“To-day,” he said, exhibiting it with a certain solemnity, “to-day I have finished the printing of my ‘History of Crome’. I helped to set up the type of the last page this evening.”
“The famous History?” cried Anne. The writing and the printing of this Magnum Opus had been going on as long as she could remember. All her childhood long Uncle Henry’s History had been a vague and fabulous2 thing, often heard of and never seen.
“It has taken me nearly thirty years,” said Mr. Wimbush. “Twenty-five years of writing and nearly four of printing. And now it’s finished—the whole chronicle, from Sir Ferdinando Lapith’s birth to the death of my father William Wimbush—more than three centuries and a half: a history of Crome, written at Crome, and printed at Crome by my own press.”
“Shall we be allowed to read it now it’s finished?” asked Denis.
Mr. Wimbush nodded. “Certainly,” he said. “And I hope you will not find it uninteresting,” he added modestly. “Our muniment room is particularly rich in ancient records, and I have some genuinely new light to throw on the introduction of the three-pronged fork.”
“And the people?” asked Gombauld. “Sir Ferdinando and the rest of them—were they amusing? Were there any crimes or tragedies in the family?”
“Let me see,” Henry Wimbush rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I can only think of two suicides, one violent death, four or perhaps five broken hearts, and half a dozen little blots5 on the scutcheon in the way of misalliances, seductions, natural children, and the like. No, on the whole, it’s a placid6 and uneventful record.”
“The Wimbushes and the Lapiths were always an unadventurous, respectable crew,” said Priscilla, with a note of scorn in her voice. “If I were to write my family history now! Why, it would be one long continuous blot4 from beginning to end.” She laughed jovially7, and helped herself to another glass of wine.
“If I were to write mine,” Mr. Scogan remarked, “it wouldn’t exist. After the second generation we Scogans are lost in the mists of antiquity8.”
“After dinner,” said Henry Wimbush, a little piqued9 by his wife’s disparaging10 comment on the masters of Crome, “I’ll read you an episode from my History that will make you admit that even the Lapiths, in their own respectable way, had their tragedies and strange adventures.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Priscilla.
“Glad to hear what?” asked Jenny, emerging suddenly from her private interior world like a cuckoo from a clock. She received an explanation, smiled, nodded, cuckooed at last “I see,” and popped back, clapping shut the door behind her.
“Now,” said Henry Wimbush, pulling up a chair to the lamp. He put on his round pince-nez, rimmed12 with tortoise-shell, and began cautiously to turn over the pages of his loose and still fragmentary book. He found his place at last. “Shall I begin?” he asked, looking up.
“Do,” said Priscilla, yawning.
In the midst of an attentive13 silence Mr. Wimbush gave a little preliminary cough and started to read.
“The infant who was destined14 to become the fourth baronet of the name of Lapith was born in the year 1740. He was a very small baby, weighing not more than three pounds at birth, but from the first he was sturdy and healthy. In honour of his maternal15 grandfather, Sir Hercules Occam of Bishop’s Occam, he was christened Hercules. His mother, like many other mothers, kept a notebook, in which his progress from month to month was recorded. He walked at ten months, and before his second year was out he had learnt to speak a number of words. At three years he weighed but twenty-four pounds, and at six, though he could read and write perfectly16 and showed a remarkable17 aptitude18 for music, he was no larger and heavier than a well-grown child of two. Meanwhile, his mother had borne two other children, a boy and a girl, one of whom died of croup during infancy19, while the other was carried off by smallpox20 before it reached the age of five. Hercules remained the only surviving child.
“On his twelfth birthday Hercules was still only three feet and two inches in height. His head, which was very handsome and nobly shaped, was too big for his body, but otherwise he was exquisitely22 proportioned, and, for his size, of great strength and agility23. His parents, in the hope of making him grow, consulted all the most eminent24 physicians of the time. Their various prescriptions25 were followed to the letter, but in vain. One ordered a very plentiful26 meat diet; another exercise; a third constructed a little rack, modelled on those employed by the Holy Inquisition, on which young Hercules was stretched, with excruciating torments27, for half an hour every morning and evening. In the course of the next three years Hercules gained perhaps two inches. After that his growth stopped completely, and he remained for the rest of his life a pigmy of three feet and four inches. His father, who had built the most extravagant28 hopes upon his son, planning for him in his imagination a military career equal to that of Marlborough, found himself a disappointed man. ‘I have brought an abortion29 into the world,’ he would say, and he took so violent a dislike to his son that the boy dared scarcely come into his presence. His temper, which had been serene30, was turned by disappointment to moroseness31 and savagery32. He avoided all company (being, as he said, ashamed to show himself, the father of a lusus naturae, among normal, healthy human beings), and took to solitary34 drinking, which carried him very rapidly to his grave; for the year before Hercules came of age his father was taken off by an apoplexy. His mother, whose love for him had increased with the growth of his father’s unkindness, did not long survive, but little more than a year after her husband’s death succumbed35, after eating two dozen of oysters36, to an attack of typhoid fever.
“Hercules thus found himself at the age of twenty-one alone in the world, and master of a considerable fortune, including the estate and mansion37 of Crome. The beauty and intelligence of his childhood had survived into his manly38 age, and, but for his dwarfish39 stature41, he would have taken his place among the handsomest and most accomplished42 young men of his time. He was well read in the Greek and Latin authors, as well as in all the moderns of any merit who had written in English, French, or Italian. He had a good ear for music, and was no indifferent performer on the violin, which he used to play like a bass43 viol, seated on a chair with the instrument between his legs. To the music of the harpsichord44 and clavichord45 he was extremely partial, but the smallness of his hands made it impossible for him ever to perform upon these instruments. He had a small ivory flute46 made for him, on which, whenever he was melancholy47, he used to play a simple country air or jig48, affirming that this rustic49 music had more power to clear and raise the spirits than the most artificial productions of the masters. From an early age he practised the composition of poetry, but, though conscious of his great powers in this art, he would never publish any specimen50 of his writing. ‘My stature,’ he would say, ‘is reflected in my verses; if the public were to read them it would not be because I am a poet, but because I am a dwarf40.’ Several MS. books of Sir Hercules’s poems survive. A single specimen will suffice to illustrate51 his qualities as a poet.”
“‘In ancient days, while yet the world was young,
Ere Abram fed his flocks or Homer sung;
When blacksmith Tubal tamed creative fire,
And Jabal dwelt in tents and Jubal struck the lyre;
And obscene giants trod the shrinking earth,
Till God, impatient of their sinful brood,
The lubber Hero and the Man of War;
Witlessly bold, heroically dull.
Long ages pass’d and Man grown more refin’d,
Slighter in muscle but of vaster Mind,
Smiled at his grandsire’s broadsword, bow and bill,
The glowing canvas and the written page
Immortaliz’d his name from age to age,
His name emblazon’d on Fame’s temple wall;
For Art grew great as Humankind grew small.
Thus man’s long progress step by step we trace;
The Giant dies, the hero takes his place;
Man last appears. In him the Soul’s pure flame
Burns brightlier in a not inord’nate frame.
The smaller carcase of these later days
Is soon inform’d; the Soul unwearied plays
But can we think that Providence69 will stay
Man’s footsteps here upon the upward way?
Mankind in understanding and in grace
Advanc’d so far beyond the Giants’ race?
Hence impious thought! Still led by GOD’S own Hand,
Mankind proceeds towards the Promised Land.
Remoter dawns along the gloomy sky),
When happy mortals of a Golden Age
Will backward turn the dark historic page,
A form as gross, a Mind as dead and cold,
A time will come, wherein the soul shall be
From all superfluous74 matter wholly free;
Nature’s most delicate and final birth,
Mankind perfected shall possess the earth.
But ah, not yet! For still the Giants’ race,
Huge, though diminish’d, tramps the Earth’s fair face;
Men of their imperfections boast aloud.
Vain of their bulk, of all they still retain
Of giant ugliness absurdly vain;
At all that’s small they point their stupid scorn
And, monsters, think themselves divinely born.
Sad is the Fate of those, ah, sad indeed,
The rare precursors79 of the nobler breed!
But pointing Heav’nwards live themselves in Hell.’
“As soon as he came into the estate, Sir Hercules set about remodelling81 his household. For though by no means ashamed of his deformity—indeed, if we may judge from the poem quoted above, he regarded himself as being in many ways superior to the ordinary race of man—he found the presence of full-grown men and women embarrassing. Realising, too, that he must abandon all ambitions in the great world, he determined83 to retire absolutely from it and to create, as it were, at Crome a private world of his own, in which all should be proportionable to himself. Accordingly, he discharged all the old servants of the house and replaced them gradually, as he was able to find suitable successors, by others of dwarfish stature. In the course of a few years he had assembled about himself a numerous household, no member of which was above four feet high and the smallest among them scarcely two feet and six inches. His father’s dogs, such as setters, mastiffs, greyhounds, and a pack of beagles, he sold or gave away as too large and too boisterous84 for his house, replacing them by pugs and King Charles spaniels and whatever other breeds of dog were the smallest. His father’s stable was also sold. For his own use, whether riding or driving, he had six black Shetland ponies85, with four very choice piebald animals of New Forest breed.
“Having thus settled his household entirely86 to his own satisfaction, it only remained for him to find some suitable companion with whom to share his paradise. Sir Hercules had a susceptible87 heart, and had more than once, between the ages of sixteen and twenty, felt what it was to love. But here his deformity had been a source of the most bitter humiliation88, for, having once dared to declare himself to a young lady of his choice, he had been received with laughter. On his persisting, she had picked him up and shaken him like an importunate89 child, telling him to run away and plague her no more. The story soon got about—indeed, the young lady herself used to tell it as a particularly pleasant anecdote—and the taunts90 and mockery it occasioned were a source of the most acute distress91 to Hercules. From the poems written at this period we gather that he meditated92 taking his own life. In course of time, however, he lived down this humiliation; but never again, though he often fell in love, and that very passionately93, did he dare to make any advances to those in whom he was interested. After coming to the estate and finding that he was in a position to create his own world as he desired it, he saw that, if he was to have a wife—which he very much desired, being of an affectionate and, indeed, amorous94 temper—he must choose her as he had chosen his servants—from among the race of dwarfs95. But to find a suitable wife was, he found, a matter of some difficulty; for he would marry none who was not distinguished96 by beauty and gentle birth. The dwarfish daughter of Lord Bemboro he refused on the ground that besides being a pigmy she was hunchbacked; while another young lady, an orphan97 belonging to a very good family in Hampshire, was rejected by him because her face, like that of so many dwarfs, was wizened98 and repulsive. Finally, when he was almost despairing of success, he heard from a reliable source that Count Titimalo, a Venetian nobleman, possessed99 a daughter of exquisite21 beauty and great accomplishments100, who was by three feet in height. Setting out at once for Venice, he went immediately on his arrival to pay his respects to the count, whom he found living with his wife and five children in a very mean apartment in one of the poorer quarters of the town. Indeed, the count was so far reduced in his circumstances that he was even then negotiating (so it was rumoured) with a travelling company of clowns and acrobats101, who had had the misfortune to lose their performing dwarf, for the sale of his diminutive102 daughter Filomena. Sir Hercules arrived in time to save her from this untoward103 fate, for he was so much charmed by Filomena’s grace and beauty, that at the end of three days’ courtship he made her a formal offer of marriage, which was accepted by her no less joyfully105 than by her father, who perceived in an English son-in-law a rich and unfailing source of revenue. After an unostentatious marriage, at which the English ambassador acted as one of the witnesses, Sir Hercules and his bride returned by sea to England, where they settled down, as it proved, to a life of uneventful happiness.
“Crome and its household of dwarfs delighted Filomena, who felt herself now for the first time to be a free woman living among her equals in a friendly world. She had many tastes in common with her husband, especially that of music. She had a beautiful voice, of a power surprising in one so small, and could touch A in alt without effort. Accompanied by her husband on his fine Cremona fiddle106, which he played, as we have noted107 before, as one plays a bass viol, she would sing all the liveliest and tenderest airs from the operas and cantatas108 of her native country. Seated together at the harpsichord, they found that they could with their four hands play all the music written for two hands of ordinary size, a circumstance which gave Sir Hercules unfailing pleasure.
“When they were not making music or reading together, which they often did, both in English and Italian, they spent their time in healthful outdoor exercises, sometimes rowing in a little boat on the lake, but more often riding or driving, occupations in which, because they were entirely new to her, Filomena especially delighted. When she had become a perfectly proficient109 rider, Filomena and her husband used often to go hunting in the park, at that time very much more extensive than it is now. They hunted not foxes nor hares, but rabbits, using a pack of about thirty black and fawn-coloured pugs, a kind of dog which, when not overfed, can course a rabbit as well as any of the smaller breeds. Four dwarf grooms110, dressed in scarlet111 liveries and mounted on white Exmoor ponies, hunted the pack, while their master and mistress, in green habits, followed either on the black Shetlands or on the piebald New Forest ponies. A picture of the whole hunt—dogs, horses, grooms, and masters—was painted by William Stubbs, whose work Sir Hercules admired so much that he invited him, though a man of ordinary stature, to come and stay at the mansion for the purpose of executing this picture. Stubbs likewise painted a portrait of Sir Hercules and his lady driving in their green enamelled calash drawn112 by four black Shetlands. Sir Hercules wears a plum-coloured velvet coat and white breeches; Filomena is dressed in flowered muslin and a very large hat with pink feathers. The two figures in their gay carriage stand out sharply against a dark background of trees; but to the left of the picture the trees fall away and disappear, so that the four black ponies are seen against a pale and strangely lurid113 sky that has the golden-brown colour of thunder-clouds lighted up by the sun.
“In this way four years passed happily by. At the end of that time Filomena found herself great with child. Sir Hercules was overjoyed. ‘If God is good,’ he wrote in his day-book, ‘the name of Lapith will be preserved and our rarer and more delicate race transmitted through the generations until in the fullness of time the world shall recognise the superiority of those beings whom now it uses to make mock of.’ On his wife’s being brought to bed of a son he wrote a poem to the same effect. The child was christened Ferdinando in memory of the builder of the house.
“With the passage of the months a certain sense of disquiet114 began to invade the minds of Sir Hercules and his lady. For the child was growing with an extraordinary rapidity. At a year he weighed as much as Hercules had weighed when he was three. ‘Ferdinando goes crescendo,’ wrote Filomena in her diary. ‘It seems not natural.’ At eighteen months the baby was almost as tall as their smallest jockey, who was a man of thirty-six. Could it be that Ferdinando was destined to become a man of the normal, gigantic dimensions? It was a thought to which neither of his parents dared yet give open utterance115, but in the secrecy116 of their respective diaries they brooded over it in terror and dismay.
“On his third birthday Ferdinando was taller than his mother and not more than a couple of inches short of his father’s height. ‘To-day for the first time’ wrote Sir Hercules, ‘we discussed the situation. The hideous117 truth can be concealed118 no longer: Ferdinando is not one of us. On this, his third birthday, a day when we should have been rejoicing at the health, the strength, and beauty of our child, we wept together over the ruin of our happiness. God give us strength to bear this cross.’
“At the age of eight Ferdinando was so large and so exuberantly119 healthy that his parents decided120, though reluctantly, to send him to school. He was packed off to Eton at the beginning of the next half. A profound peace settled upon the house. Ferdinando returned for the summer holidays larger and stronger than ever. One day he knocked down the butler and broke his arm. ‘He is rough, inconsiderate, unamenable to persuasion,’ wrote his father. ‘The only thing that will teach him manners is corporal chastisement121.’ Ferdinando, who at this age was already seventeen inches taller than his father, received no corporal chastisement.
“One summer holidays about three years later Ferdinando returned to Crome accompanied by a very large mastiff dog. He had bought it from an old man at Windsor who had found the beast too expensive to feed. It was a savage33, unreliable animal; hardly had it entered the house when it attacked one of Sir Hercules’s favourite pugs, seizing the creature in its jaws122 and shaking it till it was nearly dead. Extremely put out by this occurrence, Sir Hercules ordered that the beast should be chained up in the stable-yard. Ferdinando sullenly123 answered that the dog was his, and he would keep it where he pleased. His father, growing angry, bade him take the animal out of the house at once, on pain of his utmost displeasure. Ferdinando refused to move. His mother at this moment coming into the room, the dog flew at her, knocked her down, and in a twinkling had very severely124 mauled her arm and shoulder; in another instant it must infallibly have had her by the throat, had not Sir Hercules drawn his sword and stabbed the animal to the heart. Turning on his son, he ordered him to leave the room immediately, as being unfit to remain in the same place with the mother whom he had nearly murdered. So awe-inspiring was the spectacle of Sir Hercules standing70 with one foot on the carcase of the gigantic dog, his sword drawn and still bloody125, so commanding were his voice, his gestures, and the expression of his face that Ferdinando slunk out of the room in terror and behaved himself for all the rest of the vacation in an entirely exemplary fashion. His mother soon recovered from the bites of the mastiff, but the effect on her mind of this adventure was ineradicable; from that time forth she lived always among imaginary terrors.
“The two years which Ferdinando spent on the Continent, making the Grand Tour, were a period of happy repose126 for his parents. But even now the thought of the future haunted them; nor were they able to solace127 themselves with all the diversions of their younger days. The Lady Filomena had lost her voice and Sir Hercules was grown too rheumatical to play the violin. He, it is true, still rode after his pugs, but his wife felt herself too old and, since the episode of the mastiff, too nervous for such sports. At most, to please her husband, she would follow the hunt at a distance in a little gig drawn by the safest and oldest of the Shetlands.
“The day fixed128 for Ferdinando’s return came round. Filomena, sick with vague dreads129 and presentiments130, retired131 to her chamber132 and her bed. Sir Hercules received his son alone. A giant in a brown travelling-suit entered the room. ‘Welcome home, my son,’ said Sir Hercules in a voice that trembled a little.
“‘I hope I see you well, sir.’ Ferdinando bent133 down to shake hands, then straightened himself up again. The top of his father’s head reached to the level of his hip104.
“Ferdinando had not come alone. Two friends of his own age accompanied him, and each of the young men had brought a servant. Not for thirty years had Crome been desecrated134 by the presence of so many members of the common race of men. Sir Hercules was appalled135 and indignant, but the laws of hospitality had to be obeyed. He received the young gentlemen with grave politeness and sent the servants to the kitchen, with orders that they should be well cared for.
“The old family dining-table was dragged out into the light and dusted (Sir Hercules and his lady were accustomed to dine at a small table twenty inches high). Simon, the aged3 butler, who could only just look over the edge of the big table, was helped at supper by the three servants brought by Ferdinando and his guests.
“Sir Hercules presided, and with his usual grace supported a conversation on the pleasures of foreign travel, the beauties of art and nature to be met with abroad, the opera at Venice, the singing of the orphans136 in the churches of the same city, and on other topics of a similar nature. The young men were not particularly attentive to his discourses137; they were occupied in watching the efforts of the butler to change the plates and replenish138 the glasses. They covered their laughter by violent and repeated fits of coughing or choking. Sir Hercules affected139 not to notice, but changed the subject of the conversation to sport. Upon this one of the young men asked whether it was true, as he had heard, that he used to hunt the rabbit with a pack of pug dogs. Sir Hercules replied that it was, and proceeded to describe the chase in some detail. The young men roared with laughter.
“When supper was over, Sir Hercules climbed down from his chair and, giving as his excuse that he must see how his lady did, bade them good-night. The sound of laughter followed him up the stairs. Filomena was not asleep; she had been lying on her bed listening to the sound of enormous laughter and the tread of strangely heavy feet on the stairs and along the corridors. Sir Hercules drew a chair to her bedside and sat there for a long time in silence, holding his wife’s hand and sometimes gently squeezing it. At about ten o’clock they were startled by a violent noise. There was a breaking of glass, a stamping of feet, with an outburst of shouts and laughter. The uproar140 continuing for several minutes, Sir Hercules rose to his feet and, in spite of his wife’s entreaties141, prepared to go and see what was happening. There was no light on the staircase, and Sir Hercules groped his way down cautiously, lowering himself from stair to stair and standing for a moment on each tread before adventuring on a new step. The noise was louder here; the shouting articulated itself into recognisable words and phrases. A line of light was visible under the dining-room door. Sir Hercules tiptoed across the hall towards it. Just as he approached the door there was another terrific crash of breaking glass and jangled metal. What could they be doing? Standing on tiptoe he managed to look through the keyhole. In the middle of the ravaged142 table old Simon, the butler, so primed with drink that he could scarcely keep his balance, was dancing a jig. His feet crunched143 and tinkled144 among the broken glass, and his shoes were wet with spilt wine. The three young men sat round, thumping145 the table with their hands or with the empty wine bottles, shouting and laughing encouragement. The three servants leaning against the wall laughed too. Ferdinando suddenly threw a handful of walnuts146 at the dancer’s head, which so dazed and surprised the little man that he staggered and fell down on his back, upsetting a decanter and several glasses. They raised him up, gave him some brandy to drink, thumped147 him on the back. The old man smiled and hiccoughed. ‘To-morrow,’ said Ferdinando, ‘we’ll have a concerted ballet of the whole household.’ ‘With father Hercules wearing his club and lion-skin,’ added one of his companions, and all three roared with laughter.
“Sir Hercules would look and listen no further. He crossed the hall once more and began to climb the stairs, lifting his knees painfully high at each degree. This was the end; there was no place for him now in the world, no place for him and Ferdinando together.
“His wife was still awake; to her questioning glance he answered, ‘They are making mock of old Simon. To-morrow it will be our turn.’ They were silent for a time.
“At last Filomena said, ‘I do not want to see to-morrow.’
“‘It is better not,’ said Sir Hercules. Going into his closet he wrote in his day-book a full and particular account of all the events of the evening. While he was still engaged in this task he rang for a servant and ordered hot water and a bath to be made ready for him at eleven o’clock. When he had finished writing he went into his wife’s room, and preparing a dose of opium148 twenty times as strong as that which she was accustomed to take when she could not sleep, he brought it to her, saying, ‘Here is your sleeping-draught149.’
“Filomena took the glass and lay for a little time, but did not drink immediately. The tears came into her eyes. ‘Do you remember the songs we used to sing, sitting out there sulla terrazza in the summer-time?’ She began singing softly in her ghost of a cracked voice a few bars from Stradella’s ‘Amor amor, non dormir piu.’ ‘And you playing on the violin, it seems such a short time ago, and yet so long, long, long. Addio, amore, a rivederti.’ She drank off the draught and, lying back on the pillow, closed her eyes. Sir Hercules kissed her hand and tiptoed away, as though he were afraid of waking her. He returned to his closet, and having recorded his wife’s last words to him, he poured into his bath the water that had been brought up in accordance with his orders. The water being too hot for him to get into the bath at once, he took down from the shelf his copy of Suetonius. He wished to read how Seneca had died. He opened the book at random150. ‘But dwarfs,’ he read, ‘he held in abhorrence151 as being lusus naturae and of evil omen82.’ He winced152 as though he had been struck. This same Augustus, he remembered, had exhibited in the amphitheatre a young man called Lucius, of good family, who was not quite two feet in height and weighed seventeen pounds, but had a stentorian153 voice. He turned over the pages. Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero: it was a tale of growing horror. ‘Seneca his preceptor, he forced to kill himself.’ And there was Petronius, who had called his friends about him at the last, bidding them talk to him, not of the consolations154 of philosophy, but of love and gallantry, while the life was ebbing155 away through his opened veins156. Dipping his pen once more in the ink he wrote on the last page of his diary: ‘He died a Roman death.’ Then, putting the toes of one foot into the water and finding that it was not too hot, he threw off his dressing-gown and, taking a razor in his hand, sat down in the bath. With one deep cut he severed157 the artery158 in his left wrist, then lay back and composed his mind to meditation159. The blood oozed160 out, floating through the water in dissolving wreaths and spirals. In a little while the whole bath was tinged161 with pink. The colour deepened; Sir Hercules felt himself mastered by an invincible162 drowsiness163; he was sinking from vague dream to dream. Soon he was sound asleep. There was not much blood in his small body.”
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portfolio
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| n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位 | |
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fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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blots
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| 污渍( blot的名词复数 )； 墨水渍； 错事； 污点 | |
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placid
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jovially
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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disparaging
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| adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难 | |
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adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rimmed
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attentive
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destined
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maternal
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perfectly
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remarkable
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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19
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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20
smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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21
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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22
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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23
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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24
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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25
prescriptions
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| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
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26
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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27
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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28
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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29
abortion
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| n.流产，堕胎 | |
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30
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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31
moroseness
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32
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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33
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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34
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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35
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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36
oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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37
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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38
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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39
dwarfish
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| a.像侏儒的，矮小的 | |
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40
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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41
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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42
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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43
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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44
harpsichord
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| n.键琴（钢琴前身） | |
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45
clavichord
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| n.（敲弦）古钢琴 | |
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46
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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47
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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48
jig
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|
| n.快步舞（曲）；v.上下晃动；用夹具辅助加工；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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49
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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50
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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51
illustrate
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|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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52
corrupt
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|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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53
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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54
monstrous
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|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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55
rein
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|
| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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56
wrath
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|
| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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57
teeming
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|
| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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58
brawn
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| n.体力 | |
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59
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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60
wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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61
quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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62
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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63
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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64
swarmed
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|
| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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65
mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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66
leavening
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|
| n.酵母，发酵，发酵物v.使（面团）发酵( leaven的现在分词 )；在…中掺入改变的因素 | |
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67
crass
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|
| adj.愚钝的，粗糙的；彻底的 | |
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68
darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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69
providence
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|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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70
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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71
descry
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|
| v.远远看到；发现；责备 | |
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72
behold
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|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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73
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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74
superfluous
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|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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75
agile
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|
| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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76
velvet
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|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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77
repulsive
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|
| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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78
perversely
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|
| adv. 倔强地 | |
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79
precursors
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|
| n.先驱( precursor的名词复数 )；先行者；先兆；初期形式 | |
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80
foretell
|
|
| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
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81
remodelling
|
|
| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的现在分词 ) | |
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82
omen
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|
| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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83
determined
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|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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84
boisterous
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|
| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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85
ponies
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|
| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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86
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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87
susceptible
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|
| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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88
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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89
importunate
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|
| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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90
taunts
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| 嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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91
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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92
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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93
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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94
amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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95
dwarfs
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|
| n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式） | |
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96
distinguished
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|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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97
orphan
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|
| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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98
wizened
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|
| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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99
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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100
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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101
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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102
diminutive
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|
| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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103
untoward
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|
| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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104
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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105
joyfully
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|
| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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106
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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107
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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108
cantatas
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| n.大合唱( cantata的名词复数 )；清唱剧 | |
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109
proficient
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| adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家 | |
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110
grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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111
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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112
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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113
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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114
disquiet
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| n.担心，焦虑 | |
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115
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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116
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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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
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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119
exuberantly
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| adv.兴高采烈地，活跃地，愉快地 | |
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120
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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121
chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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122
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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123
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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124
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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125
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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126
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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127
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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128
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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129
dreads
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| n.恐惧，畏惧( dread的名词复数 )；令人恐惧的事物v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的第三人称单数 ) | |
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130
presentiments
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| n.（对不祥事物的）预感( presentiment的名词复数 ) | |
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131
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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132
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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133
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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134
desecrated
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| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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136
orphans
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| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
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137
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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138
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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139
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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140
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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141
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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142
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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143
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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144
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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145
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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146
walnuts
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| 胡桃（树）( walnut的名词复数 )； 胡桃木 | |
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147
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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148
opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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149
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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150
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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151
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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152
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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153
stentorian
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| adj.大声的，响亮的 | |
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154
consolations
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| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
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155
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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156
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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157
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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158
artery
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| n.干线，要道；动脉 | |
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159
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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160
oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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161
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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162
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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163
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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