I was twenty-seven when I met Margaret again, and the intervening five years had been years of vigorous activity for me, if not of very remarkable2 growth. When I saw her again, I could count myself a grown man. I think, indeed, I counted myself more completely grown than I was. At any rate, by all ordinary standards, I had "got on" very well, and my ideas, if they had not changed very greatly, had become much more definite and my ambitions clearer and bolder.
I had long since abandoned my fellowship and come to London. I had published two books that had been talked about, written several articles, and established a regular relationship with the WEEKLY REVIEW and the EVENING GAZETTE. I was a member of the Eighty Club and learning to adapt the style of the Cambridge union to larger uses. The London world had opened out to me very readily. I had developed a pleasant variety of social connections. I had made the acquaintance of Mr. Evesham, who had been attracted by my NEW RULER, and who talked about it and me, and so did a very great deal to make a way for me into the company of prominent and amusing people. I dined out quite frequently. The glitter and interest of good London dinner parties became a common experience. I liked the sort of conversation one got at them extremely, the little glow of duologues burning up into more general discussions, the closing-in of the men after the going of the women, the sage4, substantial masculine gossiping, the later resumption of effective talk with some pleasant woman, graciously at her best. I had a wide range of houses; Cambridge had linked me to one or two correlated sets of artistic5 and literary people, and my books and Mr. Evesham and opened to me the big vague world of "society." I wasn't aggressive nor particularly snobbish6 nor troublesome, sometimes I talked well, and if I had nothing interesting to say I said as little as possible, and I had a youthful gravity of manner that was liked by hostesses. And the other side of my nature that first flared7 through the cover of restraints at Locarno, that too had had opportunity to develop along the line London renders practicable. I had had my experiences and secrets and adventures among that fringe of ill-mated or erratic8 or discredited9 women the London world possesses. The thing had long ago ceased to be a matter of magic or mystery, and had become a question of appetites and excitement, and among other things the excitement of not being found out.
I write rather doubtfully of my growing during this period. Indeed I find it hard to judge whether I can say that I grew at all in any real sense of the word, between three and twenty and twenty-seven. It seems to me now to have been rather a phase of realisation and clarification. All the broad lines of my thought were laid down, I am sure, by the date of my Locarno adventure, but in those five years I discussed things over and over again with myself and others, filled out with concrete fact forms I had at first apprehended11 sketchily12 and conversationally13, measured my powers against my ideals and the forces in the world about me. It was evident that many men no better than myself and with no greater advantages than mine had raised themselves to influential14 and even decisive positions in the worlds of politics and thought. I was gathering15 the confidence and knowledge necessary to attack the world in the large manner; I found I could write, and that people would let me write if I chose, as one having authority and not as the scribes. Socially and politically and intellectually I knew myself for an honest man, and that quite without any deliberation on my part this showed and made things easy for me. People trusted my good faith from the beginning--for all that I came from nowhere and had no better position than any adventurer.
But the growth process was arrested, I was nothing bigger at twenty-seven than at twenty-two, however much saner16 and stronger, and any one looking closely into my mind during that period might well have imagined growth finished altogether. It is particularly evident to me now that I came no nearer to any understanding of women during that time. That Locarno affair was infinitely17 more to me than I had supposed. It ended something--nipped something in the bud perhaps--took me at a stride from a vague, fine, ignorant, closed world of emotion to intrigue18 and a perfectly19 definite and limited sensuality. It ended my youth, and for a time it prevented my manhood. I had never yet even peeped at the sweetest, profoundest thing in the world, the heart and meaning of a girl, or dreamt with any quality of reality of a wife or any such thing as a friend among womanhood. My vague anticipation20 of such things in life had vanished altogether. I turned away from their possibility. It seemed to me I knew what had to be known about womankind. I wanted to work hard, to get on to a position in which I could develop and forward my constructive21 projects. Women, I thought, had nothing to do with that. It seemed clear I could not marry for some years; I was attractive to certain types of women, I had vanity enough to give me an agreeable confidence in love-making, and I went about seeking a convenient mistress quite deliberately22, some one who should serve my purpose and say in the end, like that kindly23 first mistress of mine, "I've done you no harm," and so release me. It seemed the only wise way of disposing of urgencies that might otherwise entangle24 and wreck26 the career I was intent upon.
I don't apologise for, or defend my mental and moral phases. So it was I appraised27 life and prepared to take it, and so it is a thousand ambitious men see it to-day....
For the rest these five years were a period of definition. My political conceptions were perfectly plain and honest. I had one constant desire ruling my thoughts. I meant to leave England and the empire better ordered than I found it, to organise28 and discipline, to build up a constructive and controlling State out of my world's confusions. We had, I saw, to suffuse29 education with public intention, to develop a new better-living generation with a collectivist habit of thought, to link now chaotic30 activities in every human affair, and particularly to catch that escaped, world-making, world-ruining, dangerous thing, industrial and financial enterprise, and bring it back to the service of the general good. I had then the precise image that still serves me as a symbol for all I wish to bring about, the image of an engineer building a lock in a swelling31 torrent32--with water pressure as his only source of power. My thoughts and acts were habitually33 turned to that enterprise; it gave shape and direction to all my life. The problem that most engaged my mind during those years was the practical and personal problem of just where to apply myself to serve this almost innate34 purpose. How was I, a child of this confusion, struggling upward through the confusion, to take hold of things? Somewhere between politics and literature my grip must needs be found, but where? Always I seem to have been looking for that in those opening years, and disregarding everything else to discover it.
2
The Baileys, under whose auspices35 I met Margaret again, were in the sharpest contrast with the narrow industrialism of the Staffordshire world. They were indeed at the other extreme of the scale, two active self-centred people, excessively devoted36 to the public service. It was natural I should gravitate to them, for they seemed to stand for the maturer, more disciplined, better informed expression of all I was then urgent to attempt to do. The bulk of their friends were politicians or public officials, they described themselves as publicists--a vague yet sufficiently37 significant term. They lived and worked in a hard little house in Chambers39 Street, Westminster, and made a centre for quite an astonishing amount of political and social activity.
Willersley took me there one evening. The place was almost pretentiously41 matter-of-fact and unassuming. The narrow passage-hall, papered with some ancient yellowish paper, grained to imitate wood, was choked with hats and cloaks and an occasional feminine wrap. Motioned rather than announced by a tall Scotch42 servant woman, the only domestic I ever remember seeing there, we made our way up a narrow staircase past the open door of a small study packed with blue-books, to discover Altiora Bailey receiving before the fireplace in her drawing-room. She was a tall commanding figure, splendid but a little untidy in black silk and red beads43, with dark eyes that had no depths, with a clear hard voice that had an almost visible prominence44, aquiline45 features and straight black hair that was apt to get astray, that was now astray like the head feathers of an eagle in a gale47. She stood with her hands behind her back, and talked in a high tenor48 of a projected Town Planning Bill with Blupp, who was practically in those days the secretary of the local Government Board. A very short broad man with thick ears and fat white hands writhing49 intertwined behind him, stood with his back to us, eager to bark interruptions into Altiora's discourse50. A slender girl in pale blue, manifestly a young political wife, stood with one foot on the fender listening with an expression of entirely51 puzzled propitiation. A tall sandy-bearded bishop52 with the expression of a man in a trance completed this central group.
The room was one of those long apartments once divided by folding doors, and reaching from back to front, that are common upon the first floors of London houses. Its walls were hung with two or three indifferent water colours, there was scarcely any furniture but a sofa or so and a chair, and the floor, severely53 carpeted with matting, was crowded with a curious medley54 of people, men predominating. Several were in evening dress, but most had the morning garb55 of the politician; the women were either severely rational or radiantly magnificent. Willersley pointed56 out to me the wife of the Secretary of State for War, and I recognised the Duchess of Clynes, who at that time cultivated intellectuality. I looked round, identifying a face here or there, and stepping back trod on some one's toe, and turned to find it belonged to the Right Hon. G. B. Mottisham, dear to the PUNCH caricaturists. He received my apology with that intentional57 charm that is one of his most delightful58 traits, and resumed his discussion. Beside him was Esmeer of Trinity, whom I had not seen since my Cambridge days....
Willersley found an ex-member of the School Board for whom he had affinities59, and left me to exchange experiences and comments upon the company with Esmeer. Esmeer was still a don; but he was nibbling60, he said, at certain negotiations61 with the TIMES that might bring him down to London. He wanted to come to London. "We peep at things from Cambridge," he said.
"This sort of thing," I said, "makes London necessary. It's the oddest gathering."
"Every one comes here," said Esmeer. "Mostly we hate them like poison--jealousy--and little irritations--Altiora can be a horror at times--but we HAVE to come."
"Things are being done?"
"Oh!--no doubt of it. It's one of the parts of the British machinery--that doesn't show.... But nobody else could do it.
"Two people," said Esmeer, "who've planned to be a power--in an original way. And by Jove! they've done it!"
I did not for some time pick out Oscar Bailey, and then Esmeer showed him to me in elaborately confidential63 talk in a corner with a distinguished64-looking stranger wearing a ribbon. Oscar had none of the fine appearance of his wife; he was a short sturdy figure with a rounded protruding65 abdomen66 and a curious broad, flattened67, clean-shaven face that seemed nearly all forehead. He was of Anglo-Hungarian extraction, and I have always fancied something Mongolian in his type. He peered up with reddish swollen-looking eyes over gilt-edged glasses that were divided horizontally into portions of different refractive power, and he talking in an ingratiating undertone, with busy thin lips, an eager lisp and nervous movements of the hand.
People say that thirty years before at Oxford68 he was almost exactly the same eager, clever little man he was when I first met him. He had come up to Balliol bristling69 with extraordinary degrees and prizes captured in provincial70 and Irish and Scotch universities--and had made a name for himself as the most formidable dealer71 in exact fact the rhetoricians of the union had ever had to encounter. From Oxford he had gone on to a position in the Higher Division of the Civil Service, I think in the War Office, and had speedily made a place for himself as a political journalist. He was a particularly neat controversialist, and very full of political and sociological ideas. He had a quite astounding72 memory for facts and a mastery of detailed73 analysis, and the time afforded scope for these gifts. The later eighties were full of politico-social discussion, and he became a prominent name upon the contents list of the NINETEENTH CENTURY, the FORTNIGHTLY and CONTEMPORARY chiefly as a half sympathetic but frequently very damaging critic of the socialism of that period. He won the immense respect of every one specially74 interested in social and political questions, he soon achieved the limited distinction that is awarded such capacity, and at that I think he would have remained for the rest of his life if he had not encountered Altiora.
But Altiora Macvitie was an altogether exceptional woman, an extraordinary mixture of qualities, the one woman in the world who could make something more out of Bailey than that. She had much of the vigour75 and handsomeness of a slender impudent76 young man, and an unscrupulousness altogether feminine. She was one of those women who are waiting in--what is the word?--muliebrity. She had courage and initiative and a philosophical77 way of handling questions, and she could be bored by regular work like a man. She was entirely unfitted for her sex's sphere. She was neither uncertain, coy nor hard to please, and altogether too stimulating78 and aggressive for any gentleman's hours of ease. Her cookery would have been about as sketchy79 as her handwriting, which was generally quite illegible80, and she would have made, I feel sure, a shocking bad nurse. Yet you mustn't imagine she was an inelegant or unbeautiful woman, and she is inconceivable to me in high collars or any sort of masculine garment. But her soul was bony, and at the base of her was a vanity gaunt and greedy! When she wasn't in a state of personal untidiness that was partly a protest against the waste of hours exacted by the toilet and partly a natural disinclination, she had a gypsy splendour of black and red and silver all her own. And somewhen in the early nineties she met and married Bailey.
I know very little about her early years. She was the only daughter of Sir Deighton Macvitie, who applied81 the iodoform process to cotton, and only his subsequent unfortunate attempts to become a Cotton King prevented her being a very rich woman. As it was she had a tolerable independence. She came into prominence as one of the more able of the little shoal of young women who were led into politico-philanthropic activities by the influence of the earlier novels of Mrs. Humphry Ward--the Marcella crop. She went "slumming" with distinguished vigour, which was quite usual in those days--and returned from her experiences as an amateur flower girl with clear and original views about the problem--which is and always had been unusual. She had not married, I suppose because her standards were high, and men are cowards and with an instinctive82 appetite for muliebrity. She had kept house for her father by speaking occasionally to the housekeeper83, butler and cook her mother had left her, and gathering the most interesting dinner parties she could, and had married off four orphan85 nieces in a harsh and successful manner. After her father's smash and death she came out as a writer upon social questions and a scathing86 critic of the Charity Organisation87 Society, and she was three and thirty and a little at loose ends when she met Oscar Bailey, so to speak, in the CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. The lurking88 woman in her nature was fascinated by the ease and precision with which the little man rolled over all sorts of important and authoritative89 people, she was the first to discover a sort of imaginative bigness in his still growing mind, the forehead perhaps carried him off physically90, and she took occasion to meet and subjugate91 him, and, so soon as he had sufficiently recovered from his abject92 humility93 and a certain panic at her attentions, marry him.
This had opened a new phase in the lives of Bailey and herself. The two supplemented each other to an extraordinary extent. Their subsequent career was, I think, almost entirely her invention. She was aggressive, imaginative, and had a great capacity for ideas, while he was almost destitute94 of initiative, and could do nothing with ideas except remember and discuss them. She was, if not exact, at least indolent, with a strong disposition95 to save energy by sketching96--even her handwriting showed that--while he was inexhaustibly industrious97 with a relentless98 invariable calligraphy99 that grew larger and clearer as the years passed by. She had a considerable power of charming; she could be just as nice to people--and incidentally just as nasty--as she wanted to be. He was always just the same, a little confidential and SOTTO VOCE, artlessly rude and egoistic in an undignified way. She had considerable social experience, good social connections, and considerable social ambition, while he had none of these things. She saw in a flash her opportunity to redeem100 his defects, use his powers, and do large, novel, rather startling things. She ran him. Her marriage, which shocked her friends and relations beyond measure--for a time they would only speak of Bailey as "that gnome"--was a stroke of genius, and forthwith they proceeded to make themselves the most formidable and distinguished couple conceivable. P. B. P., she boasted, was engraved102 inside their wedding rings, Pro3 Bono Publico, and she meant it to be no idle threat. She had discovered very early that the last thing influential people will do is to work. Everything in their lives tends to make them dependent upon a supply of confidently administered detail. Their business is with the window and not the stock behind, and in the end they are dependent upon the stock behind for what goes into the window. She linked with that the fact that Bailey had a mind as orderly as a museum, and an invincible103 power over detail. She saw that if two people took the necessary pains to know the facts of government and administration with precision, to gather together knowledge that was dispersed104 and confused, to be able to say precisely105 what had to be done and what avoided in this eventuality or that, they would necessarily become a centre of reference for all sorts of legislative106 proposals and political expedients107, and she went unhesitatingly upon that.
Bailey, under her vigorous direction, threw up his post in the Civil Service and abandoned sporadic108 controversies109, and they devoted themselves to the elaboration and realisation of this centre of public information she had conceived as their role. They set out to study the methods and organisation and realities of government in the most elaborate manner. They did the work as no one had ever hitherto dreamt of doing it. They planned the research on a thoroughly110 satisfying scale, and arranged their lives almost entirely for it. They took that house in Chambers Street and furnished it with severe economy, they discovered that Scotch domestic who is destined111 to be the guardian112 and tyrant113 of their declining years, and they set to work. Their first book, "The Permanent Official," fills three plump volumes, and took them and their two secretaries upwards114 of four years to do. It is an amazingly good book, an enduring achievement. In a hundred directions the history and the administrative115 treatment of the public service was clarified for all time....
They worked regularly every morning from nine to twelve, they lunched lightly but severely, in the afternoon they "took exercise" or Bailey attended meetings of the London School Board, on which he served, he said, for the purposes of study--he also became a railway director for the same end. In the late afternoon Altiora was at home to various callers, and in the evening came dinner or a reception or both.
Her dinners and gatherings116 were a very important feature in their scheme. She got together all sorts of interesting people in or about the public service, she mixed the obscurely efficient with the ill-instructed famous and the rudderless rich, got together in one room more of the factors in our strange jumble117 of a public life than had ever met easily before. She fed them with a shameless austerity that kept the conversation brilliant, on a soup, a plain fish, and mutton or boiled fowl118 and milk pudding, with nothing to drink but whisky and soda119, and hot and cold water, and milk and lemonade. Everybody was soon very glad indeed to come to that. She boasted how little her housekeeping cost her, and sought constantly for fresh economies that would enable her, she said, to sustain an additional private secretary. Secretaries were the Baileys' one extravagance, they loved to think of searches going on in the British Museum, and letters being cleared up and precis made overhead, while they sat in the little study and worked together, Bailey with a clockwork industry, and Altiora in splendid flashes between intervals121 of cigarettes and meditation122. "All efficient public careers," said Altiora, "consist in the proper direction of secretaries."
"If everything goes well I shall have another secretary next year," Altiora told me. "I wish I could refuse people dinner napkins. Imagine what it means in washing! I dare most things.... But as it is, they stand a lot of hardship here."
"There's something of the miser123 in both these people," said Esmeer, and the thing was perfectly true. For, after all, the miser is nothing more than a man who either through want of imagination or want of suggestion misapplies to a base use a natural power of concentration upon one end. The concentration itself is neither good nor evil, but a power that can be used in either way. And the Baileys gathered and reinvested usuriously not money, but knowledge of the utmost value in human affairs. They produced an effect of having found themselves--completely. One envied them at times extraordinarily124. I was attracted, I was dazzled--and at the same time there was something about Bailey's big wrinkled forehead, his lisping broad mouth, the gestures of his hands and an uncivil preoccupation I could not endure....
3
Their effect upon me was from the outset very considerable.
Both of them found occasion on that first visit of mine to talk to me about my published writings and particularly about my then just published book THE NEW RULER, which had interested them very much. It fell in indeed so closely with their own way of thinking that I doubt if they ever understood how independently I had arrived at my conclusions. It was their weakness to claim excessively. That irritation62, however, came later. We discovered each other immensely; for a time it produced a tremendous sense of kindred and co-operation.
Altiora, I remember, maintained that there existed a great army of such constructive-minded people as ourselves--as yet undiscovered by one another.
"It's like boring a tunnel through a mountain," said Oscar, "and presently hearing the tapping of the workers from the other end."
"If you didn't know of them beforehand," I said, "it might be a rather badly joined tunnel."
"Exactly," said Altiora with a high note, "and that's why we all want to find out each other...."
They didn't talk like that on our first encounter, but they urged me to lunch with them next day, and then it was we went into things. A woman Factory Inspector125 and the Educational Minister for New Banksland and his wife were also there, but I don't remember they made any contribution to the conversation. The Baileys saw to that. They kept on at me in an urgent litigious way.
"We have read your book," each began--as though it had been a joint126 function. "And we consider--"
"Yes," I protested, "I think--"
That was a secondary matter.
"They did not consider," said Altiora, raising her voice and going right over me, "that I had allowed sufficiently for the inevitable127 development of an official administrative class in the modern state."
"Nor of its importance," echoed Oscar.
That, they explained in a sort of chorus, was the cardinal128 idea of their lives, what they were up to, what they stood for. "We want to suggest to you," they said--and I found this was a stock opening of theirs--"that from the mere129 necessities of convenience elected bodies MUST avail themselves more and more of the services of expert officials. We have that very much in mind. The more complicated and technical affairs become, the less confidence will the elected official have in himself. We want to suggest that these expert officials must necessarily develop into a new class and a very powerful class in the community. We want to organise that. It may be THE power of the future. They will necessarily have to have very much of a common training. We consider ourselves as amateur unpaid130 precursors131 of such a class."...
The vision they displayed for my consideration as the aim of public-spirited endeavour, seemed like a harder, narrower, more specialised version of the idea of a trained and disciplined state that Willersley and I had worked out in the Alps. They wanted things more organised, more correlated with government and a collective purpose, just as we did, but they saw it not in terms of a growing collective understanding, but in terms of functionaries132, legislative change, and methods of administration....
It wasn't clear at first how we differed. The Baileys were very anxious to win me to co-operation, and I was quite prepared at first to identify their distinctive133 expressions with phrases of my own, and so we came very readily into an alliance that was to last some years, and break at last very painfully. Altiora manifestly liked me, I was soon discussing with her the perplexity I found in placing myself efficiently134 in the world, the problem of how to take hold of things that occupied my thoughts, and she was sketching out careers for my consideration, very much as an architect on his first visit sketches135 houses, considers requirements, and puts before you this example and that of the more or less similar thing already done....
4
It is easy to see how much in common there was between the Baileys and me, and how natural it was that I should become a constant visitor at their house and an ally of theirs in many enterprises. It is not nearly so easy to define the profound antagonism136 of spirit that also held between us. There was a difference in texture137, a difference in quality. How can I express it? The shapes of our thoughts were the same, but the substance quite different. It was as if they had made in china or cast iron what I had made in transparent138 living matter. (The comparison is manifestly from my point of view.) Certain things never seemed to show through their ideas that were visible, refracted perhaps and distorted, but visible always through mine.
I thought for a time the essential difference lay in our relation to beauty. With me beauty is quite primary in life; I like truth, order and goodness, wholly because they are beautiful or lead straight to beautiful consequences. The Baileys either hadn't got that or they didn't see it. They seemed at times to prefer things harsh and ugly. That puzzled me extremely. The esthetic139 quality of many of their proposals, the "manners" of their work, so to speak, were at times as dreadful as--well, War Office barrack architecture. A caricature by its exaggerated statements will sometimes serve to point a truth by antagonising falsity and falsity. I remember talking to a prominent museum official in need of more public funds for the work he had in hand. I mentioned the possibility of enlisting140 Bailey's influence.
"Oh, we don't want Philistines141 like that infernal Bottle-Imp running us," he said hastily, and would hear of no concerted action for the end he had in view. "I'd rather not have the extension.
"You see," he went on to explain, "Bailey's wanting in the essentials."
"What essentials?" said I.
"Oh! he'd be like a nasty oily efficient little machine for some merely subordinate necessity among all my delicate stuff. He'd do all we wanted no doubt in the way of money and powers--and he'd do it wrong and mess the place for ever. Hands all black, you know. He's just a means. Just a very aggressive and unmanageable means. This isn't a plumber's job...."
I stuck to my argument.
"I don't LIKE him," said the official conclusively142, and it seemed to me at the time he was just blind prejudice speaking....
I came nearer the truth of the matter as I came to realise that our philosophies differed profoundly. That isn't a very curable difference,--once people have grown up. Theirs was a philosophy devoid144 of FINESSE145. Temperamentally the Baileys were specialised, concentrated, accurate, while I am urged either by some Inner force or some entirely assimilated influence in my training, always to round off and shadow my outlines. I hate them hard. I would sacrifice detail to modelling always, and the Baileys, it seemed to me, loved a world as flat and metallic146 as Sidney Cooper's cows. If they had the universe in hand I know they would take down all the trees and put up stamped tin green shades and sunlight accumulators. Altiora thought trees hopelessly irregular and sea cliffs a great mistake.... I got things clearer as time went on. Though it was an Hegelian mess of which I had partaken at Codger's table by way of a philosophical training, my sympathies have always been Pragmatist. I belong almost by nature to that school of Pragmatism that, following the medieval Nominalists, bases itself upon a denial of the reality of classes, and of the validity of general laws. The Baileys classified everything. They were, in the scholastic147 sense--which so oddly contradicts the modern use of the word "Realists." They believed classes were REAL and independent of their individuals. This is the common habit of all so-called educated people who have no metaphysical aptitude148 and no metaphysical training. It leads them to a progressive misunderstanding of the world. It was a favourite trick of Altiora's to speak of everybody as a "type"; she saw men as samples moving; her dining-room became a chamber38 of representatives. It gave a tremendously scientific air to many of their generalisations, using "scientific" in its nineteenth-century uncritical Herbert Spencer sense, an air that only began to disappear when you thought them over again in terms of actuality and the people one knew....
At the Baileys' one always seemed to be getting one's hands on the very strings149 that guided the world. You heard legislation projected to affect this "type" and that; statistics marched by you with sin and shame and injustice150 and misery151 reduced to quite manageable percentages, you found men who were to frame or amend152 bills in grave and intimate exchange with Bailey's omniscience153, you heard Altiora canvassing154 approaching resignations and possible appointments that might make or mar1 a revolution in administrative methods, and doing it with a vigorous directness that manifestly swayed the decision; and you felt you were in a sort of signal box with levers all about you, and the world outside there, albeit155 a little dark and mysterious beyond the window, running on its lines in ready obedience156 to these unhesitating lights, true and steady to trim termini.
And then with all this administrative fizzle, this pseudo-scientific administrative chatter157, dying away in your head, out you went into the limitless grimy chaos158 of London streets and squares, roads and avenues lined with teeming159 houses, each larger than the Chambers Street house and at least equally alive, you saw the chaotic clamour of hoardings, the jumble of traffic, the coming and going of mysterious myriads160, you heard the rumble161 of traffic like the noise of a torrent; a vague incessant162 murmur163 of cries and voices, wanton crimes and accidents bawled164 at you from the placards; imperative165 unaccountable fashions swaggered triumphant166 in dazzling windows of the shops; and you found yourself swaying back to the opposite conviction that the huge formless spirit of the world it was that held the strings and danced the puppets on the Bailey stage....
Under the lamps you were jostled by people like my Staffordshire uncle out for a spree, you saw shy youths conversing167 with prostitutes, you passed young lovers pairing with an entire disregard of the social suitability of the "types" they might blend or create, you saw men leaning drunken against lamp-posts whom you knew for the "type" that will charge with fixed168 bayonets into the face of death, and you found yourself unable to imagine little Bailey achieving either drunkenness or the careless defiance169 of annihilation. You realised that quite a lot of types were underrepresented in Chambers Street, that feral and obscure and altogether monstrous170 forces must be at work, as yet altogether unassimilated by those neat administrative reorganisations.
5
Altiora, I remember, preluded171 Margaret's reappearance by announcing her as a "new type."
I was accustomed to go early to the Baileys' dinners in those days, for a preliminary gossip with Altiora in front of her drawing-room fire. One got her alone, and that early arrival was a little sign of appreciation172 she valued. She had every woman's need of followers173 and servants.
"I'm going to send you down to-night," she said, "with a very interesting type indeed--one of the new generation of serious gals174. Middle-class origin--and quite well off. Rich in fact. Her step-father was a solicitor175 and something of an ENTREPRENEUR towards the end, I fancy--in the Black Country. There was a little brother died, and she's lost her mother quite recently. Quite on her own, so to speak. She's never been out into society very much, and doesn't seem really very anxious to go.... Not exactly an intellectual person, you know, but quiet, and great force of character. Came up to London on her own and came to us--someone had told her we were the sort of people to advise her--to ask what to do. I'm sure she'll interest you."
"What CAN people of that sort do?" I asked. "Is she capable of investigation176?"
Altiora compressed her lips and shook her head. She always did shake her head when you asked that of anyone.
"Of course what she ought to do," said Altiora, with her silk dress pulled back from her knee before the fire, and with a lift of her voice towards a chuckle177 at her daring way of putting things, "is to marry a member of Parliament and see he does his work.... Perhaps she will. It's a very exceptional gal46 who can do anything by herself--quite exceptional. The more serious they are--without being exceptional--the more we want them to marry."
Her exposition was truncated178 by the entry of the type in question.
"Well!" cried Altiora turning, and with a high note of welcome, "HERE you are!"
Margaret had gained in dignity and prettiness by the lapse179 of five years, and she was now very beautifully and richly and simply dressed. Her fair hair had been done in some way that made it seem softer and more abundant than it was in my memory, and a gleam of purple velvet180-set diamonds showed amidst its mist of little golden and brown lines. Her dress was of white and violet, the last trace of mourning for her mother, and confessed the gracious droop181 of her tall and slender body. She did not suggest Staffordshire at all, and I was puzzled for a moment to think where I had met her. Her sweetly shaped mouth with the slight obliquity182 of the lip and the little kink in her brow were extraordinarily familiar to me. But she had either been prepared by Altiora or she remembered my name. "We met," she said, "while my step-father was alive--at Misterton. You came to see us"; and instantly I recalled the sunshine between the apple blossom and a slender pale blue girlish shape among the daffodils, like something that had sprung from a bulb itself. I recalled at once that I had found her very interesting, though I did not clearly remember how it was she had interested me.
Other guests arrived--it was one of Altiora's boldly blended mixtures of people with ideas and people with influence or money who might perhaps be expected to resonate to them. Bailey came down late with an air of hurry, and was introduced to Margaret and said absolutely nothing to her--there being no information either to receive or impart and nothing to do--but stood snatching his left cheek until I rescued him and her, and left him free to congratulate the new Lady Snape on her husband's K. C. B.
I took Margaret down. We achieved no feats183 of mutual184 expression, except that it was abundantly clear we were both very pleased and interested to meet again, and that we had both kept memories of each other. We made that Misterton tea-party and the subsequent marriages of my cousins and the world of Burslem generally, matter for quite an agreeable conversation until at last Altiora, following her invariable custom, called me by name imperatively185 out of our duologue. "Mr. Remington," she said, "we want your opinion--" in her entirely characteristic effort to get all the threads of conversation into her own hands for the climax186 that always wound up her dinners. How the other women used to hate those concluding raids of hers! I forget most of the other people at that dinner, nor can I recall what the crowning rally was about. It didn't in any way join on to my impression of Margaret.
In the drawing-room of the matting floor I rejoined her, with Altiora's manifest connivance187, and in the interval120 I had been thinking of our former meeting.
"Do you find London," I asked, "give you more opportunity for doing things and learning things than Burslem?"
She showed at once she appreciated my allusion188 to her former confidences. "I was very discontented then," she said and paused. "I've really only been in London for a few months. It's so different. In Burslem, life seems all business and getting--without any reason. One went on and it didn't seem to mean anything. At least anything that mattered.... London seems to be so full of meanings--all mixed up together."
She knitted her brows over her words and smiled appealingly at the end as if for consideration for her inadequate189 expression, appealingly and almost humorously.
I looked understandingly at her. "We have all," I agreed, "to come to London."
"One sees so much distress," she added, as if she felt she had completely omitted something, and needed a codicil190.
"What are you doing in London?"
"I'm thinking of studying. Some social question. I thought perhaps I might go and study social conditions as Mrs. Bailey did, go perhaps as a work-girl or see the reality of living in, but Mrs. Bailey thought perhaps it wasn't quite my work."
"Are you studying?"
"I'm going to a good many lectures, and perhaps I shall take up a regular course at the Westminster School of Politics and Sociology. But Mrs. Bailey doesn't seem to believe very much in that either."
Her faintly whimsical smile returned. "I seem rather indefinite," she apologised, "but one does not want to get entangled192 in things one can't do. One--one has so many advantages, one's life seems to be such a trust and such a responsibility--"
She stopped.
"A man gets driven into work," I said.
"It must be splendid to be Mrs. Bailey," she replied with a glance of envious193 admiration194 across the room.
"SHE has no doubts, anyhow," I remarked.
"She HAD," said Margaret with the pride of one who has received great confidences.
6
"You've met before?" said Altiora, a day or so later.
I explained when.
"You find her interesting?"
I saw in a flash that Altiora meant to marry me to Margaret.
Her intention became much clearer as the year developed. Altiora was systematic195 even in matters that evade196 system. I was to marry Margaret, and freed from the need of making an income I was to come into politics--as an exponent197 of Baileyism. She put it down with the other excellent and advantageous198 things that should occupy her summer holiday. It was her pride and glory to put things down and plan them out in detail beforehand, and I'm not quite sure that she did not even mark off the day upon which the engagement was to be declared. If she did, I disappointed her. We didn't come to an engagement, in spite of the broadest hints and the glaring obviousness of everything, that summer.
Every summer the Baileys went out of London to some house they hired or borrowed, leaving their secretaries toiling199 behind, and they went on working hard in the mornings and evenings and taking exercise in the open air in the afternoon. They cycled assiduously and went for long walks at a trot200, and raided and studied (and incidentally explained themselves to) any social "types" that lived in the neighbourhood. One invaded type, resentful under research, described them with a dreadful aptness as Donna Quixote and Sancho Panza--and himself as a harmless windmill, hurting no one and signifying nothing. She did rather tilt201 at things. This particular summer they were at a pleasant farmhouse202 in level country near Pangbourne, belonging to the Hon. Wilfrid Winchester, and they asked me to come down to rooms in the neighbourhood--Altiora took them for a month for me in August--and board with them upon extremely reasonable terms; and when I got there I found Margaret sitting in a hammock at Altiora's feet. Lots of people, I gathered, were coming and going in the neighbourhood, the Ponts were in a villa203 on the river, and the Rickhams' houseboat was to moor204 for some days; but these irruptions did not impede205 a great deal of duologue between Margaret and myself.
Altiora was efficient rather than artistic in her match-making. She sent us off for long walks together--Margaret was a fairly good walker--she exhumed206 some defective207 croquet things and incited208 us to croquet, not understanding that detestable game is the worst stimulant209 for lovers in the world. And Margaret and I were always getting left about, and finding ourselves for odd half-hours in the kitchen-garden with nothing to do except talk, or we were told with a wave of the hand to run away and amuse each other.
Altiora even tried a picnic in canoes, knowing from fiction rather than imagination or experience the conclusive143 nature of such excursions. But there she fumbled210 at the last moment, and elected at the river's brink211 to share a canoe with me. Bailey showed so much zeal212 and so little skill--his hat fell off and he became miraculously213 nothing but paddle-clutching hands and a vast wrinkled brow--that at last he had to be paddled ignominiously214 by Margaret, while Altiora, after a phase of rigid215 discretion216, as nearly as possible drowned herself--and me no doubt into the bargain--with a sudden lateral217 gesture of the arm to emphasise218 the high note with which she dismissed the efficiency of the Charity Organisation Society. We shipped about an inch of water and sat in it for the rest of the time, an inconvenience she disregarded heroically. We had difficulties in landing Oscar from his frail219 craft upon the ait of our feasting,--he didn't balance sideways and was much alarmed, and afterwards, as Margaret had a pain in her back, I took him in my canoe, let him hide his shame with an ineffectual but not positively220 harmful paddle, and towed the other by means of the joined painters. Still it was the fault of the inadequate information supplied in the books and not of Altiora that that was not the date of my betrothal221.
I find it not a little difficult to state what kept me back from proposing marriage to Margaret that summer, and what urged me forward at last to marry her. It is so much easier to remember one's resolutions than to remember the moods and suggestions that produced them.
Marrying and getting married was, I think, a pretty simple affair to Altiora; it was something that happened to the adolescent and unmarried when you threw them together under the circumstances of health, warmth and leisure. It happened with the kindly and approving smiles of the more experienced elders who had organised these proximities. The young people married, settled down, children ensued, and father and mother turned their minds, now decently and properly disillusioned222, to other things. That to Altiora was the normal sexual life, and she believed it to be the quality of the great bulk of the life about her.
One of the great barriers to human understanding is the wide temperamental difference one finds in the values of things relating to sex. It is the issue upon which people most need training in charity and imaginative sympathy. Here are no universal standards at all, and indeed for no single man nor woman does there seem to be any fixed standard, so much do the accidents of circumstances and one's physical phases affect one's interpretations224. There is nothing in the whole range of sexual fact that may not seem supremely225 beautiful or humanly jolly or magnificently wicked or disgusting or trivial or utterly226 insignificant227, according to the eye that sees or the mood that colours. Here is something that may fill the skies and every waking hour or be almost completely banished228 from a life. It may be everything on Monday and less than nothing on Saturday. And we make our laws and rules as though in these matters all men and women were commensurable one with another, with an equal steadfast229 passion and an equal constant duty....
I don't know what dreams Altiora may have had in her schoolroom days, I always suspected her of suppressed and forgotten phases, but certainly her general effect now was of an entirely passionless worldliness in these matters. Indeed so far as I could get at her, she regarded sexual passion as being hardly more legitimate230 in a civilised person than--let us say--homicidal mania231. She must have forgotten--and Bailey too. I suspect she forgot before she married him. I don't suppose either of them had the slightest intimation of the dimensions sexual love can take in the thoughts of the great majority of people with whom they come in contact. They loved in their way--an intellectual way it was and a fond way--but it had no relation to beauty and physical sensation--except that there seemed a decree of exile against these things. They got their glow in high moments of altruistic232 ambition--and in moments of vivid worldly success. They sat at opposite ends of their dinner table with so and so "captured," and so and so, flushed with a mutual approval. They saw people in love forgetful and distraught about them, and just put it down to forgetfulness and distraction233. At any rate Altiora manifestly viewed my situation and Margaret's with an abnormal and entirely misleading simplicity234. There was the girl, rich, with an acceptable claim to be beautiful, shiningly virtuous235, quite capable of political interests, and there was I, talented, ambitious and full of political and social passion, in need of just the money, devotion and regularisation Margaret could provide. We were both unmarried--white sheets of uninscribed paper. Was there ever a simpler situation? What more could we possibly want?
She was even a little offended at the inconclusiveness that did not settle things at Pangbourne. I seemed to her, I suspect, to reflect upon her judgment236 and good intentions.
7
I didn't see things with Altiora's simplicity.
I admired Margaret very much, I was fully10 aware of all that she and I might give each other; indeed so far as Altiora went we were quite in agreement. But what seemed solid ground to Altiora and the ultimate footing of her emasculated world, was to me just the superficial covering of a gulf--oh! abysses of vague and dim, and yet stupendously significant things.
I couldn't dismiss the interests and the passion of sex as Altiora did. Work, I agreed, was important; career and success; but deep unanalysable instincts told me this preoccupation was a thing quite as important; dangerous, interfering238, destructive indeed, but none the less a dominating interest in life. I have told how flittingly and uninvited it came like a moth84 from the outer twilight239 into my life, how it grew in me with my manhood, how it found its way to speech and grew daring, and led me at last to experience. After that adventure at Locarno sex and the interests and desires of sex never left me for long at peace. I went on with my work and my career, and all the time it was like--like someone talking ever and again in a room while one tries to write.
There were times when I could have wished the world a world all of men, so greatly did this unassimilated series of motives240 and curiosities hamper241 me; and times when I could have wished the world all of women. I seemed always to be seeking something in women, in girls, and I was never clear what it was I was seeking. But never--even at my coarsest--was I moved by physical desire alone. Was I seeking help and fellowship? Was I seeking some intimacy242 with beauty? It was a thing too formless to state, that I seemed always desiring to attain243 and never attaining244. Waves of gross sensuousness246 arose out of this preoccupation, carried me to a crisis of gratification or disappointment that was clearly not the needed thing; they passed and left my mind free again for a time to get on with the permanent pursuits of my life. And then presently this solicitude247 would have me again, an irrelevance248 as it seemed, and yet a constantly recurring249 demand.
I don't want particularly to dwell upon things that are disagreeable for others to read, but I cannot leave them out of my story and get the right proportions of the forces I am balancing. I was no abnormal man, and that world of order we desire to make must be built of such stuff as I was and am and can beget250. You cannot have a world of Baileys; it would end in one orderly generation. Humanity is begotten251 in Desire, lives by Desire.
"Love which is lust252, is the Lamp in the Tomb;
Love which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom."
I echo Henley.
I suppose the life of celibacy253 which the active, well-fed, well-exercised and imaginatively stirred young man of the educated classes is supposed to lead from the age of nineteen or twenty, when Nature certainly meant him to marry, to thirty or more, when civilisation254 permits him to do so, is the most impossible thing in the world. We deal here with facts that are kept secret and obscure, but I doubt for my own part if more than one man out of five in our class satisfies that ideal demand. The rest are even as I was, and Hatherleigh and Esmeer and all the men I knew. I draw no lessons and offer no panacea255; I have to tell the quality of life, and this is how it is. This is how it will remain until men and women have the courage to face the facts of life.
I was no systematic libertine256, you must understand; things happened to me and desire drove me. Any young man would have served for that Locarno adventure, and after that what had been a mystic and wonderful thing passed rapidly into a gross, manifestly misdirected and complicating257 one. I can count a meagre tale of five illicit258 loves in the days of my youth, to include that first experience, and of them all only two were sustained relationships. Besides these five "affairs," on one or two occasions I dipped so low as the inky dismal259 sensuality of the streets, and made one of those pairs of correlated figures, the woman in her squalid finery sailing homeward, the man modestly aloof261 and behind, that every night in the London year flit by the score of thousands across the sight of the observant....
How ugly it is to recall; ugly and shameful262 now without qualification! Yet at the time there was surely something not altogether ugly in it--something that has vanished, some fine thing mortally ailing260.
One such occasion I recall as if it were a vision deep down in a pit, as if it had happened in another state of existence to someone else. And yet it is the sort of thing that has happened, once or twice at least, to half the men in London who have been in a position to make it possible. Let me try and give you its peculiar263 effect. Man or woman, you ought to know of it.
Figure to yourself a dingy264 room, somewhere in that network of streets that lies about Tottenham Court Road, a dingy bedroom lit by a solitary265 candle and carpeted with scraps266 and patches, with curtains of cretonne closing the window, and a tawdry ornament267 of paper in the grate. I sit on a bed beside a weary-eyed, fair-haired, sturdy young woman, half undressed, who is telling me in broken German something that my knowledge of German is at first inadequate to understand....
I thought she was boasting about her family, and then slowly the meaning came to me. She was a Lett from near Libau in Courland, and she was telling me--just as one tells something too strange for comment or emotion--how her father had been shot and her sister outraged269 and murdered before her eyes.
It was as if one had dipped into something primordial270 and stupendous beneath the smooth and trivial surfaces of life. There was I, you know, the promising271 young don from Cambridge, who wrote quite brilliantly about politics and might presently get into Parliament, with my collar and tie in my hand, and a certain sense of shameful adventure fading out of my mind.
"Ach Gott!" she sighed by way of comment, and mused272 deeply for a moment before she turned her face to me, as to something forgotten and remembered, and assumed the half-hearted meretricious273 smile.
"Bin274 ich eine hubsche?" she asked like one who repeats a lesson.
I was moved to crave275 her pardon and come away.
"Bin ich eine hubsche?" she asked a little anxiously, laying a detaining hand upon me, and evidently not understanding a word of what I was striving to say.
8
I find it extraordinarily difficult to recall the phases by which I passed from my first admiration of Margaret's earnestness and unconscious daintiness to an intimate acquaintance. The earlier encounters stand out clear and hard, but then the impressions become crowded and mingle276 not only with each other but with all the subsequent developments of relationship, the enormous evolutions of interpretation223 and comprehension between husband and wife. Dipping into my memories is like dipping into a ragbag, one brings out this memory or that, with no intimation of how they came in time or what led to them and joined them together. And they are all mixed up with subsequent associations, with sympathies and discords277, habits of intercourse278, surprises and disappointments and discovered misunderstandings. I know only that always my feelings for Margaret were complicated feelings, woven of many and various strands279.
It is one of the curious neglected aspects of life how at the same time and in relation to the same reality we can have in our minds streams of thought at quite different levels. We can be at the same time idealising a person and seeing and criticising that person quite coldly and clearly, and we slip unconsciously from level to level and produce all sorts of inconsistent acts. In a sense I had no illusions about Margaret; in a sense my conception of Margaret was entirely poetic280 illusion. I don't think I was ever blind to certain defects of hers, and quite as certainly they didn't seem to matter in the slightest degree. Her mind had a curious want of vigour, "flatness" is the only word; she never seemed to escape from her phrase; her way of thinking, her way of doing was indecisive; she remained in her attitude, it did not flow out to easy, confirmatory action.
I saw this quite clearly, and when we walked and talked together I seemed always trying for animation281 in her and never finding it. I would state my ideas. "I know," she would say, "I know."
I talked about myself and she listened wonderfully, but she made no answering revelations. I talked politics, and she remarked with her blue eyes wide and earnest: "Every WORD you say seems so just."
I admired her appearance tremendously but--I can only express it by saying I didn't want to touch her. Her fair hair was always delectably282 done. It flowed beautifully over her pretty small ears, and she would tie its fair coilings with fillets of black or blue velvet that carried pretty buckles283 of silver and paste. The light, the faint down on her brow and cheek was delightful. And it was clear to me that I made her happy.
My sense of her deficiencies didn't stand in the way of my falling at last very deeply in love with her. Her very shortcomings seemed to offer me something....
She stood in my mind for goodness--and for things from which it seemed to me my hold was slipping.
She seemed to promise a way of escape from the deepening opposition284 in me between physical passions and the constructive career, the career of wide aims and human service, upon which I had embarked285. All the time that I was seeing her as a beautiful, fragile, rather ineffective girl, I was also seeing her just as consciously as a shining slender figure, a radiant reconciliation286, coming into my darkling disorders287 of lust and impulse. I could understand clearly that she was incapable289 of the most necessary subtleties290 of political thought, and yet I could contemplate291 praying to her and putting all the intricate troubles of my life at her feet.
Before the reappearance of Margaret in my world at all an unwonted disgust with the consequences and quality of my passions had arisen in my mind. Among other things that moment with the Lettish girl haunted me persistently292. I would see myself again and again sitting amidst those sluttish surroundings, collar and tie in hand, while her heavy German words grouped themselves to a slowly apprehended meaning. I would feel again with a fresh stab of remorse293, that this was not a flash of adventure, this was not seeing life in any permissible294 sense, but a dip into tragedy, dishonour295, hideous296 degradation297, and the pitiless cruelty of a world as yet uncontrolled by any ordered will.
"Good God!" I put it to myself, "that I should finish the work those Cossacks had begun! I who want order and justice before everything! There's no way out of it, no decent excuse! If I didn't think, I ought to have thought!"...
"How did I get to it?"... I would ransack298 the phases of my development from the first shy unveiling of a hidden wonder to the last extremity299 as a man will go through muddled300 account books to find some disorganising error....
I was also involved at that time--I find it hard to place these things in the exact order of their dates because they were so disconnected with the regular progress of my work and life--in an intrigue, a clumsy, sensuous245, pretentious40, artificially stimulated301 intrigue, with a Mrs. Larrimer, a woman living separated from her husband. I will not go into particulars of that episode, nor how we quarrelled and chafed302 one another. She was at once unfaithful and jealous and full of whims191 about our meetings; she was careless of our secret, and vulgarised our relationship by intolerable interpretations; except for some glowing moments of gratification, except for the recurrent and essentially303 vicious desire that drew us back to each other again, we both fretted304 at a vexatious and unexpectedly binding305 intimacy. The interim306 was full of the quality of work delayed, of time and energy wasted, of insecure precautions against scandal and exposure. Disappointment is almost inherent in illicit love. I had, and perhaps it was part of her recurrent irritation also, a feeling as though one had followed something fine and beautiful into a net--into bird lime! These furtive307 scuffles, this sneaking308 into shabby houses of assignation, was what we had made out of the suggestion of pagan beauty; this was the reality of our vision of nymphs and satyrs dancing for the joy of life amidst incessant sunshine. We had laid hands upon the wonder and glory of bodily love and wasted them....
It was the sense of waste, of finely beautiful possibilities getting entangled and marred309 for ever that oppressed me. I had missed, I had lost. I did not turn from these things after the fashion of the Baileys, as one turns from something low and embarrassing. I felt that these great organic forces were still to be wrought310 into a harmony with my constructive passion. I felt too that I was not doing it. I had not understood the forces in this struggle nor its nature, and as I learnt I failed. I had been started wrong, I had gone on wrong, in a world that was muddled and confused, full of false counsel and erratic shames and twisted temptations. I learnt to see it so by failures that were perhaps destroying any chance of profit in my lessons. Moods of clear keen industry alternated with moods of relapse and indulgence and moods of dubiety and remorse. I was not going on as the Baileys thought I was going on. There were times when the blindness of the Baileys irritated me intensely. Beneath the ostensible311 success of those years, between twenty-three and twenty-eight, this rottenness, known to scarcely any one but myself, grew and spread. My sense of the probability of a collapse312 intensified313. I knew indeed now, even as Willersley had prophesied314 five years before, that I was entangling315 myself in something that might smother316 all my uses in the world. Down there among those incommunicable difficulties, I was puzzled and blundering. I was losing my hold upon things; the chaotic and adventurous317 element in life was spreading upward and getting the better of me, over-mastering me and all my will to rule and make.... And the strength, the drugging urgency of the passion!
Margaret shone at times in my imagination like a radiant angel in a world of mire237 and disorder288, in a world of cravings, hot and dull red like scars inflamed318....
I suppose it was because I had so great a need of such help as her whiteness proffered319, that I could ascribe impossible perfections to her, a power of intellect, a moral power and patience to which she, poor fellow mortal, had indeed no claim. If only a few of us WERE angels and freed from the tangle25 of effort, how easy life might be! I wanted her so badly, so very badly, to be what I needed. I wanted a woman to save me. I forced myself to see her as I wished to see her. Her tepidities became infinite delicacies320, her mental vagueness an atmospheric321 realism. The harsh precisions of the Baileys and Altiora's blunt directness threw up her fineness into relief and made a grace of every weakness.
Mixed up with the memory of times when I talked with Margaret as one talks politely to those who are hopelessly inferior in mental quality, explaining with a false lucidity322, welcoming and encouraging the feeblest response, when possible moulding and directing, are times when I did indeed, as the old phrase goes, worship the ground she trod on. I was equally honest and unconscious of inconsistency at each extreme. But in neither phase could I find it easy to make love to Margaret. For in the first I did not want to, though I talked abundantly to her of marriage and so forth101, and was a little puzzled at myself for not going on to some personal application, and in the second she seemed inaccessible323, I felt I must make confessions324 and put things before her that would be the grossest outrage268 upon the noble purity I attributed to her.
9
I went to Margaret at last to ask her to marry me, wrought up to the mood of one who stakes his life on a cast. Separated from her, and with the resonance326 of an evening of angry recriminations with Mrs. Larrimer echoing in my mind, I discovered myself to be quite passionately327 in love with Margaret. Last shreds329 of doubt vanished. It has always been a feature of our relationship that Margaret absent means more to me than Margaret present; her memory distils330 from its dross331 and purifies in me. All my criticisms and qualifications of her vanished into some dark corner of my mind. She was the lady of my salvation332; I must win my way to her or perish.
I went to her at last, for all that I knew she loved me, in passionate328 self-abasement, white and a-tremble. She was staying with the Rockleys at Woking, for Shena Rockley had been at Bennett Hall with her and they had resumed a close intimacy; and I went down to her on an impulse, unheralded. I was kept waiting for some minutes, I remember, in a little room upon which a conservatory333 opened, a conservatory full of pots of large mauve-edged, white cyclamens in flower. And there was a big lacquer cabinet, a Chinese thing, I suppose, of black and gold against the red-toned wall. To this day the thought of Margaret is inseparably bound up with the sight of a cyclamen's back-turned petals334.
She came in, looking pale and drooping335 rather more than usual. I suddenly realised that Altiora's hint of a disappointment leading to positive illness was something more than a vindictive336 comment. She closed the door and came across to me and took and dropped my hand and stood still. "What is it you want with me?" she asked.
The speech I had been turning over and over in my mind on the way vanished at the sight of her.
"I want to talk to you," I answered lamely337.
For some seconds neither of us said a word.
"I want to tell you things about my life," I began.
She answered with a scarcely audible "yes."
"I almost asked you to marry me at Pangbourne," I plunged338. "I didn't. I didn't because--because you had too much to give me."
"Too much!" she echoed, "to give you!" She had lifted her eyes to my face and the colour was coming into her cheeks.
"Don't misunderstand me," I said hastily. "I want to tell you things, things you don't know. Don't answer me. I want to tell you."
She stood before the fireplace with her ultimate answer shining through the quiet of her face. "Go on," she said, very softly. It was so pitilessly manifest she was resolved to idealise the situation whatever I might say. I began walking up and down the room between those cyclamens and the cabinet. There were little gold fishermen on the cabinet fishing from little islands that each had a pagoda339 and a tree, and there were also men in boats or something, I couldn't determine what, and some obscure sub-office in my mind concerned itself with that quite intently. Yet I seem to have been striving with all my being to get words for the truth of things. "You see," I emerged, "you make everything possible to me. You can give me help and sympathy, support, understanding. You know my political ambitions. You know all that I might do in the world. I do so intensely want to do constructive things, big things perhaps, in this wild jumble.... Only you don't know a bit what I am. I want to tell you what I am. I'm complex.... I'm streaked340."
I glanced at her, and she was regarding me with an expression of blissful disregard for any meaning I was seeking to convey.
"You see," I said, "I'm a bad man."
She sounded a note of valiant341 incredulity.
Everything seemed to be slipping away from me. I pushed on to the ugly facts that remained over from the wreck of my interpretation. "What has held me back," I said, "is the thought that you could not possibly understand certain things in my life. Men are not pure as women are. I have had love affairs. I mean I have had affairs. Passion--desire. You see, I have had a mistress, I have been entangled--"
She seemed about to speak, but I interrupted. "I'm not telling you," I said, "what I meant to tell you. I want you to know clearly that there is another side to my life, a dirty side. Deliberately I say, dirty. It didn't seem so at first--"
I stopped blankly. "Dirty," I thought, was the most idiotic342 choice of words to have made.
I had never in any tolerable sense of the word been dirty.
"I drifted into this--as men do," I said after a little pause and stopped again.
She was looking at me with her wide blue eyes.
"Did you imagine," she began, "that I thought you--that I expected--"
"But how can you know?"
"I know. I do know."
"But--" I began.
"I know," she persisted, dropping her eyelids343. "Of course I know," and nothing could have convinced me more completely that she did not know.
"All men--" she generalised. "A woman does not understand these temptations."
I was astonished beyond measure at her way of taking my confession325. ...
"Of course," she said, hesitating a little over a transparent difficulty, "it is all over and past."
"It's all over and past," I answered.
There was a little pause.
"I don't want to know," she said. "None of that seems to matter now in the slightest degree."
She looked up and smiled as though we had exchanged some acceptable commonplaces. "Poor dear!" she said, dismissing everything, and put out her arms, and it seemed to me that I could hear the Lettish girl in the background--doomed safety valve of purity in this intolerable world--telling something in indistinguishable German--I know not what nor why....
I took Margaret in my arms and kissed her. Her eyes were wet with tears. She clung to me and was near, I felt, to sobbing344.
"I have loved you," she whispered presently, "Oh! ever since we met in Misterton--six years and more ago."
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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6
snobbish
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| adj.势利的，谄上欺下的 | |
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7
Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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8
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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9
discredited
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| 不足信的，不名誉的 | |
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10
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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11
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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12
sketchily
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| adv.写生风格地，大略地 | |
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13
conversationally
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| adv.会话地 | |
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14
influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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15
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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16
saner
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| adj.心智健全的( sane的比较级 )；神志正常的；明智的；稳健的 | |
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17
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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18
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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19
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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20
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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21
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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22
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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23
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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24
entangle
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| vt.缠住，套住；卷入，连累 | |
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25
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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26
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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27
appraised
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| v.估价( appraise的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
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28
organise
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| vt.组织，安排，筹办 | |
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29
suffuse
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| v.(色彩等)弥漫，染遍 | |
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30
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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31
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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32
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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33
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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34
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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35
auspices
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| n.资助，赞助 | |
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36
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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37
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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38
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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39
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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40
pretentious
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|
| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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41
pretentiously
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42
scotch
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|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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43
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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44
prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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45
aquiline
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| adj.钩状的，鹰的 | |
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46
gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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47
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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48
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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49
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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50
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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51
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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52
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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53
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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54
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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55
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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56
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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57
intentional
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| adj.故意的，有意（识）的 | |
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58
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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59
affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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60
nibbling
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|
| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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61
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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62
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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63
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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64
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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65
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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66
abdomen
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| n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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67
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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68
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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69
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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70
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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71
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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72
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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73
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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74
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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75
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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76
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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77
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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78
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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79
sketchy
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| adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的 | |
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80
illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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81
applied
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|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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82
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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83
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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84
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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85
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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86
scathing
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|
| adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词) | |
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87
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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88
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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89
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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90
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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91
subjugate
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| v.征服；抑制 | |
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92
abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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93
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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94
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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95
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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96
sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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97
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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98
relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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99
calligraphy
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| n.书法 | |
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100
redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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101
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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102
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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103
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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104
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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105
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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106
legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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107
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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108
sporadic
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| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
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109
controversies
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| 争论 | |
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110
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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111
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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112
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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113
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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114
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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115
administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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116
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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117
jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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118
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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119
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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120
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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121
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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122
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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123
miser
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| n.守财奴，吝啬鬼 (adj.miserly) | |
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124
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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125
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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126
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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127
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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128
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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129
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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130
unpaid
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| adj.未付款的，无报酬的 | |
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131
precursors
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| n.先驱( precursor的名词复数 )；先行者；先兆；初期形式 | |
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132
functionaries
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| n.公职人员，官员( functionary的名词复数 ) | |
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133
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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134
efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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135
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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136
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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137
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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138
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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139
esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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140
enlisting
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| v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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141
philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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142
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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143
conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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144
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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145
finesse
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| n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕 | |
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146
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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147
scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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148
aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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149
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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150
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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151
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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152
amend
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| vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿 | |
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153
omniscience
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| n.全知，全知者，上帝 | |
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154
canvassing
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的现在分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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155
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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156
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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157
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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158
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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159
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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160
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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161
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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162
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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163
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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164
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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165
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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166
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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167
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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168
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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169
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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170
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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171
preluded
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| v.为…作序，开头（prelude的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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172
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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173
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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174
gals
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| abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 ) | |
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175
solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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176
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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177
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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178
truncated
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| adj.切去顶端的，缩短了的，被删节的v.截面的( truncate的过去式和过去分词 )；截头的；缩短了的；截去顶端或末端 | |
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179
lapse
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|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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180
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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181
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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182
obliquity
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| n.倾斜度 | |
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183
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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184
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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185
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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186
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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187
connivance
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| n.纵容；默许 | |
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188
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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189
inadequate
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|
| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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190
codicil
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| n.遗嘱的附录 | |
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191
WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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192
entangled
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|
| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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193
envious
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|
| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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194
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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195
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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196
evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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197
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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198
advantageous
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|
| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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199
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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200
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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201
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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202
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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203
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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204
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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205
impede
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止 | |
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206
exhumed
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| v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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207
defective
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|
| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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208
incited
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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209
stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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210
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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211
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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212
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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213
miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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214
ignominiously
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|
| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
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215
rigid
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|
| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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216
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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217
lateral
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| adj.侧面的，旁边的 | |
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218
emphasise
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| vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重 | |
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219
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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220
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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221
betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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222
disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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223
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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224
interpretations
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| n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解 | |
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225
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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226
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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227
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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228
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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229
steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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230
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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231
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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232
altruistic
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| adj.无私的，为他人着想的 | |
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233
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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234
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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235
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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236
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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237
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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238
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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239
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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240
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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241
hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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242
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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243
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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244
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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245
sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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246
sensuousness
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| n.知觉 | |
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247
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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248
irrelevance
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| n.无关紧要；不相关；不相关的事物 | |
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249
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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250
beget
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| v.引起；产生 | |
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251
begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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252
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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253
celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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254
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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255
panacea
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| n.万灵药；治百病的灵药 | |
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256
libertine
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| n.淫荡者；adj.放荡的，自由思想的 | |
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257
complicating
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| 使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 ) | |
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258
illicit
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| adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的 | |
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259
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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260
ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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261
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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262
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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263
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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264
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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265
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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266
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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267
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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268
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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269
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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270
primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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271
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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272
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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273
meretricious
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| adj.华而不实的，俗艳的 | |
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274
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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275
crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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276
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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277
discords
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| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
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278
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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279
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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280
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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281
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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282
delectably
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| 令人愉快的，让人喜爱的 | |
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283
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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284
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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285
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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286
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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287
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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288
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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289
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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290
subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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291
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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292
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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293
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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294
permissible
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| adj.可允许的，许可的 | |
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295
dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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296
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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297
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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298
ransack
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| v.彻底搜索，洗劫 | |
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299
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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300
muddled
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| 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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301
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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302
chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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303
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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304
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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305
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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306
interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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307
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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308
sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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309
marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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310
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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311
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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312
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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313
intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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314
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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315
entangling
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| v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的现在分词 ) | |
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316
smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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317
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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318
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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319
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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320
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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321
atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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322
lucidity
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| n.明朗，清晰，透明 | |
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323
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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324
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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325
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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326
resonance
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| n.洪亮；共鸣；共振 | |
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327
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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328
passionate
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| 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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329
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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330
distils
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| v.蒸馏( distil的第三人称单数 )；从…提取精华 | |
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331
dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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332
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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333
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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334
petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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335
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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336
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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337
lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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338
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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339
pagoda
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| n.宝塔（尤指印度和远东的多层宝塔），（印度教或佛教的）塔式庙宇 | |
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340
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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341
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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342
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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343
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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344
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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