Dirt, one would fancy, is plenty enough all over the world, being the symbolic7 accompaniment of the foul8 incrustation which began to settle over and bedim all earthly things as soon as Eve had bitten the apple; ever since which hapless epoch9, her daughters have chiefly been engaged in a desperate and unavailing struggle to get rid of it. But the dirt of a poverty-stricken English street is a monstrosity unknown on our side of the Atlantic. It reigns11 supreme12 within its own limits, and is inconceivable everywhere beyond them. We enjoy the great advantage, that the brightness and dryness of our atmosphere keep everything clean that the sun shines upon, converting the larger portion of our impurities13 into transitory dust which the next wind can sweep away, in contrast with the damp, adhesive14 grime that incorporates itself with all surfaces (unless continually and painfully cleansed16) in the chill moisture of the English air. Then the all-pervading smoke of the city, abundantly intermingled with the sable18 snow-flakes of bituminous coal, hovering19 overhead, descending20, and alighting on pavements and rich architectural fronts, on the snowy muslin of the ladies, and the gentlemen's starched21 collars and shirt-bosoms22, invests even the better streets in a half-mourning garb23. It is beyond the resources of Wealth to keep the smut away from its premises24 or its own fingers' ends; and as for Poverty, it surrenders itself to the dark influence without a struggle. Along with disastrous25 circumstances, pinching need, adversity so lengthened26 out as to constitute the rule of life, there comes a certain chill depression of the spirits which seems especially to shudder27 at cold water. In view of so wretched a state of things, we accept the ancient Deluge29 not merely as an insulated phenomenon, but as a periodical necessity, and acknowledge that nothing less than such a general washing-day could suffice to cleanse17 the slovenly32 old world of its moral and material dirt.
Gin-shops, or what the English call spirit-vaults, are numerous in the vicinity of these poor streets, and are set off with the magnificence of gilded33 door-posts, tarnished34 by contact with the unclean customers who haunt there. Ragged36 children come thither37 with old shaving-mugs, or broken-nosed teapots, or ally such makeshift receptacle, to get a little poison or madness for their parents, who deserve no better requital38 at their hands for having engendered39 them. Inconceivably sluttish women enter at noonday and stand at the counter among boon-companions of both sexes, stirring up misery40 and jollity in a bumper41 together, and quaffing42 off the mixture with a relish43. As for the men, they lounge there continually, drinking till they are drunken,—drinking as long as they have a half-penny left, and then, as it seemed to me, waiting for a sixpenny miracle to be wrought44 in their pockets so as to enable them to be drunken again. Most of these establishments have a significant advertisement of "Beds," doubtless for the accommodation of their customers in the interval45 between one intoxication46 and the next. I never could find it in my heart, however, utterly47 to condemn48 these sad revellers, and should certainly wait till I had some better consolation49 to offer before depriving them of their dram of gin, though death itself were in the glass; for methought their poor souls needed such fiery50 stimulant51 to lift them a little way out of the smothering52 squalor of both their outward and interior life, giving them glimpses and suggestions, even if bewildering ones, of a spiritual existence that limited their present misery. The temperance-reformers unquestionably derive54 their commission from the Divine Beneficence, but have never been taken fully15 into its counsels. All may not be lost, though those good men fail.
Pawnbrokers55' establishments, distinguished56 by the mystic symbol of the three golden balls, were conveniently accessible; though what personal property these wretched people could possess, capable of being estimated in silver or copper57, so as to afford a basis for a loan, was a problem that still perplexes me. Old clothesmen, likewise, dwelt hard by, and hung out ancient garments to dangle58 in the wind. There were butchers' shops, too, of a class adapted to the neighborhood, presenting no such generously fattened59 carcasses as Englishmen love to gaze at in the market, no stupendous halves of mighty60 beeves, no dead hogs61 or muttons ornamented62 with carved bas-reliefs of fat on their ribs63 and shoulders, in a peculiarly British style of art,—not these, but bits and gobbets of lean meat, selvages snipt off from steaks, tough and stringy morsels65, bare bones smitten66 away from joints67 by the cleaver68, tripe69, liver, bullocks' feet, or whatever else was cheapest and divisible into the smallest lots. I am afraid that even such delicacies70 came to many of their tables hardly oftener than Christmas. In the windows of other little shops you saw half a dozen wizened71 herrings, some eggs in a basket, looking so dingily72 antique that your imagination smelt73 them, fly-speckled biscuits, segments of a hungry cheese, pipes and papers of tobacco. Now and then a sturdy milk-woman passed by with a wooden yoke74 over her shoulders, supporting a pail on either side, filled with a whitish fluid, the composition of which was water and chalk and the milk of a sickly cow, who gave the best she had, poor thing! but could scarcely make it rich or wholesome75, spending her life in some close city-nook and pasturing on strange food. I have seen, once or twice, a donkey coming into one of these streets with panniers full of vegetables, and departing with a return cargo76 of what looked like rubbish and street-sweepings77. No other commerce seemed to exist, except, possibly, a girl might offer you a pair of stockings or a worked collar, or a man whisper something mysterious about wonderfully cheap cigars. And yet I remember seeing female hucksters in those regions, with their wares78 on the edge of the sidewalk and their own seats right in the carriage-way, pretending to sell half-decayed oranges and apples, toffy, Ormskirk cakes, combs, and cheap jewelry79, the coarsest kind of crockery, and little plates of oysters,—knitting patiently all day long, and removing their undiminished stock in trade at nightfall. All indispensable importations from other quarters of the town were on a remarkably80 diminutive81 scale: for example, the wealthier inhabitants purchased their coal by the wheelbarrow-load, and the poorer ones by the peck-measure. It was a curious and melancholy82 spectacle, when an overladen coal-cart happened to pass through the street and drop a handful or two of its burden in the mud, to see half a dozen women and children scrambling84 for the treasure-trove, like a flock of hens and chickens gobbling up some spilt corn. In this connection I may as well mention a commodity of boiled snails85 (for such they appeared to me, though probably a marine86 production) which used to be peddled87 from door to door, piping hot, as an article of cheap nutriment.
The population of these dismal88 abodes89 appeared to consider the sidewalks and middle of the street as their common hall. In a drama of low life, the unity91 of place might be arranged rigidly92 according to the classic rule, and the street be the one locality in which every scene and incident should occur. Courtship, quarrels, plot and counterplot, conspiracies93 for robbery and murder, family difficulties or agreements,— all such matters, I doubt not, are constantly discussed or transacted94 in this sky-roofed saloon, so regally hung with its sombre canopy95 of coal-smoke. Whatever the disadvantages of the English climate, the only comfortable or wholesome part of life, for the city poor, must be spent in the open air. The stifled96 and squalid rooms where they lie down at night, whole families and neighborhoods together, or sulkily elbow one another in the daytime, when a settled rain drives them within doors, are worse horrors than it is worth while (without a practical object in view) to admit into one's imagination. No wonder that they creep forth97 from the foul mystery of their interiors, stumble down from their garrets, or scramble98 up out of their cellars, on the upper step of which you may see the grimy housewife, before the shower is ended, letting the raindrops gutter99 down her visage; while her children (an impish progeny100 of cavernous recesses101 below the common sphere of humanity) swarm102 into the daylight and attain103 all that they know of personal purification in the nearest mud-puddle. It might almost make a man doubt the existence of his own soul, to observe how Nature has flung these little wretches104 into the street and left them there, so evidently regarding them as nothing worth, and how all mankind acquiesce105 in the great mother's estimate of her offspring. For, if they are to have no immortality107, what superior claim can I assert for mine? And how difficult to believe that anything so precious as a germ of immortal106 growth can have been buried under this dirt-heap, plunged108 into this cesspool of misery and vice109! As often as I beheld110 the scene, it affected111 me with surprise and loathsome112 interest, much resembling, though in a far intenser degree, the feeling with which, when a boy, I used to turn over a plank113 or an old log that had long lain on the damp ground, and found a vivacious114 multitude of unclean and devilish-looking insects scampering115 to and fro beneath it. Without an infinite faith, there seemed as much prospect116 of a blessed futurity for those hideous117 hugs and many-footed worms as for these brethren of our humanity and co-heirs of all our heavenly inheritance. Ah, what a mystery! Slowly, slowly, as after groping at the bottom of a deep, noisome118, stagnant119 pool, my hope struggles upward to the surface, bearing the half-drowned body of a child along with it, and heaving it aloft for its life, and my own life, and all our lives. Unless these slime-clogged nostrils120 can be made capable of inhaling121 celestial122 air, I know not how the purest and most intellectual of us can reasonably expect ever to taste a breath of it. The whole question of eternity123 is staked there. If a single one of those helpless little ones be lost, the world is lost!
The women and children greatly preponderate124 in such places; the men probably wandering abroad in quest of that daily miracle, a dinner and a drink, or perhaps slumbering125 in the daylight that they may the better follow out their cat-like rambles127 through the dark. Here are women with young figures, but old, wrinkled, yellow faces, fanned and blear-eyed with the smoke which they cannot spare from their scanty128 fires,—it being too precious for its warmth to be swallowed by the chimney. Some of them sit on the doorsteps, nursing their unwashed babies at bosoms which we will glance aside from, for the sake of our mothers and all womanhood, because the fairest spectacle is here the foulest129. Yet motherhood, in these dark abodes, is strangely identical with what we have all known it to be in the happiest homes. Nothing, as I remember, smote130 me with more grief and pity (all the more poignant131 because perplexingly entangled132 with an inclination133 to smile) than to hear a gaunt and ragged mother priding herself on the pretty ways of her ragged and skinny infant, just as a young matron might, when she invites her lady friends to admire her plump, white-robed darling in the nursery. Indeed, no womanly characteristic seemed to have altogether perished out of these poor souls. It was the very same creature whose tender torments135 make the rapture136 of our young days, whom we love, cherish, and protect, and rely upon in life and death, and whom we delight to see beautify her beauty with rich robes and set it off with jewels, though now fantastically masquerading in a garb of tatters, wholly unfit for her to handle. I recognized her, over and over again, in the groups round a doorstep or in the descent of a cellar, chatting with prodigious137 earnestness about intangible trifles, laughing for a little jest, sympathizing at almost the same instant with one neighbor's sunshine and another's shadow, wise, simple, sly, and patient, yet easily perturbed138, and breaking into small feminine ebullitions of spite, wrath139, and jealousy140, tornadoes141 of a moment, such as vary the social atmosphere of her silken-skirted sisters, though smothered142 into propriety143 by dint144 of a well-bred habit. Not that there was an absolute deficiency of good-breeding, even here. It often surprised me to witness a courtesy and deference145 among these ragged folks, which, having seen it, I did not thoroughly146 believe in, wondering whence it should have come. I am persuaded, however, that there were laws of intercourse147 which they never violated,—a code of the cellar, the garret, the common staircase, the doorstep, and the pavement, which perhaps had as deep a foundation in natural fitness as the code of the drawing-room.
Yet again I doubt whether I may not have been uttering folly148 in the last two sentences, when I reflect how rude and rough these specimens149 of feminine character generally were. They had a readiness with their hands that reminded me of Molly Seagrim and other heroines in Fielding's novels. For example, I have seen a woman meet a man in the street, and, for no reason perceptible to me, suddenly clutch him by the hair and cuff150 his ears,—an infliction151 which he bore with exemplary patience, only snatching the very earliest opportunity to take to his heels. Where a sharp tongue will not serve the purpose, they trust to the sharpness of their finger-nails, or incarnate152 a whole vocabulary of vituperative153 words in a resounding154 slap, or the downright blow of a doubled fist. All English people, I imagine, are influenced in a far greater degree than ourselves by this simple and honest tendency, in cases of disagreement, to batter155 one another's persons; and whoever has seen a crowd of English ladies (for instance, at the door of the Sistine Chapel156, in Holy Week) will be satisfied that their belligerent157 propensities158 are kept in abeyance159 only by a merciless rigor160 on the part of society. It requires a vast deal of refinement161 to spiritualize their large physical endowments. Such being the case with the delicate ornaments162 of the drawing-room, it is the less to be wondered at that women who live mostly in the open air, amid the coarsest kind of companionship and occupation, should carry on the intercourse of life with a freedom unknown to any class of American females, though still, I am resolved to think, compatible with a generous breadth of natural propriety. It shocked me, at first, to see them (of all ages, even elderly, as well as infants that could just toddle163 across the street alone) going about in the mud and mire134, or through the dusky snow and slosh of a severe week in winter, with petticoats high uplifted above bare, red feet and legs; but I was comforted by observing that both shoes and stockings generally reappeared with better weather, having been thriftily164 kept out of the damp for the convenience of dry feet within doors. Their hardihood was wonderful, and their strength greater than could have been expected from such spare diet as they probably lived upon. I have seen them carrying on their heads great burdens under which they walked as freely as if they were fashionable bonnets165; or sometimes the burden was huge enough almost to cover the whole person, looked at from behind,—as in Tuscan villages you may see the girls coming in from the country with great bundles of green twigs166 upon their backs, so that they resemble locomotive masses of verdure and fragrance167. But these poor English women seemed to be laden83 with rubbish, incongruous and indescribable, such as bones and rags, the sweepings of the house and of the street, a merchandise gathered up from what poverty itself had thrown away, a heap of filthy168 stuff analogous169 to Christian's bundle of sin.
Sometimes, though very seldom, I detected a certain gracefulness170 among the younger women that was altogether new to my observation. It was a charm proper to the lowest class. One girl I particularly remember, in a garb none of the cleanest and nowise smart, and herself exceedingly coarse in all respects, but yet endowed with a sort of witchery, a native charm, a robe of simple beauty and suitable behavior that she was born in and had never been tempted171 to throw off, because she had really nothing else to put on. Eve herself could not have been more natural. Nothing was affected, nothing imitated; no proper grace was vulgarized by an effort to assume the manners or adornments of another sphere. This kind of beauty, arrayed in a fitness of its own, is probably vanishing out of the world, and will certainly never be found in America, where all the girls, whether daughters of the upper-tendon, the mediocrity, the cottage, or the kennel172, aim at one standard of dress and deportment, seldom accomplishing a perfectly173 triumphant174 hit or an utterly absurd failure. Those words, "genteel" and "ladylike," are terrible ones and do us infinite mischief175, but it is because (at least, I hope so) we are in a transition state, and shall emerge into a higher mode of simplicity176 than has ever been known to past ages.
In such disastrous circumstances as I have been attempting to describe, it was beautiful to observe what a mysterious efficacy still asserted itself in character. A woman, evidently poor as the poorest of her neighbors, would be knitting or sewing on the doorstep, just as fifty other women were; but round about her skirts (though wofully patched) you would be sensible of a certain sphere of decency177, which, it seemed to me, could not have been kept more impregnable in the cosiest178 little sitting-room179, where the tea-kettle on the hob was humming its good old song of domestic peace. Maidenhood180 had a similar power. The evil habit that grows upon us in this harsh world makes me faithless to my own better perceptions; and yet I have seen girls in these wretched streets, on whose virgin181 purity, judging merely from their impression on my instincts as they passed by, I should have deemed it safe, at the moment, to stake my life. The next moment, however, as the surrounding flood of moral uncleanness surged over their footsteps, I would not have staked a spike182 of thistle-down on the same wager183. Yet the miracle was within the scope of Providence184, which is equally wise and equally beneficent (even to those poor girls, though I acknowledge the fact without the remotest comprehension of the mode of it), whether they were pure or what we fellow-sinners call vile185. Unless your faith be deep-rooted and of most vigorous growth, it is the safer way not to turn aside into this region so suggestive of miserable186 doubt. It was a place "with dreadful faces thronged," wrinkled and grim with vice and wretchedness; and, thinking over the line of Milton here quoted, I come to the conclusion that those ugly lineaments which startled Adam and Eve, as they looked backward to the closed gate of Paradise, were no fiends from the pit, but the more terrible foreshadowings of what so many of their descendants were to be. God help them, and us likewise, their brethren and sisters! Let me add, that, forlorn, ragged, careworn187, hopeless, dirty, haggard, hungry, as they were, the most pitiful thing of all was to see the sort of patience with which they accepted their lot, as if they had been born into the world for that and nothing else. Even the little children had this characteristic in as perfect development as their grandmothers.
The children, in truth, were the ill-omened blossoms from which another harvest of precisely188 such dark fruitage as I saw ripened189 around me was to be produced. Of course you would imagine these to be lumps of crude iniquity190, tiny vessels191 as full as they could hold of naughtiness; nor can I say a great deal to the contrary. Small proof of parental192 discipline could I discern, save when a mother (drunken, I sincerely hope) snatched her own imp3 out of a group of pale, half-naked, humor-eaten abortions193 that were playing and squabbling together in the mud, turned up its tatters, brought down her heavy hand on its poor little tenderest part, and let it go again with a shake. If the child knew what the punishment was for, it was wiser than I pretend to be. It yelled, and went back to its playmates in the mud. Yet let me bear testimony194 to what was beautiful, and more touching195 than anything that I ever witnessed in the intercourse of happier children. I allude196 to the superintendence which some of these small people (too small, one would think, to be sent into the street alone, had there been any other nursery for them) exercised over still smaller ones. Whence they derived197 such a sense of duty, unless immediately from God, I cannot tell; but it was wonderful to observe the expression of responsibility in their deportment, the anxious fidelity198 with which they discharged their unfit office, the tender patience with which they linked their less pliable199 impulses to the wayward footsteps of an infant, and let it guide them whithersoever it liked. In the hollow-cheeked, large-eyed girl of ten, whom I saw giving a cheerless oversight200 to her baby-brother, I did not so much marvel201 at it. She had merely come a little earlier than usual to the perception of what was to be her business in life. But I admired the sickly-looking little boy, who did violence to his boyish nature by making himself the servant of his little sister,—she too small to walk, and he too small to take her in his arms,—and therefore working a kind of miracle to transport her from one dirt-heap to another. Beholding202 such works of love and duty, I took heart again, and deemed it not so impossible, after all, for these neglected children to find a path through the squalor and evil of their circumstances up to the gate of heaven. Perhaps there was this latent good in all of them, though generally they looked brutish, and dull even in their sports; there was little mirth among them, nor even a fully awakened203 spirit of blackguardism. Yet sometimes, again, I saw, with surprise and a sense as if I had been asleep and dreaming, the bright, intelligent, merry face of a child whose dark eyes gleamed with vivacious expression through the dirt that incrusted its skin, like sunshine struggling through a very dusty window-pane.
In these streets the belted and blue-coated policeman appears seldom in comparison with the frequency of his occurrence in more reputable thoroughfares. I used to think that the inhabitants would have ample time to murder one another, or any stranger, like myself, who might violate the filthy sanctities of the place; before the law could bring up its lumbering126 assistance. Nevertheless, there is a supervision204; nor does the watchfulness206 of authority permit the populace to be tempted to any outbreak. Once, in a time of dearth207 I noticed a ballad-singer going through the street hoarsely208 chanting some discordant209 strain in a provincial210 dialect, of which I could only make out that it addressed the sensibilities of the auditors211 on the score of starvation; but by his side stalked the policeman, offering no interference, but watchful205 to hear what this rough minstrel said or sang, and silence him, if his effusion threatened to prove too soul-stirring. In my judgment212, however, there is little or no danger of that kind: they starve patiently, sicken patiently, die patiently, not through resignation, but a diseased flaccidity of hope. If ever they should do mischief to those above them, it will probably be by the communication of some destructive pestilence213; for, so the medical men affirm, they suffer all the ordinary diseases with a degree of virulence214 elsewhere unknown, and keep among themselves traditionary plagues that have long ceased to afflict215 more fortunate societies. Charity herself gathers her robe about her to avoid their contact. It would be a dire216 revenge, indeed, if they were to prove their claims to be reckoned of one blood and nature with the noblest and wealthiest by compelling them to inhale217 death through the diffusion218 of their own poverty-poisoned atmosphere.
A true Englishman is a kind man at heart, but has an unconquerable dislike to poverty and beggary. Beggars have heretofore been so strange to an American that he is apt to become their prey219, being recognized through his national peculiarities220, and beset221 by them in the streets. The English smile at him, and say that there are ample public arrangements for every pauper222's possible need, that street-charity promotes idleness and vice, and that yonder personification of misery on the pavement will lay up a good day's profit, besides supping more luxuriously223 than the dupe who gives him a shilling. By and by the stranger adopts their theory and begins to practise upon it, much to his own temporary freedom from annoyance225, but not entirely226 without moral detriment227 or sometimes a too late contrition228. Years afterwards, it may be, his memory is still haunted by some vindictive229 wretch28 whose cheeks were pale and hunger-pinched, whose rags fluttered in the east-wind, whose right arm was paralyzed and his left leg shrivelled into a mere30 nerveless stick, but whom he passed by remorselessly because an Englishman chose to say that the fellow's misery looked too perfect, was too artistically230 got up, to be genuine. Even allowing this to be true (as, a hundred chances to one, it was), it would still have been a clear case of economy to buy him off with a little loose silver, so that his lamentable231 figure should not limp at the heels of your conscience all over the world. To own the truth, I provided myself with several such imaginary persecutors in England, and recruited their number with at least one sickly-looking wretch whose acquaintance I first made at Assisi, in Italy, and, taking a dislike to something sinister232 in his aspect, permitted him to beg early and late, and all day long, without getting a single baiocco. At my latest glimpse of him, the villain233 avenged234 himself, not by a volley of horrible curses, as any other Italian beggar would, but by taking an expression so grief-stricken, want-wrung235, hopeless, and withal resigned, that I could paint his lifelike portrait at this moment. Were I to go over the same ground again, I would listen to no man's theories, but buy the little luxury of beneficence at a cheap rate, instead of doing myself a moral mischief by exuding236 a stony237 incrustation over whatever natural sensibility I might possess.
On the other hand, there were some mendicants whose utmost efforts I even now felicitate myself on having withstood. Such was a phenomenon abridged238 of his lower half, who beset me for two or three years together, and, in spite of his deficiency of locomotive members, had some supernatural method of transporting himself (simultaneously, I believe) to all quarters of the city. He wore a sailor's jacket (possibly, because skirts would have been a superfluity to his figure), and had a remarkably broad-shouldered and muscular frame, surmounted239 by a large, fresh-colored face, which was full of power and intelligence. His dress and linen240 were the perfection of neatness. Once a day, at least, wherever I went, I suddenly became aware of this trunk of a man on the path before me, resting on his base, and looking as if he had just sprouted241 out of the pavement, and would sink into it again and reappear at some other spot the instant you left him behind. The expression of his eye was perfectly respectful, but terribly fixed243, holding your own as by fascination, never once winking244, never wavering from its point-blank gaze right into your face, till you were completely beyond the range of his battery of one immense rifled cannon245. This was his mode of soliciting246 alms; and he reminded me of the old beggar who appealed so touchingly247 to the charitable sympathies of Gil Blas, taking aim at him from the roadside with a long-barrelled musket248. The intentness and directness of his silent appeal, his close and unrelenting attack upon your individuality, respectful as it seemed, was the very flower of insolence249; or, if you give it a possibly truer interpretation250, it was the tyrannical effort of a man endowed with great natural force of character to constrain251 your reluctant will to his purpose. Apparently252, he had staked his salvation253 upon the ultimate success of a daily struggle between himself and me, the triumph of which would compel me to become a tributary254 to the hat that lay on the pavement beside him. Man or fiend, however, there was a stubbornness in his intended victim which this massive fragment of a mighty personality had not altogether reckoned upon, and by its aid I was enabled to pass him at my customary pace hundreds of times over, quietly meeting his terribly respectful eye, and allowing him the fair chance which I felt to be his due, to subjugate255 me, if he really had the strength for it. He never succeeded, but, on the other hand, never gave up the contest; and should I ever walk those streets again, I am certain that the truncated256 tyrant257 will sprout242 up through the pavement and look me fixedly258 in the eye, and perhaps get the victory.
I should think all the more highly of myself, if I had shown equal heroism259 in resisting another class of beggarly depredators, who assailed260 me on my weaker side and won an easy spoil. Such was the sanctimonious261 clergyman, with his white cravat262, who visited me with a subscription-paper, which he himself had drawn263 up, in a case of heart-rending distress;—the respectable and ruined tradesman, going from door to door, shy and silent in his own person, but accompanied by a sympathizing friend, who bore testimony to his integrity, and stated the unavoidable misfortunes that had crushed him down;—or the delicate and prettily264 dressed lady, who had been bred in affluence265, but was suddenly thrown upon the perilous266 charities of the world by the death of an indulgent, but secretly insolvent267 father, or the commercial catastrophe268 and simultaneous suicide of the best of husbands; or the gifted, but unsuccessful author, appealing to my fraternal sympathies, generously rejoicing in some small prosperities which he was kind enough to term my own triumphs in the field of letters, and claiming to have largely contributed to them by his unbought notices in the public journals. England is full of such people, and a hundred other varieties of peripatetic269 tricksters, higher than these, and lower, who act their parts tolerably well, but seldom with an absolutely illusive270 effect. I knew at once, raw Yankee as I was, that they were humbugs271, almost without an exception,—rats that nibble272 at the honest bread and cheese of the community, and grow fat by their petty pilferings, yet often gave them what they asked, and privately273 owned myself a simpleton. There is a decorum which restrains you (unless you happen to be a police-constable) from breaking through a crust of plausible274 respectability, even when you are certain that there is a knave275 beneath it.
After making myself as familiar as I decently could with the poor streets, I became curious to see what kind of a home was provided for the inhabitants at the public expense, fearing that it must needs be a most comfortless one, or else their choice (if choice it were) of so miserable a life outside was truly difficult to account for. Accordingly, I visited a great almshouse, and was glad to observe how unexceptionably all the parts of the establishment were carried on, and what an orderly life, full-fed, sufficiently277 reposeful278, and undisturbed by the arbitrary exercise of authority, seemed to be led there. Possibly, indeed, it was that very orderliness, and the cruel necessity of being neat and clean, and even the comfort resulting from these and other Christian-like restraints and regulations, that constituted the principal grievance279 on the part of the poor, shiftless inmates280, accustomed to a lifelong luxury of dirt and harum-scarumness. The wild life of the streets has perhaps as unforgetable a charm, to those who have once thoroughly imbibed282 it, as the life of the forest or the prairie. But I conceive rather that there must be insuperable difficulties, for the majority of the poor, in the way of getting admittance to the almshouse, than that a merely aesthetic283 preference for the street would incline the pauper-class to fare scantily284 and precariously285, and expose their raggedness287 to the rain and snow, when such a hospitable288 door stood wide open for their entrance. It might be that the roughest and darkest side of the matter was not shown me, there being persons of eminent289 station and of both sexes in the party which I accompanied; and, of course, a properly trained public functionary290 would have deemed it a monstrous291 rudeness, as well as a great shame, to exhibit anything to people of rank that might too painfully shock their sensibilities.
The women's ward53 was the portion of the establishment which we especially examined. It could not be questioned that they were treated with kindness as well as care. No doubt, as has been already suggested, some of them felt the irksomeness of submission292 to general rules of orderly behavior, after being accustomed to that perfect freedom from the minor293 proprieties294, at least, which is one of the compensations of absolutely hopeless poverty, or of any circumstances that set us fairly below the decencies of life. I asked the governor of the house whether he met with any difficulty in keeping peace and order among his inmates; and he informed me that his troubles among the women were incomparably greater than with the men. They were freakish, and apt to be quarrelsome, inclined to plague and pester295 one another in ways that it was impossible to lay hold of, and to thwart296 his own authority by the like intangible methods. He said this with the utmost good-nature, and quite won my regard by so placidly297 resigning himself to the inevitable298 necessity of letting the women throw dust into his eyes. They certainly looked peaceable and sisterly enough, as I saw them, though still it might be faintly perceptible that some of them were consciously playing their parts before the governor and his distinguished visitors.
This governor seemed to me a man thoroughly fit for his position. An American, in an office of similar responsibility, would doubtless be a much superior person, better educated, possessing a far wider range of thought, more naturally acute, with a quicker tact35 of external observation and a readier faculty299 of dealing300 with difficult cases. The women would not succeed in throwing half so much dust into his eyes. Moreover, his black coat, and thin, sallow visage, would make him look like a scholar, and his manners would indefinitely approximate to those of a gentleman. But I cannot help questioning, whether, on the whole, these higher endowments would produce decidedly better results. The Englishman was thoroughly plebeian301 both in aspect and behavior, a bluff302, ruddy-faced, hearty303, kindly304, yeoman-like personage, with no refinement whatever, nor any superfluous305 sensibility, but gifted with a native wholesomeness306 of character which must have been a very beneficial element in the atmosphere of the almshouse. He spoke307 to his pauper family in loud, good-humored, cheerful tones, and treated them with a healthy freedom that probably caused the forlorn wretches to feel as if they were free and healthy likewise. If he had understood them a little better, he would not have treated them half so wisely. We are apt to make sickly people more morbid308, and unfortunate people more miserable, by endeavoring to adapt our deportment to their especial and individual needs. They eagerly accept our well-meant efforts; but it is like returning their own sick breath back upon themselves, to be breathed over and over again, intensifying309 the inward mischief at every repetition. The sympathy that would really do them good is of a kind that recognizes their sound and healthy parts, and ignores the part affected by disease, which will thrive under the eye of a too close observer like a poisonous weed in the sunshine. My good friend the governor had no tendencies in the latter direction, and abundance of them in the former, and was consequently as wholesome and invigorating as the west-wind with a little spice of the north in it, brightening the dreary310 visages that encountered us as if he had carried a sunbeam in his hand. He expressed himself by his whole being and personality, and by works more than words, and had the not unusual English merit of knowing what to do much better than how to talk about it.
The women, I imagine, must have felt one imperfection in their state, however comfortable otherwise. They were forbidden, or, at all events, lacked the means, to follow out their natural instinct of adorning311 themselves; all were dressed in one homely312 uniform of blue-checked gowns, with such caps upon their heads as English servants wear. Generally, too, they had one dowdy313 English aspect, and a vulgar type of features so nearly alike that they seemed literally314 to constitute a sisterhood. We have few of these absolutely unilluminated faces among our native American population, individuals of whom must be singularly unfortunate, if, mixing as we do, no drop of gentle blood has contributed to refine the turbid315 element, no gleam of hereditary316 intelligence has lighted up the stolid317 eyes, which their forefathers318 brought, from the Old Country. Even in this English almshouse, however, there was at least one person who claimed to be intimately connected with rank and wealth. The governor, after suggesting that this person would probably be gratified by our visit, ushered319 us into a small parlor320, which was furnished a little more like a room in a private dwelling321 than others that we entered, and had a row of religious books and fashionable novels on the mantel-piece. An old lady sat at a bright coal-fire, reading a romance, and rose to receive us with a certain pomp of manner and elaborate display of ceremonious courtesy, which, in spite of myself, made me inwardly question the genuineness of her aristocratic pretensions322. But, at any rate, she looked like a respectable old soul, and was evidently gladdened to the very core of her frost-bitten heart by the awful punctiliousness324 with which she responded to her gracious and hospitable, though unfamiliar325 welcome. After a little polite conversation, we retired326; and the governor, with a lowered voice and an air of deference, told us that she had been a lady of quality, and had ridden in her own equipage, not many years before, and now lived in continual expectation that some of her rich relatives would drive up in their carriages to take her away. Meanwhile, he added, she was treated with great respect by her fellow-paupers327. I could not help thinking, from a few criticisable peculiarities in her talk and manner, that there might have been a mistake on the governor's part, and perhaps a venial328 exaggeration on the old lady's, concerning her former position in society; but what struck me was the forcible instance of that most prevalent of English vanities, the pretension323 to aristocratic connection, on one side, and the submission and reverence329 with which it was accepted by the governor and his household, on the other. Among ourselves, I think, when wealth and eminent position have taken their departure, they seldom leave a pallid330 ghost behind them,—or, if it sometimes stalks abroad, few recognize it.
We went into several other rooms, at the doors of which, pausing on the outside, we could hear the volubility, and sometimes the wrangling331, of the female inhabitants within, but invariably found silence and peace, when we stepped over the threshold. The women were grouped together in their sitting-rooms, sometimes three or four, sometimes a larger number, classified by their spontaneous affinities332, I suppose, and all busied, so far as I can remember, with the one occupation of knitting coarse yarn333 stockings. Hardly any of them, I am sorry to say, had a brisk or cheerful air, though it often stirred them up to a momentary334 vivacity335 to be accosted336 by the governor, and they seemed to like being noticed, however slightly, by the visitors. The happiest person whom I saw there (and, running hastily through my experiences, I hardly recollect337 to have seen a happier one in my life, if you take a careless flow of spirits as happiness) was an old woman that lay in bed among ten or twelve heavy-looking females, who plied338 their knitting-work round about her. She laughed, when we entered, and immediately began to talk to us, in a thin, little, spirited quaver, claiming to be more than a century old; and the governor (in whatever way he happened to be cognizant of the fact) confirmed her age to be a hundred and four. Her jauntiness339 and cackling merriment were really wonderful. It was as if she had got through with all her actual business in life two or three generations ago, and now, freed from every responsibility for herself or others, had only to keep up a mirthful state of mind till the short time, or long time (and, happy as she was, she appeared not to care whether it were long or short), before Death, who had misplaced her name in his list, might remember to take her away. She had gone quite round the circle of human existence, and come back to the play-ground again. And so she had grown to be a kind of miraculous340 old pet, the plaything of people seventy or eighty years younger than herself, who talked and laughed with her as if she were a child, finding great delight in her wayward and strangely playful responses, into some of which she cunningly conveyed a gibe341 that caused their ears to tingle342 a little. She had done getting out of bed in this world, and lay there to be waited upon like a queen or a baby.
In the same room sat a pauper who had once been an actress of considerable repute, but was compelled to give up her profession by a softening343 of the brain. The disease seemed to have stolen the continuity out of her life, and disturbed an healthy relationship between the thoughts within her and the world without. On our first entrance, she looked cheerfully at us, and showed herself ready to engage in conversation; but suddenly, while we were talking with the century-old crone, the poor actress began to weep, contorting her face with extravagant344 stage-grimaces, and wringing345 her hands for some inscrutable sorrow. It might have been a reminiscence of actual calamity346 in her past life, or, quite as probably, it was but a dramatic woe347, beneath which she had staggered and shrieked348 and wrung her hands with hundreds of repetitions in the sight of crowded theatres, and been as often comforted by thunders of applause. But my idea of the mystery was, that she had a sense of wrong in seeing the aged10 woman (whose empty vivacity was like the rattling349 of dry peas in a bladder) chosen as the central object of interest to the visitors, while she herself, who had agitated350 thousands of hearts with a breath, sat starving for the admiration351 that was her natural food. I appeal to the whole society of artists of the Beautiful and the Imaginative,—poets, romancers, painters, sculptors352, actors,— whether or no this is a grief that may be felt even amid the torpor353 of a dissolving brain!
We looked into a good many sleeping-chambers, where were rows of beds, mostly calculated for two occupants, and provided with sheets and pillow-cases that resembled sackcloth. It appeared to me that the sense of beauty was insufficiently355 regarded in all the arrangements of the almshouse; a little cheap luxury for the eye, at least, might do the poor folks a substantial good. But, at all events, there was the beauty of perfect neatness and orderliness, which, being heretofore known to few of them, was perhaps as much as they could well digest in the remnant of their lives. We were invited into the laundry, where a great washing and drying were in process, the whole atmosphere being hot and vaporous with the steam of wet garments and bedclothes. This atmosphere was the pauper-life of the past week or fortnight resolved into a gaseous356 state, and breathing it, however fastidiously, we were forced to inhale the strange element into our inmost being. Had the Queen been there, I know not how she could have escaped the necessity. What an intimate brotherhood357 is this in which we dwell, do what we may to put an artificial remoteness between the high creature and the low one! A poor man's breath, borne on the vehicle of tobacco-smoke, floats into a palace-window and reaches the nostrils of a monarch358. It is but an example, obvious to the sense, of the innumerable and secret channels by which, at every moment of our lives, the flow and reflux of a common humanity pervade359 us all. How superficial are the niceties of such as pretend to keep aloof360! Let the whole world be cleansed, or not a man or woman of us all can be clean.
By and by we came to the ward where the children were kept, on entering which, we saw, in the first place, several unlovely and unwholesome little people lazily playing together in a court-yard. And here a singular incommodity befell one member of our party. Among the children was a wretched, pale, half-torpid little thing (about six years old, perhaps,—but I know not whether a girl or a boy), with a humor in its eyes and face, which the governor said was the scurvy361, and which appeared to bedim its powers of vision, so that it toddled362 about gropingly, as if in quest of it did not precisely know what. This child—this sickly, wretched, humor-eaten infant, the offspring of unspeakable sin and sorrow, whom it must have required several generations of guilty progenitors364 to render so pitiable an object as we beheld it—immediately took an unaccountable fancy to the gentleman just hinted at. It prowled about him like a pet kitten, rubbing against his legs, following everywhere at his heels, pulling at his coat-tails, and, at last, exerting all the speed that its poor limbs were capable of, got directly before him and held forth its arms, mutely insisting on being taken up. It said not a word, being perhaps under-witted and incapable365 of prattle366. But it smiled up in his face,—a sort of woful gleam was that smile, through the sickly blotches367 that covered its features,—and found means to express such a perfect confidence that it was going to be fondled and made much of, that there was no possibility in a human heart of balking368 its expectation. It was as if God had promised the poor child this favor on behalf of that individual, and he was bound to fulfil the contract, or else no longer call himself a man among men. Nevertheless, it could be no easy thing for him to do, he being a person burdened with more than an Englishman's customary reserve, shy of actual contact with human beings, afflicted369 with a peculiar64 distaste for whatever was ugly, and, furthermore, accustomed to that habit of observation from an insulated stand-point which is said (but, I hope, erroneously) to have the tendency of putting ice into the blood.
So I watched the struggle in his mind with a good deal of interest, and am seriously of opinion that he did an heroic act, and effected more than he dreamed of towards his final salvation, when he took up the loathsome child and caressed370 it as tenderly as if he had been its father. To be sure, we all smiled at him, at the time, but doubtless would have acted pretty much the same in a similar stress of circumstances. The child, at any rate, appeared to be satisfied with his behavior; for when he had held it a considerable time, and set it down, it still favored him with its company, keeping fast hold of his forefinger371 till we reached the confines of the place. And on our return through the court-yard, after visiting another part of the establishment, here again was this same little Wretchedness waiting for its victim, with a smile of joyful372, and yet dull recognition about its scabby mouth and in its rheumy eyes. No doubt, the child's mission in reference to our friend was to remind him that he was responsible, in his degree, for all the sufferings and misdemeanors of the world in which he lived, and was not entitled to look upon a particle of its dark calamity as if it were none of his concern: the offspring of a brother's iniquity being his own blood-relation, and the guilt363, likewise, a burden on him, unless he expiated373 it by better deeds.
All the children in this ward seemed to be invalids374, and, going up stairs, we found more of them in the same or a worse condition than the little creature just described, with their mothers (or more probably other women, for the infants were mostly foundlings) in attendance as nurses. The matron of the ward, a middle-aged375 woman, remarkably kind and motherly in aspect, was walking to and fro across the chamber354—on that weary journey in which careful mothers and nurses travel so continually and so far, and gain never a step of progress—with an unquiet baby in her arms. She assured us that she enjoyed her occupation, being exceedingly fond of children; and, in fact, the absence of timidity in all the little people was a sufficient proof that they could have had no experience of harsh treatment, though, on the other hand, none of them appeared to be attracted to one individual more than another. In this point they differed widely from the poor child below stairs. They seemed to recognize a universal motherhood in womankind, and cared not which individual might be the mother of the moment. I found their tameness as shocking as did Alexander Selkirk that of the brute376 subjects of his else solitary377 kingdom. It was a sort of tame familiarity, a perfect indifference378 to the approach of strangers, such as I never noticed in other children. I accounted for it partly by their nerveless, unstrung state of body, incapable of the quick thrills of delight and fear which play upon the lively harp-strings of a healthy child's nature, and partly by their woful lack of acquaintance with a private home, and their being therefore destitute379 of the sweet home-bred shyness, which is like the sanctity of heaven about a mother-petted child. Their condition was like that of chickens hatched in an oven, and growing up without the especial guardianship380 of a matron hen: both the chicken and the child, methinks, must needs want something that is essential to their respective characters.
In this chamber (which was spacious381, containing a large number of beds) there was a clear fire burning on the hearth382, as in all the other occupied rooms; and directly in front of the blaze sat a woman holding a baby, which, beyond all reach of comparison, was the most horrible object that ever afflicted my sight. Days afterwards—nay, even now, when I bring it up vividly383 before my mind's eye—it seemed to lie upon the floor of my heart, polluting my moral being with the sense of something grievously amiss in the entire conditions of humanity. The holiest man could not be otherwise than full of wickedness, the chastest virgin seemed impure384, in a world where such a babe was possible. The governor whispered me, apart, that, like nearly all the rest of them, it was the child of unhealthy parents. Ah, yes! There was the mischief. This spectral385 infant, a hideous mockery of the visible link which Love creates between man and woman, was born of disease and sin. Diseased Sin was its father, and Sinful Disease its mother, and their offspring lay in the woman's arms like a nursing Pestilence, which, could it live and grow up, would make the world a more accursed abode90 than ever heretofore. Thank Heaven, it could not live! This baby, if we must give it that sweet name, seemed to be three or four months old, but, being such an unthrifty changeling, might have been considerably386 older. It was all covered with blotches, and preternaturally dark and discolored; it was withered387 away, quite shrunken and fleshless; it breathed only amid pantings and gaspings, and moaned painfully at every gasp388. The only comfort in reference to it was the evident impossibility of its surviving to draw many more of those miserable, moaning breaths; and it would have been infinitely389 less heart-depressing to see it die, right before my eyes, than to depart and carry it alive in my remembrance, still suffering the incalculable torture of its little life. I can by no means express how horrible this infant was, neither ought I to attempt it. And yet I must add one final touch. Young as the poor little creature was, its pain and misery had endowed it with a premature390 intelligence, insomuch that its eyes seemed to stare at the bystanders out of their sunken sockets391 knowingly and appealingly, as if summoning us one and all to witness the deadly wrong of its existence. At least, I so interpreted its look, when it positively392 met and responded to my own awe-stricken gaze, and therefore I lay the case, as far as I am able, before mankind, on whom God has imposed the necessity to suffer in soul and body till this dark and dreadful wrong be righted.
Thence we went to the school-rooms, which were underneath393 the chapel. The pupils, like the children whom we had just seen, were, in large proportion, foundlings. Almost without exception, they looked sickly, with marks of eruptive trouble in their doltish394 faces, and a general tendency to diseases of the eye. Moreover, the poor little wretches appeared to be uneasy within their skins, and screwed themselves about on the benches in a disagreeably suggestive way, as if they had inherited the evil habits of their parents as an innermost garment of the same texture395 and material as the shirt of Nessus, and must wear it with unspeakable discomfort396 as long as they lived. I saw only a single child that looked healthy; and on my pointing him out, the governor informed me that this little boy, the sole exception to the miserable aspect of his school-fellows, was not a foundling, nor properly a work-house child, being born of respectable parentage, and his father one of the officers of the institution. As for the remainder,—the hundred pale abortions to be counted against one rosy-cheeked boy,—what shall we say or do? Depressed397 by the sight of so much misery, and uninventive of remedies for the evils that force themselves on my perception, I can do little more than recur398 to the idea already hinted at in the early part of this article, regarding the speedy necessity of a new deluge. So far as these children are concerned, at any rate, it would be a blessing399 to the human race, which they will contribute to enervate400 and corrupt,—a greater blessing to themselves, who inherit no patrimony401 but disease and vice, and in whose souls, if there be a spark of God's life, this seems the only possible mode of keeping it aglow,—if every one of them could be drowned to-night, by their best friends, instead of being put tenderly to bed. This heroic method of treating human maladies, moral and material, is certainly beyond the scope of man's discretionary rights, and probably will not be adopted by Divine Providence until the opportunity of milder reformation shall have been offered us again and again, through a series of future ages.
It may be fair to acknowledge that the humane402 and excellent governor, as well as other persons better acquainted with the subject than myself, took a less gloomy view of it, though still so dark a one as to involve scanty consolation. They remarked that individuals of the male sex, picked up in the streets and nurtured403 in the workhouse, sometimes succeed tolerably well in life, because they are taught trades before being turned into the world, and, by dint of immaculate behavior and good luck, are not, unlikely to get employment and earn a livelihood404. The case is different with the girls. They can only go to service, and are invariably rejected by families of respectability on account of their origin, and for the better reason of their unfitness to fill satisfactorily even the meanest situations in a well-ordered English household. Their resource is to take service with people only a step or two above the poorest class, with whom they fare scantily, endure harsh treatment, lead shifting and precarious286 lives, and finally drop into the slough405 of evil, through which, in their best estate, they do but pick their slimy way on stepping-stones.
From the schools we went to the bake-house, and the brew-house (for such cruelty is not harbored in the heart of a true Englishman as to deny a pauper his daily allowance of beer), and through the kitchens, where we beheld an immense pot over the fire, surging and walloping with some kind of a savory406 stew407 that filled it up to its brim. We also visited a tailor's shop, and a shoemaker's shop, in both of which a number of mien408, and pale, diminutive apprentices409, were at work, diligently410 enough, though seemingly with small heart in the business. Finally, the governor ushered us into a shed, inside of which was piled up an immense quantity of new coffins411. They were of the plainest description, made of pine boards, probably of American growth, not very nicely smoothed by the plane, neither painted nor stained with black, but provided with a loop of rope at either end for the convenience of lifting the rude box and its inmate281 into the cart that shall carry them to the burial-ground. There, in holes ten feet deep, the paupers are buried one above another, mingling412 their relics413 indistinguishably. In another world may they resume their individuality, and find it a happier one than here!
As we departed, a character came under our notice which I have met with in all almshouses, whether of the city or village, or in England or America. It was the familiar simpleton, who shuffled414 across the court-yard, clattering415 his wooden-soled shoes, to greet us with a howl or a laugh, I hardly know which, holding out his hand for a penny, and chuckling416 grossly when it was given him. All under-witted persons, so far as my experience goes, have this craving417 for copper coin, and appear to estimate its value by a miraculous instinct, which is one of the earliest gleams of human intelligence while the nobler faculties418 are yet in abeyance. There may come a time, even in this world, when we shall all understand that our tendency to the individual appropriation419 of gold and broad acres, fine houses, and such good and beautiful things as are equally enjoyable by a multitude, is but a trait of imperfectly developed intelligence, like the simpleton's cupidity420 of a penny. When that day dawns,—and probably not till then,—I imagine that there will be no more poor streets nor need of almshouses.
I was once present at the wedding of some poor English people, and was deeply impressed by the spectacle, though by no means with such proud and delightful4 emotions as seem to have affected all England on the recent occasion of the marriage of its Prince. It was in the Cathedral at Manchester, a particularly black and grim old structure, into which I had stepped to examine some ancient and curious wood-carvings within the choir421. The woman in attendance greeted me with a smile (which always glimmers422 forth on the feminine visage, I know not why, when a wedding is in question), and asked me to take a seat in the nave276 till some poor parties were married, it being the Easter holidays, and a good time for them to marry, because no fees would be demanded by the clergyman. I sat down accordingly, and soon the parson and his clerk appeared at the altar, and a considerable crowd of people made their entrance at a side-door, and ranged themselves in a long, huddled423 line across the chancel. They were my acquaintances of the poor streets, or persons in a precisely similar condition of life, and were now come to their marriage-ceremony in just such garbs424 as I had always seen them wear: the men in their loafers' coats, out at elbows, or their laborers425' jackets, defaced with grimy toil426; the women drawing their shabby shawls tighter about their shoulders, to hide the raggedness beneath; all of them unbrushed, unshaven, unwashed, uncombed, and wrinkled with penury427 and care; nothing virgin-like in the brides, nor hopeful or energetic in the bridegrooms;—they were, in short, the mere rags and tatters of the human race, whom some east-wind of evil omen31, howling along the streets, had chanced to sweep together into an unfragrant heap. Each and all of them, conscious of his or her individual misery, had blundered into the strange miscalculation of supposing that they could lessen428 the sum of it by multiplying it into the misery of another person. All the couples (and it was difficult, in such a confused crowd, to compute429 exactly their number) stood up at once, and had execution done upon them in the lump, the clergyman addressing only small parts of the service to each individual pair, but so managing the larger portion as to include the whole company without the trouble of repetition. By this compendious430 contrivance, one would apprehend431, he came dangerously near making every man and woman the husband or wife of every other; nor, perhaps, would he have perpetrated much additional mischief by the mistake; but, after receiving a benediction432 in common, they assorted433 themselves in their own fashion, as they only knew how, and departed to the garrets, or the cellars, or the unsheltered street-corners, where their honeymoon434 and subsequent lives were to be spent. The parson smiled decorously, the clerk and the sexton grinned broadly, the female attendant tittered almost aloud, and even the married parties seemed to see something exceedingly funny in the affair; but for my part, though generally apt enough to be tickled435 by a joke, I laid it away in my memory as one of the saddest sights I ever looked upon.
Not very long afterwards, I happened to be passing the same venerable Cathedral, and heard a clang of joyful bells, and beheld a bridal party coming down the steps towards a carriage and four horses, with a portly coachman and two postilions, that waited at the gate. One parson and one service had amalgamated436 the wretchedness of a score of paupers; a Bishop437 and three or four clergymen had combined their spiritual might to forge the golden links of this other marriage-bond. The bridegroom's mien had a sort of careless and kindly English pride; the bride floated along in her white drapery, a creature, so nice and delicate that it was a luxury to see her, and a pity that her silk slippers438 should touch anything so grimy as the old stones of the churchyard avenue. The crowd of ragged people, who always cluster to witness what they may of an aristocratic wedding, broke into audible admiration of the bride's beauty and the bridegroom's manliness439, and uttered prayers and ejaculations (possibly paid for in alms) for the happiness of both. If the most favorable of earthly conditions could make them happy, they had every prospect of it. They were going to live on their abundance in one of those stately and delightful English homes, such as no other people ever created or inherited, a hall set far and safe within its own private grounds, and surrounded with venerable trees, shaven lawns, rich shrubbery, and trimmest pathways, the whole so artfully contrived440 and tended that summer rendered it a paradise, and even winter would hardly disrobe it of its beauty; and all this fair property seemed more exclusively and inalienably their own, because of its descent through many forefathers, each of whom had added an improvement or a charm, and thus transmitted it with a stronger stamp of rightful possession to his heir. And is it possible, after all, that there may be a flaw in the title-deeds? Is, or is not, the system wrong that gives one married pair so immense a superfluity of luxurious224 home, and shuts out a million others from any home whatever? One day or another, safe as they deem themselves, and safe as the hereditary temper of the people really tends to make them, the gentlemen of England will be compelled to face this question.
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edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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supreme
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impurities
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| 不纯( impurity的名词复数 )； 不洁； 淫秽； 杂质 | |
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14
adhesive
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| n.粘合剂；adj.可粘着的，粘性的 | |
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15
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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16
cleansed
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| 弄干净，清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
cleanse
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| vt.使清洁，使纯洁，清洗 | |
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18
sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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19
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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20
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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21
starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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23
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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24
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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25
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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26
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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27
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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28
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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29
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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30
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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31
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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32
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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33
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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34
tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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35
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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36
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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37
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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38
requital
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| n.酬劳；报复 | |
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39
engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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41
bumper
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| n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的 | |
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42
quaffing
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| v.痛饮( quaff的现在分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽 | |
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43
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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44
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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45
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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46
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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47
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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48
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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49
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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50
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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51
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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52
smothering
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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53
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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54
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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55
pawnbrokers
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| n.当铺老板( pawnbroker的名词复数 ) | |
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56
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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57
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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58
dangle
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| v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂 | |
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59
fattened
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| v.喂肥( fatten的过去式和过去分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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60
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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61
hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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62
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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64
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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65
morsels
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| n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑 | |
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66
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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67
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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68
cleaver
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| n.切肉刀 | |
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69
tripe
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| n.废话，肚子, 内脏 | |
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70
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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71
wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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72
dingily
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| adv.暗黑地，邋遢地 | |
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73
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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74
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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75
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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76
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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77
sweepings
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| n.笼统的( sweeping的名词复数 )；（在投票等中的）大胜；影响广泛的；包罗万象的 | |
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78
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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79
jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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80
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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81
diminutive
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|
| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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82
melancholy
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|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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83
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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84
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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85
snails
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| n.蜗牛；迟钝的人；蜗牛( snail的名词复数 ) | |
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86
marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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87
peddled
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| （沿街）叫卖( peddle的过去式和过去分词 )； 兜售； 宣传； 散播 | |
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88
dismal
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|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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89
abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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90
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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91
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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92
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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93
conspiracies
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| n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 ) | |
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94
transacted
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的过去式和过去分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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95
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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96
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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97
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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98
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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99
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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100
progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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101
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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102
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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103
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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104
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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105
acquiesce
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| vi.默许，顺从，同意 | |
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106
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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107
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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108
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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109
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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110
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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111
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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112
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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113
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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114
vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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115
scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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116
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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117
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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118
noisome
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| adj.有害的，可厌的 | |
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119
stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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120
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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121
inhaling
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| v.吸入( inhale的现在分词 ) | |
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122
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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123
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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124
preponderate
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| v.数目超过；占优势 | |
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125
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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126
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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127
rambles
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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128
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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129
foulest
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| adj.恶劣的( foul的最高级 )；邪恶的；难闻的；下流的 | |
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130
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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131
poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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132
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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134
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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135
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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136
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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137
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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138
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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140
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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141
tornadoes
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| n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 ) | |
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142
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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143
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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144
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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145
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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146
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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147
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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148
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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149
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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150
cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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151
infliction
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| n.（强加于人身的）痛苦，刑罚 | |
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152
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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153
vituperative
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| adj.谩骂的；斥责的 | |
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154
resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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155
batter
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| v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员 | |
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156
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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157
belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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158
propensities
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| n.倾向，习性( propensity的名词复数 ) | |
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159
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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160
rigor
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| n.严酷，严格，严厉 | |
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161
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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162
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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163
toddle
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| v.（如小孩）蹒跚学步 | |
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164
thriftily
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| 节俭地； 繁茂地； 繁荣的 | |
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165
bonnets
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| n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 )；（烟囱等的）覆盖物；（苏格兰男子的）无边呢帽；（女子戴的）任何一种帽子 | |
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166
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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167
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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168
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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169
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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170
gracefulness
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171
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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172
kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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173
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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174
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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175
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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176
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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177
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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178
cosiest
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| adj.温暖舒适的( cosy的最高级 )；亲切友好的 | |
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179
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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180
maidenhood
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| n. 处女性, 处女时代 | |
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181
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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182
spike
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| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
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183
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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184
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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185
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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186
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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187
careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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188
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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189
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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190
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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191
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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192
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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193
abortions
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| n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育 | |
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194
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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195
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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196
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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197
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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198
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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199
pliable
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| adj.易受影响的；易弯的；柔顺的，易驾驭的 | |
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200
oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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201
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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202
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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203
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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204
supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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205
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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206
watchfulness
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| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
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207
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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208
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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209
discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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210
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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211
auditors
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| n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生 | |
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212
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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213
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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214
virulence
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| n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力 | |
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215
afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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216
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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217
inhale
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| v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟) | |
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218
diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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219
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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220
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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221
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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222
pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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223
luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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224
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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225
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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226
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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227
detriment
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| n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源 | |
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228
contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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229
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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230
artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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231
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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232
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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233
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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234
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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235
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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236
exuding
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的现在分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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237
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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238
abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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239
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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240
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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241
sprouted
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| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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242
sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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243
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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244
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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245
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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246
soliciting
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| v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求 | |
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247
touchingly
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| adv.令人同情地，感人地，动人地 | |
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248
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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249
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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250
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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251
constrain
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| vt.限制，约束；克制，抑制 | |
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252
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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253
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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254
tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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255
subjugate
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| v.征服；抑制 | |
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256
truncated
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| adj.切去顶端的，缩短了的，被删节的v.截面的( truncate的过去式和过去分词 )；截头的；缩短了的；截去顶端或末端 | |
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257
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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258
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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259
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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260
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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261
sanctimonious
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| adj.假装神圣的，假装虔诚的，假装诚实的 | |
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262
cravat
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| n.领巾，领结；v.使穿有领结的服装，使结领结 | |
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263
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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264
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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265
affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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266
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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267
insolvent
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| adj.破产的，无偿还能力的 | |
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268
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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269
peripatetic
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| adj.漫游的，逍遥派的，巡回的 | |
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270
illusive
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| adj.迷惑人的，错觉的 | |
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271
humbugs
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| 欺骗( humbug的名词复数 )； 虚伪； 骗子； 薄荷硬糖 | |
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272
nibble
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| n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵 | |
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273
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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274
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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275
knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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276
nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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277
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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278
reposeful
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| adj.平稳的，沉着的 | |
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279
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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280
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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281
inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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282
imbibed
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| v.吸收( imbibe的过去式和过去分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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283
aesthetic
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|
| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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284
scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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285
precariously
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| adv.不安全地；危险地；碰机会地；不稳定地 | |
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286
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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287
raggedness
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| 破烂，粗糙 | |
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288
hospitable
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|
| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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289
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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290
functionary
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| n.官员；公职人员 | |
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291
monstrous
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|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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292
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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293
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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294
proprieties
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|
| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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295
pester
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| v.纠缠，强求 | |
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296
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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297
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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298
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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299
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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300
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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301
plebeian
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|
| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
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302
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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303
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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304
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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305
superfluous
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|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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306
wholesomeness
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| 卫生性 | |
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307
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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308
morbid
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|
| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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309
intensifying
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|
| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉 | |
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310
dreary
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|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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311
adorning
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| 修饰，装饰物 | |
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312
homely
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|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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313
dowdy
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|
| adj.不整洁的；过旧的 | |
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314
literally
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|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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315
turbid
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|
| adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的 | |
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316
hereditary
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|
| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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317
stolid
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|
| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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318
forefathers
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|
| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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319
ushered
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|
| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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320
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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321
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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322
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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323
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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324
punctiliousness
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325
unfamiliar
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|
| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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326
retired
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|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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327
paupers
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|
| n.穷人( pauper的名词复数 )；贫民；贫穷 | |
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328
venial
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|
| adj.可宽恕的；轻微的 | |
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329
reverence
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|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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330
pallid
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|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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331
wrangling
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|
| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 ) | |
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332
affinities
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|
| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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333
yarn
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|
| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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334
momentary
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|
| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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335
vivacity
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|
| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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336
accosted
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|
| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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337
recollect
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|
| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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338
plied
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|
| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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339
jauntiness
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|
| n.心满意足；洋洋得意；高兴；活泼 | |
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340
miraculous
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|
| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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341
gibe
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| n.讥笑；嘲弄 | |
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342
tingle
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|
| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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343
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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344
extravagant
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|
| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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345
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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346
calamity
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|
| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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347
woe
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|
| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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348
shrieked
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|
| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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349
rattling
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|
| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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350
agitated
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|
| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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351
admiration
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|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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352
sculptors
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| 雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座 | |
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353
torpor
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| n.迟钝；麻木；（动物的）冬眠 | |
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354
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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355
insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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356
gaseous
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|
| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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357
brotherhood
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|
| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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358
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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359
pervade
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| v.弥漫，遍及，充满，渗透，漫延 | |
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360
aloof
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|
| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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361
scurvy
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|
| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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362
toddled
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|
| v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的过去式和过去分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步 | |
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363
guilt
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|
| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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364
progenitors
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| n.祖先( progenitor的名词复数 )；先驱；前辈；原本 | |
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365
incapable
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|
| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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366
prattle
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|
| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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367
blotches
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|
| n.（皮肤上的）红斑，疹块( blotch的名词复数 )；大滴 [大片]（墨水或颜色的）污渍 | |
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368
balking
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|
| n.慢行，阻行v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的现在分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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369
afflicted
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|
| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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370
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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371
forefinger
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|
| n.食指 | |
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372
joyful
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|
| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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373
expiated
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|
| v.为（所犯罪过）接受惩罚，赎（罪）( expiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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374
invalids
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|
| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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375
middle-aged
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|
| adj.中年的 | |
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376
brute
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|
| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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377
solitary
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|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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378
indifference
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|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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379
destitute
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|
| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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380
guardianship
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|
| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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381
spacious
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|
| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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382
hearth
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|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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383
vividly
|
|
| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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384
impure
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|
| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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385
spectral
|
|
| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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386
considerably
|
|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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387
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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388
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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389
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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390
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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391
sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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392
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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393
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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394
doltish
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| adj.愚蠢的 | |
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395
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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396
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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397
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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398
recur
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| vi.复发，重现，再发生 | |
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399
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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400
enervate
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| v.使虚弱，使无力 | |
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401
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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402
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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403
nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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404
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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405
slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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406
savory
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| adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的 | |
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407
stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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408
mien
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| n.风采；态度 | |
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409
apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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410
diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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411
coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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412
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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413
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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414
shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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415
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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416
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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417
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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418
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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419
appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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420
cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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421
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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422
glimmers
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| n.微光，闪光( glimmer的名词复数 )v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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423
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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424
garbs
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| vt.装扮（garb的第三人称单数形式） | |
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425
laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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426
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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427
penury
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| n.贫穷，拮据 | |
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428
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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429
compute
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| v./n.计算，估计 | |
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430
compendious
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| adj.简要的，精简的 | |
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431
apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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432
benediction
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| n.祝福；恩赐 | |
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433
assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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434
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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435
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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436
amalgamated
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| v.（使）（金属）汞齐化( amalgamate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）合并；联合；结合 | |
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437
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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438
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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439
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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440
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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