Nobody heard this speech; or if indeed, the words fell upon the ear of the soft-shod messenger who at that moment entered the room, he was far too dexterous10 and too old an official to let his face betray it. He glided11 softly to Mr. Beresford's elbow, as that gentleman still remained at the window, vacantly watching the powder-mixing clerks, and murmured,
"Letter, sir."
"Put it down," aid Beresford, without turning round. "Official, eh?"
"Give it here," said Beresford, stretching out his hand. "Ah, no answer! That'll do, Stubbs."
And Stubbs went his way to a glass-case, in which, in the company of four other messengers and twenty bells, his official days were passed, and gave himself up to bemoaning13 his stupidity in having taken his fortnight's leave of absence in the past wet July instead of the present sultry season.
Mr. Beresford looked at the address of the letter, and frowned slightly. It was a small note, pink paper, with a couchant dog and an utterly14 illegible15 monogram16 on the seal, and the superscription was written in a long scrawly17 hand. There was an odour of patchouli, too, about it which roused Beresford's ire, and he muttered as he opened it, "Confounded stuff! Who on earth is she copying now, with her scents18 and crests19 and humbug20? I thought she'd more sense than that!" And he ran his eye over the note. It was very short.
"Dear Charley,--What has become of you? Why do you never come near The Den21? It is nearly three weeks since you were here. I'm off to Scarborough on Tuesday; a lot of my pupils are there and want me, so I can carry on my little game of money-making, get some fresh air, and perhaps pick up some fresh nags22 to sell before the hunting season, all 'under vun hat,' as Tom Orme fasechous--facesh (I don't know how to spell it)--says. Come up and dine to-night at seven. There are two or three good fellows coming, and I want to talk to you and to look at your old phiz again, and see how much older you've grown during your absence, and how much balder; for, you know, you're growing bald, Charley, and that will be awful hard lines to such a swell23 as you. Seven sharp, mind.
"Always yours,
"K. M.
"P.S. Charley, if you don't come, I shall think you've grown proud; and it'll be a great shame, and I shall never speak to you again.
"K.M."
Now lest, after a perusal24 of this letter, any one should think ill of its writer, I take leave to announce at once that Kate Mellon was a virtuous25 woman; pure in heart, though any thing but simple; without fear, but not without as much reproach as could possibly be heaped upon her by all of her own sex who envied her good looks, her high spirits, and her success. There are, I take it, plenty of novels in which one can read the doings, either openly described or broadly hinted at, of the daughters of Shame under many a pretty alias26; and it is because one of these aliases27 describes the calling of which Kate Mellon was the most successful follower28, that I am so desirous of clearing her good name, and immediately vindicating29 her position with my readers. Kate Mellon was a horsebreaker, a bona-fide horsebreaker; one who curbed30 colts, and "took it out of" kickers and rearers, and taught wild Irish horses and four-year-olds fresh from Yorkshire spinneys to curvet and caper31 prettily32 in the Park. She taught riding, too; and half the Amazons in the Row owed their tightness of seat and lightness of hand to her judicious33 training. She hunted occasionally with the Queen's hounds and with the Pytchley, and no one rode straighter or with more nonchalance34 than she. Give her a lead, that was all she wanted; and when she got it, as she invariably did from the boldest horseman in the field, she would settle herself in her saddle, left hand well down, right hand jauntily35 on her hip36, and fly over timber, water, no matter what, like a bird. In social life her great pride was that there "was no nonsense" about her; she was not more civil to the great ladies who sent their horses to her establishment to be broke, and who would occasionally come up and inspect the process, than she was to the stable-helpers' wives and children, who all worshipped her for her openhanded generosity37. Tommy Orme who was popularly supposed to be a hundred and fifty years old, but who lived with the youth of the Household Brigade and the Foreign Office and the coryphées, and who knew every body remarkable38 in any one way, never was tired of telling how Kate, teaching the Dowager Lady Wylminster to drive a pair of spirited dun ponies39, had, in the grand lady's idea, intrenched upon her prerogative40, and was told that she was a presuming person, and desired to remember her place.
"Person, indeed!" said Kate; "person yourself, ma'am! My place isn't by you after that, and now get the duns home the best way you can;" with which she sprang from the low phaeton, struck off across the fields, and left the wretched representative of aristocracy "with a couple of plunging41 brutes43 that soon spilt the old woman into the hedge, broke the trap all to pieces, and rushed away home with the splinter-bar at their heels--give you my word!" as Tommy used to narrate44 it.
Her manner with men was perfectly45 frank and open, equally devoid46 of reticence47 or coquetry. She called them all by their Christian48 names if they were commoners, by their titles if they were lords. She answered at once when addressed as "Kitty," or "Old Lady," or "Stunner;" by all of which appellations49 she was known. She would lay her whip lightly across the shoulders of any particular friend as a token of recognition at the meet; would smoke a cigarette on her way home after the kill; and always carried sherry and sandwiches in a silver combination of flask50 and box. Her grammar was shaky, and her aspirate occasionally misplaced; she never read any thing but Bell's Life and books on farriery, and she laughed a loud, ringing, resonant51 shout; but her speech was always free from bad words, and no man ever tried a double entendre or a blasphemy52 twice in her presence. Living the odd strange life she did, defiant53 of all society's prejudices, it was yet strange that even London slander54 had left her unassailed. They did say that she was very much taken by Bob Mayo's sabre-scar when he returned from the Crimea, and that Barker, the steeple-chase rider, half gentleman, half jock, was engaged to her; but nothing came of either of these two reports. Early in her London career, very soon after she came to town, and when men were first beginning to inquire who was the dashing horsewoman who rode such splendid cattle with such pluck and skill, De Blague, the Queen's messenger, assumed to know all about her, and at Limmer's, one night, threw out certain hints by no means uncomplimentary to himself, and eked55 out with many nods and winks56; but two days after that, as De Blague, with two other Foreign-Office men, was leaning over the rails in the Row, Miss Mellon rode up, and denouncing him as a "bragging57 hound," slashed58 him with her by no means light riding-whip severely59 over the head and shoulders. After that day no one cared to say much against Kate Mellon.
Who was she, and where did she come from? that no one positively60 knew. When The Den at Ealing (she so christened it; it was called Myrtle Farm before) was to let, the neighbours thought the landlord would stand out of his rent for many years. The house was a little, long, one-storied building, cut up into small rooms; old, dilapidated, and damp. The stables were rotting with decay; the barns untiled and tumbling down; the twenty or thirty acres of land attached were swampy61 and unproductive. The place stood untenanted for half a year. Then, one morning, an old gentleman arrived in a four-wheeled cab, went all over the premises62, had an interview with the proprietor63, announced himself as Mr. Powker, of the firm of Powker and Beak64, of Lincoln's Inn, and within a fortnight the lease was assigned to Miss Kate Mellon, spinster. The house was papered and painted, and put in order; the stables were entirely65 altered and renovated66, and fitted with enamel67 mangers, and tesselated pavements, and bronze devices for holding the pillar-reins, and all the newest equine upholstery; some of the barns were converted into carriage-houses, and one of the largest into a tan-strewn riding-school; the land was thoroughly68 drained and laid out in paddocks, where there were tan-rides and all kinds of jumps, and an artificial brook69, and every thing for a horse's proper tuition. Miss Mellon did not receive visits from the neighbouring gentry70, principally lawyers and merchants, who went regularly to business, and always stared hard at her when their wives were not with them; nor did she attend the parish-church; but she gave largely to all the parochial charities, and in the winter had a private soup-kitchen of her own. I believe that occasionally gin was dispensed71 in small glasses to the soup-recipients; but all was done under the superintendence of Freeman, the staid stud-groom, who had followed her from Yorkshire, where she said "her people" lived. But she never said any thing more about them; and you would as soon have got a comic song out of an oyster72 as a word from Freeman. And she prospered73 wonderfully. She had to make large additions to the stables, and to build rooms for an increased force of grooms74; and even then there were always half a score of horses waiting on her list for admission, either for training or cure. She made money rapidly, and kept it: no better woman of business ever breathed; in a big ledger75 she scrawled76 her own accounts, and, as she boasted, could always tell to a farthing "how she stood." With all this she was generous and hospitable; paid her grooms good wages, and gave frequent dinner-parties to her friends,--dinner-parties which scandalised her solemnly pompous77 neighbours, who would look aghast at the flashing lamps of the carriages dashing up the little carriage-drive to fetch away the company at the small hours, or would listen from beneath their virtuous bedclothes to the shouts of mirth and snatches of melody which came booming over the hushed fields.
One of these dinner-parties--that to which she had invited Beresford--is just over. The French windows in the long, low dining-room are open; the table is covered with the remains78 of dessert, and some of the guests have already lighted cigars. Kate Mellon heads her table still; she never leaves the room to the gentlemen,--"It's slow," he says; "women alone fight or bore;" so she remains. You can catch a good glimpse of her now under that shaded swinging moderator-lamp; a little woman, with a closely-knit figure, long violet eyes, and red-gold hair, taken off over her ears, twisted in a thick lump at the back of her head, and secured with a pink coral comb of horse-shoe shape. She is dressed in white spotted79 muslin, fastened at the throat and waist with coral brooch and clasps. Her nose is a little too thick for beauty; her lips full; her mouth large, with strong white teeth; her hands are white, but large and sinewy80; and the tones of her voice are sharp and clear. She is shouting with laughter at a song which a jolly-looking young man, sitting at the little cottage-piano at the end of the room, has just finished; and her laugh makes the old rafters ring again.
"I always yell at that song, Tom," she says. "I haven't heard it since last winter, the day that 'Punch' Croker dined here, and we gave him an olive to taste for the first time."
"He's tremendous fun, is Punch," said the singer. "Why didn't he dine here to-day? Is he out of town?"
"He's got a moor81 with Penkridge," said Beresford, who was sitting next the hostess. "By Jove, how bored Penkridge will be before he's done with him!"
"Punch has not got much to say for himself," said a tall man, in a dark beard. "I've had him down to dine with me when I've been on guard at the Bank, and, 'pon my soul, he's never said a word the whole night!"
"He was at Baden with us last year," said Beresford; "and when we used to sit and smoke our weeds after dinner in front of the Kursaal, he used to bore us so with staring at us and saying nothing, that we used to pay him to go away. Subscribe82 five francs, or thalers--according to our means, you know--and send him to play at the tables to get rid of him."
"He's not a bad fellow, though, Punch Croker," said Kate. "And what I like in him is, he never lets out that he don't know every thing!"
"No, that's just it!" said the tall guardsman. "Just after the Derby, I was confoundedly seedy, and my doctor told me I wanted more ozone83."
"Well, it's some air or stuff that you don't get by sitting up all night, and lying in bed till three. From the doctor's I went to the Rag, and found Meaburn there; and we'd just agreed to dine together, when Punch Croker came in. I told Meaburn to hold on, and we'd get a rise out of Punch. He asked us if we were going to dine, and we said yes, and that he might dine too, if he liked. And I told him I'd got some ozone, and asked him his opinion, as a sort of fellow who knew those things, how it should be cooked. He thought for one moment, and then said, perfectly quietly, 'Well, if you have it before the cheese, it should be broiled85.' Never let on that he didn't know what it was; never changed a muscle of his face,--give you my word!"
They all laughed at this, and then the tall guardsman said, "It's a great bore, though, to get a reputation for stupidity. It's as bad as being supposed to be funny. People are always expecting you to say stupid things, and sometimes it's deuced hard to do."
"Poor old Charleville!" said Beresford; "we all sympathise with you, old fellow, though no one can imagine you ever found any difficulty in being stupid. Comes natural, don't it, old boy?"
Captain Charleville didn't seem to relish86 this remark, and was about to reply angrily, when Tom Burton, the man who had been singing, struck in hastily with, "Well, it's better to be or to seem stupid, than to be stupid and have the credit of being clever. Now there's Northaw, only said one decent thing in his life; and because that has been told about, fellows say that he's a deuced clever fellow, and that there's more in him than you'd think."
"What was the one good thing he did say?" asked Kate.
"Well, it was one day when he was out with the Queen's last season. Stradwicke was there, and Pattan, and Bellairs, and a lot of men; and Northaw was in a horrid87 bad temper,--had got up too soon, or something, and was as rusty88 as Old Boots; so while he was fretting89 and fuming90 about, and blackguarding the weather, and his stirrup-leathers, and every thing else, Tom Winch rode up to him. You know Tom Winch, son of great contractor91, timber-man, builds bridges, and that sort of thing. 'Morning, my lord!' says Tom Winch. 'Morning,' says Northaw, as sulky as a bear. 'What do you think of my new horse, my lord?' says Tom Winch. 'Ugly brute42,' says Northaw, looking up; 'ugly, wooden-legged brute; looks as if he'd been made at home."
Burton rose during the laugh that followed his story, and rang the bell. "I must be off," he said; "I've rung to have the phaeton round, Kitty. Charleville, you'll come with me? I can find room for you, Beresford."
"No; thanks," said Beresford; "I rode down. Oh, tell them to bring my horse round too," he added to the servant.
"Wait five minutes, Charley," said Kate Mellon in an undertone; "let us have a quiet talk after they're gone. I've got something to say to you."
"Well, good night, Kate; good night, old lady. If you pick up any thing good in Yorkshire, let's how, there's a Stunner! I've promised to mount my sister next season, and she sha'n't ride any thing you don't warrant. Good night, Beresford; good night, old lady;" and with hearty92 hand-shakes to Kate, and nods to Beresford, Captain Charleville and Tom Burton took themselves off.
"Now, Charley," said Kate, leaning forward on the table while Beresford lit a fresh cigar and threw himself back in his chair,--"now, Charley, tell us all about it."
"About what?" asked Beresford, rolling the leaf of his cigar round with his finger. "That is good, by Jove! You say you want to talk to me, and you begin by asking me to tell you all about it!"
"I mean about yourself. You're horribly low, and dull, and slow, and wretched. You've scarcely spoken all the evening, and you ate no dinner, and you drank a great deal of wine."
"You're a pretty hostess, Kitty! You've checked off my dinner like the keeper of a table-d'h?te."
"Well, you know you might drink the cellar dry, if you liked. But you're all out of sorts, Charley; tell me all about it, I say!"
"You certainly are a strange specimen93, Stunner," said Beresford, still calmly occupied with his cigar-leaf; "but there's a wonderful deal of good in you, and I don't mind telling you what I wouldn't say to any one else. I'm done up, Kitty; run the wrong side of the post; distanced, old lady. I've been hit frightfully hard all this year; my book for the Leger looks awful; I owe pots of money, and I am very nearly done."
"My poor Charley!" said the girl, bending forward, with deep interest in her face. "That certainly is a blue look-out," she continued,--for however earnest was her purpose, she could not but express herself in her slang metaphor94. "Is there nothing to fall back upon?"
"Nothing; no resource, save one--and that I'm going to look after at once--marriage!"
"Marriage!"
"Yes; if I could pick up a woman with money, I'd settle down into a regular quiet humdrum95 life. I'd cut the turf, and ride a bishop's cob, and give good dinners, and go to church, and be regularly respectable, by Jove! I should make a good husband, too; I think I should; only--the worst of it is, that these women with money, by some dispensation of nature, are generally so frightfully hideous96."
"Yes," said the girl, who had pushed her hands through her hair, and then clenched97 them tightly in front of her, and who was looking at him with staring, earnest eyes. "I can't fancy you married, Charley; that's quite a new view of matters; and, as you say, the rich women are not generally pretty. You can't have every thing, Charley?"
"No," said Beresford, gloomily. "I know that; and it would be deuced hard lines to have to take a Gorgon98 about with you, and to have to glare at a plain-headed woman sitting opposite you for the rest of your life. But need must--what am I to do?"
"Charley," said the girl, suddenly tilting99 her chair on to its front legs, and drumming with her right hand upon the table; "look here. You can't have every thing, you know, and it's better to make the running over open ground, no matter how heavy, than to dash at a thick hedge where there may be water and Lord knows what on the other side. Don't hurry it so, Charley; you'll get pounded without knowing it, and then there'll be nothing to pull you through. You can't expect every thing in a wife, you know, Charley. If you got money, you couldn't look for rank, you know, eh?"
"Why, how you do talk about it, old lady!" said Beresford, flicking100 the ash off his cigar. "No; I'm not exacting101. I wouldn't care about her pedigree, so long as she was well weighted."
"That's right; of course not, Charley! I should think you'd find some one, Charley; not grand, you know, but good and honest, and all that. Not very beautiful either, perhaps, but not ugly, you know; and one who'd love you, Charley, and be true to you, and take care of you, and make you a good wife."
"Yes, I know, and all that sort of thing; but where is she to come from?"
"You might find such a one, Charley, where you never looked for it, perhaps; one who could bring you a little fortune, all honest money, and who could tell you of her past life, which you never dreamed of, and need not be ashamed of. There might be such a one, Charley!"
She had slid from her chair to the ground, and knelt, with her hands on his knees, looking eagerly into his face. Her eyes gleamed with excitement she had pushed her hair back from her forehead, and her lips were parted in eager anticipation102 of his words. They came at length, very slowly. At first he turned pale, and caught his breath for an instant; then gently lifted her hands, and muttered between his teeth, "It's impossible, Kate; it can't be!"
"Impossible!"
"It can't be, I tell you. What would--there, you don't understand these things, and I can't explain. It's impossible! I was a fool to start the subject. Now I must go. Good-by, child; write me a line from Scarborough; they'll forward it from the office. Won't you say good-by?"
He gripped her cold, passive hand, and two minutes afterwards she heard the sound of his departing horse's feet on the carriage-drive.
For a while Kate Mellon stood motionless, then stamped her foot violently, and sank into a chair, covering her face with her hands, through which the tears welled slowly. Rousing herself at length, she hurried to a writing-table, pulled out a gaudily-decorated papier-maché blotting-book, and commenced scrawling103 a letter. She wrote hurriedly, passionately104, until she had covered the sheet, running her gold pen-holder through the tangled105 mass of hair at the back of her head, and twisting a stick of sealing-wax with her teeth the while. The letter finished, she skimmed through it hastily, put it in an envelope, and directed it to "F. Churchill, Esq., Statesman Office, E.C."
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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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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6
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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7
concocting
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的现在分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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rusticate
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| v.暂时停学离校；n.被罚休学，定居农村 | |
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lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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bemoaning
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| v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的现在分词 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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monogram
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| n.字母组合 | |
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scrawly
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| 潦草地写 | |
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scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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nags
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| n.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的名词复数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的第三人称单数 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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alias
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| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
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aliases
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| n.别名，化名( alias的名词复数 ) | |
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follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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vindicating
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的现在分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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curbed
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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caper
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| v.雀跃，欢蹦；n.雀跃，跳跃；续随子，刺山柑花蕾；嬉戏 | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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jauntily
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| adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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prerogative
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| n.特权 | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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narrate
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| v.讲，叙述 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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appellations
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| n.名称，称号( appellation的名词复数 ) | |
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flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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winks
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| v.使眼色( wink的第三人称单数 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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bragging
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
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slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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swampy
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| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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renovated
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| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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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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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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sinewy
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| adj.多腱的，强壮有力的 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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subscribe
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| vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助 | |
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ozone
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| n.臭氧，新鲜空气 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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broiled
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| a.烤过的 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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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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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gorgon
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| n.丑陋女人，蛇发女怪 | |
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tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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100
flicking
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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101
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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102
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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103
scrawling
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的现在分词 ) | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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105
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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