"I was thinking what I'd do if I had a million dollars, Wenny."
Wenny turned, his eyes snapping, and laughed. The glimpse of his face laughing turned up into the full white glare of an arclight lingered in Fanshaw's eyes and faded, the way a stranger's face out of a crowd would sometimes linger and fade. Nan's face too, the profile as she turned to put her key in the lock of the glass door was still sharp in his mind, behind it a memory of the smell extraordinarily9 warm honied artificial of the flowers among the pictures in Mrs. Gardiner's gallery. Strange that Nan should have worn a hat like that this evening. Unbecoming, made her look like a schoolteacher. The New England in her coming out. Such a wonderful person had no right to look that way. That night at the fancy dress dance at the Logans she had looked her best, her face oval, Sienese, and the hair tight back from her forehead under a jewelled net like a girl by a Lombard painter. There had been such distinction in the modelling of her forehead and cheekbones and her slender neck among all those panting pigeonbreasted women. How rarely people were themselves. Out of the corner of an eye he glanced at Wenny walking beside him with short steps, doggedly10, his face towards the ground. A trio we are, Nan and Wenny and I, a few friends my only comfort in this great snarling11 waste of a country. We don't fit here. We are like people floating down a stream in a barge12 out of a Canaletto carnival13, gilt14 and dull vermilion, beautiful lean-faced people of the Renaissance15 lost in a marsh16, in a stagnant17 canal overhung by black walls and towering steel girders. One could make a poem or an essay out of that idea, some people could; Wenny, if he weren't such a lazy little brute18. Why couldn't I?
"Didn't you think Nan looked tired tonight?" asked Wenny suddenly.
Fanshaw was loath19 to break into the rhythm of his thoughts.
"I did," said Wenny again.
"Why should she be tired? She hasn't worked very hard this week."
Wenny said nothing. The street was muffled20 by the fog all about them. In Fanshaw's mind were phrases from Lamb, vague thought of fogs over London. They came out on the springy boards of the bridge that seemed to sway ever so little under their feet. The fog above the river was denser21 and colder. Their steps were loud on the slats of the sidewalk. Half way over they passed a man and a girl, bodies cleaving22 together so that they made a single silhouette23. Fanshaw caught Wenny's backward glance after them. Rather unhealthy, the interest in those things, he thought. Further along they heard a regular heavy tread coming towards them, a policeman.
"He'll break their clinch," said Wenny giggling24. Fanshaw was annoyed,—vulgar, he thought, why notice such things? Other ages perhaps had put beauty, romance in them; Paolo and Francesca floating cloudy through limbo25.
"These last few days I have been often thinking of that passage, Pico della Mirandola riding into Florence in the time of lilies. Then it would have been less futile26 to be alive."
"How do you know Fanshaw?"
"You have no nostalgia27 of the past, have you, Wenny? It's that things were so much cleaner, fresher. Everything was not so muddled28 and sordid29 then."
"Can't things always have been muddled and sordid? I think they were."
"Those people on the bridge and you giggling at them. I can't understand it, it's so low."
"Then, by God, you can't understand anything." Wenny's voice broke; he was angry and walked faster. Fanshaw thought of a phrase out of The Book of Tea; a man without tea was a man without poise30, refinement31. Wenny had no tea. How amusing his rages were. They went along without speaking. In the bright circle of each arclight he glanced at Wenny's sullen32 face, the prominent lips, the strangely soft-textured cheeks, the slightness of the waist under the shirt that bagged at the belt revealed by the flapping unbuttoned coat, the clenched34 swinging hands. There were puddles35 in the road. It was dark between arclights, a few glows from windows loomed36 distant among weighty shadows. Shadows seemed to move slouchingly just out of sight. Fanshaw felt he was walking unawares through all manner of lives, complications of events. Thought of holdups brought a vague fear into his mind. There ought to be more lights. If it weren't for these wretched Irish politicians who ran things.... When they crossed the railway tracks there were little red and green lights in the fog, the wail37 of an engine far away. A bell began to ring and the old man dozing38 in a little shack39 with a red and a green flag propped40 against his knees—like Rembrandt the shadows thought Fanshaw—jumped up. The bar came down behind them. Lights flashed down the track and they could hear down towards Cambridge-port the chug of a locomotive and the slow bumping of the wheels of freightcars over a crossing.
"Let's stop and watch it go past," said Wenny.
"No, my feet are wet. I'm afraid of catching41 cold."
They walked on.
"I think I'll try an' get a job on a section gang on the railway this summer, Fanshaw."
"A fine Italian laborer42 you'd make, Wenny; why you would never get up early enough, and think of the food and the bunkhouses, fearful!"
"I think I'd like it for a while."
Through chinks in the great bulk of the Armory43 light and a racket of voices trickled44 out into the fog like sand out of a cart.
"I guess it's a dance," said Wenny.
The day that Ficino finished his great work—Plato was it?—Pico della Mirandola rode into Florence and the lilies were in bloom, Fanshaw was thinking, and wondering whether he would have enough money to go abroad comfortably next summer. If I could only leave Mother.
"For crissake lemme walk between yez a sec," came a breathless voice from behind them.
Fanshaw hastened his stride. His muscles were tense. A holdup.
"Walk slow like. Lemme walk between yez for crissake."
Fanshaw looked desperately45 up the long straight street towards the glare of Central Square. Not a policeman of course. The man walked panting between them with red sweating face stuck forward. Fanshaw dropped back a step and came up on the outside of Wenny.
"What's the trouble?" Wenny was saying.
"Hell to pay.... Fight in the Armory, see? I doan know what it was about.... I was lookin' at two fellows fightin' an' a guy, a big tall guy, comes up to me, an' says, Well, what about it? Then he called me a sonofabitch.... I guess he was a Catholic, one of them South Boston guys. I hit 'im in the jaw46, see? An' then I saw the bulls comin' an' I beat it. You don't care if I walk between yez, just to the corner?"
"Of course not," said Wenny.
At the first corner the man left them.
"I'll run along to home and mother now," he said.
"Wasn't that rich," cried Wenny laughing. "Say suppose we go back to see what's happening."
"The policemen would probably arrest us as accessories. You don't believe that man's story, do you? Probably a burglar making off."
"You are an old sourbelly this evening. What's the matter?" Wenny hopped47 and skipped along beside him roaring with laughter.
"I am rather depressed48. Music depresses me."
They had reached the long brightly lighted oblong of Central Square where the fog was thinned by the shine of the plateglass windows of cheap furniture stores and the twisted glint of tinware in the window of Wool worth's. Young men loafed on the edge of the sidewalk and stumpy girls chattered50 in the doorways52 of candy shops.
"Where were you born, Fanshaw? I can't seem to remember?"
"Why?"
"I was thinking up where people I knew were born. Nan was born in Boston, Beacon53 Hill. ... Central Square would be a comical place to be born."
"You knew perfectly54 well I was born in Omaha. You just want the satisfaction of hearing me say it."
Scraps55 of talk kept impinging upon them as they threaded through the groups on the sidewalk.
"I only lived there until I was twelve," Fanshaw was saying. In his ears rang the phrase: An' I gave her one swell56 time. "Then my father died and Mother moved East. She'd always wanted to live in Boston. The day we were settled in our little house in Brookline she brought me in on the car to see the Abbey paintings. She was bound I'd take to the arts."
"By the way, how is your mother now?"
"About the same, Wenny. Poor lamb, I'm afraid she never will get much better. She's so patient about it."
They were out of the square walking past dwelling57 houses set back from the road. A smell of leaves and autumnal earth came to them. In Fanshaw's mind was the picture of a grey head against a pillow, heavy despairing wrinkles from the nose to the ends of the mouth where was a wry58 peevish twitch59 of pain; his mother shapeless in a lilac dressing gown propped up in the easy chair in the library amid a faint stale smell of cologne and medicines.
"I wonder if it will always be like this, this meaningless round of things. It would have been if I hadn't met you, Wenny."
"D'you mean I'm a horrible example to keep you on the straight paths of virtue60?" said Wenny harshly. He shook off Fanshaw's hand that was on his arm and thrust his hands deep into his pockets.
"When I'm with you I feel as if there were something I could do about life. Remember the passage about 'to burn with a hard gemlike flame'?"
Wenny grunted61.
"We must get something graceful62 and intense we die in the attempt. I haven't the energy.... I'm going to talk about myself, you can't stop me, Wenny.... Mother has a curio cabinet. You know it, in the corner of the drawing room with a shepherd à la Watteau painted on the panel. Out in Nebraska when I was little I used to spend hours looking at the things: a filigree63 gondola64 from Venice, the Sistine Madonna in mosaic65, carved wooden goats from Switzerland, the Nuremberg goose boy ... you know all those desperate little Mid-Victorian knick-knacks put in the cabinet so that they won't have to be dusted. I think my mind is like that. It opens. You can put things in and they stay there, but nothing moves. That's why I am so appropriate to the groves66 of Academe.... You're dynamic."
"A damn bundle of frustrations67, that's all I am Fanshaw if you only knew. Funny how we each think the other has the inside dope on things.... My father had it about God or thought he did. He was sure of himself anyway."
"But you are sure of yourself."
"The hell I am.... Let's have a drink. I am fearfully thirsty."
"What you wanting a soda68?"
Wenny laughed. They went into the candy store that was thick with the smell of fresh cooked chocolate. A boy with tow hair and a pimply69 face was washing glasses. Fanshaw found himself staring with a faint internal shudder70 at the red knuckles71 as his fingers moved round swiftly in glass under glass under the faucet72. They drank glasses of orangeade in silence, Wenny paid the girl behind the cash-register who showed two gold teeth in a smile as they went out. Fanshaw was already thinking with eager anticipation73 of his room with its orange shaded lamp; the cosy74 bookish smell of it, the backs of his books in their case of well dusted mahogany and the discreet75 sheen of the gold letters of their titles in the lamplight, the sepia of the Primavera over the mantel, the neatness of his bedroom, the linen76 sheets on his bed, the clean aloofness77 of fresh pyjamas78.
"I often wonder why I go out in the evenings at all."
"Why not?"
"Things seem to me so ugly now, all this rasping and grinding. It used not to be so when I was in college but now it makes me feel so unpleasantly futile. When I'm in my room with everything about me as I have grouped it I feel futile too, but pleasantly futile, artistically79 futile."
"Fanshaw, that's all utter rot."
"That's no argument, Wenny, to call a thing rot."
"But it's rot just the same."
They walked along silent again. How hopeless to make oneself understood. Through the sting of bitterness Fanshaw remembered the first time he had seen Wenny. He had sat beside him in a classroom in front of the yellow varnished80 desk of the instructor81. There was the dry smell of chalk and outside lilacs swayed against a blue sky full of little rosy82 clouds; the hideous83 lassitude of words in an even voice that smelt84 of chalk and blackboards, and besides him a thin brownfaced boy with moist brown eyes intent on everything, the chalky words of the instructor, the lilacs outside, the swallows that flashed against the sky. And now they walked back side by side towards Cambridge as they had walked hundreds of other nights at about this hour, and his arm touched Wenny's arm occasionally as it swung. Was it four years, five years, they had known each other? Hopeless all these futile walks, this constant juggling85 of words. Wenny's stride was even with his stride now, occasionally the backs of their hands touched as they swung. For all they could tell each other they might be on different continents. Fanshaw felt frozen and rigid86 in ferocious87 loneliness. And now there was Nan. The thought that he might love her, that he might be losing himself to her disturbed him so that he tried to brush it aside.
"Strange how we are all settling down," he said. All the while he was thinking of love, his boyish idea of love elegant over teacups, suppertables on terraces at Capri, a handing of old fashioned bouquets88 with a rose in the center, red rose of passion, romaunt of the rose.
"I haven't settled down," said Wenny, savagely89. "I wish I had."
In a smoker90 once Fanshaw had overheard a story about a rose. The recollection brought a curious little feeling of sickness, stale cigar smoke and smutty eyes in a leer, flabby jowls laughing.
"I mean all our group at college," he heard himself saying.
"What else can they do, they've none of them the guts92 to do anything or be anything.... Nan hasn't settled down."
"I was going to say. She has just started on the rampage."
"That's because she is a woman. They go on developing. Men don't."
They were walking up Mt. Auburn Street. A group of boys passed them, striding jauntily93, chattering94 in high voices. Fanshaw caught the eager tilt95 of heads, the smoothness of the contours of faces in the greenish lamplight. There was a catch in his voice.
"How like a ghost it makes you feel," he said.
"Do you mean you wish you were back there again."
"After all youth is the only thing."
"If there is anything in my life I bitterly resent it is that. The time I wasted in college. ... Sentimentality about youth is the cheapest of all sentimentalities."
"Won't you come in a minute, here we are."
Wenny shook his head.
They stood irresolute96 a moment on the doorstep.
"Do come up and tell me what you mean by your hatred97 of youth. You so rarely commit yourself to an arguable statement like that.... I'm open to conviction of almost anything."
"I must go along home," said Wenny. He turned, raising an arm, and walked fast down the street.
The stairs creaked under the carpet as Fanshaw climbed slowly, two steps at a time, to his room. He turned the key and went in. Objects were illuminated98 by a greenwhite swath of light from the arclight at the corner that cut through the curtains and made a bright oblong on the ceiling. On the broad desk beside the window papers gleamed white and an inkbottle gave a glint of jet. Fanshaw pulled down the shades of the two windows and clicked on the reading lamp on the desk. Examination books in blue covers made a neat pile on one corner. On another were bundles of folded papers held tight by elastics100. In the center were many pencils and pens of different colors in a shallow copper101 tray. Fanshaw felt the peevish despair slipping off him. He went into the alcove102 where the bed was, took off his shoes and coat slowly thinking of nothing, his eyes following the twisting figures on the chintz window curtains. Then he walked across the floor to the bookcase, his feet at ease in slippers103, and pulled aside the blue silk curtain that kept the dust off his books. For a long time he contemplated104 the colored oblongs of their backs, reading the gilt and black and red type of titles, deciding what he should read.
* * * *
The air was raw. Clouds ruddy from the glare of arclights sagged105 like awnings106 over the streets. They were walking briskly down an oozy107 black alley108 near the market.
"Where are you taking us, Wenny?" said Nan. She rested a greygloved hand on Fanshaw's arm for a moment as she stepped over a pile of fruit-skins on the curb109.
"You said you wanted a walk before dinner"; Wenny sauntered ahead talking over his shoulder.
"We are getting it. I didn't know there were so many streets in Boston, did you, Nan?" Fanshaw spoke110 with a little sniggering laugh. The ooze111 of grimy unfamiliar112 lives out of these dark houses oppressed him. Unhealthy it must be down here, typhoid, consumption, typhus, diphtheria. He felt himself putting his feet down gently as he walked as if he feared that at a loud step the pulpy113 darkness would burst suddenly into oaths and shouts, dirty hands clutching at his coat and whisky-steaming faces thrust into his.
"Now you know where you are," said Wenny.
They had burst suddenly out into the shine and scuttle114 of Hanover Street, where men and women, dark bulky shadows in overcoats and mufflers and bits of fur, flitted constantly past the broad show-windows bright with intricate glints on shoes and hardware and sourish colors in clothing stores and gleaming cascades115 of cheap jewelry116 over black velvet117 under the three ominous118 gold balls of pawnbrokers119.
"Gee120, I'm glad it's Saturday night!"
"Why Wenny?" Fanshaw stood on the curb beside Nan, blinking a little, dazzled by the noise and hustle121.
"Because it's Saturday night you old owl91.... This way."
"You aren't going to take us into more dark alleys122 and get us black-jacked for your entertainment, are you Wenny?"
"I'm going to give you the best bottle of white wine you ever had in your life. Here we are."
Venice read Fanshaw on the window. Stood in Venice by the Bridge of Sighs, a prison and a palace on each hand. Byron; rather a rotter he must have been, or perhaps passionate123 impulsive124 hot, like Wenny. The verdict of history.
They were sitting at a round table in the window. The waiter, a grey eggshaped man with sagging125 pockets under his eyes and a sagging vest too large for him was bending over the table. The others were ordering. How ravishing Nan was tonight in a black dress with great spots of burnt orange embroidery126; her eyes under the small black hat trimmed with the same color, were full of little green sparks.
"I swear, Nan," Wenny was saying, "you are the only woman in this blooming town who knows how to dress."
"Where did you get that dress anyway? I have never seen it before," chimed in Fanshaw. He had a vague feeling of pique127 at not having said it first. Nan and Wenny seemed to get along so well this evening. He felt out of place down here in the slums. The food would probably be horrid128.
"This is delightful129, Wenny," Nan was saying. "What I want to know is why have you never brought us here before?"
The lint49 from the napkin came off on Fanshaw's blue serge suit. What a mess. Mechanically he started wiping off the knife and fork when the waiter set them down before him.
"Like in Europe," he said aloud. "You must forgive me Wenny, but I am suspicious of this famous restaurant of yours."
"And just looked there a fiasco just like in Italy," cried Nan, "Why this is wonderful. Genuine Orvieto, Miss," said the waiter solemnly.
"And look at the gondola ... Fanshaw, do get over being cross and look at the gondola at the foot of the stairs, with a lantern in it too."
"That's for the orchestra. They'll be here in a minute, a ladies' three-piece band as I heard a man call them one night. One of them's awfully130 good looking."
Fanshaw looked about the room. At another table a man and a woman were eating intently. They had sallow, puffy faces and looked into each other's eyes as they stuffed their mouths with spaghetti; depraved-looking thought Fanshaw. Probably Byron had been like that, a puffyfaced man, signs of dissipation. If it hadn't been for drink and women ... Why couldn't people be beautiful about life?
"Here they come," cried Nan and Wenny at the same moment.
Three women in white were behind the gondola prow131 tuning132 up their instruments. All at once with a nervous rush they started strumming away at O Sole Mio, with piano, 'cello133 and violin.
In the back of Fanshaw's mind were pictures of how he would have lived if he had had as much money as Lord Byron; a palazzo in Venice exquisitely134 hung with faded silk brocades, bedrooms with old rose and dull gold upholstery, and everything according to period, no jarring note, a villa135 on Fiesole hill, smothered136 in flowers with in the distance the russet roofs of Florence and the great dome137.
"Nan, do you see the girl who's playing the violin?" whispered Wenny. "That's the girl I meant. She's lovely, isn't she?"
"Wenny, you are seeing things through the Orvieto, but she is beautiful."
"It's her lips and chin that are rather like yours."
"Musician's lips," said Fanshaw a little pompously138. "Do you like those little snippets of veal33, Nan? I don't. Too much garlic. We'll taste it for a week."
"Why it's fine," cried Wenny uproariously. "It'll put hair on your chest."
"I wonder," Nan was speaking slowly, "I wonder if that could be the girl Fitzie was telling me about. I rather think Fitzie said she looked like that."
"Who?"
"The violinist ... Must be a month ago I met Fitzie one day all excited about something. Poor Fitzie does take life so hard. She told me a long cock and bull story that ended by impressing me a great deal about a girl in the Fadettes ..."
At the mention of the Fadettes, Wenny laughed himself red in the face.
"Children should be seen and not heard, Wenny," went on Nan in an even amused voice. "About a girl in the Fadettes who eloped with an Italian boy and how his wife went round to the theatre dragging a lot of squalling brats139 and made a fearful scene. Fitzie couldn't understand how anyone could wreck140 their chances of a career like that. It would be wonderful if this were the girl."
"What would you have done?" asked Wenny eagerly leaning over the table.
"If I had been the girl? How can I know? I wonder sometimes if just the wanting so hard to succeed wouldn't make you throw the whole thing away in one mad moment. It's hard to explain."
"Sure, I know what you mean. No, but about the Italian?"
"What a silly question Wenny," said Fanshaw.
"Perhaps not so silly. Who can tell?"
They were silent a moment. The orchestra was playing The Soldiers Chorus. The waiter brought coffee.
"And another bottle," said Wenny jauntily.
Fanshaw frowned. They had had enough to drink. What a child Wenny was anyway. With unexpected tenderness he pictured himself putting him to bed drunk, unlacing his shoes, pulling off his trousers. A sudden desire came to him to draw a hand over Wenny's crisp short hair.
"There is something strangely fantastically dismal141 about that gondola with its red light as an end to romance. I wonder where those stairs go."
Nan nodded her head.
"That's what I meant. I wonder if she is the girl.... No, Wenny, I'm glad you brought us here, even if we shall taste garlic for a week."
"At least there is the satisfaction of having busted142 loose," said Wenny eagerly.
"I never can understand the amazing way people put themselves out to be miserable144." Fanshaw found himself suddenly welling with bitter irritation145.
"But, by God!" cried Wenny, "You have to put yourself out to live at all; every damn moment of your life you have to put yourself out not to fossilize. Most people are mere146 wax figures in a show window. Have you seen a dredger ever, a lot of buckets in a row on a chain going up an inclined plane. That's what people are, tied in a row on the great dredger of society.... I want to be a bucket standing147 on my own bottom, alone.... Why are you laughing Nan?"
"You are so eager about it, Wenny, dear."
"What in hell would you be eager about if not that?"
"Why be too eager about anything?" put in Fanshaw in his most languid voice.
"O you make me tired, Fanshaw."
Fanshaw flushed. The little rat, he thought, I'd like to smack148 him for being so silly. If he could get all that energy into something worth while. That's the difference between us and people like Pico della Mirandola or Petrarch. They could get all that energy into thought, art for the liberation of the world. We fritter it in silly complications. What a clever idea; if he could only make Wenny understand that.
"That's where my music comes in," Nan was saying, her voice grown suddenly tense as Wenny's. "By living it, by making myself great in it, I can bust143 loose of this fearful round of existence. What a wonderful phrase that is, the wheel of Karma! I understand why women throw themselves head over heels at the most puny149 man. They have got to escape, if only for a moment, from the humdrum150, all the little silly objects, pots and pans and spools151 of thread that make up our lives. I've got target that in my music. Nothing else matters."
Fanshaw was thinking for some reason of Dürer's portrait of himself at the age of twenty-eight. There was a man who had never needed to bust loose. They must have been less tied to the wheel in those days.
"But you always have to pay the piper, Nan," Wenny was saying. "It's no use trying to escape that. It's fearfully dangerous to live. I should say music was less safe than love."
"Not if you use your reason, Wenny," said Fanshaw.
"Who ever had any reason to use? It's an illusion, the result of thinking things over after they've happened."
Nan left the table. Fanshaw found himself glaring indignantly at Wenny.
"Gee, isn't Nan beautiful to look at tonight?"
"O, she is!" said Fanshaw smiling with forced frankness. He felt a tumult152 like frightened pigeons in a box inside him. Heavens, suppose he was in love with Nan!
Nan came down the redcarpeted stairs beside the gondola, pulling on her gloves. She stood a moment talking to the girls in the orchestra.
Fanshaw leaned across the table.
"Wenny, don't you think you had better not drink any more?"
"What the hell business is it of yours? Haven't had half enough to drink."
Nan came back to the table, a little sociable153 smile still playing about the corners of her mouth.
"Well, shall we go?" she said briskly.
"Look! Look outside!" cried Wenny, "it's beginning to snow."
In the black space above the muslin curtain that screened the window they could see big flakes154 gently, breathlessly tumbling.
"Thank you, sir; come again, sir," said the waiter as he let the tip slide into one of the pockets of his sagging vest.
They were out in the snowhushed streets, the snow brushing their cheeks with occasional feathery gentleness like tips of wings of very cold birds.
"Did you ask her?" said Wenny.
"No. I shall next time. She's awfully nice." Nan was buttoning the fur round her neck.
"Do you want to taxi?" asked Fanshaw, who had thin shoes on.
"Ridiculous, let's walk. I love this anyway. Don't you, Wenny?"
The black pavement shivered in squirms and lozenges of yellow and red and green light under the feet of people scuttling155 home out of the wet. All the sharpness of lights and colors and sounds was padded and blotched by the slow flutter of snowflakes swirling156 down out of the ruddy darkness overhead to vanish in the uneven157 glitter of the wet streets. Fanshaw took Nan's arm and made her walk fast, up towards the electric star that revolved158 slowly in front of a movie on Scollay Square, leaving Wenny to saunter behind them. They had passed the outdoor market where a few women with taut159 lantern jaws160 still hovered161 over the nearly empty pushcarts162 of the vegetable sellers and where brownfaced Italians still barked their apples and peppers and artichokes, when Wenny caught up to them with: "Say, wait a minute."
They stopped outside of a nickel Odeon that belched164 cigarette smoke and calcium165 light. Overhead painted in blue letters pricked166 with red was the sign: Pretty Girls Upstairs.
"Ever been up there, Nan?"
Nan shook her head.
"Let's go for a minute; the most grotesque167 thing you ever saw."
"Absurd. We'll do no such thing," snorted Fanshaw.
Loafers and office boys on their Saturday night bat and drunken sailors and little overpainted hardfaced girls of the street who had come into the broad entrance to get out of the snow looked at them curiously168 as they disputed.
"I think it would be fun, Fanshaw. Come on, be a sport," said Nan.
"It'll smell fearfully," said Fanshaw under his breath.
"All right, just for a minute."
Wenny paid the admission, and they tramped up a creaking stair littered with cigarette butts169 and marked with dark blotches170 where people had spat171 and through a swinging door into a tobacco-reeking place with seats. At the end of a smoky tunnel in front of a curtain the color of arsenic172 and gangrene five women badly stuffed into pink tights like worn dolls, twitched173 their legs in time to the accentless jangle of a piano. The light streamed out from them among eager red faces, moist lips, derbies, felt hats, caps shoved back on heads. At every pause in the music men whistled and shouted at the girls. Now and then a girl dropped out of the wiggling, tired dance and jerked herself off the stage or a new one joined in the invariable twitching174 step. Fanshaw felt the fetor of hostile bodies all about him. Standing in the back behind some sailors, holding Nan's arm firmly in his, he kept whispering in her ear: "Nan, let's get out of this." The man in front of them turned, and Fanshaw caught the bulge175 of his eyes as he stared at Nan.
"Come on, I'm going," he said aloud.
"Don't you go with that stiff, girlie. You stay along with me," said the man leaning drunkenly towards her. He had a yellow lean face with a hooked scar on one cheek.
"I'm going," said Nan suddenly in a cold, hard voice. "You can stay if you like, Wenny."
The door swung behind them. They brushed past some boys clattering176 up the stairs with shouts of laughter. Once on the pavement, Fanshaw breathed deep of the snowy air.
"We'll take the car at Scollay Square," he said in a reassuring177 businesslike tone. In him a voice kept saying: That dirty little kid, that dirty little kid, and exultantly178, Nan can't like him after this.
Nan said nothing, but walked beside him with cold, precise steps. At the entrance to the subway, Wenny came up to them and said: "All right. Good night," in a sudden, curt99 tone, and went off walking fast down Hanover Street again.
The Huntington Avenue car filled up gradually with people. As it growled179 through the tunnel past Park and Boylston the row of faces opposite joggled as meaningless as turnips180 jounced over cobbles in a pushcart163. And again Fanshaw through of Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait with yellow curls and the dandified black and white flounced shirt and the calm, self-possessed mouth. If I could be like that, he was thinking, and not like these. And there's that suit I meant to have pressed today. I'll take it round after my nine o'clock class; and the weekly tests and Mrs. Gerald's dinner invitation to answer. He half closed his eyes. That wine makes me drowsy181.
* * * *
"I've so wanted, so prayed, dear, that you might have a beautiful, lovely career," Fanshaw's mother was saying in a weak voice, her head swaying from side to side ever so little against the pillow.
Fanshaw nodded and drew up his chair beside her's. Outside the window some barberries were very red against the snow in the thin twilight182 of the winter afternoon. Snow scene by Brueghel.
"And really, dear, it must be admitted," went on Mrs. Macdougan with a little smile, "that you have done very well in the five years since you left college. You have made yourself beloved and respected, dear, in the walk of life you have chosen... Don't shake your head, you know it is true. Why Mrs. Appleby was telling me only yesterday how highly Mr. Appleby thought of your work under him. O, I was proud of you! And I shall be prouder yet, I know it, if I live long enough... Yes, I shall. O, dear boy, when I was raising you, and I had such trouble raising you, you were sickly, you know dear, like I am now... I used to think how you'd be big and strong and a comfort to me when I was old, just like you are. If God hadn't seen fit to try me with this affliction, how happy we would be together."
"But, mother, you are going to get well, you know. This summer maybe we'll be able to go abroad."
"Nice of you to say it, dearest.... Do you think you could make me a cup of tea? I'd so like a cup of tea. These afternoons are so long."
"But, mother, you know you're not supposed to have tea."
All the little wrinkles about her eyes and the corners of her mouth deepened. She patted her grey pompadour, that had slipped a little to one side of her head, with a querulous hand.
"I didn't have any yesterday," she whined183. "I'm so thirsty, Fanshaw."
"All right, I'll get Susan to make some."
When he came back from the kitchen, she said, her grey eyes wide, staring with excitement:
"I was thinking, Fanshaw, supposing you married and some dreadful woman won you away from your poor mother; what should I do? You're so sweet to me; you take such care of me."
Fanshaw turned red to the roots of his sandy hair.
"Not much danger of that," he said stiffly. "We'll have a nice cup of tea in a minute, very weak, so that we shan't get too nervous, shan't we dear?"
"I know it's so, Fanshaw. Some girl has got a hold on you. Don't trust her dear, don't trust her. Women are so wicked. She's after your social position or thinks you make a good salary... O, I'd die, I'd die if someone got you away from me." Mrs. Macdougan was sitting bolt upright in the chair, beating on her knees with little puffy hands. A wisp of grey hair had fallen down over her forehead, revealing a bit of the black rat under the pompadour. "They are such scheming creatures, so deceitful and wicked, and I so want you to have a beautiful career and be a comfort to me."
"O, now please dear! O, now please dear!" Fanshaw was saying, clenching184 and unclenching his hands, staring into the crowded twilight of the library behind his mother's head.
Susan, tall, with genial185 horse teeth, came in with a tray of tea things.
"O, your hair's acomin' down, mum. Can't I fix it for you, mum?"
"Do, Susan, please," said Mrs. Macdougan in a faint voice, drooping186 against the pillow.
Fanshaw brought up a small table and poured out a cup of tea. His lips were compressed and trembling. When Susan had gone he said in a quiet, expressionless voice:
"Now, mother, you are getting yourself worked up over nothing. I assure you there is nothing whatever between me and any girl."
"You always were a truthful187 boy, but no matter, no matter... There's not enough sugar in this tea, dear. O, why don't people ever give me things the way I like them?"
Fanshaw dropped another lump in her cup. She began to drink the tea in little sips188. The wrinkles in her face relaxed. Fanshaw was looking out of the window at the snow, rosy with sunset, and the intense purple shadows behind the barberry bushes. His mind was all drawn189 hotly into the image of Nan that day at the Logans' with a net of pearls over her hair like a girl by a Lombard painter. Against the snow, the fervid190 rose and purple, how fine she would be.
"Well, I must leave you, mother," he said. "I must go over to Cambridge."
"Don't be late this evening."
"No, dear."
* * * *
The wind was nipping and frosty with a smell of mudflats on it and salt-eaten piles. Fanshaw, walking up T Wharf191 between Wenny and Nan, sniffed192 with relish193 the harbor air, looking at the agewarped houses and the masts and tackle of the fishing schooners194 against the grey sky. He had pulled his buff woolen195 muffler up until it covered the lobes196 of his ears and had sunk his hands deep in his overcoat pockets. In the forehead between the eyes the wind pressed now and then like biting cold iron.
"I had been a man," Nan was saying, "I should have gone to sea."
"But think of it in this weather... It's delightful to take a stroll and look at the harbor and the shipping197 and go back to a warm room. But think of being out in it always. Such beastly cold, grimy, monotonous198 work." Fanshaw felt his teeth almost on edge as he spoke. How differently made people must be who could stand that sort of thing.
The wharf was empty. From the stubby stovepipes of the galleys199 of the close-packed schooners came an occasional rift200 of blue smoke, a whiff of bacon and pipes and stuffy201 bunks202 snatched away in a gust203 of wind.
"I may go yet someday," said Wenny.
"But think," Fanshaw shuddered204. "Think of handling frozen ropes in a wind like this." He thought of gritty ropes cutting through gloves and flesh, ripping the calloused205 flesh of men's palms. That story of Jack London's he had read years ago. It must have been that that put it in his head, the sight of blood on ice-jagged, tarry ropes.
The harbor was wide bright silver, tarnished206 where the wind made catspaws. One tug207 steamed seaward, cutting into the wind with a white rustle208 of foam209 about a bluff210, grimy bow, dragging long coils of brown smoke. They were standing beside some piles at the end of the wharf.
"I have my chance now," said Wenny. "The bust-up was complete this time."
"How do you mean?" Fanshaw and Nan said in unison211.
"My chance to go to sea ... I've broken off relations ... with my relations ... Bad pun, isn't it?"
"You mean you had a row with them?" said Fanshaw. "I can understand that. Poor mother and I nearly came to blows.... It's the holiday spirit. Christmas is a dreadful time. Don't you think so, Nan?"
"I like Christmas," said Wenny.
"But Wenny, you said complete." Nan put a hand on his arm.
"I mean it. I shall never have anything to do with them again... I never have rows."
"But what on earth happened?" Nan's voice was very gentle.
"Absolutely nothing. My father and I had a little chat about life and eternity212. How silly, I'm getting all worked up talking about it. O, I suppose I'd better tell you to get it off my system. It's not a bit important. I laid on for life and he laid on for eternity ... Naturally, being a clergyman eternity is his line of goods. We got sore. I'm never going to take anything more from him, either his money or his insolence213."
"But how are you going to live?" cried Fanshaw.
"What the hell? I've got as much muscle as the next man."
"But you're so impractical214, Wenny."
"It must have been more than that. How did it start?" said Nan, tapping with her patent leather toe at a loose board.
"It started ..." There was a catch in Wenny's voice. Then gruffly: "He said something unpleasant about a snapshot I had on my desk. It's too ridiculous."
"But you'll have to give up your M. A.," went on Fanshaw.
"Damn good thing, too. I was just hanging round the Anthropology215 department in the hope of getting in on an expedition to South America."
And Wenny owes me a hundred dollars, the thought crept unexpectedly into Fanshaw's mind. Never get it now.
"But Wenny," Nan was pleading, "I think you are probably exaggerating the importance of the whole thing. I don't see that it's necessary to get on your high horse like that."
"You would, Nan, if you knew them. You can't imagine how fearful it is down there. A congregational minister's house in Washington. The snobbery216 and the mealymouthedness ... God, it's stinking217... You see I never really lived with them. My mother's sister brought me up mostly here in Boston. You see I had three brothers and a sister, and I was the ugly duckling; and my aunt, who was an old maid, took me off their hands. She was a fine woman. She died the year I went to college. She lived on an annuity218, and left me just enough money to skimp219 through on till Junior year, when my father said he'd help... I have nothing in common with those people down there, and now, because they were giving me money, they decided220 I must do what they wanted, and they hate me and I hate them. I was a filthy221 coward to ever take a cent from him, anyway.... And so here I am at twenty-three, penniless, ignorant, and full of the genteel paralysis222 of culture... Silly, isn't it, Nan?"
The rising wind whined through the rigging of the fishing schooners and the waves slapped noisily against their pitchy bows. Fanshaw's feet were numb223 and his forehead ached.
"Let's walk along," he said. "I'm frozen. I'd like some hot chocolate, would you, Nan?"
"But Wenny," Nan was saying, "You ought to stay on a little while to get your breath as it were... You took your room in Conant for the whole season."
"But, how am I going to pay the term bill, I'd like to know?" There was a little tremor224 in Wenny's voice that made him cut off his words sharp.
They turned and walked down the wharf again, the wind shoving and nudging at them from behind. In the lea of the buildings were a few old men with red faces sitting on boxes smoking pipes.
"Still," said Wenny with a sudden laugh. "I'm glad it happened. It tears off this fearful cotton wadding I've been swaddled in all my life. We'll see what the world is like now, won't we Fanshaw, old duck?" He slapped Fanshaw hard between the shoulders.
"The trouble is; can one live without it?" said Nan.
Fearfully good looking the boy is, all excited and flushed like this, Fanshaw thought.
"By God, I intend to!"
"I thought you looked different, Wenny, when you got off the train," Nan said.
"It was fearfully decent of you two to meet me... Makes me feel as if I had somebody, no matter what happened."
"I've often thought," Fanshaw said, "That there was something that cut us three off together, like people in a carnival in Venice who might drift in their wonderfully carved state gondola down a dark canal ..."
"And find themselves in the Charles ... Exactly!" cried Wenny laughing.
They had left the wharves225 and were walking through the grey many-angled buildings of the business section. It was the lunch hour, and the streets were full of clerks and stenographers hustling226 from their offices to their lunch; from out of the tiled caves of lunchrooms came a smell of bacon and old coffee grounds.
"What sort of work are you going to do? I suppose you'll try a newspaper; everybody does."
"Let's not talk about that now, Fanshaw. Where on earth are you taking us?"
"To Thompson's Spa."
"Why not the Parker House, where we can have something to drink?"
"I'd rather have hot chocolate. I am frozen," said Nan.
They rounded the old State House.
Thompson's Spa was like an aviary227, full of shrill228 women's chatter51, bobbing hats, rows of powdered faces eating at narrow counters, smell of chocolate and sandwiches and sarsaparilla.
"Look, there's Betty Thomas! ... What are you doing here, Betty? Sit here before somebody nabs the place," said Nan.
"O, just shopping. Dear, you should see the hats, straws at Filenes. Why, how do you do, Mr. Macdougan, and ... you! Why, this is a reunion!"
"Are they reasonable?"
"What, the hats? ... Marvellous values, really."
Betty Thomas's nose was a little red from the cold. She held, balanced between finger and thumb, a salad sandwich that dripped mayonnaise into her plate; the three unoccupied fingers were arched airily in space. There was something about her amiable229 chatter to Nan, about the amiable fussy230 chattiness of the women all about them that rasped on Fanshaw's nerves; the sum of it was shrill and ominous.
"But Wenny, what are you going to do? ... I'm fearfully worried," he said in a low voice, leaning towards Wenny's ear. Like a haze231 about them was Nan's and Betty Thomas's chirruping talk:
"My dear, have you heard the latest? Up at the conservatoire ..."
"Honestly, I don't give a damn, Fanshaw. I'm so sick of this hanging on the outskirts232 of college ..."
"I think your department would get you a scholarship. You must go put it up to them. It's ridiculous to let a thing like this wreck your career."
"... And Mrs. Ambrose absolutely refused to sing a note ..."
"My dear Fanshaw, if you knew how utterly233 sick and fed up I was with all that ... No, I'm going to live this time."
"... And Salinski said ..."
"But don't be a fool. Look, I'll try to scrape up some cash for the term bill. I think I can do it."
"You mustn't. I don't want it paid... I'm not going to keep on with this farce234 any longer."
"... A middle register, like an angel.... And she told Fitzie that he said ..."
"You make me tired, Wenny. You must be sensible."
"Don't you see that I'm trying to be, for the first time in my life?"
"... met a man who said Romoulet wasn't teaching the belcanto at all. ... O, I'm so afraid, dear, of ruining my voice.... So many people ..."
"Well, so long. I'm going to fetch my suitcase," said Wenny shortly. "I'll see you people later." He threaded his way out through groups of women and sallow men waiting for seats.
"I'm afraid your friend doesn't like me," said Betty Thomas pouting235.
"He does, I assure you. He's a little diswrought today. He's often like that, isn't he Nan?"
Nan laughed, as she began fitting her gloves on again.
"Poor child.... All too often."
"It's no use taking it too seriously," said Fanshaw.
"No, I don't suppose one ought to take Wenny seriously," Nan whispered slowly, "And yet ..."
"Are we taking the car?" asked Betty Thomas.
"I'll come up as far as your place and then go on over to see Mother... I haven't been there all day," said Fanshaw. Career, he was thinking. Will Nan or this girl make careers? Career in music, diva, prima donna, like Ethel Barrymore in Tante, Adelina Patti; Doris Keene in Romance. Suites236 in hotels full of expensive flowers. For me a career wouldn't be like that. Too absurd, poor dear mother wanting me to have a lovely career. Epicurus would not have approved of a career.
At Symphony Hall they got out of the car.
"Nan, you'll invite me to your first concert in there, won't you?" said Betty Thomas.
"If you'll invite me first." They laughed to hide their eagerness.
They walked up a street of brick and brownstone houses with narrow windows stuffed with fussy curtains on the parlor237 floors. Occasionally a girl passed them with a folder238 of music under her arm. From the houses came a perpetual sound of scales taken with tenors239, sopranos, contraltos, tinkled240 on pianos, scraped on 'cellos241 and violins, toddled242 on flutes243. From somewhere came occasionally the muffled bray244 of an English horn.
"Fearful street, isn't it?" said Fanshaw.
"So Betty and I aren't the only ones ..."
"You mean who want to scale Symphony Hall? O, it's a common disease, Nan.... Well, I must go back and get the car over to Brookline. If Wenny goes to see you, do try and get him to be sensible."
* * * *
Fanshaw had marked the last paper in the test on Florentine sculpture. He got up from his desk yawning. O Lord! he was thinking, I'll never be able to look Donatello or the Ghiberti doors in the face again. He leaned over, arranged the pencils in their tray, put the papers away in the drawer, and slowly took off his tortoise-shell spectacles. My eyes are smarting; I mustn't work any more tonight. The case closed on his spectacles with a faint clack. Poor Wenny, what a rotten shame; but if he would not learn tact245, discretion246, what on earth was there to do? So idiotically childish. Fanshaw walked with long, leisurely247 stride into his bathroom, where he hung his dressing gown on the back of the door. He came back with yellowstriped pajamas248 under his arm and sat on the edge of the bed to take off his shoes. Fearful how this business upsets me, he muttered aloud. Much too fond of Wenny, his dark skin, his extraordinary bright eyes. One ought to have more control over one's emotions, senses. At grade school in Omaha, there had been that curlyhaired boy, Bunny Jones. Walking home from school one day, they took the roundabout way beyond the railroad yards. Must have been May, for the locusts249 were out. Mother never could abide250 the smell of locusts, insisted they gave her a headache. Bunny had suddenly put an arm round his neck and kissed him and run off crying in a funny little voice, "Gee, I'm sheered." Curious the way streaks251 like that turn up in one. Pico della Mirandola wouldn't have been afraid of such an impulse if it had come to him. There were so many scandalmongers about this place. How fearful anything like that would be. He wasn't free like Wenny. He had his mother to take care of, lovely career to make. How bitterly silly the idea was. He folded his trousers over the back of the chair! And it was really Nan he cared for. Love, he thought; the word somehow rasped in him. When he had put on his pajamas he stood in front of the dim mirror a second rubbing his fingers through his short sandy hair. Wonderful it would be to have yellow curls like Dürer in his portrait. He turned out the light and got into bed. O, the window! He got up, pushed the window up half way and retreated hastily before the blast of cold air that stung his flesh under the loose pajamas. Comfortable, this bed; better than the one I have at mother's place. He closed his eyes and drew the covers up about his chin. Streets, he thought of, long streets of blind windows, dark, cold under arclights, and himself and Wenny and Nan walking arm in arm, hurrying from corner to corner. Can't seem to find that street, and on to the next corner between endless rows of blind windows converging252 in a perspective utterly black beyond the cold lividness of arclights. Must have lost our way in these streets.
He opened his eyes with a jerk. The room was familiar and quiet about him, the accustomed bulk of the desk opposite the bed. Out on Mt. Auburn Street voices, occasional steps. He closed his eyes again and fell asleep.
点击收听单词发音
1 seeped | |
v.(液体)渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 );渗透;渗出;漏出 | |
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2 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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3 peevish | |
adj.易怒的,坏脾气的 | |
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4 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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5 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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6 applicants | |
申请人,求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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7 tapestried | |
adj.饰挂绣帷的,织在绣帷上的v.用挂毯(或绣帷)装饰( tapestry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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9 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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10 doggedly | |
adv.顽强地,固执地 | |
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11 snarling | |
v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的现在分词 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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12 barge | |
n.平底载货船,驳船 | |
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13 carnival | |
n.嘉年华会,狂欢,狂欢节,巡回表演 | |
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14 gilt | |
adj.镀金的;n.金边证券 | |
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15 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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16 marsh | |
n.沼泽,湿地 | |
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17 stagnant | |
adj.不流动的,停滞的,不景气的 | |
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18 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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19 loath | |
adj.不愿意的;勉强的 | |
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20 muffled | |
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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21 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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22 cleaving | |
v.劈开,剁开,割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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23 silhouette | |
n.黑色半身侧面影,影子,轮廓;v.描绘成侧面影,照出影子来,仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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24 giggling | |
v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
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25 limbo | |
n.地狱的边缘;监狱 | |
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26 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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27 nostalgia | |
n.怀乡病,留恋过去,怀旧 | |
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28 muddled | |
adj.混乱的;糊涂的;头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱,弄糟( muddle的过去式);使糊涂;对付,混日子 | |
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29 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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30 poise | |
vt./vi. 平衡,保持平衡;n.泰然自若,自信 | |
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31 refinement | |
n.文雅;高尚;精美;精制;精炼 | |
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32 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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33 veal | |
n.小牛肉 | |
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34 clenched | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35 puddles | |
n.水坑, (尤指道路上的)雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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36 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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37 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
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38 dozing | |
v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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39 shack | |
adj.简陋的小屋,窝棚 | |
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40 propped | |
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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42 laborer | |
n.劳动者,劳工 | |
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43 armory | |
n.纹章,兵工厂,军械库 | |
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44 trickled | |
v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 );淌;使)慢慢走;缓慢移动 | |
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45 desperately | |
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地 | |
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46 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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47 hopped | |
跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 ); 单足蹦跳; 齐足(或双足)跳行; 摘葎草花 | |
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48 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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49 lint | |
n.线头;绷带用麻布,皮棉 | |
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50 chattered | |
(人)喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 ); 唠叨; (牙齿)打战; (机器)震颤 | |
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51 chatter | |
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战 | |
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52 doorways | |
n.门口,门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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53 beacon | |
n.烽火,(警告用的)闪火灯,灯塔 | |
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54 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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55 scraps | |
油渣 | |
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56 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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57 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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58 wry | |
adj.讽刺的;扭曲的 | |
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59 twitch | |
v.急拉,抽动,痉挛,抽搐;n.扯,阵痛,痉挛 | |
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60 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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61 grunted | |
(猪等)作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 ); (指人)发出类似的哼声; 咕哝着说 | |
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62 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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63 filigree | |
n.金银丝做的工艺品;v.用金银细丝饰品装饰;用华而不实的饰品装饰;adj.金银细丝工艺的 | |
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64 gondola | |
n.威尼斯的平底轻舟;飞船的吊船 | |
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65 mosaic | |
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的 | |
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66 groves | |
树丛,小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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67 frustrations | |
挫折( frustration的名词复数 ); 失败; 挫败; 失意 | |
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68 soda | |
n.苏打水;汽水 | |
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69 pimply | |
adj.肿泡的;有疙瘩的;多粉刺的;有丘疹的 | |
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70 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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71 knuckles | |
n.(指人)指关节( knuckle的名词复数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝 | |
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72 faucet | |
n.水龙头 | |
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73 anticipation | |
n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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74 cosy | |
adj.温暖而舒适的,安逸的 | |
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75 discreet | |
adj.(言行)谨慎的;慎重的;有判断力的 | |
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76 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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77 aloofness | |
超然态度 | |
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78 pyjamas | |
n.(宽大的)睡衣裤 | |
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79 artistically | |
adv.艺术性地 | |
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80 varnished | |
浸渍过的,涂漆的 | |
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81 instructor | |
n.指导者,教员,教练 | |
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82 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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83 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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84 smelt | |
v.熔解,熔炼;n.银白鱼,胡瓜鱼 | |
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85 juggling | |
n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词 | |
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86 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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87 ferocious | |
adj.凶猛的,残暴的,极度的,十分强烈的 | |
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88 bouquets | |
n.花束( bouquet的名词复数 );(酒的)芳香 | |
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89 savagely | |
adv. 野蛮地,残酷地 | |
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90 smoker | |
n.吸烟者,吸烟车厢,吸烟室 | |
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91 owl | |
n.猫头鹰,枭 | |
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92 guts | |
v.狼吞虎咽,贪婪地吃,飞碟游戏(比赛双方每组5人,相距15码,互相掷接飞碟);毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的第三人称单数 );取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 );内脏;消化道的下段;肠 | |
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93 jauntily | |
adv.心满意足地;洋洋得意地;高兴地;活泼地 | |
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94 chattering | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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95 tilt | |
v.(使)倾侧;(使)倾斜;n.倾侧;倾斜 | |
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96 irresolute | |
adj.无决断的,优柔寡断的,踌躇不定的 | |
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97 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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98 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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99 curt | |
adj.简短的,草率的 | |
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100 elastics | |
n.松紧带,橡皮圈( elastic的名词复数 ) | |
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101 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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102 alcove | |
n.凹室 | |
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103 slippers | |
n. 拖鞋 | |
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104 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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105 sagged | |
下垂的 | |
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106 awnings | |
篷帐布 | |
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107 oozy | |
adj.软泥的 | |
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108 alley | |
n.小巷,胡同;小径,小路 | |
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109 curb | |
n.场外证券市场,场外交易;vt.制止,抑制 | |
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110 spoke | |
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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111 ooze | |
n.软泥,渗出物;vi.渗出,泄漏;vt.慢慢渗出,流露 | |
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112 unfamiliar | |
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的 | |
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113 pulpy | |
果肉状的,多汁的,柔软的; 烂糊; 稀烂 | |
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114 scuttle | |
v.急赶,疾走,逃避;n.天窗;舷窗 | |
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115 cascades | |
倾泻( cascade的名词复数 ); 小瀑布(尤指一连串瀑布中的一支); 瀑布状物; 倾泻(或涌出)的东西 | |
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116 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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117 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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118 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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119 pawnbrokers | |
n.当铺老板( pawnbroker的名词复数 ) | |
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120 gee | |
n.马;int.向右!前进!,惊讶时所发声音;v.向右转 | |
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121 hustle | |
v.推搡;竭力兜售或获取;催促;n.奔忙(碌) | |
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122 alleys | |
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径 | |
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123 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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124 impulsive | |
adj.冲动的,刺激的;有推动力的 | |
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125 sagging | |
下垂[沉,陷],松垂,垂度 | |
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126 embroidery | |
n.绣花,刺绣;绣制品 | |
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127 pique | |
v.伤害…的自尊心,使生气 n.不满,生气 | |
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128 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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129 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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130 awfully | |
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地 | |
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131 prow | |
n.(飞机)机头,船头 | |
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132 tuning | |
n.调谐,调整,调音v.调音( tune的现在分词 );调整;(给收音机、电视等)调谐;使协调 | |
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133 cello | |
n.大提琴 | |
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134 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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135 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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136 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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137 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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138 pompously | |
adv.傲慢地,盛大壮观地;大模大样 | |
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139 brats | |
n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 ) | |
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140 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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141 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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142 busted | |
adj. 破产了的,失败了的,被降级的,被逮捕的,被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词 | |
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143 bust | |
vt.打破;vi.爆裂;n.半身像;胸部 | |
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144 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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145 irritation | |
n.激怒,恼怒,生气 | |
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146 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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147 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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148 smack | |
vt.拍,打,掴;咂嘴;vi.含有…意味;n.拍 | |
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149 puny | |
adj.微不足道的,弱小的 | |
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150 humdrum | |
adj.单调的,乏味的 | |
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151 spools | |
n.(绕线、铁线、照相软片等的)管( spool的名词复数 );络纱;纺纱机;绕圈轴工人v.把…绕到线轴上(或从线轴上绕下来)( spool的第三人称单数 );假脱机(输出或输入) | |
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152 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
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153 sociable | |
adj.好交际的,友好的,合群的 | |
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154 flakes | |
小薄片( flake的名词复数 ); (尤指)碎片; 雪花; 古怪的人 | |
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155 scuttling | |
n.船底穿孔,打开通海阀(沉船用)v.使船沉没( scuttle的现在分词 );快跑,急走 | |
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156 swirling | |
v.旋转,打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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157 uneven | |
adj.不平坦的,不规则的,不均匀的 | |
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158 revolved | |
v.(使)旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 );细想 | |
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159 taut | |
adj.拉紧的,绷紧的,紧张的 | |
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160 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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161 hovered | |
鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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162 pushcarts | |
n.手推车( pushcart的名词复数 ) | |
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163 pushcart | |
n.手推车 | |
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164 belched | |
v.打嗝( belch的过去式和过去分词 );喷出,吐出;打(嗝);嗳(气) | |
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165 calcium | |
n.钙(化学符号Ca) | |
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166 pricked | |
刺,扎,戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 ); 刺伤; 刺痛; 使剧痛 | |
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167 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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168 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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169 butts | |
笑柄( butt的名词复数 ); (武器或工具的)粗大的一端; 屁股; 烟蒂 | |
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170 blotches | |
n.(皮肤上的)红斑,疹块( blotch的名词复数 );大滴 [大片](墨水或颜色的)污渍 | |
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171 spat | |
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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172 arsenic | |
n.砒霜,砷;adj.砷的 | |
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173 twitched | |
vt.& vi.(使)抽动,(使)颤动(twitch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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174 twitching | |
n.颤搐 | |
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175 bulge | |
n.突出,膨胀,激增;vt.突出,膨胀 | |
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176 clattering | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式) | |
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177 reassuring | |
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的 | |
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178 exultantly | |
adv.狂欢地,欢欣鼓舞地 | |
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179 growled | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说 | |
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180 turnips | |
芜青( turnip的名词复数 ); 芜菁块根; 芜菁甘蓝块根; 怀表 | |
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181 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
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182 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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183 whined | |
v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 );哀诉,诉怨 | |
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184 clenching | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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185 genial | |
adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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186 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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187 truthful | |
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的 | |
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188 sips | |
n.小口喝,一小口的量( sip的名词复数 )v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的第三人称单数 ) | |
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189 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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190 fervid | |
adj.热情的;炽热的 | |
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191 wharf | |
n.码头,停泊处 | |
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192 sniffed | |
v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
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193 relish | |
n.滋味,享受,爱好,调味品;vt.加调味料,享受,品味;vi.有滋味 | |
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194 schooners | |
n.(有两个以上桅杆的)纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 ) | |
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195 woolen | |
adj.羊毛(制)的;毛纺的 | |
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196 lobes | |
n.耳垂( lobe的名词复数 );(器官的)叶;肺叶;脑叶 | |
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197 shipping | |
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船) | |
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198 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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199 galleys | |
n.平底大船,战舰( galley的名词复数 );(船上或航空器上的)厨房 | |
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200 rift | |
n.裂口,隙缝,切口;v.裂开,割开,渗入 | |
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201 stuffy | |
adj.不透气的,闷热的 | |
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202 bunks | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位( bunk的名词复数 );空话,废话v.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 );空话,废话 | |
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203 gust | |
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发 | |
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204 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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205 calloused | |
adj.粗糙的,粗硬的,起老茧的v.(使)硬结,(使)起茧( callous的过去式和过去分词 );(使)冷酷无情 | |
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206 tarnished | |
(通常指金属)(使)失去光泽,(使)变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 ); 玷污,败坏 | |
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207 tug | |
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船 | |
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208 rustle | |
v.沙沙作响;偷盗(牛、马等);n.沙沙声声 | |
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209 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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210 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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211 unison | |
n.步调一致,行动一致 | |
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212 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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213 insolence | |
n.傲慢;无礼;厚颜;傲慢的态度 | |
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214 impractical | |
adj.不现实的,不实用的,不切实际的 | |
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215 anthropology | |
n.人类学 | |
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216 snobbery | |
n. 充绅士气派, 俗不可耐的性格 | |
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217 stinking | |
adj.臭的,烂醉的,讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 );发臭味;名声臭;糟透 | |
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218 annuity | |
n.年金;养老金 | |
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219 skimp | |
v.节省花费,吝啬 | |
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220 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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221 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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222 paralysis | |
n.麻痹(症);瘫痪(症) | |
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223 numb | |
adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木 | |
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224 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
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225 wharves | |
n.码头,停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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226 hustling | |
催促(hustle的现在分词形式) | |
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227 aviary | |
n.大鸟笼,鸟舍 | |
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228 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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229 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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230 fussy | |
adj.为琐事担忧的,过分装饰的,爱挑剔的 | |
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231 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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232 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
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233 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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234 farce | |
n.闹剧,笑剧,滑稽戏;胡闹 | |
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235 pouting | |
v.撅(嘴)( pout的现在分词 ) | |
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236 suites | |
n.套( suite的名词复数 );一套房间;一套家具;一套公寓 | |
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237 parlor | |
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅 | |
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238 folder | |
n.纸夹,文件夹 | |
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239 tenors | |
n.男高音( tenor的名词复数 );大意;男高音歌唱家;(文件的)抄本 | |
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240 tinkled | |
(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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241 cellos | |
n.大提琴( cello的名词复数 ) | |
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242 toddled | |
v.(幼儿等)东倒西歪地走( toddle的过去式和过去分词 );蹒跚行走;溜达;散步 | |
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243 flutes | |
长笛( flute的名词复数 ); 细长香槟杯(形似长笛) | |
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244 bray | |
n.驴叫声, 喇叭声;v.驴叫 | |
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245 tact | |
n.机敏,圆滑,得体 | |
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246 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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247 leisurely | |
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的 | |
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248 pajamas | |
n.睡衣裤 | |
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249 locusts | |
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树 | |
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250 abide | |
vi.遵守;坚持;vt.忍受 | |
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251 streaks | |
n.(与周围有所不同的)条纹( streak的名词复数 );(通常指不好的)特征(倾向);(不断经历成功或失败的)一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 );使布满条纹 | |
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252 converging | |
adj.收敛[缩]的,会聚的,趋同的v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的现在分词 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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