“I have just learned,” Ackerman wrote, “that a number of men of notoriously desperate character from the foot of the mountains were in Independence on the day before the tragedy and that a man by the name of Dan Wiley, their leader, reported in person to John Graham’s office.”
Stella sprang from her bed and began hurriedly to dress.
“Now God give me strength for the work I’m going to do!” she cried, with strangling rage. “To think that such a man should dare to speak to me of love—should dare to clasp my hand with the stain of my father’s blood yet fresh on his! I could kill him with my own hand—coward, dastard2, sneak3, assassin! I hate him—I hate him!”
She threw herself on her bed again in a paroxysm of uncontrollable fury. She arose at length, calm, alert, her cheeks flushed with brilliant colour, her great eyes dilated4 wide and sparkling with courage.
The knocker struck sharply and she remembered with a start that Steve Hoyle had returned on the midnight train and would call this morning. She heard Maggie show Steve into the library.
Without waiting for her breakfast she hastened to meet him, and he plunged5 at once into the purpose of his call:
“Has John Graham yet confessed his leadership?”
“He will to-day,” was the quiet answer.
“The fame of your desperate love affair has set the town agog,” Steve laughed triumphantly6.
“Doubtless,” she replied moodily7.
“I’ve everything arranged—the men are only waiting for the word.”
“I prefer that the law take its course. I’m not ready to commit murder,” she said emphatically.
“Nonsense! The law’s a farce—Deliver him to his own men to be judged by the Klan which has set itself above the State. If he is the leader of the Invisible Empire he holds his own High Court. Let his men decide his fate. It’s justice!”
Stella hesitated a moment and slowly said:
“When I learn from his own lips that he is the Chief of the Klan and find that there is no other way in which he can be made to pay the penalty of his crime, I’ll deliver him to his men.”
“They’ll be ready to receive him.”
“I shall know in twenty-four hours.”
“I’ll await your word,” he answered eagerly, his eyes devouring8 her beauty.
Steve hurriedly left and Stella seated herself at her desk to write her answer to John Graham. Two attempts she tore up. The third suited her. In the centre of a sheet of paper she wrote two words:
“Come—Stella.”
When John Graham received this note at eleven o’clock from the hands of her messenger, he felt before he broke the seal that it bore glad tidings.
He tore it open and with a cry of joy, tried to read, and the tears blinded him. He crushed the note in his hand and bowed his head on his desk, his whole being convulsed with emotion which he could not control. He rose at length, walked to his window, opened the note again and gazed at it until he broke into a joyous9 laugh, repeating the words:
“Come—Stella.”
“The most wonderful letter I ever received,” he exclaimed. “The longest, the richest, the deepest—the answering call of my mate! In all nature there’s no such cry. From out the shadows of hell I lift my soul and answer, ‘My love, I come!’”
In a moment he had forgotten every fear; and all the pain, blind and hideous10, of the last three days was lost in a joy that lit the world with splendour.
He called immediately on horseback and asked her to ride with him through a beautiful wooded road he had long wished to show her. Stella caught the echo of his horse’s hoofs11 with a shudder12 as he approached the house. She had not heard that sound on the gravelled roadway of the lawn since the night she listened to the distant echoes of the masqueraders as she stood beside the dead.
She accepted his suggestion and hastily despatched a message to Ackerman asking that he await her return in her library at sundown as she intended to spend the afternoon in the country on important business.
At three o’clock they galloped13 out of Independence toward the river.
“My heart is too full now for speech,” he said, leaning toward her, his face radiant with happiness.
“I understand.”
“Just to be near you is all I ask for a while. It seems too good to be true. It has been a century since I saw you.”
She remained silent. The only visible response, if any, was the quickening of her horse’s pace at the unconscious touch of the little spur concealed14 beneath her skirts.
Her silence meant to him feelings too deep for words, and again his heart sang for joy.
Four miles out of town they left the main highway and turned into the narrow crooked15 road which wound along the banks of a creek16 through the densest17 forest in the county.
“I’m going to take you to ‘Inwood,’ General Gaston’s place. The house was burned by Sherman’s army, only the vine-covered ruins are standing18 now. It was the finest house ever built in the state, and many a gay party held high carnival19 there in the old days.”
“I’ve heard my mother speak of it,” she answered soberly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. “In fact, it was there at a picnic one day that my father proposed to his sweetheart and my mother accepted him, and planned their elopement. How strange that you should have chosen to bring me to this place to-day!”
“You’ll understand it later,” he quickly responded.
“I hope you don’t mean to kidnap me?”
“It might be advisable in view of the events of the past three days,” he laughed.
She glanced about her at the deep shadows of the great trees through which they had been passing for more than a mile and shot at him a sudden look of fear.
“Let’s turn back,” she said, flushing and reining20 her horse to a stand.
A look of pain clouded his face as he bent21 near.
“Surely, dearest, you can trust the man who worships you! Come, we are only a few hundred yards from the gate.”
“Then I’ll trust you that much further,” she said with a light laugh, spurring her horse forward.
In a few minutes they passed through the ruined gate in the edge of the woods. The broken marble figures which once crowned the brick pillars lay beside the entrance among a mass of tangled22 blackberry briars. They had been pried23 from their places and hurled24 there by the bayonets of Sherman’s men and had not been touched since.
The lawn, which once had spread its beautiful carpet of flowers and shrubbery in wide acres here in the heart of the ancient woods, had grown up in ugly broom straw and young pines, which were slowly strangling to death the more delicate forms of life. The dark fir trees, magnolia and holly25, still flourished in luxury.
Towering in solemn, serried26 line on a gentle eminence27 still stood the six great white Corinthian pillars of the front fa莽ade of the house. Behind them in dark background a row of Norwegian firs, fifty years old, marked the sky line. The afternoon sun cast the shadows of the trees across the fluted28 marble of two of the pillars, while the other four shimmered29 in the splendour of the sunlight.
The capitals of the columns had fallen with the blazing ruins of the house, but the bases and tall beautiful fluted forms of each were yet perfect. The ivy30 which had grown on the sides of the stone steps had climbed in unbridled riot over one of them and hung in graceful31 festoons from the top.
To Stella’s fancy they seemed grim white sentinels guarding the entrance to some vast empire of the dead.
“How still and death-like everything is,” she said, with a timid glance about her. “We seem a thousand miles from life.”
He took her hand.
“When I stand by your side, in every silent space I hear the beating of the wings of angels.”
“The wings of the angel of Death here, I should think!” she said in strange subdued32 tones, as her eyelids33 drooped34 and she looked away.
“Away with such nonsense,” he cried, cheerily. “I’ve something to do before I dare to speak to you again of the love that is in my heart.”
He led her behind the towering columns, and, at the rear of the ruins of the heavy brick walls, entered the basement by a stairway half covered with fallen d茅bris.
The floors of the first story which had been constructed of iron and cement foundations had remained unbroken. The basement, once entered below the ruins, was in a state of perfect preservation35.
They entered the immense kitchen whose walls had once echoed with the voices of swarms36 of indolent well-fed slaves.
Stella looked about her in amazement37, asking with a slight tremor38 in her voice:
“Why have you brought me here?”
“To place my life in your hands, joyously39, without a single reservation,” he said with deep earnestness. “You are in the council chamber40 of the Invisible Empire. Here its High Court of Life and Death was held.”
Stella’s breath quickened and she glanced at John with furtive41 eyes.
“I should have told you frankly42 at first. You had the right to know before you gave your life into my keeping.”
He led her to the big wrought-iron range and opened one of its ovens, revealing the form of an old-fashioned safe.
Taking a huge key from his pocket, he opened the door and drew from it a package of papers.
“I am going to show you, my love, what no woman’s eye ever saw before, the guarded secrets of the Invisible Empire, its signs, passwords, ritual and secret oath. In this act I now imperil no life save my own.”
Stella’s tapering43 fingers trembled as she turned the pages nervously44 and read its brief formulas.
“As Chief of the Klan I met here the leaders from each district.”
“Then—you—are—the—Chief?” she slowly asked, bending low to hide her flushed face.
“Yes, I was the only Chief the Empire ever had in the state,” he answered with a ring of boyish pride.
“And you bowed to no law save your own?” she asked in low tones.
“No.”
“And you really did hold high courts of life and death?” she whispered.
“Yes, we were the sole guardians45 of white civilisation46. It was a necessity—the last resort of desperation.”
“You tried men here in secret, sentenced them without a hearing, executed them at night without warning, mercy or appeal?”
“It had to be—there was no other way. A million soldiers girded us with their bayonets. We had to strike under a mantle47 of darkness and terror, where the power of resistance was weakest, the blow unsuspected and discovery impossible.”
“How terrible!” she interrupted with a shudder. “And yet,” she went on with a sudden flash of her eye, “its mystery and its daring fascinate me! Would you do something just to please a romantic fancy of mine?”
“I have but one desire in life—to please your fancy,” he cried.
“Come here with me again, day after to-morrow night, and dress in your costume as Chief of the High Court of the Klan. Bring some lanterns and we’ll light it up—it’s just a fancy of mine—will you do it?”
“You’re not afraid to be here alone with me at night?”
“Why should I? I love to do daring unconventional things. Besides, do we not belong to each other now?”
“You do love me?” he whispered.
“Do you doubt it?”
“Kiss me!” he pleaded, bending closer.
With a sudden shudder she drew away.
“Not yet! you must be patient. I’ve a lot of silly notions. That’s one of them. I’ll learn, no doubt.”
“I’ll try to teach you,” he laughed—“and be content to touch your hand until my desire shall be yours.”
They rode swiftly home, John’s soul in a warm glow of happiness. Stella spoke48 scarcely a word, but her cheeks were flushed and about her deep brown eyes a curious smile was constantly playing.
He left her at the door and as he pressed her hand softly said:
“You scarcely spoke the whole way home—tell me what were you thinking about?”
“I don’t know—perhaps dreaming of your terrible court—of a man being condemned49 to death without knowing it!”
“Yet a smile was playing about your beautiful face?”
Stella suddenly burst into half hysterical50 laughter:
“Of course, how can you doubt that I was happy! I’ll tell you all my thoughts to-morrow night.”
“Shall we go on horseback?”
“Yes, but I wish to go alone; I’ll meet you there at dusk,” she replied with another strange laugh, waving her hand as he mounted his horse and galloped away.
She closed the door and with quick nervous step, crossed the hall and passed into the library, confronting Ackerman.
“John Graham is the Chief of the Ku Klux Klan—he has confessed to me!” she whispered excitedly. “I have arranged everything for his arrest day after to-morrow evening at their secret meeting place.”
“Then our work is complete,” he said with a ring of triumph.
“And his execution is a certainty?”
“I haven’t the remotest idea that Graham himself can ever be convicted of the murder of Judge Butler—but your discovery is of tremendous importance.”
“He—cannot—be—convicted!” Stella gasped51.
“No, but the Invisible Empire will be in ruins in forty-eight hours,” he replied, seizing his hat. “Excuse me now, I have work of the gravest importance to-night. Thanks for the promptness with which you have kept your promise.”
Before Stella could speak he was gone. With a scowl52 on her beautiful brow, she called Maggie:
“Tell Mr. Steve Hoyle I wish to see him here immediately.”
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收听单词发音
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1
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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dastard
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| n.卑怯之人，懦夫；adj.怯懦的，畏缩的 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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4
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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5
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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6
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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7
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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8
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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9
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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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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11
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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13
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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14
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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15
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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17
densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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18
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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20
reining
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的现在分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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21
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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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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pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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24
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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25
holly
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| n.[植]冬青属灌木 | |
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serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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28
fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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shimmered
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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32
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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33
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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34
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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36
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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37
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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38
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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39
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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40
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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41
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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42
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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43
tapering
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| adj.尖端细的 | |
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44
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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45
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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46
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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47
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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48
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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49
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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50
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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51
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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52
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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