The result was disappointing. No traces of poison were to be found in the stomach nor was there to be seen on the body any mark of violence with the exception of a minute prick3 upon one of his thumbs.
This speck4 was so small that it escaped every eye but my own.
The authorities assuring the widow that the doctor’s certificate given her in Philadelphia was correct, the body was again interred5. But I was not satisfied; and confident that this death had not been a natural one, I entered upon one of those secret and prolonged investigations7 which for so many years have constituted the pleasure of my life. First, I visited the Colonnade8 in Philadelphia, and being allowed to see the room in which Mr. Holmes died, went through it carefully. As it had not been used since that time I had some hopes of coming upon a clue.
But it was a vain hope, and the only result of my journey to this place was the assurance I received that the gentleman had spent the entire evening preceding his death in his own room, where he had been brought several letters and one small package, the latter coming by mail. With this one point gained — if it was a point — I went back to New York.
Calling on Mrs. Holmes, I asked her if, while her husband was away, she had sent him anything besides letters, and upon her replying to the contrary, requested to know if in her visit to Philadelphia she had noted10 among her husband’s effects anything that was new or unfamiliar11 to her. “For he received a package while there,” I explained, “and though its contents may have been perfectly12 harmless, it is just as well for us to be assured of this before going any further.”
“Oh, you think, then, he was really the victim of some secret violence.”
“We have no proof of it,” I said. “On the contrary, we are assured that he died from natural causes. But the incident of the newspaper slip outweighs13, in my mind, the doctor’s conclusions, and until the mystery surrounding that obituary14 notice has been satisfactorily explained by its author I shall hold to the theory that your husband has been made away with in some strange and seemingly unaccountable manner, which it is our duty to bring to light.”
“You are right! You are right! Oh, John Graham!”
She was so carried away by this plain expression of my belief that she forgot the question I had put to her.
“You have not said whether or not you found anything among your husband’s effects that can explain this mystery,” I suggested.
She at once became attentive15.
“Nothing,” said she; “his trunks were already packed and his bag nearly so. There were a few things lying about the room which I saw thrust into the latter. Would you like to look through them? I have not had the heart to open the bag since I came back.”
As this was exactly what I wished, I said as much, and she led me into a small room, against the wall of which stood a trunk with a travelling-bag on top of it. Opening the latter, she spread the contents out on the trunk.
“I know all these things,” she sadly murmured, the tears welling in her eyes.
“This?” I inquired, lifting up a bit of coiled wire with two or three rings dangling17 from it.
“No; why, what is that?”
“It looks like a puzzle of some kind.”
“Then it is of no consequence. My husband was forever amusing himself over some such contrivance. All his friends knew how well he liked these toys and frequently sent them to him. This one evidently reached him from Philadelphia.”
Meanwhile I was eyeing the bit of wire curiously18. It was undoubtedly19 a puzzle, but it had appendages20 to it that I did not understand.
“It is more than ordinarily complicated,” I observed, moving the rings up and down in a vain endeavour to work them off.
“The better he would like it,” she said.
I kept working with the rings. Suddenly I gave a painful start. A little prong in the handle of the toy had started out and pierced me.
“You had better not handle it,” said I, and laid it down. But the next moment I took it up again and put it in my pocket. The prick made by this treacherous21 bit of mechanism22 was in or near the same place on my thumb as the one I had noticed on the hand of the deceased Mr. Holmes.
There was a fire in the room, and before proceeding23 further I cauterised that prick with the end of a red-hot poker24. Then I made my adieux to Mrs. Holmes and went immediately to a chemist friend of mine.
“Test the end of this bit of steel for me,” said I. “I have reason to believe it carries with it a deadly poison.”
He took the toy, promising25 to subject it to every test possible and let me know the result. Then I went home. I felt ill, or imagined I did, which under the circumstances was almost as bad.
Next day, however, I was quite well, with the exception of a certain inconvenience in my thumb. But not till the following week did I receive the chemist’s report. It overthrew26 my whole theory. He found nothing, and returned me the bit of steel.
But I was not convinced.
“I will hunt up this John Graham,” thought I, “and study him.”
But this was not so easy a task as it may appear. As Mrs. Holmes possessed27 no clue to the whereabouts of her quondam lover, I had nothing to aid me in my search for him, save her rather vague description of his personal appearance and the fact that he was constantly interrupted in speaking by a low, choking cough. However, my natural perseverance28 carried me through. After seeing and interviewing a dozen John Grahams without result, I at last lit upon a man of that name who presented a figure of such vivid unrest and showed such a desperate hatred29 of his fellows, that I began to entertain hopes of his being the person I was in search of. But determined30 to be sure of this before proceeding further, I confided31 my suspicions to Mrs. Holmes, and induced her to accompany me down to a certain spot on the “Elevated” from which I had more than once seen this man go by to his usual lounging place in Printing House Square.
She showed great courage in doing this, for she had such a dread32 of him that she was in a state of nervous excitement from the moment she left her house, feeling sure that she would attract his attention and thus risk a disagreeable encounter. But she might have spared herself these fears. He did not even glance up in passing us, and it was mainly by his walk she recognised him. But she did recognise him; and this nerved me at once to set about the formidable task of fixing upon him a crime which was not even admitted as a fact by the authorities.
He was a man-about-town, living, to all appearances, by his wits. He was to be seen mostly in the downtown portions of the city, standing33 for hours in front of some newspaper office, gnawing34 at his finger-ends, and staring at the passers-by with a hungry look alarming to the timid and provoking alms from the benevolent35. Needless to say that he rejected the latter expression of sympathy with angry contempt.
His face was long and pallid36, his cheek-bones high, and his mouth bitter and resolute37 in expression. He wore neither beard nor moustache, but made up for their lack by an abundance of light-brown hair, which hung very nearly to his shoulders. He stooped in standing, but as soon as he moved, showed decision and a certain sort of pride which caused him to hold his head high and his body more than usually erect38. With all these good points his appearance was decidedly sinister39, and I did not wonder that Mrs. Holmes feared him.
My next move was to accost40 him. Pausing before the doorway41 in which he stood, I addressed him some trivial question. He answered me with sufficient politeness, but with a grudging42 attention which betrayed the hold which his own thoughts had upon him. He coughed while speaking, and his eye, which for a moment rested on mine, produced an impression upon me for which I was hardly prepared, great as was my prejudice against him. There was such an icy composure in it; the composure of an envenomed nature conscious of its superiority to all surprises. As I lingered to study him more closely, the many dangerous qualities of the man became more and more apparent to me; and convinced that to proceed further without deep and careful thought would be to court failure where triumph would set me up for life, I gave up all present attempt at enlisting43 him in conversation and went away in an inquiring and serious mood.
In fact, my position was a peculiar44 one, and the problem I had set for myself one of unusual difficulty. Only by means of some extraordinary device such as is seldom resorted to by the police of this or any other nation, could I hope to arrive at the secret of this man’s conduct, and triumph in a matter which to all appearance was beyond human penetration45.
But what device? I knew of none, nor through two days and nights of strenuous46 thought did I receive the least light on the subject. Indeed, my mind seemed to grow more and more confused the more I urged it into action. I failed to get inspiration indoors or out; and feeling my health suffer from the constant irritation47 of my recurring48 disappointment, I resolved to take a day off and carry myself and my perplexities into the country.
I did so. Governed by an impulse which I did not then understand, I went to a small town in New Jersey49 and entered the first house on which I saw the sign “Room to Let.” The result was most fortunate. No sooner had I crossed the threshold of the neat and homely50 apartment thrown open to my use, than it recalled a room in which I had slept two years before and in which I had read a little book I was only too glad to remember at this moment. Indeed, it seemed as if a veritable inspiration had come to me through this recollection, for though the tale to which I allude51 was a simple child’s story written for moral purposes, it contained an idea which promised to be invaluable52 to me at this juncture53. Indeed, by means of it, I believed myself to have solved the problem that was puzzling me, and, relieved beyond expression, I paid for the night’s lodging54 I had now determined to forego, and returned immediately to New York, having spent just fifteen minutes in the town where I had received this happy inspiration.
My first step on entering the city was to order a dozen steel coils made similar to the one which I still believed answerable for James Holmes’s death. My next to learn as far as possible all of John Graham’s haunts and habits. At a week’s end I had the springs and knew almost as well as he did himself where he was likely to be found at all times of the day and night. I immediately acted upon this knowledge. Assuming a slight disguise, I repeated my former stroll through Printing House Square, looking into each doorway as I passed. John Graham was in one of them, staring in his old way at the passing crowd, but evidently seeing nothing but the images formed by his own disordered brain. A manuscript roll stuck out of his breast-pocket, and from the way his nervous fingers fumbled55 with it, I began to understand the restless glitter of his eyes, which were as full of wretchedness as any eyes I have ever seen.
Entering the doorway where he stood, I dropped at his feet one of the small steel coils with which I was provided. He did not see it. Stopping near him, I directed his attention to it by saying:
“Pardon me, but did I not see something drop out of your hand?”
He started, glanced at the seemingly inoffensive toy I had pointed56 out, and altered so suddenly and so vividly57 that it became instantly apparent that the surprise I had planned for him was fully9 as keen and searching a one as I had anticipated. Recoiling58 sharply, he gave me a quick look, then glanced down again at his feet as if half expecting to find the object of his terror gone. But, perceiving it still lying there, he crushed it viciously with his heel, and uttering some incoherent words dashed impetuously from the building.
Confident that he would regret this hasty impulse and return, I withdrew a few steps and waited. And sure enough, in less than five minutes, he came slinking back. Picking up the coil with more than one sly look about, he examined it closely. Suddenly he gave a sharp cry and went staggering out. Had he discovered that the seeming puzzle possessed the same invisible spring which had made the one handled by James Holmes so dangerous?
Certain as to the place he would be found next, I made a short cut to an obscure little saloon in Nassau Street, where I took up my stand in a spot convenient for seeing without being seen. In ten minutes he was standing at the bar asking for a drink.
“Whiskey!” he cried. “Straight.”
It was given him, but as he set the empty glass down on the counter he saw lying before him another of the steel springs, and was so confounded by the sight that the proprietor59, who had put it there at my instigation, thrust out his hand toward him as if half afraid he would fall.
“Where did that — that thing come from?” stammered60 John Graham, ignoring the other’s gesture and pointing with a trembling hand at the insignificant61 bit of wire between them.
“Didn’t it drop from your coat-pocket?” inquired the proprietor. “It wasn’t lying here before you came in.”
With a horrible oath the unhappy man turned and fled from the place. I lost sight of him after that for three hours, then I suddenly came upon him again. He was walking uptown with a set purpose in his face that made him look more dangerous than ever. Of course I followed him, expecting him to turn towards Fifty-ninth Street, but at the corner of Madison Avenue and Forty-seventh Street he changed his mind and dashed toward Third Avenue. At Park Avenue he faltered63 and again turned north, walking for several blocks as if the fiends were behind him. I began to think that he was but attempting to walk off his excitement, when, at a sudden rushing sound in the cut beside us, he stopped and trembled. An express train was shooting by. As it disappeared in the tunnel beyond, he looked about him with a blanched64 face and wandering eye; but his glance did not turn my way, or, if it did, he failed to attach any meaning to my near presence.
He began to move on again and this time towards the bridge spanning the cut. I followed him very closely. In the centre of it he paused and looked down at the track beneath him. Another train was approaching. As it came near he trembled from head to foot, and, catching65 at the railing against which he leaned, was about to make a quick move forward when a puff66 of smoke arose from below and sent him staggering backward, gasping67 with a terror I could hardly understand till I saw that the smoke had taken the form of a spiral and was sailing away before him in what to his disordered imagination must have looked like a gigantic image of the coil with which twice before on this day he had found himself confronted.
It may have been chance and it may have been providence68; but whichever it was it saved him. He could not face that semblance69 of his haunting thought; and turning away he cowered70 down on the neighbouring curbstone, where he sat for several minutes, with his head buried in his hands; when he arose again he was his own daring and sinister self. Knowing that he was now too much master of his faculties71 to ignore me any longer, I walked quickly away and left him. I knew where he would be at six o’clock and had already engaged a table at the same restaurant. It was seven, however, before he put in an appearance, and by this time he was looking more composed. There was a reckless air about him, however, which was perhaps only noticeable to me; for none of the habitu?s of this especial restaurant were entirely72 without it; wild eyes and unkempt hair being in the majority.
I let him eat. The dinner he ordered was simple and I had not the heart to interrupt his enjoyment73 of it.
But when he had finished and came to pay, then I allowed the shock to come. Under the bill which the waiter laid at the side of his plate was the inevitable74 steel coil; and it produced even more than its usual effect. I own I felt sorry for him.
He did not dash from the place, however, as he had from the liquor saloon. A spirit of resistance had seized him and he demanded to know where this object of his fear had come from. No one could tell him (or would). Whereupon he began to rave16 and would certainly have done himself or somebody else an injury if he had not been calmed by a man almost as wild-looking as himself. Paying his bill, but vowing75 he would never enter the place again, he went out, clay white, but with the swaggering air of a man who had just asserted himself.
He drooped76, however, as soon as he reached the street, and I had no difficulty in following him to a certain gambling77 den6, where he gained three dollars and lost five. From there he went to his lodgings78 in West Tenth Street.
I did not follow him. He had passed through many deep and wearing emotions since noon, and I had not the heart to add another to them.
But late the next day I returned to this house and rang the bell. It was already dusk, but there was light enough for me to notice the unrepaired condition of the iron railings on either side of the old stoop and to compare this abode79 of decayed grandeur80 with the spacious81 and elegant apartment in which pretty Mrs. Holmes mourned the loss of her young husband. Had any such comparison ever been made by the unhappy John Graham, as he hurried up these battered82 steps into the dismal83 halls beyond?
In answer to my summons there came to the door a young woman to whom I had but to intimate my wish to see Mr. Graham for her to let me in with the short announcement:
“Top floor, back room! Door open, he’s out; door shut, he’s in.”
As an open door meant liberty to enter, I lost no time in following the direction of her finger, and presently found myself in a low attic84 chamber85 overlooking an acre of roofs. A fire had been lighted in the open grate, and the flickering86 red beams danced on ceiling and walls with a cheeriness greatly in contrast to the nature of the business which had led me there. As they also served to light the room, I proceeded to make myself at home; and drawing up a chair, sat down at the fireplace in such a way as to conceal87 myself from any one entering the door.
In less than half an hour he came in.
He was in a state of high emotion. His face was flushed and his eyes burning. Stepping rapidly forward, he flung his hat on the table in the middle of the room, with a curse that was half cry and half groan88. Then he stood silent and I had an opportunity of noting how haggard he had grown in the short time which had elapsed since I had seen him last. But the interval89 of his inaction was short, and in a moment he flung up his arms with a loud “Curse her!” that rang through the narrow room and betrayed the source of his present frenzy90. Then he again stood still, grating his teeth and working his hands in a way terribly suggestive of the murderer’s instinct. But not for long. He saw something that attracted his attention on the table, a something upon which my eyes had long before been fixed91, and starting forward with a fresh and quite different display of emotion, he caught up what looked like a roll of manuscript and began to tear it open.
“Back again! Always back!” wailed92 from his lips; and he gave the roll a toss that sent from its midst a small object which he no sooner saw than he became speechless and reeled back. It was another of the steel coils.
“Good God!” fell at last from his stiff and working lips. “Am I mad or has the devil joined in the pursuit against me? I cannot eat, I cannot drink, but this diabolical93 spring starts up before me. It is here, there, everywhere. The visible sign of my guilt94; the — the ——” He had stumbled back upon my chair, and turning, saw me.
I was on my feet at once, and noting that he was dazed by the shock of my presence, I slid quietly between him and the door.
The movement roused him. Turning upon me with a sarcastic95 smile in which was concentrated the bitterness of years, he briefly96 said:
“So I am caught! Well, there has to be an end to men as well as to things, and I am ready for mine. She turned me away from her door to-day, and after the hell of that moment I don’t much fear any other.”
“You had better not talk,” I admonished97 him. “All that falls from you now will only tell against you on your trial.”
He broke into a harsh laugh. “And do you think I care for that? That having been driven by a woman’s perfidy98 into crime I am going to bridle99 my tongue and keep down the words which are my only safeguard from insanity100? No, no; while my miserable101 breath lasts I will curse her, and if the halter is to cut short my words, it shall be with her name blistering102 my lips.”
I attempted to speak, but he would not give me an opportunity. The passion of weeks had found vent62 and he rushed on recklessly:
“I went to her house to-day. I wanted to see her in her widow’s weeds; I wanted to see her eyes red with weeping over a grief which owed its bitterness to me. But she would not grant me admittance. She had me thrust from her door, and I shall never know how deeply the iron has sunk into her soul. But”— and here his face showed a sudden change —“I shall see her if I am tried for murder. She will be in the courtroom — on the witness stand ——”
“Doubtless,” I interjected; but his interruption came quickly and with vehement103 passion.
“Then I am ready. Welcome trial, conviction, death, even. To confront her eye to eye is all I wish. She shall never forget it, never!”
“Then you do not deny ——” I began.
“I deny nothing,” he returned, and held out his hands with a grim gesture. “How can I, when there falls from everything I touch the devilish thing which took away the life I hated?”
“Have you anything more to say or do before you leave these rooms?” I asked.
He shook his head, and then, bethinking himself, pointed to the roll of paper which he had flung on the table.
“Burn that!” he cried.
I took up the roll and looked at it. It was the manuscript of a poem in blank verse.
“I have been with it into a dozen newspaper and magazine offices,” he explained with great bitterness. “Had I succeeded in getting a publisher for it I might have forgotten my wrongs and tried to build up a new life on the ruins of the old. But they would not have it, none of them; so I say, burn it! that no memory of me may remain in this miserable world.”
“Keep to the facts!” I severely104 retorted. “It was while carrying this poem from one newspaper to another that you secured that bit of print upon the blank side of which yourself printed the obituary notice with which you savoured your revenge upon the woman who had disappointed you.”
“You know that? Then you know where I got the poison with which I tipped the silly toy with which that weak man fooled away his life?”
“No,” said I, “I do not know where you got it. I merely know it was no common poison bought at a druggist’s, or from any ordinary chemist.”
“It was woorali; the deadly, secret woorali. I got it from — but that is another man’s secret. You will never hear from me anything that will compromise a friend. I got it, that is all. One drop, but it killed my man.”
The satisfaction, the delight, which he threw into these words are beyond description. As they left his lips a jet of flame from the neglected fire shot up and threw his figure for one instant into bold relief upon the lowering ceiling; then it died out, and nothing but the twilight105 dusk remained in the room and on the countenance106 of this doomed107 and despairing man.
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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exhumation
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| n.掘尸，发掘；剥璐 | |
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prick
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| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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interred
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| v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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colonnade
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| n.柱廊 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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outweighs
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| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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obituary
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| n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的 | |
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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rave
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| vi.胡言乱语；热衷谈论；n.热情赞扬 | |
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dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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appendages
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| n.附属物( appendage的名词复数 )；依附的人；附属器官；附属肢体（如臂、腿、尾等） | |
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treacherous
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mechanism
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proceeding
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poker
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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overthrew
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possessed
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perseverance
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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confided
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| 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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dread
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standing
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gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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pallid
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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erect
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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accost
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| v.向人搭话，打招呼 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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enlisting
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| v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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47
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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48
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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51
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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52
invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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53
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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54
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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55
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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56
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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faltered
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| （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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blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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73
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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vowing
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的现在分词形式） | |
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drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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88
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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97
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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98
perfidy
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| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
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99
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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100
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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101
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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102
blistering
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| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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103
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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104
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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105
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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106
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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107
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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