“He did pitch into him, sharp and short, and not a word from him, only sulky like; and I so frightened, I durst not look up almost; and they said a lot I could not make head or tail of; and Governor ordered me out o’ the room, and glad I was to go; and so they had it out between them.”
Milly could throw no light whatsoever1 upon the adventures at Church Scarsdale and Knowl; and I was left still in doubt, which sometimes oscillated one way and sometimes another. But, on the whole, I could not shake off the misgivings2 which constantly recurred3 and pointed4 very obstinately5 to Dudley as the hero of those odious6 scenes.
Oddly enough, though, I now felt far less confident upon the point than I did at first sight. I had begun to distrust my memory, and to suspect my fancy; but of this there could be no question, that between the person so unpleasantly linked in my remembrance with those scenes, and Dudley Ruthyn, a striking, though possibly only a general resemblance did exist.
Milly was certainly right as to the gist7 of Uncle Silas’s injunction, for we saw more of Dudley henceforward.
He was shy; he was impudent8; he was awkward; he was conceited9; — altogether a most intolerable bumpkin. Though he sometimes flushed and stammered10, and never for a moment was at his ease in my presence, yet, to my inexpressible disgust, there was a self-complacency in his manner, and a kind of triumph in his leer, which very plainly told me how satisfied he was as to the nature of the impression he was making upon me.
I would have given worlds to tell him how odious I thought him. Probably, however, he would not have believed me. Perhaps he fancied that “ladies” affected12 airs of indifference13 and repulsion to cover their real feelings. I never looked at or spoke14 to him when I could avoid either, and then it was as briefly15 as I could. To do him justice, however, he seemed to have no liking16 for our society, and certainly never seemed altogether comfortable in it.
I find it hard to write quite impartially17 even of Dudley Ruthyn’s personal appearance; but, with an effort, I confess that his features were good, and his figure not amiss, though a little fattish. He had light whiskers, light hair, and a pink complexion18, and very good blue eyes. So far my uncle was right; and if he had been perfectly19 gentlemanlike, he really might have passed for a handsome man in the judgment20 of some critics.
But there was that odious mixture of mauvaise honte and impudence21, a clumsiness, a slyness, and a consciousness in his bearing and countenance22, not distinctly boorish24, but low, which turned his good looks into an ugliness more intolerable than that of feature; and a corresponding vulgarity pervading25 his dress, his demeanour, and his very walk, marred26 whatever good points his figure possessed27. If you take all this into account, with the ominous28 and startling misgivings constantly recurring29, you will understand the mixed feelings of anger and disgust with which I received the admiration30 he favoured me with.
Gradually he grew less constrained31 in my presence, and certainly his manners were not improved by his growing ease and confidence.
He came in while Milly and I were at luncheon32, jumped up, with a “right-about face” performed in the air, sitting on the sideboard, whence grinning shyly and kicking his heels, he leered at us.
“Will you have something, Dudley?” asked Milly.
“No, lass; but I’ll look at ye, and maybe drink a drop for company.”
And with these words, he took a sportsman’s flask33 from his pocket; and helping34 himself to a large glass and a decanter, he compounded a glass of strong brandy-and-water, as he talked, and refreshed himself with it from time to time.
“Curate’s up wi’ the Governor,” he said, with a grin. “I wanted a word wi’ him; but I s’pose I’ll hardly git in this hour or more; they’re a praying and disputing, and a Bible-chopping, as usual. Ha, ha! But ‘twon’t hold much longer, old Wyat says, now that Uncle Austin’s dead; there’s nout to be made o’ praying and that work no longer, and it don’t pay of itself.”
“O fie! For shame, you sinner!” laughed Milly. “He wasn’t in a church these five years, he says, and then only to meet a young lady. Now, isn’t he a sinner, Maud — isn’t he?”
Dudley, grinning, looked with a languishing35 slyness at me, biting the edge of his wide-awake, which he held over his breast.
Dudley Ruthyn probably thought there was a manly37 and desperate sort of fascination38 in the impiety39 he professed40.
“I wonder, Milly,” said I, “at your laughing. How can you laugh?”
“You’d have me cry, would ye?” answered Milly.
“I certainly would not have you laugh,” I replied.
“I know I wish some one ‘ud cry for me, and I know who,” said Dudley, in what he meant for a very engaging way, and he looked at me as if he thought I must feel flattered by his caring to have my tears.
Instead of crying, however, I leaned back in my chair, and began quietly to turn over the pages of Walter Scott’s poems, which I and Milly were then reading in the evenings.
The tone in which this odious young man spoke of his father, his coarse mention of mine, and his low boasting of his irreligion, disgusted me more than ever with him.
“They parsons be slow coaches — awful slow. I’ll have a good bit to wait, I s’pose. I should be three miles away and more by this time — drat it!” He was eyeing the legging of the boot which he held up while he spoke, as if calculating how far away that limb should have carried him by this time. “Why can’t folk do their Bible and prayers o’ Sundays, and get if off their stomachs? I say, Milly lass, will ye see if Governor be done wi’ the Curate? Do. I’m a losing the whole day along o’ him.”
Milly jumped up, accustomed to obey her brother, and as she passed me, she whispered, with a wink41 —
“Money.”
And away she went. Dudley whistled a tune42, and swung his foot like a pendulum43, as he followed her with his side-glance.
“I say, it is a hard case, Miss, a lad o’spirit should be kept so tight. I haven’t a shilling but what comes through his fingers; an’ drat the tizzy he’ll gi’ me till he knows the reason why.”
“Perhaps,” I said, “my uncle thinks you should earn some for yourself.”
“I’d like to know how a fella ‘s to earn money now-a-days. You wouldn’t have a gentleman to keep a shop, I fancy. But I’ll ha’ a fistful jist now, and no thanks to he. Them executors, you know, owes me a deal o’ money. Very honest chaps, of course; but they’re cursed slow about paying, I know.”
I made no remark upon this elegant allusion44 to the executors of my dear father’s will.
“An’ I tell ye, Maud, when I git the tin, I know who I’ll buy a farin’ for. I do, lass.”
The odious creature drawled this with a sidelong leer, which, I suppose, he fancied quite irresistible45.
I am one of those unfortunate persons who always blushed when I most wished to look indifferent; and now, to my inexpressible chagrin46, with its accustomed perversity47, I felt the blush mount to my cheeks, and glow even on my forehead.
I saw that he perceived this most disconcerting indication of a sentiment the very idea of which was so detestable, that, equally enraged48 with myself and with him, I did not know how to exhibit my contempt and indignation.
Mistaking the cause of my discomposure, Mr. Dudley Ruthyn laughed softly, with an insufferable suavity49.
“And there’s some’at, lass, I must have in return. Honour thy father, you know; you would not ha’ me disobey the Governor? No, you wouldn’t — would ye?”
I darted50 at him a look which I ihoped would have quelled51 his impertinence; but I blushed most provokingly — more violently than ever.
“I’d back them eyes again’ the county, I would,” he exclaimed, with a condescending52 enthusiasm. “You’re awful pretty, you are, Maud. I don’t know what came over me t’other night when Governor told me to buss ye; but dang it, ye shan’t deny me now, and I’ll have a kiss, lass, in spite o’ thy blushes.”
He jumped from his elevated seat on the sideboard, and came swaggering toward me, with an odious grin, and his arms extended. I started to my feet, absolutely transported with fury.
“Drat me, if she baint a-going to fight me!” he chuckled53 humorously.
“Come, Maud, you would not be ill-natured, sure? Arter all, it’s only our duty. Governor bid us kiss, didn’t he?”
“Don’t — don’t, sir. Stand back, or I’ll call the servants.”
And as it was I began to scream for Milly.
“There’s how it is wi’ all they cattle! You never knows your own mind — ye don’t,” he said, surlily. “You make such a row about a bit o’ play. drop it, will you? There’s no one a-harming you — is there? I’m not, for sartain.”
And, with an angry chuckle54, he turned on his heel, and left the room.
I think I was perfectly right to resist, with all the vehemence55 of which I was capable, this attempt to assume and intimacy56 which, notwithstanding my uncle’s opinion to the contrary, seemed to me like an outrage57.
Milly found me alone — not frightened, but very angry. I had quite made up my mind to complain to my uncle, but the Curate was still with him; and, by the time he had gone, I was cooler. My awe58 of my uncle had returned, I fancied that he would treat the whole affair as a mere11 playful piece of gallantry. So, with the comfortable conviction that he had had a lesson, and would think twice before repeating his impertinence, I resolved, with Milly’s approbation59, to leave matters as they were.
Dudley, greatly to my comfort, was huffed with me, and hardly appeared, and was sulky and silent when he did. I lived then in the pleasant anticipation60 of his departure, which, Milly thought, would be very soon.
My uncle had his Bible and his consolations61; but it cannot have been pleasant to this old roué, converted though he was — this refined man of fashion — to see his son grow up an outcast, and a Tony Lumpkin; for whatever he may have thought of his natural gifts, he must have known how mere a boor23 he was.
I try to recall my then impressions of my uncle’s character. Grizzly62 and chaotic63 the image rises — silver head, feet of clay. I as yet knew little of him.
I began to perceive that he was what Mary Quince used to call “dreadful particular”— I suppose a little selfish and impatient. He used to get cases of turtle from Liverpool. He drank claret and hock for his health, and ate woodcock and other light and salutary dainties for the same reason; and was petulant64 and vicious about the cooking of these, and the flavour and clearness of his coffee.
His conversation was easy, polished, and, with a sentimental65 glazing66, cold; but across this artificial talk, with its French rhymes, racy phrases, and fluent eloquence67, like a streak68 of angry light, would, at intervals69, suddenly gleam some dismal70 thought of religion. I never could quite satisfy myself whether they were affectations or genuine, like intermittent71 thrills of pain.
The light of his large eyes was very peculiar72. I can liken it to nothing but the sheen of intense moonlight on burnished73 metal. But that cannot express it. It glared white and suddenly — almost fatuous74. I thought of Moore’s lines whenever I looked on it:—
Oh, ye dead! oh, ye dead! whom we know by the light you give From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live.
I never saw in any other eye the least glimmer75 of the same baleful effulgence76. His fits, too — his hoverings between life and death — between intellect and insanity77 — a dubious78, marsh-fire existence, horrible to look on!
I was puzzled even to comprehend his feelings toward his children. Sometimes it seemed to me that he was ready to lay down his soul for them; at others, he looked and spoke almost as if he hated them. He talked as if the image of death was always before him, yet he took a terrible interest in life, while seemingly dozing79 away the dregs of his days in sight of his coffin80.
Oh! Uncle Silas, tremendous figure in the past, burning always in memory in the same awful lights; the fixed81 white face of scorn and anguish36! It seems as if the Woman of Endor had led me to that chamber82 and showed me a spectre.
Dudley had not left Bartram–Haugh when a little note reached me from Lady Knollys. It said —
“DEAREST MAUD — I have written by this post to Silas, beseeching83 a loan of you and my Cousin Milly. I see no reason your uncle can possibly have for refusing me; and, therefore, I count confidently on seeing you both at Elverston to-morrow, to stay for at least a week. I have hardly a creature to meet you. I have been disappointed in several visitors; but another time we shall have a gayer house. Tell Milly — with my love — that I will not forgive her if she fails to accompany you.
“Believe me ever your affectionate cousin,
“MONICA KNOLLYS.”
Milly and I were both afraid that Uncle Silas would refuse his consent, although we could not divine any sound reason for his doing so, and there were many in favour of his improving the opportunity of allowing poor Milly to see some persons of her own sex above the rank of menials.
At about twelve o’clock my uncle sent for us, and, to our great delight, announced his consent, and wished us a very happy excursion.
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收听单词发音
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1
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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8
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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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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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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15
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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16
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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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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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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22
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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boor
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| n.举止粗野的人；乡下佬 | |
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boorish
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| adj.粗野的，乡巴佬的 | |
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25
pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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33
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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impiety
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| n.不敬；不孝 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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42
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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43
pendulum
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| n.摆，钟摆 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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45
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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47
perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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48
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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49
suavity
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| n.温和；殷勤 | |
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50
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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51
quelled
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| v.（用武力）制止，结束，镇压( quell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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53
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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55
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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56
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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57
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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58
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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59
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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60
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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61
consolations
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| n.安慰，慰问( consolation的名词复数 )；起安慰作用的人（或事物） | |
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62
grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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63
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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64
petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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65
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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66
glazing
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| n.玻璃装配业；玻璃窗；上釉；上光v.装玻璃( glaze的现在分词 )；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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67
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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68
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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69
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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70
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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71
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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72
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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73
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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74
fatuous
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| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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76
effulgence
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| n.光辉 | |
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77
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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78
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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79
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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80
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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81
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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82
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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83
beseeching
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| adj.恳求似的v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的现在分词 ) | |
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