Six weeks of all she had ever hoped for, dreamed of, in the lean years of heart starvation. The complete devotion of a strong man, a man who held a place in the world she knew. Every luxury wealth could purchase at her disposal, even to satiation. Her every whim1 ministered to, and even anticipated. This was something of the ripe fruit literally2 heaped into Elvine's lap. She had longed for it, schemed for it, and Providence3 had permitted all her efforts complete success.
Now, with those six weeks behind her, she gazed upon the balance-sheet. She looked for the balance of happiness. To her horror it was blotted4 out, smudged out of all recognition. Oh, yes, the figures had been entered, but now they were completely obscured.
It was the last stage of her journey to her new home. It was a journey being made in the saddle. Their baggage, a large number of trunks loaded with the precious gleanings from the great stores during the honeymoon5, had been sent on ahead by wagon6. There was nothing, so far as could be seen, to rob the home-coming of its proper sense of delight. Yet delight was more than far off. Elvine was a prey7 to a hopelessness which nothing seemed able to relieve.
Summer was not yet over, although the signs of the coming fall were by no means lacking. The hard trail, like some carefully set out terra-cotta ribbon upon a field of tawny8 green, took them through a region of busy harvesting. The tractors and threshers were busily engaged in many directions. Great stacks of straw testified to the ample harvest in progress. Fall ploughing had already begun, and high-wheeled wagons9 bore their burden of produce toward the distant elevators. Then, too, human freight passed them, happy, smiling freight of old and young, whose sun-scorched faces reflected something of the joy of life and general prosperity prevailing11.
A radiant sun looked down upon the scenes through which they passed. It was the wonderful ripening12 God almost worshipped of these people who lived by the fruits of the earth. Jeffrey Masters understood it all, and reveled in the pleasant senses it stirred. For he, too, lived by the fruits of the earth, although his harvest was garnered13 in the flesh of creature kind.
Elvine looked on with eyes that beheld14 but saw nothing of that which inspired her husband. Remembrance claimed her. Too well she remembered. And gladly would she have shut out such sights altogether, for more and more surely they crushed her already depressed15 spirits to a depth from which it seemed impossible to raise them.
Nor was her beautiful face without some reflection of this. Her smile was ready for the man at her side. She laughed and talked in a manner so care-free that he could never have suspected. But in repose16, when no eyes were upon her, a lurking17, hunted dread18 peered furtively19 out of her dark eyes, and the fine-drawn20 lines gathered about her shapely lips, and seriously marred21 the serenity22 of their youthful contours.
She had one purpose now, one only. It was to ward10 off the blow which she knew might fall at any moment when she reached her new home. The threat of it was with her always. It drove her to panic in the dark of night. It left her watchful23 and fearful in the light of day. At all times the memory of her husband's words dinned24 through her brain like the haunt of some sickening melody.
"Now I only hope the good God'll let me come up with the man who took the price of his blood."
It had been spoken coldly. It had been spoken with an intensity26 of bitterness that left an impression as hard as flint. The tone had set her shuddering27. Then the look in those cold blue eyes when at last she had turned confronting them. No, there had been no mercy in them. No mercy, she told herself, for--anybody.
At that moment she had known that the earth could hold no future peace for her. She felt that Fate had passed sentence on her, and she was powerless to stay its execution. Her husband demanded vengeance28 upon the man who had accepted the price of his brother's blood.
For the moment she had been stunned29. Then had risen up in her a desperate courage. She would fight. She would fight for herself, she would fight for the love which all unbidden, all undesired, had come to her. Then, in the end, if defeat should overtake her, she would, yes, she could, submit to the punishment his hand should mete30 out to her.
Strangely, from that moment her love for this man seemed to increase a thousandfold. He grew in her heart a towering colossus of worship. The primitive31 in her bowed down before his image ready to yield to his lightest word, while, by every art, she was ready to cajole and foster his love.
It was all she knew, understood. It was the woman in her who possessed32 no other weapons of defense33. She loved him, she desired him, then nothing was too small to cling to with the wild hope of the drowning. When the day came that he should turn and rend34 her soul she could submit. But until that day she would cling to every straw that offered.
While the scenes through which they were passing preoccupied35 the man, the silence of the wide plains left Elvine to her fears. The great breadth of the world about her added to her hopelessness. And after a silence which had become unduly36 protracted37, she took refuge in talk for which she had no real desire.
"It's beautiful, but--oppressive," she said, and the words were the inspiration of genuine thought.
But the man was like one who has spent a world of love and devotion upon carving38 a beautiful setting and is now about to complete his work by securing in place the crowning jewel. He had no room for any feeling of oppression. He shook his head.
"Say, Evie," he cried, "I just can't allow you the word 'oppressive.' I just can't. Look--look right out there toward the hills we're making. Take the colors as they heap up to the distance. Every shade, I guess, from green to purple. It makes me feel good. It gives me room to stretch myself. It sort o' sweeps away a whole heap of fusty city smells, and gives us something a deal more worth breathing. It's a man's place. And it's full of man's work. Guess Providence got busy an' set it all out for us. Providence guessed we'd have to use it. But Providence didn't just guess how far crazy human nature really was. She didn't foresee we'd gather around in the musty dump-holes we call cities. She didn't figure on our tastes for the flesh-pots, and the indulgence of the senses she'd handed us. But then Providence knows her power to fix us right when she feels that way." Then he spread out his arms with an inexpressible suggestion of longing39. "Say, I'm crazy--plumb crazy to get the first peek40 at that dandy home I've had fixed41 for you."
"You're good to me, Jeff," she said. Then she added: "So good." Her smile deepened. "You'd hand me the world with--with a fence around it, if I asked. Why? Why are you like that?"
It was the love in her seeking reassurance43. Nor was she disappointed.
"Why?" The man laughed. And the sound of it was good to hear. It was deep, and seemed to come from the depths of his soul. His blue eyes shone with a world of devotion. "Guess I love you--just that," he said. Then he pointed44 at the distant hills. "I can't tell you all I feel, Elvie," he said, "but get those hills. See them. There, that peak, sitting right up over its fellows, with a cap of snow on it I don't guess the sun could ever melt. That's thousands of feet up. I'd say man's foot was never set there, nor bird's, nor animal's either. Well, if that peak was a throne it 'ud give you pleasure to occupy, why, I guess I'd just go the limit to have you sit there."
Elvine was gazing at the mountain crest45, but she was not thinking of it. She was thinking of the love which the extravagant46 words expressed, and she was wondering at the bigness of it. She was caught in its power, and it thrilled her with an even greater appreciation47 of her danger. What would be the result upon such a nature as this man's when--he knew?
"I believe you would," she said, her eyes coming back to the strong, flushed face. Then she added: "Now."
"Now?"
There was a quick lifting in the man's fair brows. There was incredulity in his tone. To him it seemed impossible, the implied doubt in her final word.
"I don't change easy, Elvie," he protested. "I kind of get things hard. It's my way, and it's no doing of mine. Life's a full-sized proposition, and I don't guess we can see far through it. But I can't imagine a thing that could come before you in my thoughts."
"I'd like to think that. I'd like to feel that," Elvine returned. She was smiling up into his eyes. "You see, Jeff, I was kind of thinking. We're young now. We've been together just six weeks. Maybe you'll get used to me later. Men do get used to women till they become sort of part of the furniture. Oh, I guess their love goes right on, but--but they wouldn't feel like starting in to fence in the North Pole, or--or hitch48 up Niagara to their wife's buggy just because she fancied that way. Say, Jeff, when I lose your love I just lose everything in the world. You--you won't ever let me lose it, will you?"
Jeff shook his head, and smiled in the confidence of feelings.
"Don't ever talk that way. Don't ever think like that," he urged her. Then, as their horses ambled49 side by side up the last gentle incline before they dropped down to the great plain of the Rainbow Hill Valley, which was the setting of the Obar Ranch50, he drew nearer and reached out one arm and gently encircled her waist. "Guess you're feeling like me just now, Evie. Do you know what I mean? We're getting home. Home--yours and mine. Well, say, that home is in my mind now, and it's full to the brim of thoughts of you. You're in it--everywhere. You're part of it. You're just part of me. I can't see any future without you. It don't seem to me there could be any. I don't doubt. I guess the thought of it don't scare me a thing. Maybe with you it's different. Maybe you're scared such happiness can't last. But I tell you it can--it will. You're with me now and always, and I can't see a shadow that could come between us."
"None? No, none, none!"
The woman forced conviction into her final denial, and, for a moment, she permitted herself to yield to the reassuring51 embrace. Then she started up and released herself.
"Oh, Jeff!" she cried. "I just pray all the time that nothing shall ever rob me of your love. Night and day I pray that way. If I were to lose you, I--I think nothing else would much matter."
The man smiled with supreme52 confidence. They had reached the top of the hill, and he set his horse into a canter.
"You're just going to live right on--for me, sweetheart," he cried. "Be yourself. Just yourself. The frank, honest woman I know and love. If ever the shadows you fear come to worry us, they'll have to be of your own creating. We have nothing to fear from the future, nothing at all. We'll just drive right on down the clear trail of life. It's only in the byways there's any ugly dumps. Look!" He suddenly flung out one arm, pointing ahead where the great Obar plains rolled away toward the hills below them. "That's the ranch. There. That one there is Bud's homestead, and the other to the right's your--our home. Say, it's good to see--mighty good!"
* * * * * *
Nan gazed upon the result of her labors53 and decided54 that it was good. Bud was observing her in his unobtrusive way. They were together in the new parlor55 of the home which Jeff had had reconstructed under Nan's most careful supervision56.
The girl had put forth57 her greatest effort, greater even than she herself realized, for it had been inspired by a desire that Jeff and his wife should never realize the pain and bitter disappointment she had endured.
Now, as she surveyed each detail in her final tour of inspection58, she convinced herself that nothing, nothing she could think of had been forgotten. Even the city-bred Elvine could find no fault with any detail of it.
She and Bud were standing59 side by side rather like two children gazing in awed60 wonder at some undreamed of splendor61 suddenly discovered in a familiar playground, every square foot of which they had believed themselves familiar with.
"I--don't think I've forgotten a thing," Nan said, in a tone subdued62 by her weight of responsibility.
"Not a thing," agreed Bud, with a perfect disregard for any consequences his statement might have.
He was utterly63 unchanged. He had made no preparation to receive the bride and bridegroom in their home. He was just the cattleman nothing could change him from. His gray flannel64 shirt was agape over his sunburned chest. His leather chapps creaked as he moved, his vicious spurs clanked. Then, too, the curling iron-gray hair of his bared head was innocent of all extra combing. With Nan it was different. She had striven to rid herself of every sign of the prairie to which she belonged. She was dressed with consummate65 care. Every jealous feeling of the woman in her had cried out for her rights, and those rights were that her successful rival should be unable to sneer66 at or pity her.
The result was a delightful67 picture that filled Bud's heart with admiration68. And for perhaps the thousandth time he silently anathematized the blind folly69 of the man who had wilfully70 cast his eyes in another direction.
Nan seated herself in one of the luxuriously71 inviting72 armchairs, while Bud insinuated73 his huge form on to the polished surface of a large central table.
"You know, Daddy, I sort of feel like a feller who's guessed the right answer to a question he hadn't a notion of. Maybe you won't get just how I mean." The smile in her pretty eyes changed to a deep seriousness. "You know when I was a little teeny girl all mud and overall, that never could keep me within measurable distance of being clean, you used to talk to me just as if you were speaking your thoughts aloud. Guess it was about the time poor Momma died, or maybe soon after. I kind of remember you were squatting74 Indian fashion on the veranda75 of our shack76, I'd been busy in the hopes of drowning myself in a half dry mud hole, and had mostly succeeded in absorbing more of the dirt than seemed good for a single meal. Guess I must have started to cry, and you'd reached out and grabbed me, and fetched me up on your lap, and were handing me a few words you reckoned to cheer me up with. Do you remember them, my Daddy? I don't guess you do. I didn't till a while later, and then I didn't figure out their meaning till I went to school. You said, 'Tears is only for kiddies an' grown women. Kiddies mostly cry because they don't understand, an' grown women because they do. Anyway, neither of 'em need to cry, if they only get busy an' think a while. Ther' ain't a thing in this life calls for a tear from a living soul, not even a stomachful of moist mud, 'cos, you see, ther's Someone who fixes everything the way it should go, an' it's the right way. So we'll jest give you a dose of physic to help boost the show along.'" She glanced round her with smiling eyes at the tastefully arrayed furnishings of the parlor. "This has been the dose of physic I gave myself, and--and I feel better for it. I had the mud, and, why, the tears came just as they did before. Maybe if I'd been able to think right I wouldn't have shed them. But I just couldn't think right then. But I've thought since, and the physic's helped me. Do--do you think he'll like it all?"
The contemplative gaze of her father was full of gentle amusement.
"Sure he will--if he ain't changed any."
Nan shook her head.
"Jeff couldn't change. Even marriage couldn't change Jeff. You see, Jeff's got notions of life which are just part of him. Maybe he'll soften77 some in ways and things, but his notions'll remain, and they'll stand right out in all he does."
But Bud remained without conviction.
"A good woman can set a big man hunting a halo," he said. "An' I allow he's li'ble to find it, if she don't weaken in her play. But a bad woman--why, I guess a bad woman can send him down quicker than most things in life, once she tucks herself into a corner of his life depot78."
"But Jeff would never fall in love with a bad woman." Nan protested swiftly, an odd little pucker79 of anxiety gathering80 between her brows. "I--I'm sure his wife's a good woman."
"An' I ain't any sort o' reason to think diff'rent."
"But you do think--that way."
Nan's understanding of her father was wide. It could scarcely have been otherwise, since he had been her sole companion for so many years.
But Bud was to be drawn no further.
"Ther' ain't no accounting81 fer how folks think when they ain't out on a joy trip," he grumbled82, as he moved across to the open window, and stood gazing out over the trail from the northeast. Then all further discussion was abandoned in a small wave of excitement. He was pointing down the trail.
"Say, they're coming right along now. An'----"
But Nan was at his side. Something of the color had faded out of her cheeks, and she clung to her father's arm as she gazed along the narrow winding83 road. Her breath was coming rapidly. For all her courage, now that the moment of great trial had arrived, she felt very weak, very helpless.
Bud understood. He released his arm from her nervous clasp, and placed it gently about her shoulders. "It's Jeff setting the gait," he said. "I'd say he's crazy to get home." Then he added as though to himself: "Guess I'd as lief seen her on the lead."
But Nan gave no heed84 to his words. The soul of the girl was in her eyes, which were full of a deep terror and yearning85. She had schooled herself for this meeting How she had schooled herself! And now it seemed beyond her powers to live up to that schooling86.
Never for a moment did she withdraw her gaze. It was held fascinated, perhaps against her will. They came on, riding at an almost racing87 gallop88, and finally drew up with their horses fighting against the restraining bits.
Bud and Nan were on the veranda. Bud's attitude was one of almost shy reserve. Nan was smiling a welcome such as a moment before would have seemed quite impossible. But her schooling had finally triumphed in the crisis, and her loyalty89 to her generous love had vanquished90 every baser feeling. It was her hands which clasped those of the city woman before she sprang lightly from the saddle. It was her steady voice spoke25 the first words of welcome.
"Say, you sure must be tired with your journey," she said. "Come right in to--your new home."
Bud had averted91 his eyes the moment she began to speak. He could not witness that greeting. His courage was unequal to it. Instead he greeted Jeff in his own fashion, as though nothing unusual had occurred.
"Nan's got everything through for you same as you asked. After you've eaten, why, I guess we'll need to make some talk. Things have been moving, boy. Guess we'll need to get busy."
Nan had taken Elvine into the house, and one of the barn-hands was waiting to take the horses. Jeff leaped from the saddle. Once in the company of his partner, with all the atmosphere of the world to which he belonged about him, all the excitement of his home-coming seemed to drop from him. He even seemed to have forgotten that this was the final great event of his new life--the bringing of his bride to the home he had prepared for her. But Nan's estimate of him was right. Jeff's was a nature that could not be changed, even by his marriage. His love, his marriage, Elvine; these things were, in reality, merely episodes. Delightful episodes. Before all things his work claimed him.
"You mean the--rustlers?"
The two men were facing each other on the wide veranda. The trailing wild cucumber vines tempered the blaze of sunlight and left the atmosphere of the veranda cool. Jeff mopped the beads92 of perspiration93 from his forehead under his wide hat, which had been thrust back on his head.
"That's so." Bud's eyes were following the horses as they moved away in the wake of the barn-hand.
"It's pretty bad?"
"An' gettin' worse."
"Can't you tell me--now? Evie's in there with Nan," he added significantly.
Bud shook his head.
"Go right on."
Jeff read through the pause. He waited, his lips firmly set.
Bud cleared his throat.
"I've got to say these things later if I don't say 'em now, Jeff, boy. What I need to tell 'll make you sore, an' I don't guess it's the best sort o' welcome making you sore at your home-comin'. It's the worst of the yarn anyway, an' I kind o' feel it's best spitting out the worst right away. We're up against a gang, a slick gang, organized right, same as----"
"The gang my brother ran."
Bud nodded.
"Some of 'em got clear away--that time."
"And you figure after giving things time to get forgotten they've gathered up a crowd of toughs and started in on this district?"
"It seems that way."
"How?"
"System," Bud declared sharply. "They're takin' a steady toll97 of us, an' other folks in the district. We trailed 'em to the hills, an'--lost 'em. Say, if we don't handle 'em it means----"
"Something like ruin for the--Obar."
Jeff's manner was shorn of any equivocation98. He spoke with almost ruthless force, but the coldness of tone was incomparable with the steely light in his blue eyes.
After a moment's silence he turned away. He stood looking back over the trail he had just left, and Bud regarded his keen profile, waiting. He felt there was nothing more for him to say at the moment.
At last the other turned in his quick, decided fashion as the sound of the women's voices reached them from within the parlor.
"Will you stop and eat with us?" he asked bluntly.
Bud shook his head.
"Not now, Jeff, boy. This is your home-coming."
"Yes. Well, I'll get around your place to-morrow morning, Bud. We can make big talk then."
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1
whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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5
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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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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tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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13
garnered
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| v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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dinned
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| vt.喧闹（din的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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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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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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mete
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| v.分配；给予 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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protracted
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| adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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peek
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| vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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42
caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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43
reassurance
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| n.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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46
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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48
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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49
ambled
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| v.（马）缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 )；从容地走，漫步 | |
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ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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51
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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52
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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54
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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82
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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86
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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87
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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88
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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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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92
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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93
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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95
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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96
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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97
toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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98
equivocation
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| n.模棱两可的话，含糊话 | |
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