from the seat—“I’ve said enough to-night. I must go before I dare say too much and break the spell of joy that holds me.”
At the door he asked.
“I may come again to-morrow?”
“Yes, at eight.”
He bowed and kissed the tips of her fingers.
“I may have something to say to you to-morrow,” she said seriously.
“I shall count the minutes of every hour that separates us.”
She watched the tall figure pass swiftly and joyously70 along the white gravelled moonlit walk, while a paean71 of fierce joy welled within her heart.
“I’ve won—I’ve won, beyond the shadow of a doubt!” she cried, exultantly72.
点击收听单词发音
1 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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2 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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3 dependence | |
n.依靠,依赖;信任,信赖;隶属 | |
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4 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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5 ransacked | |
v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 );抢劫,掠夺 | |
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6 attic | |
n.顶楼,屋顶室 | |
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7 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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8 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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9 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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10 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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11 undertaking | |
n.保证,许诺,事业 | |
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12 implicitly | |
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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13 implicit | |
a.暗示的,含蓄的,不明晰的,绝对的 | |
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14 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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15 bustling | |
adj.喧闹的 | |
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16 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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17 regain | |
vt.重新获得,收复,恢复 | |
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18 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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19 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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20 exultant | |
adj.欢腾的,狂欢的,大喜的 | |
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21 suspense | |
n.(对可能发生的事)紧张感,担心,挂虑 | |
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22 brink | |
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿 | |
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23 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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24 beckoned | |
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25 refreshments | |
n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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26 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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27 quaint | |
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的 | |
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28 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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29 specially | |
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地 | |
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30 stunned | |
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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31 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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32 intervals | |
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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33 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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34 strands | |
n.(线、绳、金属线、毛发等的)股( strand的名词复数 );缕;海洋、湖或河的)岸;(观点、计划、故事等的)部份v.使滞留,使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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35 rubies | |
红宝石( ruby的名词复数 ); 红宝石色,深红色 | |
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36 tilt | |
v.(使)倾侧;(使)倾斜;n.倾侧;倾斜 | |
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37 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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38 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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39 boundless | |
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的 | |
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40 vitality | |
n.活力,生命力,效力 | |
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41 tints | |
色彩( tint的名词复数 ); 带白的颜色; (淡色)染发剂; 痕迹 | |
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42 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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43 luscious | |
adj.美味的;芬芳的;肉感的,引与性欲的 | |
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44 tapering | |
adj.尖端细的 | |
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45 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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46 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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47 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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48 peculiarities | |
n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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49 observatory | |
n.天文台,气象台,瞭望台,观测台 | |
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50 eyelid | |
n.眼睑,眼皮 | |
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51 halfway | |
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途 | |
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52 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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53 throb | |
v.震颤,颤动;(急速强烈地)跳动,搏动 | |
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54 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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55 vault | |
n.拱形圆顶,地窖,地下室 | |
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56 faltered | |
(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 skilfully | |
adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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58 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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59 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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60 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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61 frantically | |
ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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62 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
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64 grilled | |
adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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65 mantle | |
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红 | |
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66 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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67 plaintive | |
adj.可怜的,伤心的 | |
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68 furtively | |
adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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69 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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70 joyously | |
ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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71 paean | |
n.赞美歌,欢乐歌 | |
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72 exultantly | |
adv.狂欢地,欢欣鼓舞地 | |
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