It was a little after sunrise one bright morning in September that Benham came up on to the deck of the sturdy Austrian steamboat that was churning its way with a sedulous1 deliberation from Spalato to Cattaro, and lit himself a cigarette and seated himself upon a deck chair. Save for a yawning Greek sailor busy with a mop the first-class deck was empty.
Benham surveyed the haggard beauty of the Illyrian coast. The mountains rose gaunt and enormous and barren to a jagged fantastic silhouette2 against the sun; their almost vertical3 slopes still plunged4 in blue shadow, broke only into a little cold green and white edge of olive terraces and vegetation and houses before they touched the clear blue water. An occasional church or a house perched high upon some seemingly inaccessible5 ledge6 did but accentuate7 the vast barrenness of the land. It was a land desolated8 and destroyed. At Ragusa, at Salona, at Spalato and Zara and Pola Benham had seen only variations upon one persistent10 theme, a dwindled11 and uncreative human life living amidst the giant ruins of preceding times, as worms live in the sockets12 of a skull13. Forward an unsavoury group of passengers still slumbered14 amidst fruit-peel and expectorations, a few soldiers, some squalid brigands16 armed with preposterous17 red umbrellas, a group of curled-up human lumps brooded over by an aquiline18 individual caparisoned with brass19 like a horse, his head wrapped picturesquely21 in a shawl. Benham surveyed these last products of the "life force" and resumed his pensive22 survey of the coast. The sea was deserted23 save for a couple of little lateen craft with suns painted on their gaudy24 sails, sea butterflies that hung motionless as if unawakened close inshore....
The travel of the last few weeks had impressed Benham's imagination profoundly. For the first time in his life he had come face to face with civilization in defeat. From Venice hitherward he had marked with cumulative26 effect the clustering evidences of effort spent and power crumbled28 to nothingness. He had landed upon the marble quay29 of Pola and visited its deserted amphitheatre, he had seen a weak provincial30 life going about ignoble31 ends under the walls of the great Venetian fortress32 and the still more magnificent cathedral of Zara; he had visited Spalato, clustered in sweltering grime within the ample compass of the walls of Diocletian's villa33, and a few troublesome sellers of coins and iridescent34 glass and fragments of tessellated pavement and such-like loot was all the population he had found amidst the fallen walls and broken friezes35 and columns of Salona. Down this coast there ebbed36 and flowed a mean residual37 life, a life of violence and dishonesty, peddling38 trades, vendettas39 and war. For a while the unstable41 Austrian ruled this land and made a sort of order that the incalculable chances of international politics might at any time shatter. Benham was drawing near now to the utmost limit of that extended peace. Ahead beyond the mountain capes42 was Montenegro and, further, Albania and Macedonia, lands of lawlessness and confusion. Amanda and he had been warned of the impossibility of decent travel beyond Cattaro and Cettinje but this had but whetted44 her adventurousness45 and challenged his spirit. They were going to see Albania for themselves.
The three months of honeymoon46 they had been spending together had developed many remarkable47 divergences48 of their minds that had not been in the least apparent to Benham before their marriage. Then their common resolve to be as spirited as possible had obliterated50 all minor51 considerations. But that was the limit of their unanimity52. Amanda loved wild and picturesque20 things, and Benham strong and clear things; the vines and brushwood amidst the ruins of Salona that had delighted her had filled him with a sense of tragic53 retrogression. Salona had revived again in the acutest form a dispute that had been smouldering between them throughout a fitful and lengthy54 exploration of north and central Italy. She could not understand his disgust with the mediaeval colour and confusion that had swamped the pride and state of the Roman empire, and he could not make her feel the ambition of the ruler, the essential discipline and responsibilities of his aristocratic idea. While his adventurousness was conquest, hers, it was only too manifest, was brigandage56. His thoughts ran now into the form of an imaginary discourse57, that he would never deliver to her, on the decay of states, on the triumphs of barbarians58 over rulers who will not rule, on the relaxation59 of patrician60 orders and the return of the robber and assassin as lordship decays. This coast was no theatrical61 scenery for him; it was a shattered empire. And it was shattered because no men had been found, united enough, magnificent and steadfast62 enough, to hold the cities, and maintain the roads, keep the peace and subdue63 the brutish hates and suspicions and cruelties that devastated64 the world.
And as these thoughts came back into his mind, Amanda flickered65 up from below, light and noiseless as a sunbeam, and stood behind his chair.
Freedom and the sight of the world had if possible brightened and invigorated her. Her costume and bearing were subtly touched by the romance of the Adriatic. There was a flavour of the pirate in the cloak about her shoulders and the light knitted cap of scarlet67 she had stuck upon her head. She surveyed his preoccupation for a moment, glanced forward, and then covered his eyes with her hands. In almost the same movement she had bent68 down and nipped the tip of his ear between her teeth.
"Confound you, Amanda!"
"You'd forgotten my existence, you star-gazing Cheetah69. And then, you see, these things happen to you!"
"I was thinking."
"Well--DON'T.... I distrust your thinking. This coast is wilder and grimmer than yesterday. It's glorious...."
She sat down on the chair he unfolded for her.
"Is there nothing to eat?" she asked abruptly70.
"It is too early."
2
"This coast is magnificent," she said presently.
"It's hideous," he answered. "It's as ugly as a heap of slag71."
"It's nature at its wildest."
"That's Amanda at her wildest."
"Well, isn't it?"
"No! This land isn't nature. It's waste. Not wilderness72. It's the other end. Those hills were covered with forests; this was a busy civilized73 coast just a little thousand years ago. The Venetians wasted it. They cut down the forests; they filled the cities with a mixed mud of population, THAT stuff. Look at it"!--he indicated the sleepers74 forward by a movement of his head.
"I suppose they WERE rather feeble people," said Amanda.
"Who?"
"The Venetians."
"They were traders--and nothing more. Just as we are. And when they were rich they got splendid clothes and feasted and rested. Much as we do."
Amanda surveyed him. "We don't rest."
"We idle."
"We are seeing things."
"Don't be a humbug75, Amanda. We are making love. Just as they did. And it has been--ripping. In Salona they made love tremendously. They did nothing else until the barbarians came over the mountains...."
"Well," said Amanda virtuously76, "we will do something else."
He made no answer and her expression became profoundly thoughtful. Of course this wandering must end. He had been growing impatient for some time. But it was difficult, she perceived, to decide just what to do with him....
Benham picked up the thread of his musing77.
He was seeing more and more clearly that all civilization was an effort, and so far always an inadequate78 and very partially79 successful effort. Always it had been aristocratic, aristocratic in the sense that it was the work of minorities, who took power, who had a common resolution against the inertia80, the indifference81, the insubordination and instinctive82 hostility83 of the mass of mankind. And always the set-backs, the disasters of civilization, had been failures of the aristocratic spirit. Why had the Roman purpose faltered84 and shrivelled? Every order, every brotherhood85, every organization carried with it the seeds of its own destruction. Must the idea of statecraft and rule perpetually reappear, reclothe itself in new forms, age, die, even as life does--making each time its almost infinitesimal addition to human achievement? Now the world is crying aloud for a renascence of the spirit that orders and controls. Human affairs sway at a dizzy height of opportunity. Will they keep their footing there, or stagger? We have got back at last to a time as big with opportunity as the early empire. Given only the will in men and it would be possible now to turn the dazzling accidents of science, the chancy attainments86 of the nineteenth century, into a sane87 and permanent possession, a new starting point.... What a magnificence might be made of life!
He was aroused by Amanda's voice.
"When we go back to London, old Cheetah," she said, "we must take a house."
For some moments he stared at her, trying to get back to their point of divergence49.
"Why?" he asked at length.
"We must have a house," she said.
He looked at her face. Her expression was profoundly thoughtful, her eyes were fixed88 on the slumbering89 ships poised90 upon the transparent91 water under the mountain shadows.
"You see," she thought it out, "you've got to TELL in London. You can't just sneak92 back there. You've got to strike a note of your own. With all these things of yours."
"But how?"
"There's a sort of little house, I used to see them when I was a girl and my father lived in London, about Brook93 Street and that part. Not too far north.... You see going back to London for us is just another adventure. We've got to capture London. We've got to scale it. We've got advantages of all sorts. But at present we're outside. We've got to march in."
Her clear hazel eyes contemplated95 conflicts and triumphs.
She was roused by Benham's voice.
"What the deuce are you thinking of, Amanda?"
She turned her level eyes to his. "London," she said. "For you."
"I don't want London," he said.
"I thought you did. You ought to. I do."
"But to take a house! Make an invasion of London!"
"You dear old Cheetah, you can't be always frisking about in the wilderness, staring at the stars."
"But I'm not going back to live in London in the old way, theatres, dinner-parties, chatter96--"
"Oh no! We aren't going to do that sort of thing. We aren't going to join the ruck. We'll go about in holiday times all over the world. I want to see Fusiyama. I mean to swim in the South Seas. With you. We'll dodge97 the sharks. But all the same we shall have to have a house in London. We have to be FELT there."
She met his consternation98 fairly. She lifted her fine eyebrows99. Her little face conveyed a protesting reasonableness.
"Well, MUSTN'T we?"
She added, "If we want to alter the world we ought to live in the world."
Since last they had disputed the question she had thought out these new phrases.
"Amanda," he said, "I think sometimes you haven't the remotest idea of what I am after. I don't believe you begin to suspect what I am up to."
She put her elbows on her knees, dropped her chin between her hands and regarded him impudently100. She had a characteristic trick of looking up with her face downcast that never failed to soften101 his regard.
"Look here, Cheetah, don't you give way to your early morning habit of calling your own true love a fool," she said.
"Simply I tell you I will not go back to London."
"You will go back with me, Cheetah."
"I will go back as far as my work calls me there."
"It calls you through the voice of your mate and slave and doormat to just exactly the sort of house you ought to have.... It is the privilege and duty of the female to choose the lair103."
For a space Benham made no reply. This controversy104 had been gathering105 for some time and he wanted to state his view as vividly106 as possible. The Benham style of connubial107 conversation had long since decided108 for emphasis rather than delicacy109.
"I think," he said slowly, "that this wanting to take London by storm is a beastly VULGAR thing to want to do."
Amanda compressed her lips.
"I want to work out things in my mind," he went on. "I do not want to be distracted by social things, and I do not want to be distracted by picturesque things. This life--it's all very well on the surface, but it isn't real. I'm not getting hold of reality. Things slip away from me. God! but how they slip away from me!"
He got up and walked to the side of the boat.
She surveyed his back for some moments. Then she went and leant over the rail beside him.
"I want to go to London," she said.
"I don't."
"Where do you want to go?"
"Where I can see into the things that hold the world together."
"I have loved this wandering--I could wander always. But... Cheetah! I tell you I WANT to go to London."
He looked over his shoulder into her warm face. "NO," he said.
"But, I ask you."
He shook his head.
She put her face closer and whispered. "Cheetah! big beast of my heart. Do you hear your mate asking for something?"
He turned his eyes back to the mountains. "I must go my own way."
"Haven't I, so far, invented things, made life amusing, Cheetah? Can't you trust the leopard110's wisdom?"
He stared at the coast inexorably.
"I wonder," she whispered.
"What?"
"You ARE that, Cheetah, that lank111, long, EAGER beast--."
Suddenly with a nimble hand she had unbuttoned and rolled up the sleeve of her blouse. She stuck her pretty blue-veined arm before his eyes. "Look here, sir, it was you, wasn't it? It was your powerful jaw112 inflicted113 this bite upon the arm of a defenceless young leopardess--"
"Amanda!"
"Well." She wrinkled her brows.
He turned about and stood over her, he shook a finger in her face and there was a restrained intensity114 in his voice as he spoke115.
"Look here, Amanda!" he said, "if you think that you are going to make me agree to any sort of project about London, to any sort of complication of our lives with houses in smart streets and a campaign of social assertion--by THAT, then may I be damned for an uxorious116 fool!"
Her eyes met his and there was mockery in her eyes.
"This, Cheetah, is the morning mood," she remarked.
"This is the essential mood. Listen, Amanda--"
He stopped short. He looked towards the gangway, they both looked. The magic word "Breakfast" came simultaneously117 from them.
"Eggs," she said ravenously118, and led the way.
A smell of coffee as insistent119 as an herald's trumpet120 had called a truce121 between them.
3
Their marriage had been a comparatively inconspicuous one, but since that time they had been engaged upon a honeymoon of great extent and variety. Their wedding had taken place at South Harting church in the marked absence of Lady Marayne, and it had been marred123 by only one untoward124 event. The Reverend Amos Pugh who, in spite of the earnest advice of several friends had insisted upon sharing in the ceremony, had suddenly covered his face with the sleeves of his surplice and fled with a swift rustle126 to the vestry, whence an uproar127 of inadequately128 smothered129 sorrow came as an obligato accompaniment to the more crucial passages of the service. Amanda appeared unaware130 of the incident at the time, but afterwards she explained things to Benham. "Curates," she said, "are such pent-up men. One ought, I suppose, to remember that. But he never had anything to go upon at all--not anything--except his own imaginations."
"I suppose when you met him you were nice to him."
"I was nice to him, of course...."
They drove away from Harting, as it were, over the weeping remains131 of this infatuated divine. His sorrow made them thoughtful for a time, and then Amanda nestled closer to her lover and they forgot about him, and their honeymoon became so active and entertaining that only very rarely and transitorily did they ever think of him again.
The original conception of their honeymoon had been identical with the plans Benham had made for the survey and study of the world, and it was through a series of modifications132, replacements133 and additions that it became at last a prolonged and very picturesque tour in Switzerland, the Austrian Tyrol, North Italy, and down the Adriatic coast. Amanda had never seen mountains, and longed, she said, to climb. This took them first to Switzerland. Then, in spite of their exalted134 aims, the devotion of their lives to noble purposes, it was evident that Amanda had no intention of scamping the detail of love, and for that what background is so richly beautiful as Italy? An important aspect of the grand tour round the world as Benham had planned it, had been interviews, inquiries135 and conversations with every sort of representative and understanding person he could reach. An unembarrassed young man who wants to know and does not promise to bore may reach almost any one in that way, he is as impersonal137 as pure reason and as mobile as a letter, but the presence of a lady in his train leaves him no longer unembarrassed. His approach has become a social event. The wife of a great or significant personage must take notice or decide not to take notice. Of course Amanda was prepared to go anywhere, just as Benham's shadow; it was the world that was unprepared. And a second leading aspect of his original scheme had been the examination of the ways of government in cities and the shifting and mixture of nations and races. It would have led to back streets, and involved and complicated details, and there was something in the fine flame of girlhood beside him that he felt was incompatible138 with those shadows and that dust. And also they were lovers and very deeply in love. It was amazing how swiftly that draggled shameful139 London sparrow-gamin, Eros, took heart from Amanda, and became wonderful, beautiful, glowing, life-giving, confident, clear-eyed; how he changed from flesh to sweet fire, and grew until he filled the sky. So that you see they went to Switzerland and Italy at last very like two ordinary young people who were not aristocrats140 at all, had no theory about the world or their destiny, but were simply just ardently141 delighted with the discovery of one another.
Nevertheless Benham was for some time under a vague impression that in a sort of way still he was going round the world and working out his destinies.
It was part of the fascination142 of Amanda that she was never what he had supposed her to be, and that nothing that he set out to do with her ever turned out as they had planned it. Her appreciations143 marched before her achievement, and when it came to climbing it seemed foolish to toil144 to summits over which her spirit had flitted days before. Their Swiss expeditions which she had foreseen as glorious wanderings amidst the blue ice of crevasses145 and nights of exalted hardihood became a walking tour of fitful vigour146 and abundant fun and delight. They spent a long day on the ice of the Aletsch glacier147, but they reached the inn on its eastward148 side with magnificent appetites a little late for dinner.
Amanda had revealed an unexpected gift for nicknames and pretty fancies. She named herself the Leopard, the spotless Leopard; in some obscure way she intimated that the colour was black, but that was never to be admitted openly, there was supposed to be some lurking149 traces of a rusty150 brown but the word was spotless and the implication white, a dazzling white, she would play a thousand variations on the theme; in moments of despondency she was only a black cat, a common lean black cat, and sacks and half-bricks almost too good for her. But Benham was always a Cheetah. That had come to her as a revelation from heaven. But so clearly he was a Cheetah. He was a Hunting Leopard; the only beast that has an up-cast face and dreams and looks at you with absent-minded eyes like a man. She laced their journeys with a fantastic monologue151 telling in the third person what the Leopard and the Cheetah were thinking and seeing and doing. And so they walked up mountains and over passes and swam in the warm clear water of romantic lakes and loved each other mightily152 always, in chestnut153 woods and olive orchards154 and flower-starred alps and pine forests and awning-covered boats, and by sunset and moonlight and starshine; and out of these agreeable solitudes155 they came brown and dusty, striding side by side into sunlit entertaining fruit-piled market-places and envious156 hotels. For days and weeks together it did not seem to Benham that there was anything that mattered in life but Amanda and the elemental joys of living. And then the Research Magnificent began to stir in him again. He perceived that Italy was not India, that the clue to the questions he must answer lay in the crowded new towns that they avoided, in the packed bookshops and the talk of men, and not in the picturesque and flowery solitudes to which their lovemaking carried them.
Moods began in which he seemed to forget Amanda altogether.
This happened first in the Certosa di Pavia whither they had gone one afternoon from Milan. That was quite soon after they were married. They had a bumping journey thither157 in a motor-car, a little doubtful if the excursion was worth while, and they found a great amazement158 in the lavish160 beauty and decorative161 wealth of that vast church and its associated cloisters162, set far away from any population as it seemed in a flat wilderness of reedy ditches and patchy cultivation165. The distilleries and outbuildings were deserted--their white walls were covered by one monstrously166 great and old wisteria in flower--the soaring marvellous church was in possession of a knot of unattractive guides. One of these conducted them through the painted treasures of the gold and marble chapels168; he was an elderly but animated169 person who evidently found Amanda more wonderful than any church. He poured out great accumulations of information and compliments before her. Benham dropped behind, went astray and was presently recovered dreaming in the great cloister163. The guide showed them over two of the cells that opened thereupon, each a delightful170 house for a solitary171, bookish and clean, and each with a little secret walled garden of its own. He was covertly172 tipped against all regulations and departed regretfully with a beaming dismissal from Amanda. She found Benham wondering why the Carthusians had failed to produce anything better in the world than a liqueur. "One might have imagined that men would have done something in this beautiful quiet; that there would have come thought from here or will from here."
"In these dear little nests they ought to have put lovers," said Amanda.
"Oh, of course, YOU would have made the place Thelema...."
But as they went shaking and bumping back along the evil road to Milan, he fell into a deep musing. Suddenly he said, "Work has to be done. Because this order or that has failed, there is no reason why we should fail. And look at those ragged173 children in the road ahead of us, and those dirty women sitting in the doorways174, and the foul176 ugliness of these gaunt nameless towns through which we go! They are what they are, because we are what we are--idlers, excursionists. In a world we ought to rule....
"Amanda, we've got to get to work...."
That was his first display of this new mood, which presently became a common one. He was less and less content to let the happy hours slip by, more and more sensitive to the reminders177 in giant ruin and deserted cell, in a chance encounter with a string of guns and soldiers on their way to manoeuvres or in the sight of a stale newspaper, of a great world process going on in which he was now playing no part at all. And a curious irritability178 manifested itself more and more plainly, whenever human pettiness obtruded179 upon his attention, whenever some trivial dishonesty, some manifest slovenliness180, some spiritless failure, a cheating waiter or a wayside beggar brought before him the shiftless, selfish, aimless elements in humanity that war against the great dream of life made glorious. "Accursed things," he would say, as he flung some importunate181 cripple at a church door a ten-centime piece; "why were they born? Why do they consent to live? They are no better than some chance fungus182 that is because it must."
"It takes all sorts to make a world," said Amanda.
"Nonsense," said Benham. "Where is the megatherium? That sort of creature has to go. Our sort of creature has to end it."
"Then why did you give it money?"
"Because-- I don't want the thing to be more wretched than it is. But if I could prevent more of them--... What am I doing to prevent them?"
"These beggars annoy you," said Amanda after a pause. "They do me. Let us go back into the mountains."
But he fretted183 in the mountains.
They made a ten days' tour from Macugnaga over the Monte Moro to Sass, and thence to Zermatt and back by the Theodule to Macugnaga. The sudden apparition184 of douaniers upon the Monte Moro annoyed Benham, and he was also irritated by the solemn English mountain climbers at Saas Fee. They were as bad as golfers, he said, and reflected momentarily upon his father. Amanda fell in love with Monte Rosa, she wanted to kiss its snowy forehead, she danced like a young goat down the path to Mattmark, and rolled on the turf when she came to gentians and purple primulas. Benham was tremendously in love with her most of the time, but one day when they were sitting over the Findelen glacier his perceptions blundered for the first time upon the fundamental antagonism185 of their quality. She was sketching186 out jolly things that they were to do together, expeditions, entertainments, amusements, and adventures, with a voluble swiftness, and suddenly in a flash his eyes were opened, and he saw that she would never for a moment feel the quality that made life worth while for him. He saw it in a flash, and in that flash he made his urgent resolve not to see it. From that moment forth187 his bearing was poisoned by his secret determination not to think of this, not to admit it to his mind. And forbidden to come into his presence in its proper form, this conflict of intellectual temperaments188 took on strange disguises, and the gathering tension of his mind sought to relieve itself along grotesque189 irrelevant190 channels.
There was, for example, the remarkable affair of the drive from Macugnaga to Piedimulera.
They had decided to walk down in a leisurely191 fashion, but with the fatigues192 of the precipitous clamber down from Switzerland still upon them they found the white road between rock above and gorge193 below wearisome, and the valley hot in the late morning sunshine, and already before they reached the inn they had marked for lunch Amanda had suggested driving the rest of the way. The inn had a number of brigand15-like customers consuming such sustenance194 as garlic and salami and wine; it received them with an indifference that bordered on disrespect, until the landlord, who seemed to be something of a beauty himself, discovered the merits of Amanda. Then he became markedly attentive195. He was a large, fat, curly-headed person with beautiful eyes, a cherished moustache, and an air of great gentility, and when he had welcomed his guests and driven off the slatternly waiting-maid, and given them his best table, and consented, at Amanda's request, to open a window, he went away and put on a tie and collar. It was an attention so conspicuous122 that even the group of men in the far corner noticed and commented on it, and then they commented on Amanda and Benham, assuming an ignorance of Italian in the visitors that was only partly justifiable196. "Bellissima," "bravissima," "signorina," "Inglesa," one need not be born in Italy to understand such words as these. Also they addressed sly comments and encouragements to the landlord as he went to and fro.
Benham was rather still and stiff during the meal, but it ill becomes an English aristocrat55 to discuss the manners of an alien population, and Amanda was amused by the effusion of the landlord and a little disposed to experiment upon him. She sat radiating light amidst the shadows.
The question of the vehicle was broached197. The landlord was doubtful, then an idea, it was manifestly a questionable198 idea, occurred to him. He went to consult an obscure brown-faced individual in the corner, disappeared, and the world without became eloquent200. Presently he returned and announced that a carozza was practicable. It had been difficult, but he had contrived201 it. And he remained hovering202 over the conclusion of their meal, asking questions about Amanda's mountaineering and expressing incredulous admiration203.
His bill, which he presented with an uneasy flourish, was large and included the carozza.
He ushered204 them out to the carriage with civilities and compliments. It had manifestly been difficult and contrived. It was dusty and blistered205, there had been a hasty effort to conceal206 its recent use as a hen-roost, the harness was mended with string. The horse was gaunt and scandalous, a dirty white, and carried its head apprehensively207. The driver had but one eye, through which there gleamed a concentrated hatred209 of God and man.
"No wonder he charged for it before we saw it," said Benham.
"It's better than walking," said Amanda.
The company in the inn gathered behind the landlord and scrutinized210 Amanda and Benham intelligently. The young couple got in. "Avanti," said Benham, and Amanda bestowed211 one last ineradicable memory on the bowing landlord.
Benham did not speak until just after they turned the first corner, and then something portentous212 happened, considering the precipitous position of the road they were upon. A small boy appeared sitting in the grass by the wayside, and at the sight of him the white horse shied extravagantly213. The driver rose in his seat ready to jump. But the crisis passed without a smash. "Cheetah!" cried Amanda suddenly. "This isn't safe." "Ah!" said Benham, and began to act with the vigour of one who has long accumulated force. He rose in his place and gripped the one-eyed driver by the collar. "ASPETTO," he said, but he meant "Stop!" The driver understood that he meant "Stop," and obeyed.
Benham wasted no time in parleying with the driver. He indicated to him and to Amanda by a comprehensive gesture that he had business with the landlord, and with a gleaming appetite upon his face went running back towards the inn.
The landlord was sitting down to a little game of dominoes with his friends when Benham reappeared in the sunlight of the doorway175. There was no misunderstanding Benham's expression.
For a moment the landlord was disposed to be defiant215. Then he changed his mind. Benham's earnest face was within a yard of his own, and a threatening forefinger216 was almost touching217 his nose.
"Albergo cattivissimo," said Benham. "Cattivissimo! Pranzo cattivissimo 'orrido. Cavallo cattivissimo, dangerousissimo. Gioco abominablissimo, damnissimo. Capisce. Eh?" [*]
* This is vile102 Italian. It may--with a certain charity to
Benham--be rendered: "The beastliest inn! The beastliest!
The beastliest, most awful lunch! The vilest218 horse! Most
dangerous! Abominable219 trick! Understand?"
The landlord made deprecatory gestures.
"YOU understand all right," said Benham. "Da me il argento per il carozzo. Subito?" [*]
* "Give me back the money for the carriage. QUICKLY!"
The landlord was understood to ask whether the signor no longer wished for the carriage.
"SUBITO!" cried Benham, and giving way to a long-restrained impulse seized the padrone by the collar of his coat and shook him vigorously.
There were dissuasive220 noises from the company, but no attempt at rescue. Benham released his hold.
"Adesso!" said Benham. [*]
* "NOW!"
The landlord decided to disgorge. It was at any rate a comfort that the beautiful lady was not seeing anything of this. And he could explain afterwards to his friends that the Englishman was clearly a lunatic, deserving pity rather than punishment. He made some sound of protest, but attempted no delay in refunding221 the money Benham had prepaid. Outside sounded the wheels of the returning carriage. They stopped. Amanda appeared in the doorway and discovered Benham dominant222.
He was a little short of breath, and as she came in he was addressing the landlord with much earnestness in the following compact sentences.
"Attendez! Ecco! Adesso noi andiamo con43 questa cattivissimo cavallo a Piedimulera. Si noi arrivero in safety, securo that is, pagaremo. Non altro. Si noi abbiamo accidento Dio--Dio have mercy on your sinful soul. See! Capisce? That's all." [*]
* "Now we will go with this beastly horse to Piedimulera. If we get there safely I will pay. If we have an accident, then--"
He turned to Amanda. "Get back into the thing," he said. "We won't have these stinking224 beasts think we are afraid of the job. I've just made sure he won't have a profit by it if we smash up. That's all. I might have known what he was up to when he wanted the money beforehand." He came to the doorway and with a magnificent gesture commanded the perplexed225 driver to turn the carriage.
While that was being done he discoursed226 upon his adjacent fellow-creatures. "A man who pays beforehand for anything in this filthy228 sort of life is a fool. You see the standards of the beast. They think of nothing but their dirty little tricks to get profit, their garlic, their sour wine, their games of dominoes, their moments of lust27. They crawl in this place like cockroaches229 in a warm corner of the fireplace until they die. Look at the scabby frontage of the house. Look at the men's faces.... Yes. So! Adequato. Aspettate.... Get back into the carriage, Amanda."
"You know it's dangerous, Cheetah. The horse is a shier. That man is blind in one eye."
"Get back into the carriage," said Benham, whitely angry. "I AM GOING TO DRIVE!"
"But--!"
Just for a moment Amanda looked scared. Then with a queer little laugh she jumped in again.
Amanda was never a coward when there was excitement afoot. "We'll smash!" she cried, by no means woefully.
"Get up beside me," said Benham speaking in English to the driver but with a gesture that translated him. Power over men radiated from Benham in this angry mood. He took the driver's seat. The little driver ascended231 and then with a grim calmness that brooked232 no resistance Benham reached over, took and fastened the apron233 over their knees to prevent any repetition of the jumping out tactics.
The recovering landlord became voluble in the doorway.
"In Piedimulera pagero," said Benham over his shoulder and brought the whip across the white outstanding ribs235. "Get up!" said Benham.
Amanda gripped the sides of the seat as the carriage started into motion.
He laid the whip on again with such vigour that the horse forgot altogether to shy at the urchin236 that had scared it before.
"Amanda," said Benham leaning back. "If we do happen to go over on THAT side, jump out. It's all clear and wide for you. This side won't matter so--"
"MIND!" screamed Amanda and recalled him to his duties. He was off the road and he had narrowly missed an outstanding chestnut true.
"No, you don't," said Benham presently, and again their career became erratic237 for a time as after a slight struggle he replaced the apron over the knees of the deposed238 driver. It had been furtively239 released. After that Benham kept an eye on it that might have been better devoted240 to the road.
The road went down in a series of curves and corners. Now and then there were pacific interludes when it might have been almost any road. Then, again, it became specifically an Italian mountain road. Now and then only a row of all too infrequent granite241 stumps242 separated them from a sheer precipice243. Some of the corners were miraculous244, and once they had a wheel in a ditch for a time, they shaved the parapet of a bridge over a gorge and they drove a cyclist into a patch of maize245, they narrowly missed a goat and jumped three gullies, thrice the horse stumbled and was jerked up in time, there were sickening moments, and withal they got down to Piedimulera unbroken and unspilt. It helped perhaps that the brake, with its handle like a barrel organ, had been screwed up before Benham took control. And when they were fairly on the level outside the town Benham suddenly pulled up, relinquished246 the driving into the proper hands and came into the carriage with Amanda.
"Safe now," he said compactly.
The driver appeared to be murmuring prayers very softly as he examined the brake.
Amanda was struggling with profound problems. "Why didn't you drive down in the first place?" she asked. "Without going back."
"The landlord annoyed me," he said. "I had to go back.... I wish I had kicked him. Hairy beast! If anything had happened, you see, he would have had his mean money. I couldn't bear to leave him."
"And why didn't you let HIM drive?" She indicated the driver by a motion of the head.
"I was angry," said Benham. "I was angry at the whole thing."
"Still--"
"You see I think I did that because he might have jumped off if I hadn't been up there to prevent him--I mean if we had had a smash. I didn't want him to get out of it."
"But you too--"
"You see I was angry...."
"It's been as good as a switchback," said Amanda after reflection. "But weren't you a little careless about me, Cheetah?"
"I never thought of you," said Benham, and then as if he felt that inadequate: "You see--I was so annoyed. It's odd at times how annoyed one gets. Suddenly when that horse shied I realized what a beastly business life was--as those brutes248 up there live it. I want to clear out the whole hot, dirty, little aimless nest of them...."
"No, I'm sure," he repeated after a pause as though he had been digesting something "I wasn't thinking about you at all."
4
The suppression of his discovery that his honeymoon was not in the least the great journey of world exploration he had intended, but merely an impulsive249 pleasure hunt, was by no means the only obscured and repudiated250 conflict that disturbed the mind and broke out upon the behaviour of Benham. Beneath that issue he was keeping down a far more intimate conflict. It was in those lower, still less recognized depths that the volcanic251 fire arose and the earthquakes gathered strength. The Amanda he had loved, the Amanda of the gallant252 stride and fluttering skirt was with him still, she marched rejoicing over the passes, and a dearer Amanda, a soft whispering creature with dusky hair, who took possession of him when she chose, a soft creature who was nevertheless a fierce creature, was also interwoven with his life. But-- But there was now also a multitude of other Amandas who had this in common that they roused him to opposition253, that they crossed his moods and jarred upon his spirit. And particularly there was the Conquering Amanda not so much proud of her beauty as eager to test it, so that she was not unmindful of the stir she made in hotel lounges, nor of the magic that may shine memorably254 through the most commonplace incidental conversation. This Amanda was only too manifestly pleased to think that she made peasant lovers discontented and hotel porters unmercenary; she let her light shine before men. We lovers, who had deemed our own subjugation255 a profound privilege, love not this further expansiveness of our lady's empire. But Benham knew that no aristocrat can be jealous; jealousy256 he held to be the vice125 of the hovel and farmstead and suburban257 villa, and at an enormous expenditure258 of will he ignored Amanda's waving flags and roving glances. So, too, he denied that Amanda who was sharp and shrewd about money matters, that flash of an Amanda who was greedy for presents and possessions, that restless Amanda who fretted at any cessation of excitement, and that darkly thoughtful Amanda whom chance observations and questions showed to be still considering an account she had to settle with Lady Marayne. He resisted these impressions, he shut them out of his mind, but still they worked into his thoughts, and presently he could find himself asking, even as he and she went in step striding side by side through the red-scarred pinewoods in the most perfect outward harmony, whether after all he was so happily mated as he declared himself to be a score of times a day, whether he wasn't catching259 glimpses of reality through a veil of delusion260 that grew thinner and thinner and might leave him disillusioned261 in the face of a relationship--
Sometimes a man may be struck by a thought as though he had been struck in the face, and when the name of Mrs. Skelmersdale came into his head, he glanced at his wife by his side as if it were something that she might well have heard. Was this indeed the same thing as that? Wonderful, fresh as the day of Creation, clean as flame, yet the same! Was Amanda indeed the sister of Mrs. Skelmersdale--wrought of clean fire, but her sister?...
But also beside the inimical aspects which could set such doubts afoot there were in her infinite variety yet other Amandas neither very dear nor very annoying, but for the most part delightful, who entertained him as strangers might, Amandas with an odd twist which made them amusing to watch, jolly Amandas who were simply irrelevant. There was for example Amanda the Dog Mistress, with an astonishing tact234 and understanding of dogs, who could explain dogs and the cock of their ears and the droop262 of their tails and their vanity and their fidelity263, and why they looked up and why they suddenly went off round the corner, and their pride in the sound of their voices and their dastardly thoughts and sniffing264 satisfactions, so that for the first time dogs had souls for Benham to see. And there was an Amanda with a striking passion for the sleekness265 and soft noses of horses. And there was an Amanda extremely garrulous266, who was a biographical dictionary and critical handbook to all the girls in the school she had attended at Chichester--they seemed a very girlish lot of girls; and an Amanda who was very knowing--knowing was the only word for it--about pictures and architecture. And these and all the other Amandas agreed together to develop and share this one quality in common, that altogether they pointed267 to no end, they converged268 on nothing. She was, it grew more and more apparent, a miscellany bound in a body. She was an animated discursiveness269. That passion to get all things together into one aristocratic aim, that restraint of purpose, that imperative270 to focus, which was the structural271 essential of Benham's spirit, was altogether foreign to her composition.
There were so many Amandas, they were as innumerable as the Venuses--Cytherea, Cypria, Paphia, Popularia, Euploea, Area, Verticordia, Etaira, Basilea, Myrtea, Libertina, Freya, Astarte, Philommedis, Telessigamma, Anadyomene, and a thousand others to whom men have bowed and built temples, a thousand and the same, and yet it seemed to Benham there was still one wanting.
The Amanda he had loved most wonderfully was that Amanda in armour272 who had walked with him through the wilderness of the world along the road to Chichester--and that Amanda came back to him no more.
5
Amanda too was making her observations and discoveries.
These moods of his perplexed her; she was astonished to find he was becoming irritable273; she felt that he needed a firm but gentle discipline in his deportment as a lover. At first he had been perfect....
But Amanda was more prepared for human inconsecutiveness than Benham, because she herself was inconsecutive, and her dissatisfaction with his irritations274 and preoccupation broadened to no general discontent. He had seemed perfect and he wasn't. So nothing was perfect. And he had to be managed, just as one must manage a dog or a cousin or a mother or a horse. Anyhow she had got him, she had no doubt that she held him by a thousand ties, the spotless leopard had him between her teeth, he was a prisoner in the dusk of her hair, and the world was all one vast promise of entertainment.
6
But the raid into the Balkans was not the tremendous success she had expected it to be. They had adventures, but they were not the richly coloured, mediaeval affairs she had anticipated. For the most part until Benham broke loose beyond Ochrida they were adventures in discomfort275. In those remote parts of Europe inns die away and cease, and it had never occurred to Amanda that inns could die away anywhere. She had thought that they just became very simple and natural and quaint276. And she had thought that when benighted277 people knocked at a door it would presently open hospitably278. She had not expected shots at random279 from the window. And it is not usual in Albania generally for women, whether they are Christian280 or Moslem281, to go about unveiled; when they do so it leads to singular manifestations282. The moral sense of the men is shocked and staggered, and they show it in many homely283 ways. Small boys at that age when feminine beauty does not yet prevail with them, pelt284. Also in Mahometan districts they pelt men who do not wear fezzes, while occasionally Christians285 of the shawl-headed or skull-cap persuasions287 will pelt a fez. Sketching is always a peltable or mobable offence, as being contrary to the Koran, and sitting down tempts288 the pelter. Generally they pelt. The dogs of Albania are numerous, big, dirty, white dogs, large and hostile, and they attack with little hesitation289. The women of Albania are secluded290 and remote, and indisposed to be of service to an alien sister. Roads are infrequent and most bridges have broken down. No bridge has been repaired since the later seventeenth century, and no new bridge has been made since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. There are no shops at all. The scenery is magnificent but precipitous, and many of the high roads are difficult to trace. And there is rain. In Albania there is sometimes very heavy rain.
Yet in spite of these drawbacks they spent some splendid hours in their exploration of that wild lost country beyond the Adriatic headlands. There was the approach to Cattaro for example, through an arm of the sea, amazingly beautiful on either shore, that wound its way into the wild mountains and ended in a deep blue bay under the tremendous declivity291 of Montenegro. The quay, with its trees and lateen craft, ran along under the towers and portcullised gate of the old Venetian wall, within clustered the town, and then the fortifications zigzagged292 up steeply to a monstrous167 fantastic fortress perched upon a great mountain headland that overhung the town. Behind it the rocks, slashed293 to and fro with the road to Cettinje, continued to ascend230 into blue haze94, upward and upward until they became a purple curtain that filled half the heavens. The paved still town was squalid by day, but in the evening it became theatrically294 incredible, with an outdoor cafe amidst flowers and creepers, a Hungarian military band, a rabble295 of promenaders like a stage chorus in gorgeous costumes and a great gibbous yellow moon.
And there was Kroia, which Benham and Amanda saw first through the branches of the great trees that bordered the broad green track they were following. The town and its castle were poised at a tremendous height, sunlit and brilliant against a sombre mass of storm cloud, over vast cliffs and ravines. Kroia continued to be beautiful through a steep laborious296 approach up to the very place itself, a clustering group of houses and bazaars298 crowned with a tower and a minaret299, and from a painted corridor upon this crest300 they had a wonderful view of the great seaward levels, and even far away the blue sea itself stretching between Scutari and Durazzo. The eye fell in succession down the stages of a vast and various descent, on the bazaars and tall minarets301 of the town, on jagged rocks and precipices302, on slopes of oak forest and slopes of olive woods, on blue hills dropping away beyond blue hills to the coast. And behind them when they turned they saw great mountains, sullenly303 magnificent, cleft304 into vast irregular masses, dense305 with woods below and grim and desolate9 above....
These were unforgettable scenes, and so too was the wild lonely valley through which they rode to Ochrida amidst walnut306 and chestnut trees and scattered307 rocks, and the first vision of that place itself, with its fertile levels dotted with sheep and cattle, its castle and clustering mosques308, its spacious309 blue lake and the great mountains rising up towards Olympus under the sun. And there was the first view of the blue Lake of Presba seen between silvery beech310 stems, and that too had Olympus in the far background, plain now and clear and unexpectedly snowy. And there were midday moments when they sat and ate under vines and heard voices singing very pleasantly, and there were forest glades311 and forest tracks in a great variety of beauty with mountains appearing through their parted branches, there were ilex woods, chestnut woods, beech woods, and there were strings312 of heavily-laden mules313 staggering up torrent314-worn tracks, and strings of blue-swathed mysterious-eyed women with burthens on their heads passing silently, and white remote houses and ruins and deep gorges315 and precipices and ancient half-ruinous bridges over unruly streams. And if there was rain there was also the ending of rain, rainbows, and the piercing of clouds by the sun's incandescence316, and sunsets and the moon, first full, then new and then growing full again as the holiday wore on.
They found tolerable accommodation at Cattaro and at Cettinje and at a place halfway317 between them. It was only when they had secured a guide and horses, and pushed on into the south-east of Montenegro that they began to realize the real difficulties of their journey. They aimed for a place called Podgoritza, which had a partially justifiable reputation for an inn, they missed the road and spent the night in the open beside a fire, rolled in the blankets they had very fortunately bought in Cettinje. They supped on biscuits and Benham's brandy flask318. It chanced to be a fine night, and, drawn319 like moths320 by the fire, four heavily-armed mountaineers came out of nowhere, sat down beside Benham and Amanda, rolled cigarettes, achieved conversation in bad Italian through the muleteer and awaited refreshment321. They approved of the brandy highly, they finished it, and towards dawn warmed to song. They did not sing badly, singing in chorus, but it appeared to Amanda that the hour might have been better chosen. In the morning they were agreeably surprised to find one of the Englishmen was an Englishwoman, and followed every accessible detail of her toilette with great interest. They were quite helpful about breakfast when the trouble was put to them; two vanished over a crest and reappeared with some sour milk, a slabby323 kind of bread, goat's cheese young but hardened, and coffee and the means of making coffee, and they joined spiritedly in the ensuing meal. It ought to have been extraordinarily324 good fun, this camp under the vast heavens and these wild visitors, but it was not such fun as it ought to have been because both Amanda and Benham were extremely cold, stiff, sleepy, grubby and cross, and when at last they were back in the way to Podgoritza and had parted, after some present-giving from their chance friends, they halted in a sunlit grassy325 place, rolled themselves up in their blankets and recovered their arrears326 of sleep.
Podgoritza was their first experience of a khan, those oriental substitutes for hotels, and it was a deceptively good khan, indeed it was not a khan at all, it was an inn; it provided meals, it had a kind of bar, or at any rate a row of bottles and glasses, it possessed327 an upper floor with rooms, separate rooms, opening on to a gallery. The room had no beds but it had a shelf about it on which Amanda and Benham rolled up in their blankets and slept. "We can do this sort of thing all right," said Amanda and Benham. "But we mustn't lose the way again."
"In Scutari," said Benham, "we will get an extra horse and a tent."
The way presently became a lake and they reached Scutari by boat towards the dawn of the next day....
The extra horse involved the addition of its owner, a small suspicious Latin Christian, to the company, and of another horse for him and an ugly almost hairless boy attendant. Moreover the British consul199 prevailed with Benham to accept the services of a picturesque Arnaut CAVASSE, complete with a rifle, knives, and other implements328 and the name of Giorgio. And as they got up into the highlands beyond Scutari they began to realize the deceitfulness of Podgoritza and the real truth about khans. Their next one they reached after a rainy evening, and it was a cavernous room with a floor of indurated mud and full of eye-stinging wood-smoke and wind and the smell of beasts, unpartitioned, with a weakly hostile custodian329 from whom no food could be got but a little goat's flesh and bread. The meat Giorgio stuck upon a skewer330 in gobbets like cats-meat and cooked before the fire. For drink there was coffee and raw spirits. Against the wall in one corner was a slab322 of wood rather like the draining board in a scullery, and on this the guests were expected to sleep. The horses and the rest of the party camped loosely about the adjacent corner after a bitter dispute upon some unknown point between the horse owner and the custodian.
Amanda and Benham were already rolled up on their slanting331 board like a couple of chrysalids when other company began to arrive through the open door out of the moonlight, drawn thither by the report of a travelling Englishwoman.
They were sturdy men in light coloured garments adorned332 ostentatiously with weapons, they moved mysteriously about in the firelit darknesses and conversed333 in undertones with Giorgio. Giorgio seemed to have considerable powers of exposition and a gift for social organization. Presently he came to Benham and explained that raki was available and that hospitality would do no harm; Benham and Amanda sat up and various romantic figures with splendid moustaches came forward and shook hands with him, modestly ignoring Amanda. There was drinking, in which Benham shared, incomprehensible compliments, much ineffective saying of "BUONA NOTTE," and at last Amanda and Benham counterfeited334 sleep. This seemed to remove a check on the conversation and a heated discussion in tense undertones went on, it seemed interminably.... Probably very few aspects of Benham and Amanda were ignored.... Towards morning the twanging of a string proclaimed the arrival of a querulous-faced minstrel with a sort of embryonic335 one-stringed horse-headed fiddle336, and after a brief parley214 singing began, a long high-pitched solo. The fiddle squealed337 pitifully under the persuasion286 of a semicircular bow. Two heads were lifted enquiringly.
The singer had taken up his position at their feet and faced them. It was a compliment.
"OH!" said Amanda, rolling over.
The soloist338 obliged with three songs, and then, just as day was breaking, stopped abruptly and sprawled339 suddenly on the floor as if he had been struck asleep. He was vocal340 even in his sleep. A cock in the far corner began crowing and was answered by another outside....
But this does not give a full account of the animation341 of the khan. "OH!" said Amanda, rolling over again with the suddenness of accumulated anger.
"They're worse than in Scutari," said Benham, understanding her trouble instantly.
"It isn't days and nights we are having," said Benham a few days later, "it's days and nightmares."
But both he and Amanda had one quality in common. The deeper their discomfort the less possible it was to speak of turning back from the itinerary342 they had planned....
They met no robbers, though an excited little English Levantine in Scutari had assured them they would do so and told a vivid story of a ride to Ipek, a delay on the road due to a sudden inexplicable343 lameness344 of his horse after a halt for refreshment, a political discussion that delayed him, his hurry through the still twilight345 to make up for lost time, the coming on of night and the sudden silent apparition out of the darkness of the woods about the road of a dozen armed men each protruding346 a gun barrel. "Sometimes they will wait for you at a ford347 or a broken bridge," he said. "In the mountains they rob for arms. They assassinate348 the Turkish soldiers even. It is better to go unarmed unless you mean to fight for it.... Have you got arms?"
"Just a revolver," said Benham.
But it was after that that he closed with Giorgio.
If they found no robbers in Albania, they met soon enough with bloodshed. They came to a village where a friend of a friend of Giorgio's was discovered, and they slept at his house in preference to the unclean and crowded khan. Here for the first time Amanda made the acquaintance of Albanian women and was carried off to the woman's region at the top of the house, permitted to wash, closely examined, shown a baby and confided349 in as generously as gesture and some fragments of Italian would permit. Benham slept on a rug on the first floor in a corner of honour beside the wood fire. There had been much confused conversation and some singing, he was dog-tired and slept heavily, and when presently he was awakened25 by piercing screams he sat up in a darkness that seemed to belong neither to time nor place....
Near his feet was an ashen350 glow that gave no light.
His first perplexity gave way to dismay at finding no Amanda by his side. "Amanda!" he cried....
Her voice floated down through a chink in the floor above. "What can it be, Cheetah?"
Then: "It's coming nearer."
The screaming continued, heart-rending, eviscerating351 shrieks353. Benham, still confused, lit a match. All the men about him were stirring or sitting up and listening, their faces showing distorted and ugly in the flicker66 of his light. "CHE E?" he tried. No one answered. Then one by one they stood up and went softly to the ladder that led to the stable-room below. Benham struck a second match and a third.
"Giorgio!" he called.
The cavasse made an arresting gesture and followed discreetly354 and noiselessly after the others, leaving Benham alone in the dark.
Benham heard their shuffling355 patter, one after the other, down the ladder, the sounds of a door being unbarred softly, and then no other sound but that incessant356 shrieking357 in the darkness.
Had they gone out? Were they standing136 at the door looking out into the night and listening?
Amanda had found the chink and her voice sounded nearer.
"It's a woman," she said.
The shrieking came nearer and nearer, long, repeated, throat-tearing shrieks. Far off there was a great clamour of dogs. And there was another sound, a whisper--?
"RAIN!"
The shrieks seemed to turn into a side street and receded358. The tension of listening relaxed. Men's voices sounded below in question and answer. Dogs close at hand barked shortly and then stopped enquiringly.
Benham seemed to himself to be sitting alone for an interminable time. He lit another match and consulted his watch. It was four o'clock and nearly dawn....
Then slowly and stumbling up the ladder the men began to return to Benham's room.
"Ask them what it is," urged Amanda.
But for a time not even Giorgio would understand Benham's questions. There seemed to be a doubt whether he ought to know. The shrieking approached again and then receded. Giorgio came and stood, a vague thoughtful figure, by the embers of the fire. Explanation dropped from him reluctantly. It was nothing. Some one had been killed: that was all. It was a vendetta40. A man had been missing overnight, and this morning his brother who had been prowling and searching with some dogs had found him, or rather his head. It was on this side of the ravine, thrown over from the other bank on which the body sprawled stiffly, wet through, and now growing visible in the gathering daylight. Yes--the voice was the man's wife. It was raining hard.... There would be shrieking for nine days. Yes, nine days. Confirmation359 with the fingers when Benham still fought against the facts. Her friends and relatives would come and shriek352 too. Two of the dead man's aunts were among the best keeners in the whole land. They could keen marvellously. It was raining too hard to go on.... The road would be impossible in rain.... Yes it was very melancholy360. Her house was close at hand. Perhaps twenty or thirty women would join her. It was impossible to go on until it had stopped raining. It would be tiresome361, but what could one do?...
7
As they sat upon the parapet of a broken bridge on the road between Elbassan and Ochrida Benham was moved to a dissertation362 upon the condition of Albania and the politics of the Balkan peninsula.
"Here we are," he said, "not a week from London, and you see the sort of life that men live when the forces of civilization fail. We have been close to two murders--"
"Two?"
"That little crowd in the square at Scutari-- That was a murder. I didn't tell you at the time."
"But I knew it was," said Amanda.
"And you see the filth227 of it all, the toiling363 discomfort of it all. There is scarcely a house here in all the land that is not filthier364 and viler365 than the worst slum in London. No man ventures far from his village without arms, everywhere there is fear. The hills are impassable because of the shepherd's dogs. Over those hills a little while ago a stranger was torn to pieces by dogs--and partially eaten. Amanda, these dogs madden me. I shall let fly at the beasts. The infernal indignity366 of it! But that is by the way. You see how all this magnificent country lies waste with nothing but this crawling, ugly mockery of human life."
"They sing," said Amanda.
"Yes," said Benham and reflected, "they do sing. I suppose singing is the last thing left to men. When there is nothing else you can still sit about and sing. Miners who have been buried in mines will sing, people going down in ships."
"The Sussex labourers don't sing," said Amanda. "These people sing well."
"They would probably sing as well if they were civilized. Even if they didn't I shouldn't care. All the rest of their lives is muddle367 and cruelty and misery368. Look at the women. There was that party of bent creatures we met yesterday, carrying great bundles, carrying even the men's cloaks and pipes, while their rascal369 husbands and brothers swaggered behind. Look at the cripples we have seen and the mutilated men. If we have met one man without a nose, we have met a dozen. And stunted370 people. All these people are like evil schoolboys; they do nothing but malicious371 mischief372; there is nothing adult about them but their voices; they are like the heroic dreams of young ruffians in a penitentiary373. You saw that man at Scutari in the corner of the bazaar297, the gorgeous brute247, you admired him--."
"The man with the gold inlaid pistols and the diamonds on his yataghan. He wanted to show them to us."
"Yes. You let him see you admired him."
"I liked the things on his stall."
"Well, he has killed nearly thirty people."
"In duels374?"
"Good Lord! NO! Assassinations375. His shoemaker annoyed him by sending in a bill. He went to the man's stall, found him standing with his child in his arms and blew out his brains. He blundered against a passer-by in the road and shot him. Those are his feats376. Sometimes his pistols go off in the bazaar just by accident."
"Does nobody kill him?"
"I wanted to," said Benham and became thoughtful for a time. "I think I ought to have made some sort of quarrel. But then as I am an Englishman he might have hesitated. He would have funked a strange beast like me. And I couldn't have shot him if he had hesitated. And if he hadn't--"
"But doesn't a blood feud377 come down on him?"
"It only comes down on his family. The shoemaker's son thought the matter over and squared accounts by putting the muzzle378 of a gun into the small of the back of our bully379's uncle. It was easier that way.... You see you're dealing380 with men of thirteen years old or thereabouts, the boy who doesn't grow up."
"But doesn't the law--?"
"There's no law. Only custom and the Turkish tax collector.
"You see this is what men are where there is no power, no discipline, no ruler, no responsibility. This is a masterless world. This is pure democracy. This is the natural state of men. This is the world of the bully and the brigand and assassin, the world of the mud-pelter and brawler381, the world of the bent woman, the world of the flea382 and the fly, the open drain and the baying dog. This is what the British sentimentalist thinks a noble state for men."
"They fight for freedom."
"They fight among each other. There are their private feuds383 and their village feuds and above all that great feud religion. In Albania there is only one religion and that is hate. But there are three churches for the better cultivation of hate and cruelty, the Latin, the Greek and the Mahometan."
"But no one has ever conquered these people."
"Any one could, the Servians, the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Italians, the Austrians. Why, they can't even shoot! It's just the balance of power and all that foolery keeps this country a roadless wilderness. Good God, how I tire of it! These men who swagger and stink223, their brawling384 dogs, their greasy385 priests and dervishes, the down-at-heel soldiers, the bribery386 and robbery, the cheating over the money...."
He slipped off the parapet, too impatient to sit any longer, and began to pace up and down in the road.
"One marvels387 that no one comes to clear up this country, one itches164 to be at the job, and then one realizes that before one can begin here, one must get to work back there, where the fools and pedants388 of WELT POLITIK scheme mischief one against another. This country frets389 me. I can't see any fun in it, can't see the humour of it. And the people away there know no better than to play off tribe against tribe, sect390 against sect, one peasant prejudice against another. Over this pass the foolery grows grimmer and viler. We shall come to where the Servian plots against the Bulgarian and the Greek against both, and the Turk, with spasmodic massacres391 and indulgences, broods over the brew393. Every division is subdivided394. There are two sorts of Greek church, Exarchic, Patriarchic, both teaching by threat and massacre392. And there is no one, no one, with the sense to over-ride all these squalid hostilities395. All those fools away there in London and Vienna and St. Petersburg and Rome take sides as though these beastly tribes and leagues and superstitions396 meant anything but blank, black, damnable ignorance. One fool stands up for the Catholic Albanians, another finds heroes in the Servians, another talks of Brave Little Montenegro, or the Sturdy Bulgarian, or the Heroic Turk. There isn't a religion in the whole Balkan peninsula, there isn't a tribal397 or national sentiment that deserves a moment's respect from a sane man. They're things like niggers' nose-rings and Chinese secret societies; childish things, idiot things that have to go. Yet there is no one who will preach the only possible peace, which is the peace of the world-state, the open conspiracy398 of all the sane men in the world against the things that break us up into wars and futilities. And here am I--who have the light--WANDERING! Just wandering!"
He shrugged399 his shoulders and came to stare at the torrent under the bridge.
"You're getting ripe for London, Cheetah," said Amanda softly.
"I want somehow to get to work, to get my hands on definite things."
"How can we get back?"
She had to repeat her question presently.
"We can go on. Over the hills is Ochrida and then over another pass is Presba, and from there we go down into Monastir and reach a railway and get back to the world of our own times again."
8
But before they reached the world of their own times Macedonia was to show them something grimmer than Albania.
They were riding through a sunlit walnut wood beyond Ochrida when they came upon the thing.
The first they saw of it looked like a man lying asleep on a grassy bank. But he lay very still indeed, he did not look up, he did not stir as they passed, the pose of his hand was stiff, and when Benham glanced back at him, he stifled400 a little cry of horror. For this man had no face and the flies had been busy upon him....
Benham caught Amanda's bridle401 so that she had to give her attention to her steed.
"Ahead!" he said, "Ahead! Look, a village!"
(Why the devil didn't they bury the man? Why? And that fool Giorgio and the others were pulling up and beginning to chatter. After all she might look back.)
Through the trees now they could see houses. He quickened his pace and jerked Amanda's horse forward....
But the village was a still one. Not a dog barked.
Here was an incredible village without even a dog!
And then, then they saw some more people lying about. A woman lay in a doorway. Near her was something muddy that might have been a child, beyond were six men all spread out very neatly402 in a row with their faces to the sky.
"Cheetah!" cried Amanda, with her voice going up. "They've been killed. Some one has killed them."
Benham halted beside her and stared stupidly. "It's a band," he said. "It's--propaganda. Greeks or Turks or Bulgarians."
"But their feet and hands are fastened! And--... WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN DOING TO THEM?..."
"I want to kill," cried Benham. "Oh! I want to kill people. Come on, Amanda! It blisters403 one's eyes. Come away. Come away! Come!"
Her face was white and her eyes terror-stricken. She obeyed him mechanically. She gave one last look at those bodies....
Down the deep-rutted soil of the village street they clattered404. They came to houses that had been set on fire....
"What is that hanging from a tree?" cried Amanda. "Oh, oh!"
"Come on...."
Behind them rode the others scared and hurrying.
The sunlight had become the light of hell. There was no air but horror. Across Benham's skies these fly-blown trophies405 of devilry dangled406 mockingly in the place of God. He had no thought but to get away.
Presently they encountered a detachment of Turkish soldiers, very greasy and ragged, with worn-out boots and yellow faces, toiling up the stony407 road belatedly to the village. Amanda and Benham riding one behind the other in a stricken silence passed this labouring column without a gesture, but presently they heard the commander stopping and questioning Giorgio....
Then Giorgio and the others came clattering408 to overtake them.
Giorgio was too full to wait for questions. He talked eagerly to Benham's silence.
It must have happened yesterday, he explained. They were Bulgarians--traitors. They had been converted to the Patriarchists by the Greeks--by a Greek band, that is to say. They had betrayed one of their own people. Now a Bulgarian band had descended410 upon them. Bulgarian bands it seemed were always particularly rough on Bulgarian-speaking Patriarchists....
9
That night they slept in a dirty little room in a peasant's house in Resnia, and in the middle of the night Amanda woke up with a start and heard Benham talking. He seemed to be sitting up as he talked. But he was not talking to her and his voice sounded strange.
"Flies," he said, "in the sunlight!"
He was silent for a time and then he repeated the same words.
Then suddenly he began to declaim. "Oh! Brutes together. Apes. Apes with knives. Have they no lord, no master, to save them from such things? This is the life of men when no man rules.... When no man rules.... Not even himself.... It is because we are idle, because we keep our wits slack and our wills weak that these poor devils live in hell. These things happen here and everywhere when the hand that rules grows weak. Away in China now they are happening. Persia. Africa.... Russia staggers. And I who should serve the law, I who should keep order, wander and make love.... My God! may I never forget! May I never forget! Flies in the sunlight! That man's face. And those six men!
"Grip the savage411 by the throat.
"The weak savage in the foreign office, the weak savage at the party headquarters, feud and indolence and folly412. It is all one world. This and that are all one thing. The spites of London and the mutilations of Macedonia. The maggots that eat men's faces and the maggots that rot their minds. Rot their minds. Rot their minds. Rot their minds...."
To Amanda it sounded like delirium413.
"CHEETAH!" she said suddenly between remonstrance414 and a cry of terror.
The darkness suddenly became quite still. He did not move.
She was afraid. "Cheetah!" she said again.
"What is it, Amanda?"
"I thought--. Are you all right?"
"Quite."
"But do you feel well?"
"I've got this cold I caught in Ochrida. I suppose I'm feverish415. But--yes, I'm well."
"You were talking."
Silence for a time.
"I was thinking," he said.
"You talked."
"I'm sorry," he said after another long pause.
10
The next morning Benham had a pink spot on either cheek, his eyes were feverishly416 bright, he would touch no food and instead of coffee he wanted water. "In Monastir there will be a doctor," he said. "Monastir is a big place. In Monastir I will see a doctor. I want a doctor."
They rode out of the village in the freshness before sunrise and up long hills, and sometimes they went in the shade of woods and sometimes in a flooding sunshine. Benham now rode in front, preoccupied417, intent, regardless of Amanda, a stranger, and she rode close behind him wondering.
"When you get to Monastir, young man," she told him, inaudibly, "you will go straight to bed and we'll see what has to be done with you."
"AMMALATO," said Giorgio confidentially418, coming abreast419 of her.
"MEDICO IN MONASTIR," said Amanda.
"SI,--MOLTI MEDICI, MONASTIR," Giorgio agreed.
Then came the inevitable420 dogs, big white brutes, three in full cry charging hard at Benham and a younger less enterprising beast running along the high bank above yapping and making feints to descend409.
The goatherd, reclining under the shadow of a rock, awaited Benham's embarrassment421 with an indolent malice422.
"You UNCIVILIZED Beasts!" cried Benham, and before Amanda could realize what he was up to, she heard the crack of his revolver and saw a puff423 of blue smoke drift away above his right shoulder. The foremost beast rolled over and the goatherd had sprung to his feet. He shouted with something between anger and dismay as Benham, regardless of the fact that the other dogs had turned and were running back, let fly a second time. Then the goatherd had clutched at the gun that lay on the grass near at hand, Giorgio was bawling424 in noisy remonstrance and also getting ready to shoot, and the horse-owner and his boy were clattering back to a position of neutrality up the stony road. "BANG!" came a flight of lead within a yard of Benham, and then the goatherd was in retreat behind a rock and Giorgio was shouting "AVANTI, AVANTI!" to Amanda.
She grasped his intention and in another moment she had Benham's horse by the bridle and was leading the retreat. Giorgio followed close, driving the two baggage mules before him.
"I am tired of dogs," Benham said. "Tired to death of dogs. All savage dogs must be shot. All through the world. I am tired--"
Their road carried them down through the rocky pass and then up a long slope in the open. Far away on the left they saw the goatherd running and shouting and other armed goatherds appearing among the rocks. Behind them the horse-owner and his boy came riding headlong across the zone of danger.
"Dogs must be shot," said Benham, exalted. "Dogs must be shot."
"Unless they are GOOD dogs," said Amanda, keeping beside him with an eye on his revolver.
"Unless they are good dogs to every one," said Benham.
They rushed along the road in a turbulent dusty huddle425 of horses and mules and riders. The horse-owner, voluble in Albanian, was trying to get past them. His boy pressed behind him. Giorgio in the rear had unslung his rifle and got it across the front of his saddle. Far away they heard the sound of a shot, and a kind of shudder426 in the air overhead witnessed to the flight of the bullet. They crested427 a rise and suddenly between the tree boughs428 Monastir was in view, a wide stretch of white town, with many cypress429 and plane trees, a winding430 river with many wooden bridges, clustering minarets of pink and white, a hilly cemetery431, and scattered patches of soldiers' tents like some queer white crop to supplement its extensive barracks.
As they hurried down towards this city of refuge a long string of mules burthened with great bales of green stuff appeared upon a convergent432 track to the left. Besides the customary muleteers there were, by way of an escort, a couple of tattered433 Turkish soldiers. All these men watched the headlong approach of Benham's party with apprehensive208 inquiry434. Giorgio shouted some sort of information that made the soldiers brighten up and stare up the hill, and set the muleteers whacking435 and shouting at their convoy436. It struck Amanda that Giorgio must be telling lies about a Bulgarian band. In another moment Benham and Amanda found themselves swimming in a torrent of mules. Presently they overtook a small flock of fortunately nimble sheep, and picked up several dogs, dogs that happily disregarded Benham in the general confusion. They also comprehended a small springless cart, two old women with bundles and an elderly Greek priest, before their dusty, barking, shouting cavalcade437 reached the outskirts438 of Monastir. The two soldiers had halted behind to cover the retreat.
Benham's ghastly face was now bedewed with sweat and he swayed in his saddle as he rode. "This is NOT civilization, Amanda," he said, "this is NOT civilization."
And then suddenly with extraordinary pathos439:
"Oh! I want to go to BED! I want to go to BED! A bed with sheets...."
To ride into Monastir is to ride into a maze159. The streets go nowhere in particular. At least that was the effect on Amanda and Benham. It was as if Monastir too had a temperature and was slightly delirious440. But at last they found an hotel--quite a civilized hotel....
The doctor in Monastir was an Armenian with an ambition that outran his capacity to speak English. He had evidently studied the language chiefly from books. He thought THESE was pronounced "theser" and THOSE was pronounced "thoser," and that every English sentence should be taken at a rush. He diagnosed Benham's complaint in various languages and failed to make his meaning clear to Amanda. One combination of words he clung to obstinately441, having clearly the utmost faith in its expressiveness442. To Amanda it sounded like, "May, Ah! Slays443," and it seemed to her that he sought to intimate a probable fatal termination of Benham's fever. But it was clear that the doctor was not satisfied that she understood. He came again with a queer little worn book, a parallel vocabulary of half-a-dozen European languages.
He turned over the pages and pointed to a word. "May! Ah! Slays!" he repeated, reproachfully, almost bitterly.
"Oh, MEASLES444!" cried Amanda....
So the spirited honeymoon passed its zenith.
11
The Benhams went as soon as possible down to Smyrna and thence by way of Uskub tortuously445 back to Italy. They recuperated446 at the best hotel of Locarno in golden November weather, and just before Christmas they turned their faces back to England.
Benham's plans were comprehensive but entirely447 vague; Amanda had not so much plans as intentions....
点击收听单词发音
1 sedulous | |
adj.勤勉的,努力的 | |
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2 silhouette | |
n.黑色半身侧面影,影子,轮廓;v.描绘成侧面影,照出影子来,仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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3 vertical | |
adj.垂直的,顶点的,纵向的;n.垂直物,垂直的位置 | |
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4 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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5 inaccessible | |
adj.达不到的,难接近的 | |
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6 ledge | |
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁 | |
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7 accentuate | |
v.着重,强调 | |
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8 desolated | |
adj.荒凉的,荒废的 | |
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9 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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10 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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11 dwindled | |
v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 sockets | |
n.套接字,使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 );孔( socket的名词复数 );(电器上的)插口;托座;凹穴 | |
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13 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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14 slumbered | |
微睡,睡眠(slumber的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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15 brigand | |
n.土匪,强盗 | |
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16 brigands | |
n.土匪,强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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17 preposterous | |
adj.荒谬的,可笑的 | |
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18 aquiline | |
adj.钩状的,鹰的 | |
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19 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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20 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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21 picturesquely | |
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22 pensive | |
a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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23 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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24 gaudy | |
adj.华而不实的;俗丽的 | |
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25 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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26 cumulative | |
adj.累积的,渐增的 | |
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27 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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28 crumbled | |
(把…)弄碎, (使)碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 衰落; 坍塌; 损坏 | |
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29 quay | |
n.码头,靠岸处 | |
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30 provincial | |
adj.省的,地方的;n.外省人,乡下人 | |
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31 ignoble | |
adj.不光彩的,卑鄙的;可耻的 | |
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32 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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33 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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34 iridescent | |
adj.彩虹色的,闪色的 | |
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35 friezes | |
n.(柱顶过梁和挑檐间的)雕带,(墙顶的)饰带( frieze的名词复数 ) | |
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36 ebbed | |
(指潮水)退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 ); 落; 减少; 衰落 | |
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37 residual | |
adj.复播复映追加时间;存留下来的,剩余的 | |
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38 peddling | |
忙于琐事的,无关紧要的 | |
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39 vendettas | |
n.家族世仇( vendetta的名词复数 );族间仇杀;长期争斗;积怨 | |
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40 vendetta | |
n.世仇,宿怨 | |
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41 unstable | |
adj.不稳定的,易变的 | |
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42 capes | |
碎谷; 斗篷( cape的名词复数 ); 披肩; 海角; 岬 | |
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43 con | |
n.反对的观点,反对者,反对票,肺病;vt.精读,学习,默记;adv.反对地,从反面;adj.欺诈的 | |
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44 whetted | |
v.(在石头上)磨(刀、斧等)( whet的过去式和过去分词 );引起,刺激(食欲、欲望、兴趣等) | |
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45 adventurousness | |
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46 honeymoon | |
n.蜜月(假期);vi.度蜜月 | |
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47 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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48 divergences | |
n.分叉( divergence的名词复数 );分歧;背离;离题 | |
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49 divergence | |
n.分歧,岔开 | |
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50 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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51 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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52 unanimity | |
n.全体一致,一致同意 | |
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53 tragic | |
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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54 lengthy | |
adj.漫长的,冗长的 | |
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55 aristocrat | |
n.贵族,有贵族气派的人,上层人物 | |
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56 brigandage | |
n.抢劫;盗窃;土匪;强盗 | |
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57 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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58 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
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59 relaxation | |
n.松弛,放松;休息;消遣;娱乐 | |
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60 patrician | |
adj.贵族的,显贵的;n.贵族;有教养的人;罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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61 theatrical | |
adj.剧场的,演戏的;做戏似的,做作的 | |
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62 steadfast | |
adj.固定的,不变的,不动摇的;忠实的;坚贞不移的 | |
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63 subdue | |
vt.制服,使顺从,征服;抑制,克制 | |
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64 devastated | |
v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词);摧毁;毁灭;在感情上(精神上、财务上等)压垮adj.毁坏的;极为震惊的 | |
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65 flickered | |
(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66 flicker | |
vi./n.闪烁,摇曳,闪现 | |
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67 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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68 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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69 cheetah | |
n.(动物)猎豹 | |
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70 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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71 slag | |
n.熔渣,铁屑,矿渣;v.使变成熔渣,变熔渣 | |
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72 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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73 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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74 sleepers | |
n.卧铺(通常以复数形式出现);卧车( sleeper的名词复数 );轨枕;睡觉(呈某种状态)的人;小耳环 | |
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75 humbug | |
n.花招,谎话,欺骗 | |
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76 virtuously | |
合乎道德地,善良地 | |
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77 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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78 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
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79 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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80 inertia | |
adj.惰性,惯性,懒惰,迟钝 | |
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81 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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82 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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83 hostility | |
n.敌对,敌意;抵制[pl.]交战,战争 | |
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84 faltered | |
(嗓音)颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 ); 支吾其词; 蹒跚; 摇晃 | |
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85 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
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86 attainments | |
成就,造诣; 获得( attainment的名词复数 ); 达到; 造诣; 成就 | |
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87 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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88 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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89 slumbering | |
微睡,睡眠(slumber的现在分词形式) | |
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90 poised | |
a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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91 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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92 sneak | |
vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝);偷偷摸摸做;n.潜行;adj.暗中进行 | |
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93 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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94 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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95 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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96 chatter | |
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战 | |
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97 dodge | |
v.闪开,躲开,避开;n.妙计,诡计 | |
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98 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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99 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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100 impudently | |
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101 soften | |
v.(使)变柔软;(使)变柔和 | |
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102 vile | |
adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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103 lair | |
n.野兽的巢穴;躲藏处 | |
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104 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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105 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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106 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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107 connubial | |
adj.婚姻的,夫妇的 | |
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108 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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109 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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110 leopard | |
n.豹 | |
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111 lank | |
adj.瘦削的;稀疏的 | |
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112 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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113 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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115 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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116 uxorious | |
adj.宠爱妻子的 | |
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117 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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118 ravenously | |
adv.大嚼地,饥饿地 | |
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119 insistent | |
adj.迫切的,坚持的 | |
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120 trumpet | |
n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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121 truce | |
n.休战,(争执,烦恼等的)缓和;v.以停战结束 | |
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122 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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123 marred | |
adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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124 untoward | |
adj.不利的,不幸的,困难重重的 | |
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125 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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126 rustle | |
v.沙沙作响;偷盗(牛、马等);n.沙沙声声 | |
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127 uproar | |
n.骚动,喧嚣,鼎沸 | |
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128 inadequately | |
ad.不够地;不够好地 | |
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129 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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130 unaware | |
a.不知道的,未意识到的 | |
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131 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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132 modifications | |
n.缓和( modification的名词复数 );限制;更改;改变 | |
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133 replacements | |
n.代替( replacement的名词复数 );替换的人[物];替代品;归还 | |
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134 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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135 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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136 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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137 impersonal | |
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的 | |
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138 incompatible | |
adj.不相容的,不协调的,不相配的 | |
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139 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
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140 aristocrats | |
n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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141 ardently | |
adv.热心地,热烈地 | |
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142 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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143 appreciations | |
n.欣赏( appreciation的名词复数 );感激;评定;(尤指土地或财产的)增值 | |
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144 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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145 crevasses | |
n.破口,崩溃处,裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 ) | |
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146 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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147 glacier | |
n.冰川,冰河 | |
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148 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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149 lurking | |
潜在 | |
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150 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
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151 monologue | |
n.长篇大论,(戏剧等中的)独白 | |
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152 mightily | |
ad.强烈地;非常地 | |
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153 chestnut | |
n.栗树,栗子 | |
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154 orchards | |
(通常指围起来的)果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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155 solitudes | |
n.独居( solitude的名词复数 );孤独;荒僻的地方;人迹罕至的地方 | |
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156 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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157 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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158 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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159 maze | |
n.迷宫,八阵图,混乱,迷惑 | |
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160 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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161 decorative | |
adj.装饰的,可作装饰的 | |
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162 cloisters | |
n.(学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的)走廊( cloister的名词复数 );回廊;修道院的生活;隐居v.隐退,使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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163 cloister | |
n.修道院;v.隐退,使与世隔绝 | |
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164 itches | |
n.痒( itch的名词复数 );渴望,热望v.发痒( itch的第三人称单数 ) | |
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165 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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166 monstrously | |
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167 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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168 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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169 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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170 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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171 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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172 covertly | |
adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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173 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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174 doorways | |
n.门口,门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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175 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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176 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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177 reminders | |
n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 );提醒…的东西;(告知该做某事的)通知单;提示信 | |
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178 irritability | |
n.易怒 | |
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179 obtruded | |
v.强行向前,强行,强迫( obtrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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180 slovenliness | |
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181 importunate | |
adj.强求的;纠缠不休的 | |
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182 fungus | |
n.真菌,真菌类植物 | |
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183 fretted | |
焦躁的,附有弦马的,腐蚀的 | |
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184 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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185 antagonism | |
n.对抗,敌对,对立 | |
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186 sketching | |
n.草图 | |
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187 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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188 temperaments | |
性格( temperament的名词复数 ); (人或动物的)气质; 易冲动; (性情)暴躁 | |
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189 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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190 irrelevant | |
adj.不恰当的,无关系的,不相干的 | |
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191 leisurely | |
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的 | |
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192 fatigues | |
n.疲劳( fatigue的名词复数 );杂役;厌倦;(士兵穿的)工作服 | |
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193 gorge | |
n.咽喉,胃,暴食,山峡;v.塞饱,狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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194 sustenance | |
n.食物,粮食;生活资料;生计 | |
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195 attentive | |
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的 | |
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196 justifiable | |
adj.有理由的,无可非议的 | |
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197 broached | |
v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 );打开并开始用;用凿子扩大(或修光);(在桶上)钻孔取液体 | |
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198 questionable | |
adj.可疑的,有问题的 | |
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199 consul | |
n.领事;执政官 | |
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200 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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201 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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202 hovering | |
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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203 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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204 ushered | |
v.引,领,陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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205 blistered | |
adj.水疮状的,泡状的v.(使)起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 );(使表皮等)涨破,爆裂 | |
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206 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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207 apprehensively | |
adv.担心地 | |
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208 apprehensive | |
adj.担心的,恐惧的,善于领会的 | |
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209 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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210 scrutinized | |
v.仔细检查,详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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211 bestowed | |
赠给,授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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212 portentous | |
adj.不祥的,可怕的,装腔作势的 | |
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213 extravagantly | |
adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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214 parley | |
n.谈判 | |
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215 defiant | |
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
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216 forefinger | |
n.食指 | |
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217 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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218 vilest | |
adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 );可耻的;极坏的;非常讨厌的 | |
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219 abominable | |
adj.可厌的,令人憎恶的 | |
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220 dissuasive | |
劝戒的 | |
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221 refunding | |
n.借新债还旧债;再融资;债务延展;发行新债券取代旧债券v.归还,退还( refund的现在分词 ) | |
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222 dominant | |
adj.支配的,统治的;占优势的;显性的;n.主因,要素,主要的人(或物);显性基因 | |
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223 stink | |
vi.发出恶臭;糟透,招人厌恶;n.恶臭 | |
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224 stinking | |
adj.臭的,烂醉的,讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 );发臭味;名声臭;糟透 | |
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225 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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226 discoursed | |
演说(discourse的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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227 filth | |
n.肮脏,污物,污秽;淫猥 | |
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228 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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229 cockroaches | |
n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 ) | |
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230 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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231 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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232 brooked | |
容忍,忍受(brook的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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233 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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234 tact | |
n.机敏,圆滑,得体 | |
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235 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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236 urchin | |
n.顽童;海胆 | |
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237 erratic | |
adj.古怪的,反复无常的,不稳定的 | |
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238 deposed | |
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证 | |
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239 furtively | |
adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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240 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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241 granite | |
adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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242 stumps | |
(被砍下的树的)树桩( stump的名词复数 ); 残肢; (板球三柱门的)柱; 残余部分 | |
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243 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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244 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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245 maize | |
n.玉米 | |
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246 relinquished | |
交出,让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 ); 放弃 | |
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247 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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248 brutes | |
兽( brute的名词复数 ); 畜生; 残酷无情的人; 兽性 | |
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249 impulsive | |
adj.冲动的,刺激的;有推动力的 | |
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250 repudiated | |
v.(正式地)否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 );拒绝接受;拒绝与…往来;拒不履行(法律义务) | |
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251 volcanic | |
adj.火山的;象火山的;由火山引起的 | |
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252 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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253 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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254 memorably | |
难忘的 | |
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255 subjugation | |
n.镇压,平息,征服 | |
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256 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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257 suburban | |
adj.城郊的,在郊区的 | |
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258 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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259 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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260 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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261 disillusioned | |
a.不再抱幻想的,大失所望的,幻想破灭的 | |
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262 droop | |
v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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263 fidelity | |
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
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264 sniffing | |
n.探查法v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的现在分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
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265 sleekness | |
油滑; 油光发亮; 时髦阔气; 线条明快 | |
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266 garrulous | |
adj.唠叨的,多话的 | |
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267 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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268 converged | |
v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的过去式 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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269 discursiveness | |
n.漫谈离题,推论 | |
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270 imperative | |
n.命令,需要;规则;祈使语气;adj.强制的;紧急的 | |
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271 structural | |
adj.构造的,组织的,建筑(用)的 | |
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272 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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273 irritable | |
adj.急躁的;过敏的;易怒的 | |
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274 irritations | |
n.激怒( irritation的名词复数 );恼怒;生气;令人恼火的事 | |
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275 discomfort | |
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便 | |
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276 quaint | |
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的 | |
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277 benighted | |
adj.蒙昧的 | |
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278 hospitably | |
亲切地,招待周到地,善于款待地 | |
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279 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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280 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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281 Moslem | |
n.回教徒,穆罕默德信徒;adj.回教徒的,回教的 | |
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282 manifestations | |
n.表示,显示(manifestation的复数形式) | |
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283 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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284 pelt | |
v.投掷,剥皮,抨击,开火 | |
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285 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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286 persuasion | |
n.劝说;说服;持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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287 persuasions | |
n.劝说,说服(力)( persuasion的名词复数 );信仰 | |
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288 tempts | |
v.引诱或怂恿(某人)干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 );使想要 | |
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289 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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290 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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291 declivity | |
n.下坡,倾斜面 | |
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292 zigzagged | |
adj.呈之字形移动的v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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293 slashed | |
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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294 theatrically | |
adv.戏剧化地 | |
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295 rabble | |
n.乌合之众,暴民;下等人 | |
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296 laborious | |
adj.吃力的,努力的,不流畅 | |
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297 bazaar | |
n.集市,商店集中区 | |
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298 bazaars | |
(东方国家的)市场( bazaar的名词复数 ); 义卖; 义卖市场; (出售花哨商品等的)小商品市场 | |
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299 minaret | |
n.(回教寺院的)尖塔 | |
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300 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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301 minarets | |
n.(清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的)光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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302 precipices | |
n.悬崖,峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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303 sullenly | |
不高兴地,绷着脸,忧郁地 | |
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304 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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305 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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306 walnut | |
n.胡桃,胡桃木,胡桃色,茶色 | |
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307 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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308 mosques | |
清真寺; 伊斯兰教寺院,清真寺; 清真寺,伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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309 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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310 beech | |
n.山毛榉;adj.山毛榉的 | |
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311 glades | |
n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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312 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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313 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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314 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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315 gorges | |
n.山峡,峡谷( gorge的名词复数 );咽喉v.(用食物把自己)塞饱,填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 );作呕 | |
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316 incandescence | |
n.白热,炽热;白炽 | |
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317 halfway | |
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途 | |
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318 flask | |
n.瓶,火药筒,砂箱 | |
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319 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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320 moths | |
n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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321 refreshment | |
n.恢复,精神爽快,提神之事物;(复数)refreshments:点心,茶点 | |
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322 slab | |
n.平板,厚的切片;v.切成厚板,以平板盖上 | |
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323 slabby | |
adj.粘的,胶粘的 | |
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324 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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325 grassy | |
adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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326 arrears | |
n.到期未付之债,拖欠的款项;待做的工作 | |
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327 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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328 implements | |
n.工具( implement的名词复数 );家具;手段;[法律]履行(契约等)v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 );执行;贯彻;使生效 | |
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329 custodian | |
n.保管人,监护人;公共建筑看守 | |
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330 skewer | |
n.(烤肉用的)串肉杆;v.用杆串好 | |
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331 slanting | |
倾斜的,歪斜的 | |
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332 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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333 conversed | |
v.交谈,谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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334 counterfeited | |
v.仿制,造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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335 embryonic | |
adj.胚胎的 | |
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336 fiddle | |
n.小提琴;vi.拉提琴;不停拨弄,乱动 | |
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337 squealed | |
v.长声尖叫,用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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338 soloist | |
n.独奏者,独唱者 | |
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339 sprawled | |
v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词);蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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340 vocal | |
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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341 animation | |
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作 | |
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342 itinerary | |
n.行程表,旅行路线;旅行计划 | |
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343 inexplicable | |
adj.无法解释的,难理解的 | |
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344 lameness | |
n. 跛, 瘸, 残废 | |
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345 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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346 protruding | |
v.(使某物)伸出,(使某物)突出( protrude的现在分词 );凸 | |
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347 Ford | |
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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348 assassinate | |
vt.暗杀,行刺,中伤 | |
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349 confided | |
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的过去式和过去分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等) | |
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350 ashen | |
adj.灰的 | |
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351 eviscerating | |
v.切除…的内脏( eviscerate的现在分词 ) | |
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352 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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353 shrieks | |
n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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354 discreetly | |
ad.(言行)审慎地,慎重地 | |
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355 shuffling | |
adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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356 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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357 shrieking | |
v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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358 receded | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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359 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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360 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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361 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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362 dissertation | |
n.(博士学位)论文,学术演讲,专题论文 | |
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363 toiling | |
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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364 filthier | |
filthy(肮脏的,污秽的)的比较级形式 | |
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365 viler | |
adj.卑鄙的( vile的比较级 );可耻的;极坏的;非常讨厌的 | |
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366 indignity | |
n.侮辱,伤害尊严,轻蔑 | |
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367 muddle | |
n.困惑,混浊状态;vt.使混乱,使糊涂,使惊呆;vi.胡乱应付,混乱 | |
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368 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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369 rascal | |
n.流氓;不诚实的人 | |
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370 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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371 malicious | |
adj.有恶意的,心怀恶意的 | |
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372 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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373 penitentiary | |
n.感化院;监狱 | |
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374 duels | |
n.两男子的决斗( duel的名词复数 );竞争,斗争 | |
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375 assassinations | |
n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 ) | |
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376 feats | |
功绩,伟业,技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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377 feud | |
n.长期不和;世仇;v.长期争斗;世代结仇 | |
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378 muzzle | |
n.鼻口部;口套;枪(炮)口;vt.使缄默 | |
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379 bully | |
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮 | |
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380 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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381 brawler | |
争吵者,打架者 | |
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382 flea | |
n.跳蚤 | |
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383 feuds | |
n.长期不和,世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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384 brawling | |
n.争吵,喧嚷 | |
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385 greasy | |
adj. 多脂的,油脂的 | |
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386 bribery | |
n.贿络行为,行贿,受贿 | |
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387 marvels | |
n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 );令人惊奇的事物(或事例);不平凡的成果;成就v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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388 pedants | |
n.卖弄学问的人,学究,书呆子( pedant的名词复数 ) | |
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389 frets | |
基质间片; 品丝(吉他等指板上定音的)( fret的名词复数 ) | |
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390 sect | |
n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
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391 massacres | |
大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 ); 惨败 | |
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392 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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393 brew | |
v.酿造,调制 | |
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394 subdivided | |
再分,细分( subdivide的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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395 hostilities | |
n.战争;敌意(hostility的复数);敌对状态;战事 | |
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396 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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397 tribal | |
adj.部族的,种族的 | |
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398 conspiracy | |
n.阴谋,密谋,共谋 | |
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399 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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400 stifled | |
(使)窒息, (使)窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 ); 镇压,遏制; 堵 | |
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401 bridle | |
n.笼头,束缚;vt.抑制,约束;动怒 | |
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402 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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403 blisters | |
n.水疱( blister的名词复数 );水肿;气泡 | |
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404 clattered | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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405 trophies | |
n.(为竞赛获胜者颁发的)奖品( trophy的名词复数 );奖杯;(尤指狩猎或战争中获得的)纪念品;(用于比赛或赛跑名称)奖 | |
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406 dangled | |
悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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407 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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408 clattering | |
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式) | |
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409 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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410 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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411 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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412 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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413 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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414 remonstrance | |
n抗议,抱怨 | |
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415 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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416 feverishly | |
adv. 兴奋地 | |
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417 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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418 confidentially | |
ad.秘密地,悄悄地 | |
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419 abreast | |
adv.并排地;跟上(时代)的步伐,与…并进地 | |
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420 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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421 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
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422 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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423 puff | |
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气 | |
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424 bawling | |
v.大叫,大喊( bawl的现在分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
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425 huddle | |
vi.挤作一团;蜷缩;vt.聚集;n.挤在一起的人 | |
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426 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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427 crested | |
adj.有顶饰的,有纹章的,有冠毛的v.到达山顶(或浪峰)( crest的过去式和过去分词 );到达洪峰,达到顶点 | |
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428 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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429 cypress | |
n.柏树 | |
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430 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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431 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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432 convergent | |
adj.会聚的 | |
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433 tattered | |
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的 | |
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434 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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435 whacking | |
adj.(用于强调)巨大的v.重击,使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
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436 convoy | |
vt.护送,护卫,护航;n.护送;护送队 | |
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437 cavalcade | |
n.车队等的行列 | |
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438 outskirts | |
n.郊外,郊区 | |
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439 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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440 delirious | |
adj.不省人事的,神智昏迷的 | |
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441 obstinately | |
ad.固执地,顽固地 | |
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442 expressiveness | |
n.富有表现力 | |
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443 slays | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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444 measles | |
n.麻疹,风疹,包虫病,痧子 | |
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445 tortuously | |
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446 recuperated | |
v.恢复(健康、体力等),复原( recuperate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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447 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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