"Young shentleman, shtop von minute. Bring the beautiful young lady inside. I am selling sheap to-night, very very sheap. Young shentleman, you want a real diamond ring? I have the sheapest diamond rings in the vorld. I am Letchowiski, the gem5 merchant. You bring your moniesh to me. You get better value than anyvere in Vitechapel or the Vest End. Come inside, my tears."
A few of the passers-by answered him with chaff6. One or two of the more forward of the girls threw him a kiss. Old father Letchowiski on a Saturday night was a familiar feature of the dingy7 marketing8 thoroughfare, but to-night more than one fancied that his heart was not in it. Presently, during a lull9, he turned back into his shop, fingered lovingly a few of his wares10, gewgaws of the most glaring description, and then turned to a small boy who stood behind the counter, a remarkable11, cross-eyed youth, standing12 little higher than the counter, with black hair, a narrow face and sallow complexion13.
"David, you call me the moment anyone puts their head in the shop. You hear? Call loudly."
"All right, granfer," the boy replied. "Can I go to the door and shout at them?"
"If you like," the old gentleman agreed tolerantly. "If you sell anything, perhaps I give you a little commission."
A beatific14 smile spread over the boy's face as he scrambled15 under the counter. Abraham Letchowiski opened a door which led into the rear of the premises16, drew aside the curtain and peered for a moment back again through the shop into the street, over the head of the small boy, who with outstretched hands was making the night hideous17 with cries of fervid18 invitation. Then he dropped the curtain, descended19 two stairs, passed through a small, ill-ventilated sitting-room20, the table of which was laid for a homely21 meal, on through another door, and along a dark passage. Through a further door at the end came a chink of brilliant light. He knocked twice softly and stepped inside. A man with a tired, livid face, his clothing covered by a long smock, heavy spectacles disfiguring his features, was stooping over a tiny lathe22. The soft whir of a dynamo from a corner purred insistently23. A brilliant droplight from the ceiling was lowered almost over the bench. Something glittered in the white hands of the workman as he turned around with a little start.
"Letchowiski!" he muttered. "Well?"
"Finish for to-night," Letchowiski whispered imploringly24. "All the evening I have been uneasy. Just now I stand in my doorway and I shout my wares and my eyes search. There is a man in the clothing shop opposite. He pretends to deal with Hyam for a suit, but I see him often with his eyes turned this way. He is like the man of whom you have told me—the man Brodie."
The artificer did not hesitate for a moment. He looked in the mirror opposite to him and straightened a little more naturally the coal black hair which only an artist could have arranged. With his foot he stopped the dynamo. From a cupboard opposite to him he brought out a dozen cheap watches and spread them around. One of these he proceeded with neat fingers to take to pieces.
"It is well to be careful, Abraham Letchowiski," he agreed softly. "Go back to the shop. Is supper ready?"
"There is a little cold fish upon the table," Letchowiski replied. "It is useless to wait for Rosa. We will sit down, you and I, when you wish."
A faint flicker25 of disgust crossed the face of the listener. He watched the disappearing figure of the old man. Then he half closed his eyes.
Mr. Harvey Grimm took off his overalls27 and looked at himself carefully in the glass. He was wearing a well-worn blue serge suit, a flannel28 shirt and collar, a faded wisp of blue tie. His black hair was plastered down on to his forehead, ending on one side in a little curl, after the fashion of the neighbourhood. The man was so consummate29 an actor that his very cast of features seemed to have assumed a Semitic aspect. He readjusted his spectacles, busied himself at the bench for a few more minutes, covered over the dynamo, and finally made his way stealthily into the shop. He paused for a moment with his hand upon the counter, listening to the old man who stood in the doorway. His fingers played with a tray of atrocious-looking pieces of cut-glass, set in common brass30. Abraham Letchowiski, in one of his pauses for breath, glanced around and saw him.
"You have finished?" he asked eagerly.
"Finished," was the quiet reply. "Let us eat together."
"You go and have your supper, granfer," he begged. "I do some good business."
"Aren't you hungry?" the old man asked affectionately.
The small boy shook his head.
"I rather stay here and do business," he declared. "Young shentleman went by just now wants diamond ring to give to the lady. He promised to come back."
They left him standing upon the threshold, eager and expectant, and took their places in the musty little room before the fragment of cold fish, at which Harvey Grimm glanced for a moment in disgust. They had barely settled down before the door was thrown vigorously open. A tall, dark young woman, dressed in all the finery of the neighbourhood, swung into the room. She held out her cheek to her grandfather, but her bold black eyes rested upon Harvey Grimm.
"What a supper!" she exclaimed scornfully. "And after I've been away for nearly ten days, too! You don't expect me to eat this, do you?"
"Sit down, my dear, and take a little," the old man begged nervously32. "If I had been sure that you had been coming—but we are never sure of you, Rosa. We expected you last Saturday, but you never came."
"Pooh! that is your own look-out," the girl declared. "You are rolling in money, grandfather, and you live like a pauper33. I wonder your young men stay," she added, showing a row of white teeth as she beamed upon Harvey Grimm. "I'm sure I shouldn't, unless you treated me better than this."
"If you like, my dear," Abraham Letchowiski suggested, "I will go out and buy some fruit."
She pushed him back in his place.
"Sit still," she ordered. "I will eat with you what there is. Afterwards we will see."
They proceeded with their very scanty34 meal. The girl talked loudly about her situation in the great tailoring establishment, dwelt on the fact that she had just been made forewoman over one of the departments, invited their admiration35 of the cut of her skirt, standing boldly up, with her arms akimbo, to display the better the allurements36 of her luxurious37 figure, her eyes flashing provocatively38 the whole of the time. Harvey Grimm, who had been at first silent and unresponsive, seemed suddenly to fall a victim to her charms. He met her more than half-way in the flirtation39 which she so obviously desired. They were seated arm in arm, whispering together, his lips very close to her flushed cheek, when the little door leading to the shop was suddenly opened. Paul Brodie stood there, looking down upon them, and behind him another man, also in plain clothes.
There was a brief and somewhat curious silence. The two new-comers seemed content with a close scrutiny40 of the dingy, odoriferous apartment. It was Abraham Letchowiski who first spoke41. He rose to his feet and leaned over the table. The hand which lowered his spectacles on to his nose was shaking.
"Sorry to disturb you, sir," Brodie said pleasantly, bowing towards Rosa. "We want to search your premises. Don't be alarmed. Unless you have something to conceal43 we shall do you no harm, and we'll take care of all your treasures."
"But who are you, then?" the old man persisted. "Vy should you search my premises? I have done nothing wrong. I have lived honest always."
"That's all right," Brodie declared soothingly44. "We ain't going to hurt you any."
"You know me, Mr. Letchowiski," the other man observed. "My name's Bone—John Bone. I am the detective attached to the police-station around the corner. We won't worry you any more than we're obliged to, but on this gentleman's information we are bound just to have a look round."
"But my pizness—it' will be ruined!" Abraham Letchowiski cried, wringing45 his hands. "If my customers know, they will never believe again that I am an honest man. I shall be ruined! They will come no more near my shop!"
"Nothing of the sort," the detective assured him. "I have only left one man outside and he is in plain clothes. We can search this room and the bedroom and your workshop, without attracting anyone's attention. Come, Mr. Letchowiski, you and I know one another."
The old man was still vociferous46 in his expressions of dismay.
"I am seventy-three years old," he moaned. "I have never been in trouble. I am honest, just as honest as a man can be."
"Then keep your hands exactly as they are now," Brodie told him. "So!"
With the ease of experience he ran his fingers over the old man's clothing, searching him from head to foot.
"Well, I never!" Rosa exclaimed, her eyes flashing angrily. "Fancy treating an old man like that! Is anyone going to try to do it to me, I should like to know? They'll feel my fingernails, if they do."
"It will not be necessary," John Bone replied politely. "We watched you enter."
"What you looking for?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her anger.
"Ah!" the detective murmured. "Is this your assistant, Mr. Letchowiski?" he went on.
Harvey Grimm rose slowly to his feet and held out his hands.
"I am not an assistant of anybody's," he declared, and his voice seemed to have undergone an extraordinary change. "My name is Ed. Levy48, and I am a skilled watchmaker."
John Bone searched him briefly49 from head to foot. All the while, Brodie was going round the apartment. Cupboards were peered into, ornaments50 turned upside down, the boards and walls tapped, every possible hiding-place ransacked51. John Bone disappeared for a few minutes up the stairs, and they heard his heavy tramp in the bedroom above. As soon as he had returned, the two men made their way towards the inner door.
"Come with us down to the workshop, Abraham Letchowiski," the detective invited.
"Vot you want me for?" the old man asked querulously.
"Never mind. Come along with us. We may have questions to ask."
They disappeared, the old jeweller groaning52 in the rear. As they passed through the door, Paul Brodie glanced for a moment back. The young man, who had called himself Ed. Levy, had passed his arm once more through Rosa's. Their faces were close together. An amorous53 grin had parted the young man's lips and he was whispering in the girl's ear. Brodie smiled at his half-conceived suspicion, as he turned away. Rosa and her grandfather's assistant were left alone.
"What you think?" she asked him. "Has grandfather been doing anything, eh?"
"Not he," was the confident reply. "Abraham Letchowiski is too old and too clever to run such risks at his time of life. Besides, he has plenty of money."
"You're right," she declared. "He has got plenty of money, and no one to leave it to except David and me. A nice dowry for me, eh?"
"Lucky girl!" Harvey Grimm sighed.
"These young men—they know it," she went on. "There's Mr. Hyam, from opposite, and the two Solomons. But I don't like them—they're too clumsy. I like you."
He held her hand tighter. She presented for his examination her fingers, exposing a very large and brilliant ring and a massive gold bracelet57.
"I love jewellery," she confided58. "Isn't that beautiful? Some day you give me a ring, eh, and I wear it—which finger you like me to wear it on?"
"Some day," he promised, "when I am earning a little more, I will give you a jewel that will make all the girls in your workshop mad with envy."
"If you want to earn more money," she asked, "why do you work for grandfather? All the young men make jokes about him. He never pays anyone half what they are worth."
Harvey Grimm nodded mysteriously.
"You wait," he told her. "I never stay long anywhere. I am a journeyman repairer. I earn more money that way. I have about finished here now."
"To-night," the girl whispered, "you take me to a cinema palace. There's a fine one at the corner of the street. If you like," she added with a sigh, "I pay for my own seat."
He hesitated for a moment. Then he smiled.
"We will start directly these men have gone," he promised, "and I will pay for both."
"That is better," she acquiesced59, with an air of relief. "It is always better for the gentleman to pay. Tell me," she went on, a little abruptly60, "what do they look for, these men? They are a long time in the workshop."
"It is always the same," he told her. "Wherever I go, I find it. There are always robberies, day by day, up in the West End, and they think there is nowhere else the stones can be brought and sold but in this neighbourhood. Every little jeweller's shop from here to the far end of the Mile End Road is ransacked. This is the second time they have visited us."
"Then they are very foolish people," Rosa declared. "Grandfather wouldn't buy anything that was stolen. He is too nervous. He has no courage. Yet," she went on thoughtfully, "if he is really as rich as they say he is, one wonders how he makes it all out of this poky little shop."
Harvey Grimm nodded his head many times in wise fashion.
"A very clever man, Abraham Letchowiski," he declared. "Oh, I know many things! Those brooches he sells hundreds of at a shilling each—they cost one halfpenny. The engagement rings with the rubies61 or sapphires—you take your choice—nine shillings he charges for those, tenpence halfpenny they cost him. Money comes soon when one can persuade people to buy. Then he lends money everywhere, when it is safe. Many of these tradespeople in the street owe him money. Hush62! They are coming back. After the cinema, perhaps, we have a little supper together, eh?"
She hugged his arm affectionately, which was precisely63 what he meant her to do. The entrance of the three men found them engaged in amorous whisperings. Brodie scarcely glanced in their direction. He was frowning sullenly64.
"Just a few minutes in the shop, Mr. Letchowiski," the detective said, "and we'll move on and leave you in peace."
They passed up the two steps and through the little door, which they closed behind them. Harvey Grimm for a moment seemed to forget his companion. He rose to his feet and stealthily crept to the curtained window. He stood there, peering through a chink into the shop. It was becoming difficult now to retain that wonderful composure. The hand which had stolen into his trousers pocket was tightly clenched65 upon a small, hard object.
"Why do you watch there?" Rosa demanded petulantly66. "Come back to me. Grandfather will be here directly."
Her new admirer made no reply. His eyes were riveted67 upon Paul Brodie, who held in his hands the little tray, piled with abominable68 gewgaws. Presently he set it down again upon the counter. Harvey Grimm bit his lip until the blood came.
"Why do you bother about those stupid men?" she protested. "Come back here, or I shall come to you."
He heard her rise with a great rustle69. He felt the odour of patchouli and cheap sachets about him. She crept to his side just as the shop door opened and the two men went out. Then he turned and kissed her full on the red, pouting70 lips. She giggled71 hysterically72 for her grandfather had just pushed open the curtained door and was standing looking down upon them. He stamped his foot, shook his head and raised his hands.
"You kiss my granddaughter—you?" he cried.
Harvey Grimm held out his finger. The old man suddenly stopped. He crossed the room towards his high-backed chair and sank back with a little sigh of relief.
Rosa turned towards him.
"Mr. Levy is going to take me to a picture palace, grandfather," she announced. "Would you like me to call and ask Mr. Hyam to come across and sit with you?"
The old man shook his head.
"No, no!" he replied. "It would mean coffee for two and I have no money. You go to the cinema with Mr. Levy and enjoy yourself, my dear. These men have terrified me. I am old—too old. I shall go to Deucher's and get some coffee by myself. Come and get your supper," he cried through the open door to the boy. "I will come into the shop for a little time."
The boy came reluctantly from behind the counter and pushed past his cousin and her escort into the sitting-room. Rosa turned back to speak to him for a minute and Harvey Grimm was alone in the shop. He stretched out his hand towards the tray of gewgaws, and a little shower of its contents slipped into his overcoat pocket. Presently Rosa reappeared, drawing on her gloves.
"We go now," she declared. "Walk slowly out of the shop. I like Mr. Hyam to see us, from opposite. He is always bothering me to go out with him. I like you best. There! This way."
They made a very deliberate progress along the crowded street until they reached the cinema palace. Harvey Grimm paid for sixpenny seats, and sat arm in arm with Rosa in an atmosphere which seemed to reek74 of fried fish, rank tobacco smoke and cheap scent75. His left hand held her purposely ungloved fingers inside her muff. His right hand toyed with forty thousand pounds' worth of diamonds thrust into common settings which sometimes pricked76 his fingers. When the performance was over they left, still arm in arm.
"Rosa," he announced, "to-night I give you a treat. I tell you a secret as well. I am leaving your grandfather's. I have a much better place. I have saved money, too."
She clung to him in unrestrained affection.
"How much?" she whispered.
"Never mind," he replied. "Maybe three hundred pounds, maybe more. To-night I have the spending fit upon me. We take a taxicab and we drive together up west. I give you some supper at the Monico."
She drew a little breath of delight. Suddenly she was serious.
"Let us go by the Tube," she suggested. "We shall save three shillings towards the supper. You can buy me a bottle of scent with that."
He laughed and handed her into the taxicab which he had already hailed, directed the man to drive to the Monico and stepped in by her side.
"I can buy you a bottle of scent all right," he assured her, "and in here, don't you see, we are quite alone, Rosa. In the restaurant there will be people."
"We might have had the taxicab home," she sighed, her head upon his shoulder.
"Listen," he explained, "after supper I pay for your taxicab, if you will, but I must leave you. I have to see a man on business at half-past eleven. It is my new employer."
For a moment she drew away and looked at him doubtfully.
"On business at half-past eleven?" she repeated. "What is your business? Are you an honest man, Ed. Levy, eh?"
"I am as honest as your grandfather," he answered, "and listen, I am clever. I can make money—make it quickly."
She sat a little closer to him and with her own fingers drew his arm around her waist.
"Shall we be married soon?" she whispered. "Grandfather must die some day soon, and there's no one knows how much money he's got. David and I will have it all."
"We'll talk about that," Harvey Grimm promised.
At a few minutes after twelve on the following morning, Harvey Grimm, very spruce and very debonair77, pushed open the swing-doors of the small smoking-room of the Milan, and crossed the room with the obvious intention of proceeding78 towards the bar. A little welcoming chorus assailed79 him from a circular lounge in the right-hand corner of the room. Seated there were four of his friends whom at first he scarcely recognised. There was Aaron Rodd with his arm in a sling80, a piece of sticking-plaster on his forehead and a thick stick by his side; the poet, with a bandaged head and a shade over his eye; Henriette, looking a little fragile but very animated81; and her brother, still in uniform, leaning back in an easy chair by her side. Harvey Grimm stared at them all in blank and ever-increasing astonishment82.
"Has there been an earthquake?" he asked, as he shook hands and exchanged greetings with everybody, "or have I, in my country seclusion83, missed a scrap84?"
"You have missed the scrap of your life," Cresswell replied eagerly. "You have saved your skin at the expense of untold85 glory."
"Tell me about it," the new-comer begged, as he took his place in the little circle.
"Where can one find words?" the poet began expansively. "It was an Homeric sight, a battle royal! It took place in the darkness, upon a slippery wooden wharf86, with the black waters of the river beneath, and murderous parasites87 assailing88 us on every side. It was an epic89 of biffing, the glorious triumph of the unfit over the river-side apache. And let me tell you this, my friend Harvey—for an untrained fighter the world doesn't hold a man who can hit so quickly and so hard as our newly established hero, Mr. Aaron Rodd. I have decided90 that he has earned immortality91. I am composing a poem which I shall dedicate to him."
"Me," Henrietta sighed.
Then they told their story, all of them in turn, except Brinnen, supplying details. Towards the end, however, the poet took up the running and finished alone.
"His face," the latter declared, gripping Aaron Rodd by the arm, "was like a pastel in white chalk against the soft background of velvety93 blackness. Heaven lit the burning light in his eyes. The swing of his right arm was like the pendulum94 of fate——"
"Oh, keep this rot for the poem!" Aaron Rodd interrupted forcibly. "If you want to gas, what about your own swim to the river police-station?"
"A series of truly Homeric episodes," the poet assented, with a gentle sigh. "My pen shall give them immortality. I shall not forget to allude95 to the part which I, too, played in this drama of fog and river. The water was very cold," he added, suddenly finishing his cocktail96.
"And our friend from the country?" Brinnen asked quietly. "How has he fared?"
There was a breathless silence. Harvey Grimm nodded slightly. He glanced around the room, of which they were the only occupants. Both doors were closed.
"All is well," he announced softly. "I returned last night. The business is finished."
"There will be forty-five thousand pounds. I could not draw it all last night, but it will be paid within a week. I have nine thousand with me. Six of that I will hand over at any moment you please."
"There is no one in the room," Brinnen murmured suggestively.
Harvey Grimm drew out a pocket-book, ran some notes through his fingers, and passed them over to Brinnen. Once more the latter glanced around the room. Then with his left hand he produced from the pocket of his coat a necklace of brilliants, one of which, the centre one, seemed to shine with a faint, rosy98 light.
"Better see what you can do with that," he remarked, tossing it lightly across.
Harvey Grimm held the necklace for a moment in his fingers before he slipped it into the concealment99 of his pocket. During that moment he caught an impression of Henriette's eyes, full of amazement100, fixed101 upon it. She turned towards her brother.
"Leopold," she exclaimed wonderingly, "I do not remember——"
He brushed her words aside.
"You have not seen all," he told her significantly.
Harvey Grimm rang the bell.
"I warn you," he said, "that it will be a few days before I can abandon civilisation102 again, even for a task like this."
Brinnen moved uneasily in his chair.
"It is work, this," he pointed103 out, "which carries with it a special urgency. Remember that its results will last for a lifetime."
"Quite true," was the somewhat grudging104 admission. "It also means great risks. I have been as near the end of things, within the last twenty-four hours, as I care to be."
The waiter appeared with a tray full of cocktails105. Harvey Grimm accepted his and leaned back in his chair with a beatific aspect.
"This," he murmured, "is one of the decadent106 luxuries denied to me in my country seclusion. Like many other things in life, it is almost worth while to lose it for a time, for the sake——"
He broke off in his speech. They all leaned a little forward in their chairs. From a side door at the further end of the apartment, leading to the private suites107 in the hotel, a lift man suddenly appeared, with a valet upon his heels. They crossed the room with almost feverish108 haste. They were obviously distressed109. A small boy followed, a moment or two later, with face as pale as death. There was a confused murmur47 of voices just outside the glass door leading to the main portion of the hotel, and a moment afterwards they reappeared with the manager between them, all talking excitedly at the same time. Then the door opened once more and a woman, tall and dark, in a long dressing-gown of green silk, rushed in. She threw out her hands towards the manager.
"Send for the police!" she cried. "My husband—he is murdered! ... and my jewels—they are all stolen! The police, do you hear?"
They all vanished through the distant door, the woman clinging to the manager's arm and talking excitedly all the time. The little party looked at one another.
"That was Madame de Borria, the wife of the South American millionaire," Harvey Grimm said slowly.
"The woman who wears the necklace with the rose diamond!" Henriette exclaimed breathlessly.
Then there was a queer, tense silence. Captain Brinnen lifted his glass to his lips and finished his cocktail.
"There is more than one rose diamond in the world," he observed coolly.
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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harangued
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| v.高谈阔论( harangue的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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marketing
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| n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西 | |
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lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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wares
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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standing
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complexion
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beatific
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| adj.快乐的，有福的 | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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premises
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hideous
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fervid
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descended
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sitting-room
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homely
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lathe
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insistently
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imploringly
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flicker
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remains
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overalls
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flannel
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consummate
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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31
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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32
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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33
pauper
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| n.贫民，被救济者，穷人 | |
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34
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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35
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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36
allurements
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| n.诱惑( allurement的名词复数 )；吸引；诱惑物；有诱惑力的事物 | |
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37
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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38
provocatively
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39
flirtation
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| n.调情，调戏，挑逗 | |
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40
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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41
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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42
vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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43
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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44
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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45
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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46
vociferous
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| adj.喧哗的，大叫大嚷的 | |
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47
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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48
levy
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| n.征收税或其他款项，征收额 | |
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49
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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50
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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51
ransacked
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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52
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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53
amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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54
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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56
probity
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| n.刚直；廉洁，正直 | |
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57
bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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58
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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59
acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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61
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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62
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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63
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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64
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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65
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
petulantly
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67
riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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68
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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69
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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70
pouting
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的现在分词 ) | |
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71
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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73
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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75
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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76
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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77
debonair
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| adj.殷勤的，快乐的 | |
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78
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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79
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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80
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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81
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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82
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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83
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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84
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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85
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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86
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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87
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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88
assailing
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| v.攻击( assail的现在分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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89
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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90
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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91
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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92
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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93
velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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94
pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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95
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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96
cocktail
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| n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物 | |
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97
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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98
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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99
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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100
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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101
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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102
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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103
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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104
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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105
cocktails
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| n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物 | |
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106
decadent
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| adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的 | |
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107
suites
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| n.套( suite的名词复数 )；一套房间；一套家具；一套公寓 | |
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108
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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109
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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