Not a word was being spoken between them. She had not long come into the room. A great terror lay on both their hearts. At least, it did on hers: and Sir Adam had grown to feel anything but easy. The suspicions, that appeared to be attaching themselves to the Maze outside the walls, were producing their effects on the comfort of the inmates9 within: and perhaps these suspicions were feared all the more because they did not as yet take any tangible10 or distinct form. That a detective officer was in the neighbourhood looking about, Adam had heard from his brother; and that it was the same man who had been seen by Ann Hopley watching the house in the moonlight and who had boldly presented himself at the gate the next day demanding permission to enter, Sir Adam had no doubt whatever of. Karl, too, was taking to write him notes of caution.
Brave though he was, he could not feel safe. There was not a moment of the day or night but he might see the officers of justice coming in to look for him. His own opinion was, that he should be able to evade11 them if they did come; to baffle their scrutiny12; but he could not feel quite as easy as though he were on a bed of rose-leaves. In consequence of this apprehension13, the ears of himself and his wife were ever on the alert, their eyes rarely went off the watch, their conscious hearts never lost the quick beat of fear. It was enough to wear them both out.
Can the reader really realize, I wonder, what the situation was? Can he only imagine one single hour of its terrors, or picture its never-ceasing, prolonged doubt and agony? I think not. It cannot be adequately told of. Behind and before there was the awful vista14 of that dreadful Portland Island: look which way they would, nothing else presented itself.
A gentle breeze suddenly arose, stirring the trees outside. Never an unexpected sound, however faint, was heard, but it stirred their beating hearts; stirred them to a fast, fluttering, ugly throbbing16. It was but the wind; they knew it was only that: and yet the emotion did not subside17 quickly. Rose had another great anxiety, separate and apart: perhaps he had it also in a degree, but he did not admit it. It was on the score of her husband's health. There could be no doubt that something or other was amiss, for he had occasional attacks of pain that seemed to arise without any explainable cause. Ann Hopley, who considered herself wise in ailments18, declared that he ought to see a doctor. She had said it to her master ineffectually; she now began to say it to her mistress. Sir Adam laughed when his wife was present, and ridiculed19 her advice with mocking words of pleasantry; but Ann Hopley gave nothing but grave looks in return.
The fact was, she knew more than Rose did: more than Sir Adam intended or would allow his wife to know. One day, going to a part of the grounds where she knew she should find her master, she discovered him on the ground amidst the trees in a fainting-fit, his face of a bluish-white. Some acute pain, or spasm20, sharper than he had ever felt before, had caused him to lose consciousness, he said, when he recovered; and he threatened the woman with unheard of pains and penalties if she breathed a word to her mistress. Ann Hopley held her tongue accordingly: but when Rose was about again she could see that Adam was not well. And the very impossibility of calling in a medical man to him, without arousing curiosity and comments that might lead to danger, was tormenting22 her with its own anxiety.
"The baby sleeps well to-night, Rose."
"He has slept better and has been altogether easier since he was baptised," was her answer. "It is just as though he knew he had been made a little Christian23, and so feels at rest."
"Goose!" smiled Sir Adam. "Don't you think you are sitting up too late, you young mamma?"
"I am not tired, Adam. I slept well this afternoon."
"It is later than perhaps you are aware of, Rose. Hard upon ten."
"Would you like to have lights!" she asked.
"No. I'd rather be without them."
She also would rather be without them. In this extended cause for fear that was growing up, it seemed safer to be at the open window looking out, than to be shut up in the closed room where the approaches of danger could neither be seen nor heard. Perhaps the same kind of feeling was swaying Sir Adam.
"You are sure you are well wrapped up, Rose?"
"Certain. And I could not take cold in this weather. It is like summer still."
All around was quiet as death. The stars shone in the sky: the gentle breeze, that had ruffled24 the trees just before, seemed to have died away. Breaking just then upon the stillness, came the sound of the church clock at Foxwood, telling its four quarters and the ten strokes of the hour after it. The same quarters, the same strokes that Miss Blake also heard, emerging from Dame25 Bell's cottage. The husband and wife, poor banned people, stood on again side by side, they hardly knew how long, hushing the trouble that was making a havoc26 of their lives, and from which they knew there could be no certain or complete escape so long as time for him should last. Presently he spoke8 again.
"Rose, if you stay here longer I shall close the window. This night air, calm and warm though it is, cannot be good for you----"
She laid her warning hand upon his arm. The ears of both were quick, but he was speaking at the moment, and so she caught the sound first. A pause of intense silence, their hearts beating almost to be heard; and then the advance of footsteps, whether stealthy ones or not, might be distinctly traced, coming through the maze.
"Go, Adam," she whispered.
But, before Sir Adam could quit the room, the whistle of a popular melody broke out upon the air, and they knew the intruder was Karl. It was his usual advance signal. Ann Hopley heard it below and opened the heavily barred door to him.
"You are late to-night, sir."
"True. I could not come earlier, Ann: it was not safe."
Poor Karl Andinnian! Had he but known that it was not safe that night, later as well as earlier! That is, that he had not come in unwatched. For, you have understood that it was the night mentioned at the close of the last chapter, when his interview with Mr. Strange had taken place on his return from London, and the detective and Miss Blake had subsequently watched him in.
"Now then, Karl," began Sir Adam, when the room was at length closed and lighted, and Ann Hopley had gone down again, "what was the precise meaning of the cautionary note you sent me to-day?"
"The meaning was to enjoin27 extra caution upon you," replied Karl, after a moment's hesitation28, and an involuntary glance at Rose.
"If you have anything to say and are hesitating because my wife is present, you may speak out freely," cried the very un-reticent Sir Adam. Rose seconded the words.
"Speak, Karl, speak," she said, leaning towards him with a painful anxiety in her tone. "It will be a relief to me. Nothing that you or any one else can say can be as bad as my own fears."
"Well, I have found out that that man is a London detective," said Karl, deeming it best to tell the whole truth. "He is down here looking after an escaped fugitive29. Not you, Adam: one Salter."
"One Salter?" echoed Sir Adam, testily30, while Rose started slightly. "Who's he? What Salter? Is there any Salter at Foxwood?"
"It seems that the police in London have been suspecting that he was here and they sent this detective, who calls himself Strange, to look after him. Salter, however, cannot be found; there's no doubt that the suspicion was altogether a mistake; but, unfortunately, Strange has had his thoughts directed to the Maze, and is looking after it."
"After me?" cried Adam.
"No. I do not believe there exists the smallest suspicion that you are not in the family vault31 in Foxwood churchyard. He fancies some one is concealed33 here, and thinks it must be Salter."
"But why on earth should his suspicions be directed to the Maze at all?" demanded Sir Adam, with a touch of his native heat.
"Ah, why! We have to thank Moore for that, and your own incaution, Adam, when you allowed yourself to be seen the night he brought Nurse Chaffen in. It seems the woman has talked of it outside; telling people, and Strange amid the rest, that it was either a real gentleman in dinner attire34, or a ghost in the semblance35 of one. Some have taken unhesitatingly to the ghost theory, believing it to be a remnant of the Throcton times; but detectives are wiser men."
"And so this man is looking after the Maze!"
"Just so. He is after Salter, not after you."
Sir Adam made no immediate36 observation. Rose, listening eagerly, was gazing at Karl.
"Is it sure that Salter is not in the place?" she asked in a low tone. "That he has not been here?"
"Quite sure, Rose. The idea was a misapprehension entirely," replied Karl, returning her meaning glance. "Therefore, you see," he added, by way of giving what reassurance37 he could, "the man you have so dreaded38 is not on the track of Adam at all; but on the imaginary one of Salter."
"One scent39 leads to another," broke forth Sir Adam. "While the fellow is tracking out Salter, he may track out me. Who's to know that he has not a photograph of Adam Andinnian in his pocket, or my face in his memory?"
"I should like to ask him the question, whether he knew Sir Adam Andinnian personally; but I fear I dare not," remarked Karl. "A suspicion once awakened40 would not end. Your greatest security lies in their not knowing you are alive."
"My only security," corrected Sir Adam. "Well, Karl, if that man has his eyes directed to the Maze, it puts an end to all hope of my trying to get away. Little doubt, I suppose, but he is watching the outer walls night and day; perhaps with a dozen comrades to help him."
"For the present, you can only stay where you are," acknowledged Karl. "I have told you all this, Adam, to make you doubly careful. But for your reckless incaution I would have spared you the additional uneasiness it must bring."
"Even though the man does know me, the chances are that he would not find me if he came in," mused42 Sir Adam aloud. "With my precautions, the task would be somewhat difficult. You know it, Karl."
"Yes, but you are not always using your precautions," returned Karl. "Witness you here, sitting amidst us openly this evening in full dress! Don't do in so future, Adam! conceal32 yourself as you best can--I beseech43 it of you for the love of Heaven. When this present active trouble shall have subsided44--if in God's mercy it does so subside--why then you may resume old habits again. At least, there will not be so much risk: but I have always considered them hazardous45."
"I'll see," assented46 Sir Adam. Which was a concession47 from him.
"Be on your guard day and night. Let not one moment of either season find you off it, or unready for any surprise or emergency. Strange talked about applying for a search-warrant to examine the house. Should he do so, I will warn you of it, if possible. But your safer course is to be looking for the enemy with every ring that the bell gives, every breath that stirs the trees in the labyrinth48, every sound that vibrates on the air."
"A pretty state of things!" growled49 Adam. "I'm sure I wish I never had come here!"
"Oh that you had not!" returned Karl.
"It's my proper place, though. It is. My dear little son, heir to all, ought to be brought up on his own property. Karlo, old fellow, that remark must have a cruel ring on your ear: but I cannot put the child out of his birthright."
"I should never wish you to do it, Adam."
"Some arrangement shall be made for the far-off future; rest assured of that, and tell your wife so. In any case, Foxwood will be yours for one-and-twenty years to come, and the income you now enjoy, to keep it up with. After the boy shall be of age----"
"Let us leave those considerations for the present," interrupted Karl. "All of us may be dead and buried before then. As for me, I seem not to see a single step before me, let alone a series of years."
"Right, Karl. These dreams lay hold of me sometimes, but it is worse than silly to speak of them. Are you going?"
"Yes. It is late. I should not have come in to-night, but for wishing to warn you. You will try and take care of yourself, Adam?" he affectionately added, holding out his hand.
"I'll take care of myself; never fear," was Sir Adam's light answer as he grasped it. "Look here, brother mine," he resumed, after a slight pause, and his voice took a deeper tone. "God knows that I have suffered too heavily for what I did; He knows that my whole life, from the rising up of the sun to its going down, from the first falling shade of night's dark curtain to its lifting, is one long, unbroken penance50: and I believe in my heart that He will in His compassion51 shield me from further danger. There! take that to comfort you, and go in peace. In your care for me, you have needed comfort throughout more than I, Karl."
Retaining his brother's hand in his while Karl said good night to Rose, Adam went down stairs with him, and beyond the door after Ann Hopley had unbarred it. It was only since the advent52 of the new fears that these extra precautions of barring up at sunset had been taken.
"Don't come out," urged Karl.
"Just a step or two."
Karl submitted: he felt secure enough against active danger to-night. But it was in these trifles that Adam's natural incaution betrayed itself.
"Karl, did you tell all you knew?" he began as they plunged53 into the maze. "Was there more behind that you would not speak before the wife?"
"I told you all, Adam. It is bad enough."
"It might be worse. Suppose they were looking after me, for instance, instead of this fellow Salter! I shall baffle them; I don't fear."
"Adam, you shall not come farther. If the man got in one night, he may get in another. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, dear old anxious fellow!"
"Go in, and get the door barred."
"All right. A last good night to you!"
Karl walked on, through the intricacies of the maze. Adam stood listening for a moment, and, then turned to retrace54 his steps. As he did so, the sharp dart55 of pain he was growing accustomed to went through him, turning him sick and faint. He seized hold of a tree for support, and leaned against it.
"What on earth can be the matter with me?" ran his thoughts after it had subsided, and he was getting out his handkerchief, to wipe from his brow the cold drops of agony that had gathered there. "As Ann Hopley says, I ought to see a doctor: but it is not to be thought of; and less than ever now, with this new bother hanging over the house. Hark! Oh, it's only the wind rustling56 the leaves again."
He stayed listening to it. Listening in a dreamy kind of way, his thoughts still on his malady57.
"I wonder what it is? If the pain were in a different direction I might think it was the heart. But it is not that. When my father was first taken ill of his fatal illness, he spoke of some such queer attacks of agony. I am over young for his complaint, though. Does disease ever grow out of anxiety, I wonder? If so----"
A whirl and a rustle58 just over his head, and Sir Adam started as though a blow had struck him. It was but a night owl41, flying away from the tree above with her dreary59 note and beating the air with her wings; but it had served to startle him to terror, and he felt as sick and faint again as he did just before from the physical pain. What nerves he possessed60 were on the extreme tension to-night. That Adam Andinnian, the cool-natured equable man, who was the very opposite of his sensitive brother Karl, and who had been unable to understand what nerves were, and to laugh at those who had them--that he could be thus shaken by merely the noise of a night bird, will serve to show the reader what his later life had been, and how it had told upon him. He did not let this appear, even to those about him; he kept up his old r?le of cool carelessness--and in a degree he was careless still, and in ordinary moments most incautious from sheer want of thought--but there could be no doubt that he was experiencing to the full all the bitter mockery, the never ceasing dread15 and hazard of his position. In the early days, when the attempted escape from Portland Island was only in contemplation, Karl had foreseen what the life must be if he did escape. An existence of miserable61 concealment62; of playing at hide and seek with the law; a world-wide apprehension, lying on him always, of being retaken. In short, a hunted man who must not dare to approach the haunts of his fellowmen, and of whom every other man must be the necessary enemy. Even so had it turned out: Adam Andinnian was realizing it to the full. A great horror lay upon him of being recaptured: but it may be questioned whether, had the choice been given him, he would not rather have remained a prisoner than have escaped to this. Even as he stood there now, in the damp still night, with all the nameless, weird63 surroundings of fancy that night sometimes brings when the spirit is in tune64 for it, he was realizing it unto his soul.
The glitter of the stars, twinkling in their dusky canopy65, shone down upon him through the interstices of the trees, already somewhat thinning their leaves with the approach of autumn; and he remained on, amid the gloom, lost in reflection.
"I should be better off there," he murmured, gazing upwards66 in thought at the Heaven that was beyond; "and it may be that Thou, O my God, knowest that, in Thy pitiful mercy. As Thou wilt67. Life has become but a weary one here, full of pains and penalties."
"Master!" came to him in a hushed, doubtful voice at this juncture68. "Master, are you within hearing? My mistress is feeling anxious, and wants the door bolted."
"Ay, bolt and bar it well, Ann," he said, going forward. "But barred doors will not keep out all the foes69 of man."
Meanwhile Karl had got through the maze; and cautiously, after listening, let himself out at the gate. No human being, that he could discern, was within sight or hearing; and he crossed the road at once. Then, but not before, he became aware that his agent, Mr. Smith, was in that favourite spot and attitude of his, leaning his arms on the little garden gate, his green glasses discarded--as they generally were after sunset.
"Goodnight," said Karl in passing. But some words of the agent's served to arrest his progress.
"Would you mind stepping in for one moment, Sir Karl? I wanted to say just a word to you, and have been watching for you to come out."
"Is it anything particular?" asked Karl, turning in at the gate at once, which Mr. Smith held open.
"I'll get a light, sir, if you will wait an instant."
Karl heard the striking of a match indoors, and Mr. Smith reappeared in the passage with a candle. He ushered70 Karl into the room on the left-hand; the best room, that was rarely used.
"This one has got its shutters closed," was the explanatory remark. "I generally keep the others open until I go to bed."
"Tell me at once what it is you want," said Karl. "It is late, and I shall have my household wondering where I am."
"Well, Sir Karl, first of all, I wish to ask if you are aware that you were watched into the Maze tonight?" He spoke in the lowest whisper; scarcely above his breath. The agent's one servant had been in bed at the top of the house long before: but he was a cautious man.
"No. Who watched me?"
"Two people, sir. One was Miss Blake, the lady staying with you at the Court; the other was a confounded fellow who is at Foxwood for no good, I guess, and is pushing his prying71 nose on the sly into everything."
"Do you mean Mr. Strange?"
"That's the name: a lodger72 at Mother Jinks's. He and the lady watched you in, Sir Karl; they stood close by the gate among the trees; and then they walked off down the road together."
Karl's pulses beat a shade more quickly. "Why should they have been watching me? What could be their motive73?"
"Miss Blake did not intend to watch--as I take it. I saw her coming along with a sharpish step from the direction of that blessed St. Jerome's, late as it was--Cattacomb may have been treating his flock to a nocturnal service. When she was close upon the Maze she must have heard your footsteps, for she drew suddenly behind the trees to hide herself. After you were in, she came out of her shelter, and another with her--the man Strange. So he must have been hidden there beforehand, Sir Karl: and, I should say, to watch."
Karl was silent. He did not like to hear this. It seemed to menace further danger.
"I went in to warn Sir Adam against this man," he observed; "to tell him never to be off his guard, day or night. He is a London detective!"
"What--Strange is?" exclaimed the agent, with as much astonishment74 as his low tones allowed him to express. "A London detective, Sir Karl?"
"Yes, he is."
Mr. Smith's face fell considerably75. "But--what is he doing down here?" he inquired. "Who's he after? Surely not Sir Adam?"
"No, not Sir Adam. He is after some criminal who--who does not exist in the place at all," added Karl, not choosing to be more explicit76, considering that it was the man before him whom he had suspected of being the said criminal, and feeling ashamed of his suspicions now that they were dispelled77, and he had to speak of it with him face to face. "The danger is, that in looking after one man the police may come upon the track of another."
The agent nodded his head. "But surely they do not suspect the Maze?"
"They do suspect the Maze," replied Karl. "Owing to the tattling of the woman Mr. Moore took there--Nurse Chaffen--they suspect it."
Mr. Smith allowed a very unorthodox word to issue through his closed teeth, applied78 not only to the lady in question, but to ladies in general.
"The man Strange has been down here looking after some one whom he can't find; who no doubt is not in the neighbourhood at all, and never has been," resumed Karl. "Strange's opinion, however, was--and is--that the man is here, concealed. When he heard Chaffen's tale of the gentleman she saw in evening dress at the Maze, but whom she never saw again and therefore concluded he was hidden somewhere about the house not to show himself to her, he caught up the notion that it was the man he was after. Hence his suspicions of the Maze, and his watchings."
"It's a very unfortunate thing!" breathed the agent.
"You see now, Mr. Smith, how much better it would have been if Sir Adam had never come here. Or, being here, if he had been allowed to go away again."
"He can't attempt it now," was the quiet retort of the agent. "With a detective's eyes about, it would be only to walk straight into the lion's mouth."
"Just so. We all know that."
"I wish to heaven I could get him away!" spoke the agent impulsively79, and it was evident that his heart was in his words. "Until now I believed he was as safe here as he could be elsewhere--or safer. What the devil brings a confounded detective in this quiet place? The malignant80 fiend, or some implacable fate must have sent him. Sir Karl, the danger is great. We must not shut our eyes to it."
Alas81, Karl Andinnian felt that, in a more cruel degree than the agent could. It was his work; it was he who had brought this hornet's nest about his unfortunate brother's head. The consciousness of it lay heavily upon him in that moment; throat and tongue and lips were alike parched82 with the fever of remorse83.
"May I ask you for a glass of water, Mr. Smith?" broke next from the said dry lips.
"I'll get it for you in a moment, sir," said the agent, rising with alacrity84.
Karl heard another match struck outside, and then the steps of the agent retreating in the direction of the pump. In his restlessness of mind he could not sit still, but rose to pace the room. A small set of ornamental85 book-shelves, hanging against the wall, caught his attention: he halted before it and took down a volume, mechanically, rather than with any motive.
"Philip Salter. From his loving mother."
The words met Karl's eyes as he opened the book.
Just for a moment he questioned whether his sight was deceiving him. But no. There they were, in a lady's hand, the ink dry and faded with time. It was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."
"Is it Salter, after all?" mentally breathed Karl.
Mr. Smith came in again with the glass of water as the doubt was running through Karl's mind. Thanking his agent for the water, he drank it at a draught86, and sat down with the book in his hand.
"I have been amongst your books, you see, Mr. Smith. A sound old volume, this."
"So it is, Sir Karl. I dip into it myself now and then."
"Did you know this--this Mr. Philip Salter?"--holding the book open at the words.
For answer the agent threw his eyes straight into Karl's face, and paused. "Did you know him, Sir Karl?"
"I never knew him. I have heard somewhat about him."
"Ay, few persons but have, I expect," returned the agent, with a kind of groan87. "He was my cousin, sir."
"Your cousin!" echoed Karl.
"My own cousin: we were sisters' sons. He was Philip Salter; I am Philip Smith."
Karl's eyes were opened. In more senses than one.
"The fool that Philip Salter showed himself!" ejaculated Philip Smith--and it was evident by the bitter tone that the subject was a sore one. "I was in his office, Sir Karl, a clerk under him; but he was some years younger than I. He might have done so well: none of us had the smallest idea but what he was doing well. It was all through private and illegitimate speculation88. He got into a hole where the mire89 was deep, and he used dangerous means when at his wits' end to get himself out of it. It did for him what you know, and it ruined me; for, being his cousin, men thought I must have known of it, and my place was taken from me."
"Where is he now?" asked Karl.
"I don't know. Sometimes we think he is dead. After his escape, we had reason to believe that he got off to Canada, but we were never made certain of it, and have never heard from him in any way. He may be in some of the backwoods there, afraid to write."
"And this was his book?"
"Yes. Most of his small belongings90 came into my hands. The affair killed his mother: broke her heart. He was all she had, save one daughter. Sir Karl, do you know what I'd do if I had the power?" fiercely continued Smith. "I would put down by penal21 laws all these cursed speculators who, men of straw themselves, issue their plausible91 schemes only to deceive and defraud92 a confiding93, credulous94 public; all these betting and gambling95 rogues96 who lay hold of honest natures to lure97 them to their destruction. But for them, Philip Salter had been holding up his untarnished head yet."
"Ay," assented Karl. "But that will never be, so long as the greed of gold shall last. It is a state of affairs that can belong only to a Utopian world; not to this."
He put out his hand to Philip Smith when he left--a thing he had never done voluntarily before--in his sensitive regret for having wronged the man in his heart: and went home with his increased burden of perplexity and pain.
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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forth
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obstinately
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remonstrance
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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shutters
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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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inmates
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tangible
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evade
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scrutiny
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apprehension
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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dread
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throbbing
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subside
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ailments
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ridiculed
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spasm
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penal
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tormenting
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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enjoin
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| v.命令；吩咐；禁止 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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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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reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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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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retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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58
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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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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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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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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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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72
lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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75
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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impulsively
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| adv.冲动地 | |
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80
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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81
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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82
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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83
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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84
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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85
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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86
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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87
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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88
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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89
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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91
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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92
defraud
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| vt.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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93
confiding
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| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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95
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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96
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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