It was the night before the wedding. Though Sinclair, and not myself, was the happy man, I had my own causes for excitement, and, finding the heat of the billiard-room insupportable, I sought the veranda2 for a solitary3 smoke in sight of the ocean and a full moon.
I was in a condition of rapturous, if unreasoning, delight. That afternoon a little hand had lingered in mine for just an instant longer than the circumstances of the moment strictly4 required; and small as the favour may seem to those who do not know Dorothy Camerden, to me, who realised fully5 both her delicacy6 and pride, it was a sign that my long, if secret, devotion was about to be rewarded, and that at last I was free to cherish hopes whose alternative had once bid fair to wreck7 the happiness of my life.
I was revelling8 in the felicity of these anticipations9, and contrasting this hour of ardent10 hope with others of whose dissatisfaction and gloom I was yet mindful, when a sudden shadow fell across the broad band of light issuing from the library window, and Sinclair stepped out.
He had the appearance of being disturbed — very much disturbed, I thought, for a man on the point of marrying the woman for whom he professed11 to entertain the one profound passion of his life; but remembering his frequent causes of annoyance12 — causes quite apart from his bride and her personal attributes — I kept on placidly13 smoking till I felt his hand on my shoulder, and turned to see that the moment was a serious one.
“I have something to say to you,” he whispered. “Come where we shall run less risk of being disturbed.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, facing him with curiosity, if not with alarm. “I never saw you look like this before. Has the old lady taken this last minute to ——”
“Hush!” he prayed, emphasising the word with a curt14 gesture not to be mistaken. “The little room over the west porch is empty just now. Follow me there.”
With a sigh for the cigar I had so lately lighted, I tossed it into the bushes and sauntered in after him. I thought I understood his trouble. The prospective15 bride was young — a mere16 slip of a girl indeed — bright, beautiful, and proud, yet with odd little restraints in her manner and language, due probably to her peculiar17 bringing up, and the surprise, not yet overcome, of finding herself, after an isolated18, if not despised, childhood, the idol19 of society and the recipient20 of general homage21. The fault was not with her. But she had for guardian22 (alas! my dear girl had the same) an aunt who was a gorgon23. This aunt must have been making herself disagreeable to the prospective bridegroom, and he, being quick to take offence — quicker than myself, it was said — had probably retorted in a way to make things unpleasant. As he was a guest in the house, he and all the other members of the bridal party — Mrs. Armstrong having insisted upon opening her magnificent Newport villa24 for this wedding and its attendant festivities — the matter might well look black to him. Yet I did not feel disposed to take much interest in it, even though his case might be mine some day, with all its accompanying drawbacks.
But once confronted with Sinclair in the well-lighted room above, I perceived that I had better drop all selfish regrets and give my full attention to what he had to say. For his eye, which had flashed with an unusual light at dinner, was clouded now; and his manner, when he strove to speak, betrayed a nervousness I had considered foreign to his nature ever since the day I had seen him rein25 in his horse so calmly on the extreme edge of a precipice26, where a fall would have meant certain death, not only to himself, but also to the two riders who unwittingly were pressing closely behind him.
“Walter,” he faltered27, “something has happened — something dreadful, something unprecedented29! You may think me a fool — God knows, I would be glad to be proved so! — but this thing has frightened me. I”— he paused and pulled himself together —“I will tell you about it, then you can judge for yourself. I am in no condition ——”
“Don’t beat about the bush! Speak up! What’s the matter?”
He gave me an odd look full of gloom — a look I felt the force of, though I could not interpret it; then, coming closer, though there was no one within hearing — possibly no one any nearer than the drawing-room below — he whispered in my ear:
“I have lost a little vial of the deadliest drug ever compounded — a Venetian curiosity, which I was foolish enough to take out and show the ladies, because the little box which holds it is such an exquisite30 example of jeweller’s work. There’s death in its taste, almost in its smell; and it’s out of my hands, and ——”
“Well, I’ll tell you how to fix that up,” I put in with my usual frank decision. “Order the music stopped; call everybody into the drawing-room, and explain the dangerous nature of this toy. After which, if anything happens, it will not be your fault, but that of the person who has so thoughtlessly appropriated it.”
His eyes, which had been resting eagerly on mine, shifted aside in visible embarrassment31.
“Impossible! It would only aggravate32 matters, or, rather, would not relieve my fears at all. The person who took it knew its nature very well, and that person ——”
“Oh, then you know who took it!” I broke in in increasing astonishment33. “I thought from your manner that ——”
“No,” he moodily34 corrected, “I do not know who took it. If I did, I should not be here. That is, I do not know the exact person. Only ——” Here he again eyed me with his former singular intentness, and, observing that I was nettled35, made a fresh beginning. “When I came here I brought with me a case of rarities chosen from my various collections. In looking over them preparatory to making a present to Gilbertine, I came across the little box I have just mentioned. It is made of a single amethyst36, and contains — or so I was assured when I bought it — a tiny flask of old but very deadly poison. How it came to be included with the other precious and beautiful articles I had picked out for her cadeau I cannot say. But there it was; and conceiving that the sight of it would please the ladies, I carried it down into the library, and in an evil hour called three or four of those about me to inspect it. This was while you boys were in the billiard-room, so the ladies could give their entire attention to the little box, which is certainly worth the most careful scrutiny37.
“I was holding it out on the palm of my hand, where it burned with a purple light which made more than one feminine eye glitter, when somebody inquired to what use so small and yet so rich a receptacle could be put. The question was such a natural one I never thought of evading38 it; besides, I enjoy the fearsome delight which women take in the marvellous. Expecting no greater result than lifted eyebrows39 or flushed cheeks, I answered by pressing a little spring in the filigree-work surrounding the gem40. Instantly the tiniest of lids flew back, revealing a crystal flask of such minute proportions that the usual astonishment followed its disclosure.
“‘You see!’ I cried, ‘it was made to hold that!’ And moving my hand to and fro under the gas jet, I caused to shine in their eyes the single drop of yellow liquid it still held. ‘Poison!’ I impressively announced. ‘This trinket may have adorned41 the bosom42 of a Borgia or flashed from the arm of some great Venetian lady as she flourished her fan between her embittered43 heart and the object of her wrath44 or jealousy45.’
“The first sentence had come naturally, but the last was spoken at random46, and almost unconsciously. For at the utterance47 of the word ‘poison’ a quickly suppressed cry had escaped the lips of some one behind me, which, while faint enough to elude48 the attention of any ear less sensitive than my own, contained such an astonishing, if involuntary, note of self-betrayal that my mind grew numb49 with horror, and I stood staring at the fearful toy which had called up such a revelation of — what? That is what I am here to ask, first of myself, then of you. For the two women pressing behind me were ——”
“Who?” I sharply demanded, partaking in some indefinable way of his excitement and alarm.
“Gilbertine Murray and Dorothy Camerden!”— his prospective bride and the woman I loved and whom he knew I loved, though I had kept my secret quite successfully from every one else!
The look we exchanged neither of us will ever forget.
“Describe the sound,” I presently said.
“I cannot,” he replied. “I can only give you my impression of it. You, like myself, fought in more than one skirmish in the Cuban War. Did you ever hear the cry made by a wounded man when the cup of cool water for which he has long agonised is brought suddenly before his eyes? Such a sound, with all that goes to make it eloquent50, did I hear from one of the two girls who leaned over my shoulder. Can you understand this amazing, this unheard-of circumstance? Can you name the woman — can you name the grief capable of making either of these seemingly happy and innocent girls hail the sight of such a doubtful panacea51, with an unconscious ebullition of joy? You would clear my wedding-eve of a great dread28 if you could, for if this expression of concealed53 misery54 came from Gilbertine ——”
“Do you mean,” I cried in vehement55 protest, “that you really are in doubt as to which of these two women uttered the cry which so startled you? That you positively56 cannot tell whether it was Gilbertine or — or ——”
“I cannot; as God lives, I cannot! I was too dazed, too confounded by the unexpected circumstance, to turn at once, and when I did, it was to see both pairs of eyes shining, and both faces dimpling with real or affected57 gaiety. Indeed, if the matter had stopped there, I should have thought myself the victim of some monstrous58 delusion59; but when, a half-hour later, I found this box missing from the cabinet where I had hastily thrust it at the peremptory60 summons of our hostess, I knew that I had not misunderstood the nature of the cry I had heard; that it was indeed one of secret longing61, and that the hand had simply taken what the heart desired. If a death occurs in this house to-night ——”
“Sinclair, you are mad!” I exclaimed with great violence. No lesser62 word would fit either the intensity63 of my feeling or the confused state of my mind. “Death here! where all are so happy! Remember your bride’s ingenuous64 face! Remember the candid65 expression of Dorothy’s eye — her smile, her noble ways! You exaggerate the situation. You neither understand aright the simple expression of surprise you heard, nor the feminine frolic which led these girls to carry off this romantic specimen66 of Italian deviltry.”
“You are losing time,” was his simple comment. “Every minute we allow to pass in inaction only brings the danger nearer.”
“What! You imagine ——”
“I imagine nothing. I simply know that one of these girls has in her possession the means of terminating life in an instant; that the girl so having it is not happy; and that if anything happens to-night it will be because we rested supine in the face of a very real and possible danger. Now, as Gilbertine has never given me reason to doubt either her affection for myself or her satisfaction in our approaching union, I have allowed myself ——”
“To think that the object of your fears is Dorothy,” I finished, with a laugh I vainly strove to make sarcastic67.
He did not answer, and I stood battling with a dread I could neither conceal52 nor avow68. For, preposterous69 as his idea was, reason told me that he had some grounds for his doubt.
Dorothy, unlike Gilbertine Murray, was not to be read at a glance, and her trouble — for she certainly had a trouble — was not one she chose to share with any one, even with me. I had flattered myself in days gone by that I understood it well enough, and that any lack of sincerity70 I might observe in her could be easily explained by the position of dependence71 she held toward an irascible aunt. But now that I forced myself to consider the matter carefully, I could not but ask if the varying moods by which I had found myself secretly harrowed had not sprung from a very different cause — a cause for which my persistent72 love was more to blame than the temper of her relative. The aversion she had once shown to my attentions had yielded long ago to a shy but seemingly sincere appreciation73 of them, and gleams of what I was fain to call real feeling had shown themselves now and then in her softened74 manner, culminating to-day in that soft pressure of my hand which had awakened75 my hopes and made me forget all the doubts and caprices of a disturbing courtship.
But, had I interpreted that strong, nervous pressure aright? Had it necessarily meant love? Might it not have sprung from a sudden desperate resolution to accept a devotion which offered her a way out of difficulties especially galling76 to one of her gentle but lofty spirit? Her expression when she caught my look of joy had little of the demure77 tenderness of a maiden78 blushing at her first involuntary avowal79. There was shrinking in it, but it was the shrinking of a frightened woman, not of an abashed80 girl; and when I strove to follow her, the gesture with which she waved me back had that in it which would have alarmed a more exacting81 lover. Had I mistaken my darling’s feelings? Was her heart still cold, her affection unwon? Or — thought insupportable! — had she secretly yielded to another what she had so long denied me, and ——?
“Ah!” quoth Sinclair at this juncture82, “I see that I have roused you at last.” And unconsciously his tone grew lighter83 and his eye lost the strained look which had made it the eye of a stranger. “You begin to see that a question of the most serious import is before us, and that this question must be answered before we separate for the night.”
“I do,” said I.
His relief was evident.
“Then, so much is gained. The next point is, how are we to settle our doubts? We cannot approach either of these ladies with questions. A girl wretched enough to contemplate84 suicide would be especially careful to conceal both her misery and its cause. Neither can we order a search to be made for an object so small that it can be concealed about the person.”
“Yet this jewel must be recovered. Listen, Sinclair. I will have a talk with Dorothy, you with Gilbertine. A kind talk, mind you! one that will soothe85, not frighten. If a secret lurks86 in either breast, our tenderness should find it out. Only, as you love me, promise to show me the same frankness I here promise to show you. Dear as Dorothy is to me, I swear to communicate to you the full result of my conversation with her, whatever the cost to myself or even to her.”
“And I will be equally fair as regards Gilbertine. But before we proceed to such extreme measures let us make sure that there is no shorter road to the truth. Some one may have seen which of our two dear girls went back to the library after we all came out of it. That would narrow down our inquiry87, and save one of them, at least, from unnecessary disturbance88.”
It was a happy thought, and I told him so, but at the same time bade him look in the glass and see how impossible it would be for him to venture below without creating an alarm which might precipitate89 the dread event we both feared.
He replied by drawing me to his side before the mirror and pointing to my own face. It was as pale as his own.
Most disagreeably impressed by this self-betrayal, I coloured deeply under Sinclair’s eye, and was but little, if any, relieved when I noticed that he coloured under mine. For his feelings were no enigma90 to me. Naturally, he was glad to discover that I shared his apprehensions91, since it gave him leave to hope that the blow he so dreaded92 was not necessarily directed toward his own affections. Yet, being a generous fellow, he blushed to be detected in his egotism, while I— well, I own that at that moment I should have felt a very unmixed joy at being assured that the foundations of my own love were secure, and that the tiny flask Sinclair had missed had not been taken by the hand of her upon whom I depended for all my earthly happiness.
And my wedding-day was as yet a vague and distant hope, while his was set for the morrow.
“We must carry downstairs very different faces from these,” he remarked, “or we shall be stopped before we reach the library.”
I made an effort at composure, so did he; and both being determined93 men, we soon found ourselves in a condition to descend94 among our friends without attracting any closer attention than was naturally due to him as prospective bridegroom and to myself as best man.
点击收听单词发音
1 flask | |
n.瓶,火药筒,砂箱 | |
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2 veranda | |
n.走廊;阳台 | |
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3 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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4 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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5 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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6 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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7 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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8 revelling | |
v.作乐( revel的现在分词 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉 | |
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9 anticipations | |
预期( anticipation的名词复数 ); 预测; (信托财产收益的)预支; 预期的事物 | |
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10 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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11 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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12 annoyance | |
n.恼怒,生气,烦恼 | |
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13 placidly | |
adv.平稳地,平静地 | |
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14 curt | |
adj.简短的,草率的 | |
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15 prospective | |
adj.预期的,未来的,前瞻性的 | |
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16 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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17 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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18 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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19 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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20 recipient | |
a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器 | |
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21 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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22 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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23 gorgon | |
n.丑陋女人,蛇发女怪 | |
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24 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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25 rein | |
n.疆绳,统治,支配;vt.以僵绳控制,统治 | |
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26 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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27 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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28 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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29 unprecedented | |
adj.无前例的,新奇的 | |
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30 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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31 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
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32 aggravate | |
vt.加重(剧),使恶化;激怒,使恼火 | |
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33 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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34 moodily | |
adv.喜怒无常地;情绪多变地;心情不稳地;易生气地 | |
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35 nettled | |
v.拿荨麻打,拿荨麻刺(nettle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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36 amethyst | |
n.紫水晶 | |
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37 scrutiny | |
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
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38 evading | |
逃避( evade的现在分词 ); 避开; 回避; 想不出 | |
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39 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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40 gem | |
n.宝石,珠宝;受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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41 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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42 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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43 embittered | |
v.使怨恨,激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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45 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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46 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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47 utterance | |
n.用言语表达,话语,言语 | |
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48 elude | |
v.躲避,困惑 | |
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49 numb | |
adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木 | |
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50 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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51 panacea | |
n.万灵药;治百病的灵药 | |
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52 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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53 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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54 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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55 vehement | |
adj.感情强烈的;热烈的;(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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56 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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57 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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58 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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59 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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60 peremptory | |
adj.紧急的,专横的,断然的 | |
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61 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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62 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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63 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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64 ingenuous | |
adj.纯朴的,单纯的;天真的;坦率的 | |
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65 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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66 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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67 sarcastic | |
adj.讥讽的,讽刺的,嘲弄的 | |
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68 avow | |
v.承认,公开宣称 | |
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69 preposterous | |
adj.荒谬的,可笑的 | |
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70 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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71 dependence | |
n.依靠,依赖;信任,信赖;隶属 | |
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72 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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73 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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74 softened | |
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
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75 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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76 galling | |
adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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77 demure | |
adj.严肃的;端庄的 | |
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78 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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79 avowal | |
n.公开宣称,坦白承认 | |
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80 abashed | |
adj.窘迫的,尴尬的v.使羞愧,使局促,使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81 exacting | |
adj.苛求的,要求严格的 | |
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82 juncture | |
n.时刻,关键时刻,紧要关头 | |
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83 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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84 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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85 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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86 lurks | |
n.潜在,潜伏;(lurk的复数形式)vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的第三人称单数形式) | |
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87 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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88 disturbance | |
n.动乱,骚动;打扰,干扰;(身心)失调 | |
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89 precipitate | |
adj.突如其来的;vt.使突然发生;n.沉淀物 | |
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90 enigma | |
n.谜,谜一样的人或事 | |
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91 apprehensions | |
疑惧 | |
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92 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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93 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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94 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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