Theirs was a spirited encounter, lasting7 for ten energetic minutes. Then Wycherley pinked Mr. Minifie in the shoulder, just as the dramatist, a favorite pupil of Gerard's, had planned to do; and the four gentlemen parted with every imaginable courtesy, since the wounded man and the two seconds were to return by boat to Mr. Minifie's house at Milanor.
More lately Wycherley walked in the direction of Ouseley Manor8, whistling Love's a Toy. Honor was satisfied, and, happily, as he reflected, at no expense of life. He was a kindly10 hearted fop, and more than once had killed his man with perfectly11 sincere regret. But in putting on his coat—it was the black camlet coat with silver buttons—he had overlooked his sleevelinks; and he did not recognize, for twenty-four eventful hours, the full importance of his carelessness.
In the heart of Figgis Wood, the incomparable Countess of Drogheda, aunt to Mr. Wycherley's betrothed12, and a noted leader of fashion, had presently paused at sight of him—laughing a little—and with one tiny hand had made as though to thrust back the staghound which accompanied her. "Your humble13 servant, Mr. Swashbuckler," she said; and then: "But oh! you have not hurt the lad?" she demanded, with a tincture of anxiety.
"Nay14, after a short but brilliant engagement," Wycherley returned, "Mr. Minifie was very harmlessly perforated; and in consequence I look to be married on Thursday, after all."
"Let me die but Cupid never meets with anything save inhospitality in this gross world!" cried Lady Drogheda. "For the boy is heels over head in love with Araminta,—oh, a second Almanzor! And my niece does not precisely16 hate him either, let me tell you, William, for all your month's assault of essences and perfumed gloves and apricot paste and other small artillery17 of courtship. La, my dear, was it only a month ago we settled your future over a couple of Naples biscuit and a bottle of Rhenish?" She walked beside him now, and the progress of these exquisites19 was leisurely20. There were many trees at hand so huge as to necessitate21 a considerable detour22.
"Egad, it is a month and three days over," Wycherley retorted, "since you suggested your respected brother-in-law was ready to pay my debts in full, upon condition I retaliated23 by making your adorable niece Mistress Wycherley. Well, I stand to-day indebted to him for an advance of L1500 and am no more afraid of bailiffs. We have performed a very creditable stroke of business; and the day after to-morrow you will have fairly earned your L500 for arranging the marriage. Faith, and in earnest of this, I already begin to view you through appropriate lenses as undoubtedly24 the most desirable aunt in the universe."
Nor was there any unconscionable stretching of the phrase. Through the quiet forest, untouched as yet by any fidgeting culture, and much as it was when John Lackland wooed Hawisa under, its venerable oaks, old even then, the little widow moved like a light flame. She was clothed throughout in scarlet25, after her high-hearted style of dress, and carried a tall staff of ebony; and the gold head of it was farther from the dead leaves than was her mischievous26 countenance27. The big staghound lounged beside her. She pleased the eye, at least, did this heartless, merry and selfish Olivia, whom Wycherley had so ruthlessly depicted28 in his Plain Dealer29. To the last detail Wycherley found her, as he phrased it, "mignonne et piquante," and he told her so.
Lady Drogheda observed, "Fiddle-de-dee!" Lady Drogheda continued: "Yes, I am a fool, of course, but then I still remember Bessington, and the boy that went mad there——"
"Because of a surfeit30 of those dreams 'such as the poets know when they are young.' Sweet chuck, beat not the bones of the buried; when he breathed he was a likely lad," Mr. Wycherley declared, with signal gravity.
"Oh, la, la!" she flouted31 him. "Well, in any event you were the first gentleman in England to wear a neckcloth of Flanders lace."
"And you were the first person of quality to eat cheesecakes in Spring Garden," he not half so mirthfully retorted. "So we have not entirely32 failed in life, it may be, after all."
"I fancy he was fond of pottage, madam; and that, as I remember, he got his pottage. Come, now, a tangible35 bowl of pottage, piping hot, is not to be despised in such a hazardous36 world as ours is."
She was silent for a lengthy37 while. "Lord, Lord, how musty all that brave, sweet nonsense seems!" she said, and almost sighed. "Eh, well! le vin est tiré, et il faut le boire."
"My adorable aunt! Let us put it a thought less dumpishly; and render thanks because our pottage smokes upon the table, and we are blessed with excellent appetites."
"So that in a month we will be back again in the playhouses and Hyde Park and Mulberry Garden, or nodding to each other in the New Exchange,—you with your debts paid, and I with my L500——?" She paused to pat the staghound's head. "Lord Remon came this afternoon," said Lady Drogheda, and with averted38 eyes.
"I do not approve of Remon," he announced. "Nay, madam, even a Siren ought to spare her kin9 and show some mercy toward the more stagnant-blooded fish."
And Lady Drogheda shrugged39. "He is very wealthy, and I am lamentably41 poor. One must not seek noon at fourteen o'clock or clamor for better bread than was ever made from wheat."
Mr. Wycherley laughed, after a pregnant silence.
"By heavens, madam, you are in the right! So I shall walk no more in Figgis Wood, for its old magic breeds too many day-dreams. Besides, we have been serious for half-an-hour. Now, then, let us discuss theology, dear aunt, or millinery, or metaphysics, or the King's new statue at Windsor, or, if you will, the last Spring Garden scandal. Or let us count the leaves upon this tree; and afterward42 I will enumerate43 my reasons for believing yonder crescent moon to be the paring of the Angel Gabriel's left thumb-nail."
She was a woman of eloquent44 silences when there was any need of them; and thus the fop and the coquette traversed the remainder of that solemn wood without any further speech. Modish45 people would have esteemed46 them unwontedly glum48.
Wycherley discovered in a while the absence of his sleeve-links, and was properly vexed49 by the loss of these not unhandsome trinkets, the gifts of Lady Castlemaine in the old days when Mr. Wycherley was the King's successful rival for her favors. But Wycherley knew the tide filled Teviot Bay and wondering fishes were at liberty to muzzle50 the toys, by this, and merely shrugged at his mishap51, midcourse in toilet.
Mr. Wycherley, upon mature deliberation, wore the green suit with yellow ribbons, since there was a ball that night in honor of his nearing marriage, and a confluence52 of gentry53 to attend it. Miss Vining and he walked through a minuet to some applause; the two were heartily54 acclaimed55 a striking couple, and congratulations beat about their ears as thick as sugar-plums in a carnival56. And at nine you might have found the handsome dramatist alone upon the East Terrace of Ouseley, pacing to and fro in the moonlight, and complacently57 reflecting upon his quite indisputable and, past doubt, unmerited good fortune.
There was never any night in June which nature planned the more adroitly58. Soft and warm and windless, lit by a vainglorious59 moon and every star that ever shone, the beauty of this world caressed60 and heartened its beholder61 like a gallant62 music. Our universe, Mr. Wycherley conceded willingly, was excellent and kindly, and the Arbiter63 of it too generous; for here was he, the wastrel64, like the third prince at the end of a fairy-tale, the master of a handsome wife, and a fine house and fortune. Somewhere, he knew, young Minifie, with his arm in a sling65, was pleading with Mistress Araminta for the last time; and this reflection did not greatly trouble Mr. Wycherley, since incommunicably it tickled66 his vanity. He was chuckling67 when he came to the open window.
Within a woman was singing, to the tinkling68 accompaniment of a spinet69, for the delectation of Lord Remon. She was not uncomely, and the hard, lean, stingy countenance of the attendant nobleman was almost genial71. Wycherley understood with a great rending72 shock, as though the thought were novel, that Olivia, Lady Drogheda, designed to marry this man, who grinned within finger's reach—or, rather, to ally herself with Remon's inordinate73 wealth,—and without any heralding74 a brutal76 rage and hatred77 of all created things possessed78 the involuntary eavesdropper79.
She looked up into Remon's face and, laughing with such bright and elfin mirth as never any other woman showed, thought Wycherley, she broke into another song. She would have spared Mr. Wycherley that had she but known him to be within earshot.… Oh, it was only Lady Drogheda who sang, he knew,—the seasoned gamester and coquette, the veteran of London and of Cheltenham,—but the woman had no right to charm this haggler80 with a voice that was not hers. For it was the voice of another Olivia, who was not a fine and urban lady, and who lived nowhere any longer; it was the voice of a soft-handed, tender, jeering81 girl, whom he alone remembered; and a sick, illimitable rage grilled82 in each vein83 of him as liltingly she sang, for Remon, the old and foolish song which Wycherley had made in her praise very long ago, and of which he might not ever forget the most trivial word.
Men, even beaux, are strangely constituted; and so it needed only this—the sudden stark84 brute85 jealousy86 of one male animal for another. That was the clumsy hand which now unlocked the dyke87; and like a flood, tall and resistless, came the recollection of their far-off past and of its least dear trifle, of all the aspirations88 and absurdities89 and splendors90 of their common youth, and found him in its path, a painted fellow, a spendthrift king of the mode, a most notable authority upon the set of a peruke, a penniless, spent connoisseur91 of stockings, essences and cosmetics92.
He got but little rest this night.
There were too many plaintive93 memories which tediously plucked him back, with feeble and innumerable hands, as often as he trod upon the threshold of sleep. Then too, there were so many dreams, half-waking, and not only of Olivia Chichele, naive94 and frank in divers95 rural circumstances, but rather of Olivia, Lady Drogheda, that perfect piece of artifice96; of how exquisite18 she was! how swift and volatile97 in every movement! how airily indomitable, and how mendacious98 to the tips of her polished finger-nails! and how she always seemed to flit about this world as joyously99, alertly, and as colorfully as some ornate and tiny bird of the tropics!
But presently parochial birds were wrangling100 underneath101 the dramatist's window, while he tossed and assured himself that he was sleepier than any saint who ever snored in Ephesus; and presently one hand of Moncrieff was drawing the bed-curtains, while the other carefully balanced a mug of shaving-water.
Wycherley did not see her all that morning, for Lady Drogheda was fatigued102, or so a lackey103 informed him, and as yet kept her chamber104. His Araminta he found deplorably sullen105. So the dramatist devoted106 the better part of this day to a refitting of his wedding-suit, just come from London; for Moncrieff, an invaluable107 man, had adjudged the pockets to be placed too high; and, be the punishment deserved or no, Mr. Wycherley had never heard that any victim of law appeared the more admirable upon his scaffold for being slovenly108 in his attire109.
Thus it was as late as five in the afternoon that, wearing the peach-colored suit trimmed with scarlet ribbon, and a new French beaver110, the exquisite came upon Lady Drogheda walking in the gardens with only an appropriate peacock for company. She was so beautiful and brilliant and so little—so like a famous gem15 too suddenly disclosed, and therefore oddly disparate in all these qualities, that his decorous pleasant voice might quite permissibly111 have shaken a trifle (as indeed it did), when Mr. Wycherley implored112 Lady Drogheda to walk with him to Teviot Bay, on the off-chance of recovering his sleeve-links.
And there they did find one of the trinkets, but the tide had swept away the other, or else the sand had buried it. So they rested there upon the rocks, after an unavailing search, and talked of many trifles, amid surroundings oddly incongruous.
For this Teviot Bay is a primeval place, a deep-cut, narrow notch113 in the tip of Carnrick, and is walled by cliffs so high and so precipitous that they exclude a view of anything except the ocean. The bay opens due west; and its white barriers were now developing a violet tinge114, for this was on a sullen afternoon, and the sea was ruffled115 by spiteful gusts116. Wycherley could find no color anywhere save in this glowing, tiny and exquisite woman; and everywhere was a gigantic peace, vexed only when high overhead a sea-fowl jeered117 at these modish persons, as he flapped toward an impregnable nest.
"And by this hour to-morrow," thought Mr. Wycherley, "I shall be chained to that good, strapping118, wholesome119 Juno of a girl!"
So he fell presently into a silence, staring at the vacant west, which was like a huge and sickly pearl, not thinking of anything at all, but longing120 poignantly121 for something which was very beautiful and strange and quite unattainable, with precisely that anguish122 he had sometimes known in awaking from a dream of which he could remember nothing save its piercing loveliness.
"And thus ends the last day of our bachelorhood!" said Lady Drogheda, upon a sudden. "You have played long enough—La, William, you have led the fashion for ten years, you have written four merry comedies, and you have laughed as much as any man alive, but you have pulled down all that nature raised in you, I think. Was it worth while?"
"Faith, but nature's monuments are no longer the last cry in architecture," he replied; "and I believe that The Plain Dealer and The Country Wife will hold their own."
"And you wrote them when you were just a boy! Ah, yes, you might have been our English Moliere, my dear. And, instead, you have elected to become an authority upon cravats123 and waistcoats."
"Eh, madam"—he smiled—"there was a time when I too was foolishly intent to divert the leisure hours of posterity124. But reflection assured me that posterity had, thus far, done very little to place me under that or any other obligation. Ah, no! Youth, health and—though I say it—a modicum125 of intelligence are loaned to most of us for a while, and for a terribly brief while. They are but loans, and Time is waiting greedily to snatch them from us. For the perturbed126 usurer knows that he is lending us, perforce, three priceless possessions, and that till our lease runs out we are free to dispose of them as we elect. Now, had I jealously devoted my allotment of these treasures toward securing for my impressions of the universe a place in yet unprinted libraries, I would have made an investment from which I could not possibly have derived127 any pleasure, and which would have been to other people of rather dubious128 benefit. In consequence, I chose a wiser and devouter course."
"Why, look you," Wycherley philosophized, "have you never thought what a vast deal of loving and painstaking130 labor131 must have gone to make the world we inhabit so beautiful and so complete? For it was not enough to evolve and set a glaring sun in heaven, to marshal the big stars about the summer sky, but even in the least frequented meadow every butterfly must have his pinions132 jeweled, very carefully, and every lovely blade of grass be fashioned separately. The hand that yesterday arranged the Himalayas found time to glaze133 the wings of a midge! Now, most of us could design a striking Flood, or even a Last judgment134, since the canvas is so big and the colors used so virulent135; but to paint a snuff-box perfectly you must love the labor for its own sake, and pursue it without even an underthought of the performance's ultimate appraisement136. People do not often consider the simple fact that it is enough to bait, and quite superfluous137 to veneer138, a trap; indeed, those generally acclaimed the best of persons insist this world is but an antechamber, full of gins and pitfalls139, which must be scurried140 through with shut eyes. And the more fools they, as all we poets know! for to enjoy a sunset, or a glass of wine, or even to admire the charms of a handsome woman, is to render the Artificer of all at least the tribute of appreciation141."
But she said, in a sharp voice: "William, William——!" And he saw that there was no beach now in Teviot Bay except the dwindling142 crescent at its farthest indentation on which they sat.
Yet his watch, on consultation143, recorded only five o'clock; and presently Mr. Wycherley laughed, not very loudly. The two had risen, and her face was a tiny snowdrift where every touch of rouge144 and grease-pencils showed crudely.
"Look now," said Wycherley, "upon what trifles our lives hinge! Last night I heard you singing, and the song brought back so many things done long ago, and made me so unhappy that—ridiculous conclusion!—I forgot to wind my watch. Well! the tide is buffeting145 at either side of Carnrick; within the hour this place will be submerged; and, in a phrase, we are as dead as Hannibal or Hector."
She said, very quiet: "Could you not gain the mainland if you stripped and swam for it?"
"Why, possibly," the beau conceded. "Meanwhile you would have drowned. Faith, we had as well make the best of it."
Little Lady Drogheda touched his sleeve, and her hand (as the man noted) did not shake at all, nor did her delicious piping voice shake either. "You cannot save me. I know it. I am not frightened. I bid you save yourself."
"Permit me to assist you to that ledge146 of rock," Mr. Wycherley answered, "which is a trifle higher than the beach; and I pray you, Olivia, do not mar1 the dignity of these last passages by talking nonsense."
For he had spied a ledge, not inaccessible147, some four feet higher than the sands, and it offered them at least a respite148. And within the moment they had secured this niggardly149 concession150, intent to die, as Wycherley observed, like hurt mice upon a pantry-shelf. The business smacked151 of disproportion, he considered, although too well-bred to say as much; for here was a big ruthless league betwixt earth and sea, and with no loftier end than to crush a fop and a coquette, whose speedier extinction152 had been dear at the expense of a shilling's worth of arsenic153!
Then the sun came out, to peep at these trapped, comely70 people, and doubtless to get appropriate mirth at the spectacle. He hung low against the misty154 sky, a clearly-rounded orb155 that did not dazzle, but merely shone with the cold glitter of new snow upon a fair December day; and for the rest, the rocks, and watery156 heavens, and all these treacherous157 and lapping waves, were very like a crude draught158 of the world, dashed off conceivably upon the day before creation.
These arbiters159 of social London did not speak at all; and the bleak160 waters crowded toward them as in a fretful dispute of precedence.
Then the woman said: "Last night Lord Remon asked me to marry him, and I declined the honor. For this place is too like Bessington—and, I think, the past month has changed everything——"
"I thought you had forgotten Bessington," he said, "long, long ago."
"I did not ever quite forget—Oh, the garish161 years," she wailed162, "since then! And how I hated you, William—and yet liked you, too,—because you were never the boy that I remembered, and people would not let you be! And how I hated them—the huzzies! For I had to see you almost every day, and it was never you I saw—Ah, William, come back for just a little, little while, and be an honest boy for just the moment that we are dying, and not an elegant fine gentleman!"
"Nay, my dear," the dramatist composedly answered, "an hour of naked candor163 is at hand. Life is a masquerade where Death, it would appear, is master of the ceremonies. Now he sounds his whistle; and we who went about the world so long as harlequins must unmask, and for all time put aside our abhorrence164 of the disheveled. For in sober verity165, this is Death who comes, Olivia,—though I had thought that at his advent166 one would be afraid."
Yet apprehension167 of this gross and unavoidable adventure, so soon to be endured, thrilled him, and none too lightly. It seemed unfair that death should draw near thus sensibly, with never a twinge or ache to herald75 its arrival. Why, there were fifty years of life in this fine, nimble body but for any contretemps like that of the deplorable present! Thus his meditations168 stumbled.
"Oh, William," Lady Drogheda bewailed, "it is all so big—the incurious west, and the sea, and these rocks that were old in Noah's youth,—and we are so little——!"
"Yes," he returned, and took her hand, because their feet were wetted now; "the trap and its small prey169 are not commensurate. The stage is set for a Homeric death-scene, and we two profane170 an over-ambitious background. For who are we that Heaven should have rived the world before time was, to trap us, and should make of the old sea a fowling-net?" Their eyes encountered, and he said, with a strange gush171 of manliness172: "Yet Heaven is kind. I am bound even in honor now to marry Mistress Araminta; and you would marry Remon in the end, Olivia,—ah, yes! for we are merely moths173, my dear, and luxury is a disastrously174 brilliant lamp. But here are only you and I and the master of all ceremony. And yet—I would we were a little worthier175, Olivia!"
"You have written four merry comedies and you were the first gentleman in England to wear a neckcloth of Flanders lace," she answered, and her smile was sadder than weeping.
"And you were the first person of quality to eat cheese-cakes in Spring Garden. There you have our epitaphs, if we in truth have earned an epitaph who have not ever lived."
"No, we have only laughed—Laugh now, for the last time, and hearten me, my handsome William! And yet could I but come to God," the woman said, with a new voice, "and make it clear to Him just how it all fell out, and beg for one more chance! How heartily I would pray then!"
"And I would cry Amen to all that prayer must of necessity contain," he answered. "Oh!" said Wycherley, "just for applause and bodily comfort and the envy of innumerable other fools we two have bartered176 a great heritage! I think our corner of the world will lament40 us for as much as a week; but I fear lest Heaven may not condescend177 to set apart the needful time wherein to frame a suitable chastisement178 for such poor imbeciles. Olivia, I have loved you all my life, and I have been faithful neither to you nor to myself! I love you so that I am not afraid even now, since you are here, and so entirely that I have forgotten how to plead my cause convincingly. And I have had practice, let me tell you.… !" Then he shook his head and smiled. "But candor is not à la mode. See, now, to what outmoded and bucolic179 frenzies180 nature brings even us at last."
She answered only, as she motioned seaward, "Look!"
And what Mr. Wycherley saw was a substantial boat rowed by four of Mr. Minifie's attendants; and in the bow of the vessel181 sat that wounded gentleman himself, regarding Wycherley and Lady Drogheda with some disfavor; and beside the younger man was Mistress Araminta Vining.
It was a perturbed Minifie who broke the silence. "This is very awkward," he said, "because Araminta and I are eloping. We mean to be married this same night at Milanor. And deuce take it, Mr. Wycherley! I can't leave you there to drown, any more than in the circumstances I can ask you to make one of the party."
"Mr. Wycherley," said his companion, with far more asperity182, "the vanity and obduracy183 of a cruel father have forced me to the adoption184 of this desperate measure. Toward yourself I entertain no ill-feeling, nor indeed any sentiment at all except the most profound contempt. My aunt will, of course, accompany us; for yourself, you will do as you please; but in any event I solemnly protest that I spurn185 your odious186 pretensions187, release myself hereby from an enforced and hideous188 obligation, and in a phrase would not marry you in order to be Queen of England."
"Miss Vining, I had hitherto admired you," the beau replied, with fervor189, "but now esteem47 is changed to adoration190."
Then he turned to his Olivia. "Madam, you will pardon the awkward but unavoidable publicity191 of my proceeding192. I am a ruined man. I owe your brother-in-law some L1500, and, oddly enough, I mean to pay him. I must sell Jephcot and Skene Minor193, but while life lasts I shall keep Bessington and all its memories. Meanwhile there is a clergyman waiting at Milanor. So marry me to-night, Olivia; and we will go back to Bessington to-morrow."
"To Bessington——!" she said. It was as though she spoke194 of something very sacred. Then very musically Lady Drogheda laughed, and to the eye she was all flippancy195. "La, William, I can't bury myself in the country until the end of time," she said, "and make interminable custards," she added, "and superintend the poultry," she said, "and for recreation play short whist with the vicar."
And it seemed to Mr. Wycherley that he had gone divinely mad. "Don't lie to me, Olivia. You are thinking there are yet a host of heiresses who would be glad to be a famous beau's wife at however dear a cost. But don't lie to me. Don't even try to seem the airy and bedizened woman I have known so long. All that is over now. Death tapped us on the shoulder, and, if only for a moment, the masks were dropped. And life is changed now, oh, everything is changed! Then, come, my dear! let us be wise and very honest. Let us concede it is still possible for me to find another heiress, and for you to marry Remon; let us grant it the only outcome of our common-sense! and for all that, laugh, and fling away the pottage, and be more wise than reason."
She irresolutely196 said: "I cannot. Matters are altered now. It would be madness——"
"It would undoubtedly be madness," Mr. Wycherley assented197. "But then I am so tired of being rational! Oh, Olivia," this former arbiter of taste absurdly babbled198, "if I lose you now it is forever! and there is no health in me save when I am with you. Then alone I wish to do praiseworthy things, to be all which the boy we know of should have grown to.… See how profoundly shameless I am become when, with such an audience, I take refuge in the pitiful base argument of my own weakness! But, my dear, I want you so that nothing else in the world means anything to me. I want you! and all my life I have wanted you."
"Boy, boy——!" she answered, and her fine hands had come to Wycherley, as white birds flutter homeward. But even then she had to deliberate the matter—since the habits of many years are not put aside like outworn gloves,—and for innumerable centuries, it seemed to him, her foot tapped on that wetted ledge.
Presently her lashes199 lifted. "I suppose it would be lacking in reverence200 to keep a clergyman waiting longer than was absolutely necessary?" she hazarded.
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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stickler
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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lasting
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manor
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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kindly
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perfectly
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betrothed
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humble
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nay
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gem
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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exquisites
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leisurely
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necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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22
detour
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| n.绕行的路，迂回路；v.迂回，绕道 | |
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23
retaliated
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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25
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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26
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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27
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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28
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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29
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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30
surfeit
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| v.使饮食过度；n.(食物)过量，过度 | |
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31
flouted
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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33
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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34
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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35
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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36
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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37
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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38
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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39
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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40
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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41
lamentably
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| adv.哀伤地，拙劣地 | |
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42
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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43
enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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44
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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45
modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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46
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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47
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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48
glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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49
vexed
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|
| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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50
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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51
mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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52
confluence
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| n.汇合，聚集 | |
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53
gentry
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|
| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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54
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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55
acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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56
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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57
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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58
adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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59
vainglorious
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| adj.自负的；夸大的 | |
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60
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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62
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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63
arbiter
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| n.仲裁人，公断人 | |
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64
wastrel
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| n.浪费者；废物 | |
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65
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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66
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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67
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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68
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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69
spinet
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| n.小型立式钢琴 | |
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70
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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71
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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72
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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73
inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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74
heralding
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| v.预示( herald的现在分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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75
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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76
brutal
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|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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77
hatred
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|
| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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78
possessed
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|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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79
eavesdropper
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| 偷听者 | |
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80
haggler
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| n.很会砍价的人 | |
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81
jeering
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|
| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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82
grilled
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|
| adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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83
vein
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|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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84
stark
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|
| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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85
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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86
jealousy
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|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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87
dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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88
aspirations
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|
| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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89
absurdities
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|
| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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90
splendors
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|
| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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91
connoisseur
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|
| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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92
cosmetics
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| n.化妆品 | |
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93
plaintive
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|
| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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94
naive
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|
| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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95
divers
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|
| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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96
artifice
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|
| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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97
volatile
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|
| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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98
mendacious
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|
| adj.不真的，撒谎的 | |
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99
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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100
wrangling
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|
| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 ) | |
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101
underneath
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|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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102
fatigued
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|
| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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103
lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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104
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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105
sullen
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|
| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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106
devoted
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|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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107
invaluable
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|
| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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108
slovenly
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|
| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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109
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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110
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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111
permissibly
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| 得到许可地，获准地 | |
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112
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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113
notch
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| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
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114
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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115
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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116
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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117
jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
strapping
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|
| adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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119
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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120
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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121
poignantly
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122
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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123
cravats
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| n.（系在衬衫衣领里面的）男式围巾( cravat的名词复数 ) | |
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124
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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125
modicum
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| n.少量，一小份 | |
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126
perturbed
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|
| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127
derived
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|
| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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128
dubious
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|
| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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129
grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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130
painstaking
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|
| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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131
labor
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|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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132
pinions
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
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133
glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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134
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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135
virulent
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|
| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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136
appraisement
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| n.评价，估价；估值 | |
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137
superfluous
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|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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138
veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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139
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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140
scurried
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|
| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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142
dwindling
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|
| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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143
consultation
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|
| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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144
rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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145
buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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146
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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147
inaccessible
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|
| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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148
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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149
niggardly
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| adj.吝啬的，很少的 | |
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150
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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151
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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152
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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153
arsenic
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| n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的 | |
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154
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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155
orb
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| n.太阳；星球；v.弄圆；成球形 | |
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156
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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157
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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158
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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159
arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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160
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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161
garish
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| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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162
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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163
candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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164
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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165
verity
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| n.真实性 | |
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166
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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167
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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168
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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169
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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170
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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171
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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172
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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173
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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174
disastrously
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| ad.灾难性地 | |
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175
worthier
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| 应得某事物( worthy的比较级 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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176
bartered
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| v.作物物交换，以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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177
condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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178
chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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179
bucolic
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| adj.乡村的；牧羊的 | |
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180
frenzies
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| 狂乱( frenzy的名词复数 )； 极度的激动 | |
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181
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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182
asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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183
obduracy
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| n.冷酷无情，顽固，执拗 | |
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184
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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185
spurn
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| v.拒绝，摈弃；n.轻视的拒绝；踢开 | |
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186
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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187
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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188
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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189
fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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190
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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191
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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192
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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193
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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194
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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195
flippancy
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| n.轻率；浮躁；无礼的行动 | |
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196
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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197
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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198
babbled
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| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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199
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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200
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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