“You are aware that my august husband will be very displeased2 should he hear of it,” returned Claudia dryly.
“Oh! blow Gilbert and his airs! I can’t think how you came to marry such a sack of sawdust. I met him yesterday and he was as frigid4 as a frozen leg of mutton.... What’s it got to do with him whom I marry?”
A good constitution will stand a great deal, and, contrary to expectations, Gilbert had not had to return ignominiously5 to bed after his rash defiance6 of the doctor’s orders. But he had never recovered, and Claudia saw that he was not half the man he had been. But he would not admit that he felt ill, and his secret feelings only showed themselves in great irritability7 and an almost total ignoring of her presence.
“If people minded their own business,” said Claudia lightly, “this world would be a dull place! It’s family friction8 that keeps us all alive!”
“Rot! But Gilbert is too priggish for words. I always did hate the Curreys, anyway, and Gilbert was ever a[194] cold-blooded fish.” He cast a curious glance at his sister, which she ignored. Sometimes in a dull, unimaginative way he wondered how far emotion now played its part in her marriage. But he never asked questions, for he was a little afraid of Claudia. “I say, come along to-night. It’s Saturday, and that’s a good night. You’ve never seen anything like the Empire at Melton Green on a Saturday, I bet.”
“I half promised to make a four at the club,” said Claudia indifferently, stroking Billie’s ears. “But Melton Green sounds amusing.”
Gilbert had gone down for the week-end to his parents, always a tiresome9 function to her, and this time he had not urged her to accompany him.
“That’s nothing. I insist on your coming. We’ll dash back to the West End between the shows and get something to eat. Do, Claud, old girl; I want you to see how popular she is. Why, the gallery boys fairly eat her.”
“How much is the gallery?”
“Oh! threepence admission.” Jack grinned. “They are a crew, too. They’ll amuse you. You look a bit down in the mouth. Fay’ll cheer you up. You can’t be blue with her.”
“I’m not down in the mouth,” contradicted his sister untruthfully. “One can’t always be howling with laughter. Life isn’t as funny as all that.”
“Oh! I don’t know. That’s the worst of you brainy people. You take life too seriously. What on earth is the good of rootling about and trying to find a deep meaning in everything? There isn’t any meaning in life. You’re just put here to enjoy yourself. A cabbage doesn’t think. Why should we?”
“Yes, I know your theory of life, or rather, your lack of one.” Frank had been insinuating10 the same philosophy at their various meetings. She was aware that the insinuating process had an ulterior motive11, for she was[195] unable to deceive herself or walk blindly into the arms he held out to her. But so far she had kept him off very delicate ground. She knew she could not do so much longer, and she wondered at herself that she did not capitulate. For more and more her thoughts dwelt on those pleasures of which she had been deprived. The spring air tantalized12 her and made the blood run hotter in her veins13. Nature craved14 its proper food; youth seconded its demands.
“Chuck this analytical15 business and take life lightly,” urged her brother. “I take life lightly and so does Fay. She’s a perfect skylark. Doesn’t look a day ahead or a day backwards16.”
He was lounging in the library of her flat, content with himself and all the world. He had borne a lot of “chipping” on his marriage, which was now dying down. But in spite of his lethargic18 egotism, he caught a look now in Claudia’s eyes that made his dull brain work a little. What had some woman been saying about Claudia and some painter chap? He tried to recall the gossip, but it had been late at night and his recollection was vague.
“In moderation, old girl,” he counselled warily19. “Of course there are some things you can’t do. But flutter a bit if you like.”
“Oh, don’t peg21 me down! Well, things I can do, you can’t. A girl’s different from a man—at least, you are.”
“The old shibboleth22!” she jeered23. “We’re not different, my dear brother. We’re exactly the same, only—only I suppose we’re more fastidious.”
He was a little alarmed. In the old days Claudia had always taken what he called “a high moral tone” in[196] discussing his little peccadilloes24. Vaguely25 he felt that this change in her was not right.
“Is Fay conservative in her opinions on this subject?” went on Claudia, with a touch of cruelty. “Does she think there are things she can do and you can’t?”
He winced26 and uncrossed his legs. “She’s different from you,” he said decidedly. “You’re sort of—well, superior. I’d hate to think——” He stopped and tweaked Billie’s ear.
“Well, go on. What would you hate?”
Billie looked at him sadly as he twisted his lips about. “Well, er—oh! you know the things I wouldn’t like you to do. For some women it’s all right, not for you.... You see, well, with some women it doesn’t seem to matter, it’s natural for them to do a bit of straying, but it’s not natural for you, and”—with unexpected acuteness—“it would make you miserable27. You’d hate the game, because you’d see through the whole bally business, and you’d criticize yourself and him.”
“You’re talking of a mere28 flirtation,” returned Claudia quickly. “A liaison29 between a man and a woman may be something more than that. What, after all, is a gold band on the finger and a mumbling30 clergyman?”
“Course, if you put it that way, I can’t answer you. But I don’t say it’s different, only—well, they nearly all are flirtations of varying degrees of warmth. You don’t mean much to her, and she doesn’t mean much to you, but you pretend all the time. Of course”—vaguely—“there are grandes passions, like Shakespeare’s people, but they don’t grow on every gooseberry-bush. And I ought to know, you know.” He made the last remark quite simply, just as he might have complimented himself on his taste in ties.
“You haven’t looked for love,” she said sharply. “Love may come at any moment in your life, and I think you deny it—at your own risk.”
[197]
“Besides, Gilbert would make a hell of a row,” observed her brother. “A hell of a row.”
“I wasn’t talking of myself. We were merely arguing in—in a general way.”
He looked at her in silence, and she turned away, biting her lip. Then she rose with a little dry laugh. The one man of all those she knew whose tolerance31 she would have taken for granted had failed to back her up. Why should she be different from other neglected wives? Why should she go through life hungry and miserable? Suddenly she turned in surprise at Jack’s next remark.
“Why doesn’t Colin Paton get married? He’s a nice chap. Everyone speaks well of him.”
“Colin? Oh! I don’t think he cares for women that way.”
Jack gave a lazy chuckle32. “All men care for women that way—when they can get ’em. Why didn’t you marry him Claud? Why did you give him the go-by?”
“The go-by?” she said incredulously. “Why, he never wanted to marry me. We were only—friends, the best of friends.”
“I read somewhere in something that friendship is a good foundation for marriage. What was the beastly quotation33? ‘Love is friendship set on fire.’ It impressed me, because Fay and I were awful good chums for a long time and we never—never till we were married.”
He said it in a shamefaced way, like a schoolboy convicted of saying his prayers. His face had gone a curious pink, and he avoided meeting Claudia’s eyes.
But she was not thinking of his confession34, she was thinking of Colin Paton. Why had he not married? Was her easy explanation the right one? Why, no, he had never wanted to marry her.
“You don’t imagine Colin Paton wanted to marry me, do you?” she asked.
[198]
“Well, I shouldn’t have been surprised if you and he had fixed35 it up. You used to go about a lot together, and you’re not a woman a man would feel platonically about. I thought he went away so hurriedly because of your engagement. But, of course, you know him much better than I.”
She found the thought curiously36 interesting and a little exciting, even while she tried to dismiss it. He had never said a word that could be construed37 into love-making. Surely there would have been some word or look that would have betrayed him if it were as Jack suggested.
Jack looked at his watch. “By Jove, we must go if we’re going. Come along, old girl, she’s on in the first house at eight, and it’s a long drive down there. It’s the wilds of beyond, over the river. Go and put on something quiet and oldish. There’s a good deal of dust knocking about behind the scenes.”
The drive was, as he had said, a long one, through narrow streets and past huge lumbering38 tramcars that were new to Claudia. The streets during the latter part of the journey were lined with roadside stalls illuminated39 by flaring40 naptha lamps that cast weird41 shadows over faces that reminded her of those in Dickens’ novels. There were barrows with all kinds of china, stalls brilliantly red with joints42 of meat, others piled high with greenstuff and with trays of toffee and sweets. It seemed to Claudia that she had never heard so many hoarse43, raucous44 voices before, punctuated45 every now and then by the pipe of some child trying to make itself heard among the tumult46. Between the activities of the stalls they passed rows of grey, grimy little houses, timber-yards and factories, brightly-lit public houses, and always the trams, still more brilliant, gliding47 along full of passengers, like great ships in full sail.
She and Jack did not talk intimately any more. She[199] listened to his account of a big golfing competition. Only once did he revert49 to their previous conversation. It came up apropos50 of Jack saying that Colin Paton had been in up to the last round.
“He plays such a good, steady game. Upon my word, I like to watch him. I say, Claudia, if it were he, instead of this painter chap, I wouldn’t mind. But, then, he’s Gilbert’s friend, isn’t he?”
Claudia was spared any reply by the stoppage of their car outside a brightly-lit theatre with placards galore. She noticed at once several of The Girlie Girl in various costumes and various smiles. It was not one of the new suburban51 halls, but there was plenty of light on the frontage.
The alley was dark and very dirty and Claudia held up her skirts fastidiously. A boy, with a jug53 in his hand, came running down while they were half-way, and a man with a clay pipe came out of a grimy, narrow door at the end.
It was the stage-door. Claudia almost shrank back when she saw the narrow passage way with its blackened walls and filthy54 staircase, which she found she was expected to descend55. The atmosphere was indescribable, frowsy, hot and stale. The strains of the orchestra reached them intermittently56 as the doors below were opened and shut.
“You’ll find her down there,” called out the door-keeper encouragingly. “She ain’t on yet.”
The boy had returned with the beer-jug, and the beer was being slopped on the stairs as he shoved his way past them. A curious roaring sound was in progress now, and it took Claudia a little time to realize that it was applause from the front of the house.
She followed Jack down the stairs, and she saw that[200] the dirtiness of his surroundings did not embarrass him. Evidently he was used to them. The steps were of stone and the railings were iron, and it seemed to Claudia like some curious sort of dirty prison, rather than a hall of gaiety.
They arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and looking up from the stone steps on which she was afraid her feet might slip, she got rather a shock. Standing57 talking excitedly were three acrobats58 with the minimum of clothing, the perspiration59 pouring down over their make-up. It was certainly Nature in the raw, and hardly a pleasant sight at close quarters. The muscles were standing out on their arms and chests, and for the first time Claudia realized the work involved in such performances, which she usually sat through indifferently. One of them hailed Jack enthusiastically.
“Hallo! old man! Fay was asking if we’d seen you.” They cast a curious but not very interested glance at Claudia. “Come into our room and have a drink later on.”
Jack nodded, and Claudia followed him along another few yards of the passage. It struck her that most of the dirt had been made by human fingers and bodies, for above the height of five feet or so the walls were comparatively clean. They passed an open door where a stout60 woman in chemise and petticoat was making-up in a public manner before a looking-glass, and then she found herself in Fay’s dressing-room.
It was a small slip of a room, with flaring gas-jets protected by wire shades and two washing-basins inset in the table-shelf which went across one side of it. The heat in the room took Claudia’s breath away; it was even worse than the passages. The light was almost cruelly bright. There were three huge dress-baskets, which almost filled the apartment, and a lumpy, perspiring61 and heavily-breathing dresser was sitting on one of them, sewing on something spangled.
[201]
A man was just finishing speaking in a heavy, oily voice as Fay’s husband pushed open the door, and Claudia was in time to hear Fay say, in accents of excitement and pleasure: “Jim, you’re a perfect duck. I love diamonds and rubies62. Come here and let me give you another kiss for it.”
So it happened that Claudia’s second view of Fay was one with her arms flung round something masculine, standing on the tips of her toes to do so. Two brawny63 arms were returning her hug. She felt Jack stiffen64 a little as Fay broke loose with a laugh.
“It’s almost like old times. Oh! but I mustn’t remember them now. I promised.... Here he is. Jack, come in. I want to introduce you to Jim Clerry—my husband.”
There was not the faintest touch of confusion in Fay’s manner or face, any more than with a child who has been caught bestowing65 embraces. She was evidently very pleased over something. She was radiant with good humour.
The man, who thrust out his hand and said, “Glad to know you sir,” was, in spite of his name, an obvious Jew, with heavy, coarse features and almost negroid lips. The face was only redeemed66 by the brightness of the dark eyes. To Claudia’s artistic67 sense it was almost revolting that any pretty woman should kiss him, especially anything so dainty as Fay. She wondered, indeed, that any woman could wish to do so.
In an artificial way, for she was heavily made-up, Fay was looking her prettiest. Her great blue eyes sparkled under the bunch of pale blue ostrich68 feathers on her head which, with some kind of a gold-lace cap, constituted her head-dress.
“Now, boys, I want you to be friends,” called out Fay, picking up a hare’s foot and giving another rub to her red cheeks. “I say, what’s the time? Have the[202] performing dogs finished? Oh! Jack, why didn’t you tell me?” She rushed over impetuously to the doorway69 and pulled Claudia in. “My dear, this is nice of you. I am glad to see you. Sit on this basket. But I wish you hadn’t come to this hall. I generally do much more classy halls than this, but I have to do this on an old contract. I’m working ’em all off now. I wish I were doing ‘The Monkey and the Moth’ to-night. Have you heard it? No? Oh! it’s a ripping song. Perhaps I’ll do it at the second house. Oh! I’m forgetting my manners—never shall be a real lady—Mr. Clerry, Mrs. Currey, my sister-in-law. Isn’t she lovely?”
A knotted, hairy and none too clean hand came towards her and shook hers like a pump-handle.
“Good looks run in the family, I should say,” with what, to Claudia, was an offensive chuckle. “Well, I’ll ’op it, Fay. No room for an old mash70 now. Congrats on your marriage. I daresay you were wise to chuck me. Anyway, I bear no grudge71. So long. Ta-ta, everyone.”
“Jim, don’t be a fool!” cried Fay, standing on one foot like a stork72 while the dresser laced some ribbons round her leg. “You must wait and see my turn.”
“Got to see a man at the Kilburn Empire. Only came along to give you that toy. Ta-ta. Be good, and you’ll be happy.”
With a comprehensive nod he went out, with a curious swaggering, swaying movement of the shoulders and hips48.
“Come and see us at the flat,” shouted Fay, standing on the other leg. Then to Claudia: “He’s the best clog73 dancer on the Moss74 and Stoll tour. He’s out this week because of the fire last week.”
A jeweller’s morocco case lay at her elbow, and Jack looked at it suspiciously.
“What’s that, Fay?”
She opened it with great glee. “The duckiest pendant you ever saw.” It was a showy but rather expensive[203] affair. “It’s jolly nice of Jim under the circs. I’ll wear it to-night for luck.”
Jack took the case away from her. “Fay, you can’t accept this. You’re my wife now. Don’t you see it isn’t—isn’t the thing. I’ll give you all the pendants you want.”
The blue eyes opened at first in surprise and then grew dark and stormy. Her mouth took a curve that spoilt its prettiness.
“Give it back to me at once or you and me’ll have a row. Why, they’re real diamonds and rubies. He told me he paid twenty-five quid for it wholesale75. Think you’re going to chuck it in the dust-bin?” Her voice had grown a little shrill76. Claudia wished she were anywhere rather than in the same room, but the dresser looked on with frank interest, “a bit of a row” evidently enlivening her profession for her.
“I shan’t chuck it in the dust-bin,” said Jack a little sulkily. “You’ve got to send it back to him. She must, mustn’t she, Claudia?”
“Not much, my dear. And have him give it to some other girl? After all, I’ve a right to it. We were great pals77. I hear he’s taken up with Molly Billington, and I won’t see it hung round her fat neck. She’s a beast! Why shouldn’t he give me a wedding-present?”
She made a sudden snatch that reminded Claudia of a velvet-pawed cat, and regained78 possession of it. With a laugh of triumph she put it round her neck.
“I’ll wear it to-night for luck.” Her good temper had come back. She danced up to her husband, who was standing moodily79 regarding the mess of make-up materials spread on a towel, and held up her lips to him.
“Don’t be a loony, Jackie boy. It’s all over and done with if you’re feeling jealous. I’m good now. I won’t take anything more from him. Kiss me.” Yelps80 and howls suddenly assailed81 their ears. “There! the dogs[204] have finished. Kiss me like a good boy and I’ll forgive you.” She looked up into his face with a delicious moue and wink82. “I never said any of your girls were not to give you presents, though I’d fire them out of the flat quick enough. I say ‘Live and let live.’ Come on.”
The tempting83 mouth and laughing eyes were too much for Jack, and he did as she requested, though with a rueful look at Claudia that she thought it better to pretend not to see.
“Hope my voice is all right to-night. I ate a lot of bloater-paste for tea, and that dries up the voice. Don’t you find that? Only it’s a weakness of mine. Mar3 used to say I was weaned on bloater-paste.” She looked in the glass anxiously. “Perkins, a wee drop of stout. La—la—la—la!” She took the scale with terrific force in the small space. “Come in.” This in answer to a knock at the door. The fat woman whom they had seen next door came hurtling in. Her toilette was a little more advanced, but not much.
“I say, dearie, have you heard about Gertie Lockhart? She’s got the rheumatic fever, and they say she won’t be able to work for months. We’re getting up a little sub. for her. Give me a few bob, my dear.”
“I should think so,” said Fay emphatically. “Perkins, find my purse. I heard she was pretty bad. Rotten luck! Here’s half a quid with my love. Oh! Miss Belle84 de Laney—Mrs. Currey. You’ve met my husband, haven’t you?”
“Charmed to meet you, I’m sure. Fay, where did you get them feathers? I’ve been looking out for some like that for weeks. I’ve got such a cold I can hardly speak. Old Moser’s a bit screwed to-night, ain’t he? Thanks muchly, old girl. My! I wish I could keep my fat down like you. Once upon a time—yes, it sounds like a fairy-tale, don’t it?—I had legs like hers. Couldn’t fill my stockings out properly. Now it’s out-sizes, and the holes[205] I wear in ’em!” She nodded confidentially85 to Claudia. “Do you know, I used to play Columbine once; then I got to principal boy, and now—well, look at me!”
“Don’t you worry,” said Fay kindly86. “You’ve got a fine figure, and no one’ll overlook you. And your song’s a treat, a fair treat. Got three curtains last night, didn’t you?”
“Used to be one of the prettiest girls on the halls,” explained Fay, as Miss Belle de Laney vanished; “used to know my mother. She’s a good sort, too. Husband’s a swine, and won’t do no work, and she keeps him and four kids, and makes no growl88 about it either. Now, Jack, I’m on in a few minutes. Take your sister round to the front. Old Moser’ll put you in a box ... la, la, la, la.... H’m!... How do I look? Knock ’em in the Old Kent Roadish? Emerald green and orange, my own idea. Got it from seeing some oranges lying with the spinach89 in the kitchen. Bit of shick, ain’t it? See the saucy90 garters?” She suddenly bestowed91 a hug upon Claudia. “I like you no end. I watched you just now, and you didn’t turn up your nose at Belle. Of course, she’s as common as dirt, I know that. Still, I believe in good hearts. We’re going to be real sisters, aren’t we? You can teach me the ways of high society, because I don’t want the boy to be ashamed of me. I’ll catch on quick enough if you’ll only give me a few tips, and I can keep my mouth shut if I want to.” She turned with a characteristically quick gesture—she reminded Claudia of an active robin—and caught Jack by the lapels of his coat.
“You’re not angry with me, Jumbo, are you? What does it matter?”
“I’m not exactly angry,” said Jack, looking into her face, “only, don’t you see, things are different now, and[206] a—a man—can’t give jewellery—to a lady who is—is the wife of another man.”
She raised her eyebrows92. “Moses in the bulrushes! why not? Most women would like to get the chance of having pendants. It’s a souvenny, Jack, for luck. And it’s so pretty. I’m straight now all right, so it don’t mean nothing. Crikey! that’s his second song. I must go down. Perkins, give me my coat. Here”—she rushed back again to the table and thrust a bunch of carnations93 into Claudia’s hand—“throw these down to me. It looks well. See you afterwards.”
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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ignominiously
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| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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tantalized
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| v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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emulate
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| v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿 | |
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lethargic
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| adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的 | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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shibboleth
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| n.陈规陋习；口令；暗语 | |
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jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peccadilloes
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| n.轻罪，小过失( peccadillo的名词复数 ) | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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liaison
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| n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通 | |
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mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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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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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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construed
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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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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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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intermittently
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| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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acrobats
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| n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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bestowing
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| 砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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mash
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| n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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stork
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| n.鹳 | |
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clog
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| vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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pals
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| n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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yelps
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| n.（因痛苦、气愤、兴奋等的）短而尖的叫声( yelp的名词复数 )v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的第三人称单数 ) | |
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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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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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84
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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85
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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86
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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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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88
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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89
spinach
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| n.菠菜 | |
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saucy
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| adj.无礼的；俊俏的；活泼的 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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93
carnations
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| n.麝香石竹，康乃馨( carnation的名词复数 ) | |
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