The swift, sharp voice of a young officer of his regiment3 wakened Cecil from his musing4, as he went on his way down the crowded, tortuous5, stifling6 street. He had scarcely time to catch the sense of the words, and to halt, giving the salute7, before the Chasseur’s skittish8 little Barbary mare9 had galloped12 past him; scattering13 the people right and left, knocking over a sweetmeat seller, upsetting a string of maize-laden mules14, jostling a venerable marabout on to an impudent15 little grisette, and laming16 an old Moor17 as he tottered18 to his mosque19, without any apology for any of the mischief20, in the customary insolence21 which makes “Roumis” and “Bureaucratic” alike execrated22 by the indigenous23 populace with a detestation that the questionable24 benefits of civilized25 importations can do very little to counter-balance in the fiery26 breasts of the sons of the soil.
Cecil involuntarily stood still. His face darkened. All orders that touched on the service, even where harshest and most unwelcome, he had taught himself to take without any hesitation27, till he now scarcely felt the check of the steel curb28; but to be ordered thus like a lackey29 — to take his wares30 thus like a hawker!
“We are soldiers, not traders — aren’t we? You don’t like that, M. Victor? You are no peddler. And you think you would rather risk being court-martialed and shot than take your ivory toys for the Black Hawk31’s talons32?”
Cecil looked up in astonishment33 at the divination34 and translation of his thoughts, to encounter the bright, falcon35 eyes of Cigarette looking down on him from a little oval casement36 above, dark as pitch within, and whose embrasure, with its rim37 of gray stone coping, set off like a picture-frame, with a heavy background of unglazed Rembrandt shadow, the piquant38 head of the Friend of the Flag, with her pouting39, scarlet40, mocking lips, and her mischievous41, challenging smile, and her dainty little gold-banded foraging-cap set on curls as silken and jetty as any black Irish setter’s.
“Bon jour, ma belle42!” he answered, with a little weariness; lifting his fez to her with a certain sense of annoyance43 that this young bohemian of the barracks, this child with her slang and her satire44, should always be in his way like a shadow.
“Bon jour, mon brave!” returned Cigarette contemptuously. “We are not so ceremonious as all that in Algiers! Good fellow, you should be a chamberlain, not a corporal. What fine manners, mon Dieu!”
She was incensed45, piqued47, and provoked. She had been ready to forgive him because he carved so wonderfully, and sold the carvings for his comrade at the hospital; she was holding out the olive-branch after her own petulant48 fashion; and she thought, if he had had any grace in him, he would have responded with some such florid compliment as those for which she was accustomed to box the ears of her admirers, and would have swung himself up to the coping, to touch, or at least try to touch, those sweet, fresh, crimson49 lips of hers, that were like a half-opened damask rose. Modesty50 is apt to go to the wall in camps, and poor little Cigarette’s notions of the great passion were very simple, rudimentary, and in no way coy. How should they be? She had tossed about with the army, like one of the tassels51 to their standards; blowing whichever way the breath of war floated her; and had experienced, or thought she had experienced, as many affairs as the veriest Don Juan among them, though her heart had never been much concerned in them, but had beaten scarce a shade quicker, if a lunge in a duel52, or a shot from an Indigene, had pounced53 off with her hero of the hour to Hades.
“Fine manners!” echoed Cecil, with a smile. “My poor child, have you been so buffeted54 about that you have never been treated with commonest courtesy?”
“Whew!” cried the little lady, blowing a puff55 of smoke down on him. “None of your pity for me! Buffeted about? Do you suppose anybody ever did anything with me that I didn’t choose? If you had as much power as I have in the army, Chateauroy would not send for you to sell your toys like a peddler. You are a slave! I am a sovereign!”
With which she tossed back her graceful56, spirited head, as though the gold band of her cap were the gold band of a diadem57. She was very proud of her station in the Army of Africa, and glorified58 her privileges with all a child’s vanity.
He listened, amused with her boastful supremacy59; but the last words touched him with a certain pang60 just in that moment. He felt like a slave — a slave who must obey his tyrant61, or go out and die like a dog.
“Well, yes,” he said slowly; “I am a slave, I fear. I wish a Bedouin flissa would cut my thralls62 in two.”
He spoke63 jestingly, but there was a tinge64 of sadness in the words that touched Cigarette’s changeful temper to contrition65, and filled her with the same compassion66 and wonder at him that she had felt when the ivory wreaths and crucifixes had lain in her hands. She knew she had been ungenerous — a crime dark as night in the sight of the little chivalrous67 soldier.
“Ah,” she said softly and waywardly, winding68 her way aright with that penetration69 and tact70 which, however unsexed in other things, Cigarette had kept thoroughly71 feminine. “That was but an idle word of mine; forgive it, and forget it. You are not a slave when you fight in the fantasias. Morbleu! They say to see you kill a man is beautiful — so workmanlike! And you would go out and be shot tomorrow, rather than sell your honor, or stain it. Bah! while you know they should cut your heart out rather than make you tell a lie, or betray a comrade, you are no slave; you have the best freedom of all. Take a glass of champagne73? How you look! Oh, the demoiselles, with the silver necks, are not barrack drink, of course; but I drink champagne always myself. This is M. le Prince’s. He knows I only take the best brands.”
With which Cigarette, leaning down from her casement, whose sill was about a foot above his head, tendered her peace-offering in a bottle; three of which, packed in her knapsack, she had carried off from the luncheon-table of a Russian Prince who was touring through Algiers, and who had half lost his Grand Ducal head after the bewitching, dauntless, capricious, unattachable, unpurchasable, and coquettish little fire-eater of the Spahis, who treated him with infinitely74 more insolence and indifference75 than she would show to some battered76 old veteran, or some worn-out old dog, who had passed through the great Kabaila raids and battles.
“You will go to your Colonel’s to-night?” she said questioningly, as he drank the champagne, and thanked her — for he saw the spirit in which the gift was tendered — as he leaned against the half-ruined Moorish77 wall, with its blue-and-white striped awning78 spread over both their heads in the little street whose crowds, chatter79, thousand eyes, and incessant80 traffic no way troubled Cigarette; who had talked argot81 to monarchs82 undaunted, and who had been one of the chief sights in a hundred grand reviews ever since she had been perched on a gun-carriage at five years old, and paraded with a troop of horse artillery83 in the Champ de Mars, as having gone through the whole of Bugeaud’s campaign, at which parade, by the way, being tendered sweetmeats by a famous General’s wife, Cigarette had made the immortal84 reply: “Madame, my sweetmeats are bullets!”
She repeated her question imperiously, as Cecil kept silent. “You will go to-night?”
He shrugged85 his shoulders. He did not care to discuss his Colonel’s orders with this pretty little Bacchante.
“Oh, a chief’s command, you know —”
“Ah, a fig72 for a chief!” retorted Cigarette impatiently. “Why don’t you say the truth? You are thinking you will disobey, and risk the rest!”
“Well, why not? I grant his right in barrack and field, but ——”
He spoke rather to himself than her, and his thoughts, as he spoke, went back to the scene of the morning. He felt, with a romantic impulse that he smiled at, even as it passed over him, that he would rather have half a dozen muskets87 fired at him in the death-sentence of a mutineer than meet again the glance of those proud, azure88 eyes, sweeping89 over him in their calm indifference to a private of Chasseurs, their calm ignorance that he could be wounded or be stung.
“But?” echoed Cigarette, leaning out of her oval hole, perched in the quaint90, gray Moresco wall, parti-colored with broken encaustics of varied91 hues92. “Chut, bon comrade! That little word has been the undoing93 of the world ever since the world began. ‘But’ is a blank cartridge94, and never did anything but miss fire yet. Shoot dead, or don’t aim at all, whichever you like; but never make a false stroke with ‘but’! So you won’t obey Chateauroy in this?”
He was silent again. He would not answer falsely, and he did not care to say his thoughts to her.
“‘No,’” pursued Cigarette, translating his silence at her fancy, “you say to yourself, ‘I am an aristocrat95 — I will not be ordered in this thing’— you say, ‘I am a good soldier; I will not be sent for like a hawker’— you say, ‘I was noble once: I will show my blood at last, if I die!’ Ah! — you say that!”
He laughed a little as he looked up at her.
“Not exactly that, but something as foolish, perhaps. Are you a witch, my pretty one?”
“Whoever doubted it, except you?”
She looked one, in truth, whom few men could resist, bending to him out of her owls’ nest, with the flash of the sun under the blue awning brightly catching97 the sunny brown of her soft cheek and the cherry bloom of her lips, arched, pouting, and coquette. She set her teeth sharply, and muttered a hot, heavy sacre, or even something worse, as she saw that his eyes had not even remained on her, but were thoughtfully looking down the checkered98 light and color of the street. She was passionate99, she was vain, she was wayward, she was fierce as a little velvet100 leopard101, as a handsome, brilliant plumaged hawk; she had all the faults, as she had all the virtues102, of the thorough Celtic race; and, for the moment, she had in instinct — fiery, ruthless, and full of hate — to draw the pistol out of her belt, and teach him with a shot, crash through heart or brain, that girls who were “unsexed” could keep enough of the woman in them not to be neglected with impunity103, and could lose enough of it to be able to avenge104 the negligence105 by a summary vendetta106. But she was a haughty107 little condottiere, in her fashion. She would not ask for what was not offered her, nor give a rebuke108 that might be traced to mortification109. She only set her two rosebud-lips in as firm a line of wrath110 and scorn as ever Caesar’s or Napoleon’s molded themselves into, and spoke in the curt111, imperious, generalissimo fashion with which Cigarette before now had rallied a demoralized troop, reeling drunk and mad away from a razzia.
“I am a witch! That is, I can put two and two together, and read men, though I don’t read the alphabet. Well, one reading is a good deal rarer than the other. So you mean to disobey the Hawk to-night? I like you for that. But listen here — did you ever hear them talk of Marquise?”
“No!”
“Parbleu!” swore the vivandiere in her wrath, “you look on at a bamboula as if it were only a bear-cub dancing, and can only give one ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ as if one were a drummer-boy. Bah! are those your Paris courtesies?”
“Forgive me, ma belle! I thought you called yourself our comrade, and would have no ‘fine manners.’ There is no knowing how to please you.”
He might have pleased her simply and easily enough, if he had only looked up with a shade of interest to that most picturesque112 picture, bright as a pastel portrait, that was hung above him in the old tumble-down Moorish stonework. But his thoughts were with other things; and a love scene with this fantastic little Amazon did not attract him. The warm, ripe, mellow113 little wayside cherry hung directly in his path, with the sun on its bloom, and the free wind tossing it merrily; but it had no charm for him. He was musing rather on that costly114, delicate, brilliant-hued, hothouse blossom that could only be reached down by some rich man’s hand, and grew afar on heights where never winter chills, nor summer tan, could come too rudely on it.
“Come, tell me what is Marquise? — a kitten?” he went on, leaning his arm still on the sill of her embrasure, and willing to coax115 her out of her anger.
“A kitten!” echoed Cigarette contemptuously. “You think me a child, I suppose?”
“Surely you are not far off it?”
“Mon Dieu! why, I was never a child in my life,” retorted Cigarette, waxing sunny-tempered and confidential116 again, while she perched herself, like some gay-feathered mockingbird on a branch, on the window-sill itself. “When I was two, I used to be beaten; when I was three, I used to scrape up the cigar ends the officers dropped about, to sell them again for a bit of black bread; when I was four, I knew all about Philippe Durron’s escape from Beylick, and bit my tongue through, to say nothing, when my mother flogged me with a mule-whip, because I would not tell, that she might tell again at the Bureau and get the reward. A child! Before I was two feet high I had winged my first Arab. He stole a rabbit I was roasting. Presto117! how quick he dropped it when my ball broke his wrist like a twig118!”
And the Friend of the Flag laughed gayly at the recollection, as at the best piece of mirth with which memory could furnish her.
“But you asked about Marquise? Well, he was what you are — a hawk among carrion119 crows, a gentleman in the ranks. Dieu! how handsome he was! Nobody ever knew his real name, but they thought he was of Austrian breed, and we called him Marquise because he was so womanish white in his skin and dainty in all his ways. Just like you! Marquise could fight, fight like a hundred devils; and — pouf! — how proud he was — very much like you altogether! Now, one day something went wrong in the exercise ground. Marquise was not to blame, but they thought he was; and an adjutant struck him — flick120, flack, like that — across the face with a riding switch. Marquise had his bayonet fixed121 and before we knew what was up, crash the blade went through — through the breast-bone, and out at the spine122 — and the adjutant fell as dead as a cat, with the blood spouting123 out like a fountain. ‘I come of a great race, that never took insult without giving back death,’ was all that Marquise said when they seized him and brought him to judgment124; and he would never say of what race that was. They shot him — ah, bah! discipline must be kept — and I saw him with five great wounds in his chest, and his beautiful golden hair all soiled with the sand and the powder, lying there by the open grave, that they threw him into as if he were offal; and we never knew more of him than that.”
Cigarette’s radiant laugh had died, and her careless voice had sunk, over the latter words. As the little vivacious125 brunette told the tale of a nameless life, it took its eloquence126 from her, simple and brief as her speech was; and it owned a deeper pathos127 because the reckless young Bacchante of the As de Pique46 grew grave one moment while she told it. Then, grave still, she leaned her brown, bright face nearer down from her oval hole in the wall.
“Now,” she whispered very low, “if you mutiny once, they will shoot you just like Marquise, and you will die just as silent, like him.”
“Well,” he answered her slowly, “why not? Death is no great terror; I risk it every day for the sake of a common soldier’s rations128; why should I not chance it for the sake and in the defense129 of my honor?”
“Bah! men sell their honor for their daily bread all the world over!” said Cigarette, with the satire that had treble raciness from the slang in which she clothed it. “But it is not you alone. See here — one example set on your part, and half your regiment will mutiny too. It is bitter work to obey the Black Hawk, and if you give the signal of revolt, three parts of your comrades will join you. Now what will that end in, beau lion?”
“Tell me — you are a soldier yourself, you say.”
“Yes, I am a soldier!” said Cigarette between her tight-set teeth, while her eyes brightened, and her voice sank down into a whisper that had a certain terrible meaning in it, like the first dropping of the scattered130, opening shots in the distance before a great battle commences; “and I have seen war, not holiday war, but war in earnest — war when men fall like hailstones, and tear like tigers, and choke like mad dogs with their throats full of blood and sand; when the gun-carriage wheels go crash over the writhing131 limbs, and the horses charge full gallop11 over the living faces, and the hoofs132 beat out the brains before death has stunned133 them senseless. Oh, yes! I am a soldier, and I will tell you one thing I have seen. I have seen soldiers mutiny, a squadron of them, because they hated their chief and loved two of their sous-officers; and I have seen the end of it all — a few hundred men, blind and drunk with despair, at bay against as many thousands, and walled in with four lines of steel and artillery, and fired on from a score of cannon-mouths — volley on volley, like the thunder — till not one living man was left, and there was only a shapeless, heaving, moaning mass, with the black smoke over all. That is what I have seen; you will not make me see it again?”
Her face was very earnest, very eloquent134, very dark, and tender with thought; there was a vein135 of grave, even of intense feeling, that ran through the significant words to which tone and accent lent far more meaning than lay in their mere136 phrases; the little bohemian lost her insolence when she pleaded for her “children,” her comrades; and the mischievous pet of the camp never treated lightly what touched the France that she loved — the France that, alone of all things in her careless life, she held in honor and reverence137.
“You will not make me see it again?” she said, once more leaning out, with her eyes, that were like a brown brook138 sparkling deep, yet bright in the sun, fixed on him. “They would rise at your bidding, and they would be mowed139 down like corn. You will not?”
“Never! I give you my word.”
The promise was from his heart. He would have endured any indignity140, any outrage141, rather than have drawn142 into ruin, through him, the fiery, fearless, untutored lives of the men who marched, and slept, and rode, and fought, and lay in the light of the picket-fires, and swept down through the hot sandstorms on to the desert foe143 by his side. Cigarette stretched out her hand to him — that tiny brown hand, which, small though it was, had looked so burned and so hard beside the delicate fairy ivory carvings of his workmanship — stretched it out with a frank, winning, childlike, soldierlike grace.
“That’s right, you are a true soldier!”
He bent144 over the hand she held to his in the courtesy natural with him to all her sex, and touched it lightly with his lips.
“Thank you, my little comrade,” he said simply, with the graver thought still on him that her relation and her entreaty145 had evoked146; “you have given me a lesson that I shall not be quick to forget.”
Cigarette was the wildest little baccanal that ever pirouetted for the delight of half a score of soldiers in their shirt-sleeves and half-drunk; she was the most reckless coquette that ever made the roll-call of her lovers range from prince-marshals to plowboy conscripts; she had flirted147 as far and wide as the butterfly flirts148 with the blossoms it flutters on to through the range of a summer day; she took kisses, if the giver of them were handsome, as readily as a child takes sweetmeats at Mardi Gras; and of feminine honor, feminine scruples149, feminine delicacy150, knew nothing save by such very dim, fragmentary instincts as nature still planted in scant151 growth amid the rank soil and the pestilent atmosphere of camp-life. Her eyes had never sunk, her face had never flushed, her heart had never panted for the boldest or the wildest wooer of them all, from M. de Duc’s Lauzunesque blandishments to Pouffer-deRire’s or Miou–Miou’s rough overtures152; she had the coquetry of her nation with the audacity153 of a boy. Now only, for the first time, Cigarette colored hotly at the grave, graceful, distant salute, so cold and so courteous154, which was offered her in lieu of the rude and boisterous155 familiarities to which she was accustomed; and drew her hand away with what was, to the shame of her soldierly hardihood and her barrack tutelage, very nearly akin156 to an impulse of shyness.
“Dame! Don’t humbug157 me! I am not a court lady!” she cried hastily, almost petulantly158, to cover the unwonted and unwelcome weakness; while, to make good the declaration and revindicate her military renown159, she balanced herself lightly on the stone ledge160 of her oval hole, and sprang, with a young wildcat’s easy, vaulting161 leap, over his head, and over the heads of the people beneath, on to the ledge of the house opposite, a low-built wine-shop, whose upper story nearly touched the leaning walls of the old Moorish buildings in which she had been perched. The crowd in the street below looked up, amazed and aghast, at that bound from casement to casement as she flew over their heads like a blue-and-scarlet winged bird of Oran; but they laughed as they saw who it was.
“It is Cigarette! Ah, ha! the devil, for a certainty, must have been her father!”
“To be sure!” cried the Friend of the Flag, looking from her elevation162; “he is a very good father, too, and I don’t tease him like his sons the priests! But I have told him to take you the next time you are stripping a dead body; so look on it — he won’t have to wait long.”
The discomfited163 Indigene hustled164 his way, with many an oath, through the laughing crowd as best he might; and Cigarette, with an airy pirouette on the wine-shop’s roof that would have done honor to any opera boards, and was executed as carelessly, twenty feet above earth, as if she had been a pantomime-dancer all her days, let herself down by the awning, hand over hand, like a little mouse from the harbor, jumped on to a forage165 wagon166 that was just passing full trot167 down the street, and disappeared; standing168 on the piles of hay, and singing.
Cecil looked after her, with a certain touch of pity for her in him.
“What a gallant169 boy is spoiled in that little Amazon!” he thought; the quick flush of her face, the quick withdrawal170 of her hand, he had not noticed; she had not much interest for him — scarcely any indeed — save that he saw she was pretty, with a mignonne, mischievous face, that all the sun-tan of Africa and all the wild life of the Caserne would not harden or debase. But he was sorry a child so bright and so brave should be turned into three parts a trooper as she was, should have been tossed up on the scum and filth171 of the lowest barrack life, and should be doomed172 in a few years’ time to become the yellow, battered, foul-mouthed, vulture-eyed camp-follower that premature174 old age would surely render the darling of the tricolor, the pythoness of the As de Pique.
Cigarette was making scorn of her doom173 of Sex, dancing it down, drinking it down, laughing it down, burning it out in tobacco fumes175, drowning it in trembling cascades176 of wine, trampling177 it to dust under the cancan by her little brass-bound boots, mocking it away with her slang jests, and her Theresa songs, and her devil-may-care audacities178, till there was scarce a trace of it left in this prettiest and wildest little scamp of all the Army in Africa. But strive to kill it how she would, her sex would have its revenge one day and play Nemesis179 to her.
She was bewitching now — bewitching, though she had no witchery for him — in her youth. But when the bloom should leave her brown cheeks, and the laughter die out of her lightning glance, the womanhood she had denied would assert itself, and avenge itself, and be hideous180 in the sight of the men who now loved the tinkling181 of those little spurred feet, and shouted with applause to hear the reckless barrack blasphemies182 ring their mirth from the fresh mouth which was now like a bud from a damask rose branch, though even now it steeped itself in wine, and sullied itself with oaths and seared itself with smoke, and had never been touched from its infancy183 with any kiss that was innocent — not even with its mother’s.
And there was a deep tinge of pity for her in Cecil’s thoughts as he watched her out of sight, and then strolled across to the cafe opposite to finish his cigar beneath its orange-striped awning. The child had been flung upward, a little straw floating in the gutter184 of Paris iniquities185. It was little marvel186 that the bright, bold, insolent187 little Friend of the Flag had nothing of her sex left save a kitten’s mischief and a coquette’s archness. It said much rather for the straight, fair, sunlit instincts of the untaught nature that Cigarette had gleaned188, even out of such a life, two virtues that she would have held by to the death, if tried: a truthfulness189 that would have scorned a lie as only fit for cowards, and a loyalty190 that cleaved191 to France as a religion.
Cecil thought that a gallant boy was spoiled in this eighteen-year-old brunette of a campaigner; he might have gone further, and said that a hero was lost.
“Voila!” said Cigarette between her little teeth.
She stood in the glittering Algerine night, brilliant with a million stars, and balmy with a million flowers, before the bronze trellised gate of the villa192 on the Sahel, where Chateauroy, when he was not on active service — which chanced rarely, for he was one of the finest soldiers and most daring chiefs in Africa — indemnified himself, with the magnificence that his private fortune enabled him to enjoy, for the unsparing exertions193 and the rugged86 privations that he always shared willingly with the lowest of his soldiers. It was the grandest trait in the man’s character that he utterly194 scorned the effeminacy with which many commanders provided for their table, their comfort, and their gratification while campaigning, and would commonly neither take himself nor allow to his officers any more indulgence on the march than his troopers themselves enjoyed. But his villa on the Sahel was a miniature palace; it had formerly195 been the harem of a great Rais, and the gardens were as enchanting196 as the interior was — if something florid, still as elegant as Paris art and Paris luxury could make it; for ferocious197 as the Black Hawk was in war, and well as he loved the chase and the slaughter198, he did not disdain199, when he had whetted200 beak201 and talons to satiety202, to smooth his ruffled203 plumage in downy nests and under caressing204 hands.
To-night the windows of the pretty, low, snow-white, far-stretching building were lighted and open, and through the wilderness205 of cactus206, myrtle, orange, citron, fuchsia, and a thousand flowers that almost buried it under their weight of leaf and blossom, a myriad207 of lamps were gleaming like so many glowworms beneath the foliage208, while from a cedar209 grove210, some slight way farther out, the melodies and overtures of the best military bands in Algiers came mellowed211, though not broken, by the distance and the fall of the bubbling fountains. Cigarette looked and listened, and her gay, brown face grew duskily warm with wrath.
“Ah, bah!” she muttered as she pressed her pretty lips to the lattice-work. “The men die like sheep in the hospital, and get sour bread tossed to them as if they were pigs, and are thrashed if they pawn212 their muskets for a stoup of drink when their throats are as dry as the desert — and you live in clover. Marbleu!”
Cigarette was a resolute213 little democrat214; she had loaded the carbines behind the barricade215 in Paris before she was ten years old, and was not seldom in the perplexity of conflicting creeds216 when her loyalty to the tricolor smote217 with a violent clash on her love for the populace and their liberty.
She looked a moment longer through the gilded218 scroll-work; then, as she had done once before, thrust her pistols well within her sash that they should not catch upon the boughs219, and pushing herself through the prickly cactus hedge, impervious220 to anything save herself or a Barbary marmoset, twisted with marvelous ingenuity221 through the sharp-pointed leaves, and the close barriers of spines222 and launched herself with inimitable dexterity223 on to the other side of the cacti224. Cigarette had too often played a game at spying and reconnoitering for her regiments225, and played it with a cleverness that distanced even the most ruse226 of the Zephyrs227, not to be able to do just whatever she chose, in taking the way she liked, and lurking228 unseen at discretion229.
She crossed the breadth of the grounds under the heavy shade of arbutus trees with a hare’s fleetness, and stood a second looking at the open windows and the terraces that lay before them, brightly lighted by the summer moon and by the lamps that sparkled among the shrubs230. Then down she dropped, as quickly, as lightly, as a young setter, down among the ferns, into a shower of rhododendrons, whose rose and lilac blossoms shut her wholly within them, like a fairy inclosed in bloom. The good fairy of one life there she was assuredly, though she might be but a devil-may-care, audacious, careless little feminine Belphegor and military Asmodeus.
“Ah!” she said quickly and sharply, with a deep-drawn breath. The single exclamation231 was at once a menace, a tenderness, a whirlwind of rage, a volume of disdain, a world of pity. It was intensely French, and the whole nature of Cigarette was in it.
Yet all she saw was a small and brilliant group sauntering to and fro before the open windows, after dinner, listening to the bands, which, through dinner, had played to them, and laughing low and softly; and, at some distance from them, beneath the shade of a cedar, the figure of a Corporal of Chasseurs — calm, erect232, motionless — as though he were the figure of a soldier cast in bronze. The scene was simple enough, though very picturesque; but it told, by its vivid force of contrast, a whole history to Cigarette.
“A true soldier!” she muttered, where she lay among the rhododendrons, while her eyes grew very soft, as she gave the highest word of praise that her whole range of language held. “A true soldier! How he keeps his promise! But it must be bitter!”
She looked a while, very wistfully, at the Chasseur, where he stood under the Lebanon boughs; then her glance swept bright as a hawk’s over the terrace, and lighted with a prescient hatred233 on the central form of all — a woman’s. There were two other great ladies there; but she passed them, and darted234 with unerring instinct on that proud, fair, patrician235 head, with its haughty, stag-like carriage and the crown of its golden hair.
Cigarette had seen grand dames236 by the thousand, though never very close; seen them in Paris when they came to look on at a grand review; seen them in their court attire237, when the Guides had filled the Carrousel on some palace ball-night, and lined the Court des Princes, and she had bewitched the officers of the guard into letting her pass in to see the pageantry. But she had never felt for those grandes dames anything save a considerably238 contemptuous indifference. She had looked on them pretty much as a war-worn, powder-tried veteran looks on the curled dandy of some fashionable, home-staying corps239. She had never realized the difference betwixt them and herself, save in so far as she thought them useless butterflies, worth nothing at all, and laughed as she triumphantly240 remembered how she could shoot a man and break in a colt.
Now, for the first time, the sight of one of those aristocrats241 smote her with a keen, hot sting of heart-burning jealousy242. Now, for the fist time, the little Friend of the Flag looked at all the nameless graces of rank with an envy that her sunny, gladsome, generous nature had never before been touched with — with a sudden perception, quick as thought, bitter as gall10, wounding, and swift, and poignant243, of what this womanhood, that he had said she herself had lost, might be in its highest and purest shape.
“If those are the women that he knew before he came here, I do not wonder that he never cared to watch even my bamboula,” was the latent, unacknowledged thought that was so cruel to her: the consciousness — which forced itself in on her, while her eyes jealously followed the perfect grace of the one in whom instinct had found her rival — that, while she had been so proud of her recklessness, and her devilry, and her trooper’s slang, and her deadly skill as a shot, she had only been something very worthless, something very lightly held by those who liked her for a ribald jest, and a dance, and a Spahis’ supper of headlong riot and drunken mirth.
The mood did not last. She was too brave, too fiery, too dauntless, too untamed. The dusky, angry flush upon her face grew deeper, and the passion gathered more stormily in her eyes, while she felt the pistol butts244 in her sash, and laughed low to herself, where she lay stretched under her flowery nest.
“Bah! she would faint, I dare say, at the mere sight of these,” she thought, with her old disdain, “and would stand fire no more than a gazelle! They are only made for summer-day weather, those dainty, gorgeous, silver pheasants. A breath of war, a touch of tempest, would soon beat them down — crash! — with all their proud crests245 drooping246!”
Like many another Cigarette underrated what she had no knowledge of, and depreciated247 an antagonist248 the measure of whose fence she had no power to gauge249.
Crouched250 there among the rhododendrons, she lay as still as a mouse, moving nearer and nearer, though none would have told that so much as a lizard251 even stirred under the blossoms, until her ear, quick and unerring as an Indian’s, could detect the sense of the words spoken by that group, which so aroused all the hot ire of her warrior’s soul and her democrat’s impatience252. Chateauroy himself was bending his fine, dark head toward the patrician on whom her instinct had fastened her hatred.
“You expressed your wish to see my Corporal’s little sculptures again, madame,” he was murmuring now, as Cigarette got close enough under her flower shadows to catch the sense of the words. “To hear was to obey with me. He waits your commands yonder.”
Cecil obeyed the lackey who crossed the lawn, passed up the stairs, and stood before his Colonel, giving the salute; the shade of some acacias still fell across him, while the party he fronted were in all the glow of a full Algerian moon and of the thousand lamps among the belt of flowers and trees. Cigarette gave a sharp, deep-drawn breath, and lay as mute and motionless as she had done before then, among the rushes of some dried brook’s bed, scanning a hostile camp, when the fate of a handful of French troops had rested on her surety and her caution.
Chateauroy spoke with a carelessness as of a man to a dog, turning to his Corporal.
“Victor, Mme. la Princesse honors you with the desire to see your toys again. Spread them out.”
The savage254 authority of his general speech was softened255 for sake of his guest’s presence, but there was a covert256 tone in the words that made Cigarette murmur253 to herself:
“If he forget his promise, I will forgive him!”
Cecil had not forgotten it; neither had he forgotten the lesson that this fair aristocrate had read him in the morning. He saluted257 his chief again, set the chessbox down upon the ledge of the marble balustrade, and stood silent, without once glancing at the fair and haughty face that was more brilliant still in the African starlight than it had been in the noon sun of the Chasseurs’ Chambree. Courtesy was forbidden him as insult from a corporal to a nobly born beauty; he no more quarreled with the decree than with other inevitable258 consequences, inevitable degradations259, that followed on his entrance as a private under the French flag. He had been used to the impassable demarcations of Caste; he did not dispute them more now that he was without, than he had done when within, their magic pale.
The carvings were passed from hand to hand as the Marquis’ six or eight guests, listless willing to be amused in the warmth of the evening after their dinner, occupied themselves with the ivory chess armies, cut with a skill and a finish worthy260 a Roman studio. Praise enough was awarded to the art, but none of them remembered the artist, who stood apart, grave, calm, with a certain serene261 dignity that could not be degraded because others chose to treat him as the station he filled gave them fit right to do.
Only one glanced at him with a touch of wondering pity, softening262 her pride; she who had rejected the gift of those mimic263 squadrons.
“You were surely a sculptor264 once?” she asked him with that graceful, distant kindness which she might have shown some Arab outcast.
“Never, madame.”
“Indeed! Then who taught you such exquisite265 art?”
“It cannot claim to be called art, madame.”
She looked at him with an increased interest: the accent of his voice told her that this man, whatever he might be now, had once been a gentleman.
“Oh, yes; it is perfect of its kind. Who was your master in it?”
“A common teacher, madame — Necessity.”
There was a very sweet gleam of compassion in the luster266 of her dark, dreaming eyes.
“Does necessity often teach so well?”
“In the ranks of our army, madame, I think it does — often, indeed, much better.”
Chateauroy had stood by and heard, with as much impatience as he cared to show before guests whose rank was precious to the man who had still weakness enough to be ashamed that his father’s brave and famous life had first been cradled under the thatch267 roof of a little posting-house.
“Victor knows that neither he nor his men have any right to waste their time on such trash,” he said carelessly; “but the truth is they love the canteen so well that they will do anything to add enough to their pay to buy brandy.”
She whom he had called Mme. la Princesse looked with a doubting surprise at the sculptor of the white Arab King she held.
“That man does not carve for brandy,” she thought.
“It must be a solace268 to many a weary hour in the barracks to be able to produce such beautiful trifles as these?” she said aloud. “Surely you encourage such pursuits, monsieur?”
“Not I,” said Chateauroy, with a dash of his camp tone that he could not withhold269. “There are but two arts or virtues for a trooper to my taste — fighting and obedience270.”
“You should be in the Russian service, M. de Chateauroy,” said the lady with a smile, that, slight as it was, made the Marquis’ eyes flash fire.
“Almost I wish I had been,” he answered her; “men are made to keep their grades there, and privates who think themselves fine gentlemen receive the lash96 they merit.”
“How he hates his Corporal!” she thought while she laid aside the White King once more.
“Nay,” interposed Chateauroy, recovering his momentary271 self-abandonment, “since you like the bagatelles, do me honor enough to keep them.”
“Oh, no! I offered your soldier his own price for them this morning, and he refused any.”
Chateauroy swung round.
“Ah, you dared refuse your bits of ivory when you were honored by an offer for them?”
Cecil stood silent; his eyes met his chief’s steadily272; Chateauroy had seen that look when his Chasseur had bearded him in the solitude273 of his tent, and demanded back the Pearl of the Desert.
The Princesse glanced at both; then she stooped her elegant head slightly to the Marquis.
“Do not blame your Corporal unjustly through me, I pray you. He refused any price, but he offered them to me very gracefully274 as a gift, though of course it was not possible that I should accept them so.”
“The man is the most insolent in the service,” muttered her host, as he motioned Cecil back off the terrace. “Get you gone, sir, and leave your toys here, or I will have them broken up by a hammer.”
The words were low, that they should not offend the ears of the great ladies who were his listeners; but they were coarsely savage in their whispered command, and the Princesse heard them.
“He has brought his Chasseur here only to humiliate275 him,” she thought, with the same thought that flashed through the mind of the Little Friend of the Flag where she hid among her rhododendrons. Now the dainty aristocrate was very proud, but she was not so proud but that justice was stronger in her than pride; and a noble, generous temper mellowed the somewhat too cold and languid negligence of one of the fairest and haughtiest276 women that ever adorned277 a court. She was too generous not to rescue anyone who suffered through her the slightest injustice278, not to interfere279 when through her any misconception lighted on another; she saw, with her rapid perception and sympathy, that the man whom Chateauroy addressed with the brutal280 insolence of a bully281 to his disobedient dog, had once been a gentlemen, though he now held but the rank of a sous-officier in the Algerian Cavalry282, and she saw that he suffered all the more keenly under an outrage he had no power to resist because of that enforced serenity283, that dignity of silence and of patience, with which he stood before his tyrant.
“Wait,” she said, moving a little toward them, while she let her eyes rest on the carver of the sculptures with a grave compassion, though she addressed his chief. “You wholly mistake me. I laid no blame whatever on your Corporal. Let him take the chessmen back with him; I would on no account rob him of them. I can well understand that he does not care to part with such masterpieces of his art; and that he would not appraise284 them by their worth in gold only shows that he is a true artist, as doubtless also he is a true soldier.”
The words were spoken with a gracious courtesy; the clear, cold tone of her habitual285 manner just marking in them still the difference of caste between her and the man for whom she interceded286, as she would equally have interceded for a dog who should have been threatened with the lash because he had displeased287 her. That very tone struck a sharper blow to Cecil than the insolence of his commander had power to deal him. His face flushed a little; he lifted his cap to her with a grave reverence, and moved away.
“I thank you, madame. Keep them, if you will so far honor me.”
The words reached only her ear. In another instant he had passed away down the terrace steps, obedient to his chief’s dismissal.
“Ah! have no kind scruples in keeping them, madame,” Chateauroy laughed to her, as she still held in her hand, doubtfully, the White Sheik of the chess Arabs; “I will see that Bel-a-faire-peur, as they call him, does not suffer by losing these trumperies288, which, I believe, old Zist-et-Zest, a veteran of ours and a wonderful carver, had really far more to do with producing than he. You must not let your gracious pity be moved by such fellows as these troopers of mine; they are the most ingenious rascals289 in the world, and know as well how to produce a dramatic effect in your presence as they do how to drink and to swear when they are out of it.”
“Very possibly,” she said, with an indolent indifference; “but that man was no actor, and I never saw a gentleman if he have not been one.”
“Like enough,” answered the Marquis. “I believe many ‘gentlemen’ come into our ranks who have fled their native countries and broken all laws from the Decalogue to the Code Napoleon. So long as they fight well, we don’t ask their past criminalities. We cannot afford to throw away a good soldier because he has made his own land too hot to hold him.”
“Of what country is your Corporal, then?”
“I have not an idea. I imagine his past must have been something very black, indeed, for the slightest trace of it has never, that I know of, been allowed to let slip from him. He encourages the men in every insubordination, buys their favor with every sort of stage trick, thinks himself the finest gentleman in the whole brigades of Africa, and ought to have been shot long ago, if he had had his real deserts.”
She let her glance dwell on him with a contemplation that was half contemptuous amusement, half unexpressed dissent290.
“I wonder he has not been, since you have the ruling of his fate,” she said, with a slight smile lingering about the proud, rich softness of her lips.
“So do I.”
There was a gaunt, grim, stern significance in the three monosyllables that escaped him unconsciously; it made her turn and look at him more closely.
“How has he offended you?” she asked.
Chateauroy laughed off her question.
“In a thousand ways, madame. Chiefly because I received my regimental training under one who followed the traditions of the Armies of Egypt and the Rhine, and have, I confess little tolerance291, in consequence, of a rebel who plays the martyr292, and a soldier who is too effeminate an idler to do anything except attitudinize in interesting situations to awaken293 sympathy.”
She listened with something of distaste upon her face where she still leaned against the marble balustrade, toying with the ivory Bedouins.
“I am not much interested in military discussion,” she said coldly, “but I imagine — if you will pardon me for saying so — that you do your Corporal some little injustice here. I should not fancy he ‘affects’ anything, to judge from the very good tone of his manners. For the rest, I shall not keep the chessmen without making him fitting payment for them; since he declines money, you will tell me what form that had better take to be of real and welcome service to a Chasseur d’Afrique.”
Chateauroy, more incensed than he chose or dared to show, bowed courteously294, but with a grim, ironic295 smile.
“If you really insist, give him a Napoleon or two whenever you see him; he will be very happy to take it and spend it au cabaret, though he played the aristocrat today. But you are too good to him, he is one of the very worst of my pratiques; and you are as cruel to me in refusing to deign296 to accept my trooper’s worthless bagatelles at my hands.”
She bent her superb head silently, whether in acquiescence297 or rejection298 he could not well resolve with himself, and turned to the staff officers, among them the heir of a princely semi-royal French House, who surrounded her, and sorely begrudged299 the moments she had given to those miniature carvings and the private soldier who had wrought300 them. She was no coquette; she was of too imperial a nature, had too lofty a pride, and was too difficult to charm or to enchain; but those meditative301, brilliant, serene eyes had a terrible gift of awakening302 without ever seeking love, and of drawing without ever recompensing homage303.
Crouched down among her rose-hued covert, Cigarette had watched and heard; her teeth set tightly, her breath coming and going swiftly, her hand clinched304 close on the butts of her pistols; fiery curses, with all the infinite variety in cursing of a barrack repertoire305, chasing one another in hot, fast mutterings of those bright lips, that should have known nothing except a child’s careless and innocent song.
She had never looked at a beautiful, high-born woman before, holding them in gay, satirical disdain as mere butterflies who could not prime a revolver and fire it off to save their own lives, if ever such need arose. But now she studied one through all the fine, quickened, unerring instincts of jealousy; and there is no instinct in the world that gives such thorough appreciation306 of the very rival it reviles307. She saw the courtly negligence, the regal grace, the fair, brilliant loveliness, the delicious, serene languor308, of a pure aristocrate for the very first time to note them, and they made her heart sick with a new and deadly sense; they moved her much as the white, delicate carvings of the lotus-lilies had done; they, like the carvings, showed her all she had missed. She dropped her head suddenly like a wounded bird, and the racy, vindictive309 camp oaths died off her lips. She thought of herself as she had danced that mad bacchic bamboula amid the crowd of shouting, stamping, drunken, half-infuriated soldiery; and for the moment she hated herself more even than she hated that patrician yonder.
“I know what he meant now!” she pondered, and her spirited, sparkling, brunette face was dark and weary, like a brown, sun-lightened brook over whose radiance the heavy shadow of some broad-spread eagle’s wings hovers310, hiding the sun.
She looked once, twice, thrice, more inquiringly, envyingly, thirstily; then, as the band under the cedars311 rolled out their music afresh, and light laughter echoed to her from the terrace, she turned and wound herself back under the cover of the shrubs; not joyously312 and mischievously313 as she had come, but almost as slowly, almost as sadly, as a hare that the greyhounds have coursed drags itself through the grasses and ferns.
Once through the cactus hedge her old spirit returned; she shook herself angrily with petulant self-scorn; she swore a little, and felt that the fierce, familiar words did her good like brandy poured down her throat; she tossed her head like a colt that rebels against the gall of the curb; then, fleet as a fawn314, she dashed down the moonlit road at topmost speed. “She can’t do what I do!” she thought.
And she ran the faster, and sang a drinking-song of the Spahis all the louder, because still at her heart a dull pain was aching.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
carvings
|
|
| n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 )；雕刻术；雕刻品；雕刻物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
musing
|
|
| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
tortuous
|
|
| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
stifling
|
|
| a.令人窒息的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
salute
|
|
| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
skittish
|
|
| adj.易激动的，轻佻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
mare
|
|
| n.母马，母驴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
gall
|
|
| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
gallop
|
|
| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
galloped
|
|
| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
scattering
|
|
| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
mules
|
|
| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
impudent
|
|
| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
laming
|
|
| 瘸的( lame的现在分词 )； 站不住脚的； 差劲的； 蹩脚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tottered
|
|
| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
mosque
|
|
| n.清真寺 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
insolence
|
|
| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
execrated
|
|
| v.憎恶( execrate的过去式和过去分词 )；厌恶；诅咒；咒骂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
indigenous
|
|
| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
questionable
|
|
| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
civilized
|
|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
curb
|
|
| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
lackey
|
|
| n.侍从；跟班 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
wares
|
|
| n. 货物, 商品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
hawk
|
|
| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
talons
|
|
| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
divination
|
|
| n.占卜，预测 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
falcon
|
|
| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
casement
|
|
| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
rim
|
|
| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
piquant
|
|
| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
pouting
|
|
| v.撅（嘴）( pout的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
mischievous
|
|
| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
belle
|
|
| n.靓女 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
satire
|
|
| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
incensed
|
|
| 盛怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
pique
|
|
| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
piqued
|
|
| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
petulant
|
|
| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
modesty
|
|
| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
tassels
|
|
| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
duel
|
|
| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
pounced
|
|
| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
buffeted
|
|
| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
puff
|
|
| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
diadem
|
|
| n.王冠，冕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
glorified
|
|
| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
supremacy
|
|
| n.至上；至高权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
pang
|
|
| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
tyrant
|
|
| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
thralls
|
|
| n.奴隶( thrall的名词复数 )；奴役；奴隶制；奴隶般受支配的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
contrition
|
|
| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
compassion
|
|
| n.同情，怜悯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
chivalrous
|
|
| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
winding
|
|
| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
penetration
|
|
| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
tact
|
|
| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
fig
|
|
| n.无花果(树) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
champagne
|
|
| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
battered
|
|
| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
moorish
|
|
| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
awning
|
|
| n.遮阳篷；雨篷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
chatter
|
|
| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
argot
|
|
| n.隐语，黑话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
monarchs
|
|
| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
immortal
|
|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
muskets
|
|
| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
azure
|
|
| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
quaint
|
|
| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
hues
|
|
| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
undoing
|
|
| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
cartridge
|
|
| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
aristocrat
|
|
| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
lash
|
|
| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
checkered
|
|
| adj.有方格图案的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
velvet
|
|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
leopard
|
|
| n.豹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
impunity
|
|
| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
avenge
|
|
| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
negligence
|
|
| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
vendetta
|
|
| n.世仇，宿怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
haughty
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
rebuke
|
|
| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
mortification
|
|
| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
wrath
|
|
| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
curt
|
|
| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
picturesque
|
|
| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
mellow
|
|
| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
coax
|
|
| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
confidential
|
|
| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
presto
|
|
| adv.急速地；n.急板乐段；adj.急板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
twig
|
|
| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
carrion
|
|
| n.腐肉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
flick
|
|
| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
spine
|
|
| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
spouting
|
|
| n.水落管系统v.（指液体）喷出( spout的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
vivacious
|
|
| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
eloquence
|
|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
pathos
|
|
| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
rations
|
|
| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
defense
|
|
| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
writhing
|
|
| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
hoofs
|
|
| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
stunned
|
|
| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
eloquent
|
|
| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
vein
|
|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
brook
|
|
| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
mowed
|
|
| v.刈，割( mow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
indignity
|
|
| n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
outrage
|
|
| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
foe
|
|
| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
entreaty
|
|
| n.恳求，哀求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
evoked
|
|
| [医]诱发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
flirted
|
|
| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
flirts
|
|
| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
scruples
|
|
| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
delicacy
|
|
| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
scant
|
|
| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
overtures
|
|
| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
audacity
|
|
| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
courteous
|
|
| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
boisterous
|
|
| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
akin
|
|
| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
humbug
|
|
| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
petulantly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
renown
|
|
| n.声誉，名望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
ledge
|
|
| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
vaulting
|
|
| n.（天花板或屋顶的）拱形结构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
elevation
|
|
| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
discomfited
|
|
| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
hustled
|
|
| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
forage
|
|
| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
wagon
|
|
| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
trot
|
|
| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
withdrawal
|
|
| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
filth
|
|
| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
doomed
|
|
| 命定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
premature
|
|
| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
fumes
|
|
| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
cascades
|
|
| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
trampling
|
|
| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
audacities
|
|
| n.大胆( audacity的名词复数 )；鲁莽；胆大妄为；鲁莽行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
179
nemesis
|
|
| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
tinkling
|
|
| n.丁当作响声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
blasphemies
|
|
| n.对上帝的亵渎，亵渎的言词[行为]( blasphemy的名词复数 )；侮慢的言词（或行为） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
infancy
|
|
| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
gutter
|
|
| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
iniquities
|
|
| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
marvel
|
|
| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
insolent
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
gleaned
|
|
| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
truthfulness
|
|
| n. 符合实际 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
cleaved
|
|
| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
villa
|
|
| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
exertions
|
|
| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
enchanting
|
|
| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
ferocious
|
|
| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
slaughter
|
|
| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
disdain
|
|
| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
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） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
beak
|
|
| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
202
satiety
|
|
| n.饱和；(市场的)充分供应 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
203
ruffled
|
|
| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
204
caressing
|
|
| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
205
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
206
cactus
|
|
| n.仙人掌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
207
myriad
|
|
| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
208
foliage
|
|
| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
209
cedar
|
|
| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
210
grove
|
|
| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
211
mellowed
|
|
| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
212
pawn
|
|
| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
213
resolute
|
|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
214
democrat
|
|
| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
215
barricade
|
|
| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
216
creeds
|
|
| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
217
smote
|
|
| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
218
gilded
|
|
| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
219
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
220
impervious
|
|
| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
221
ingenuity
|
|
| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
222
spines
|
|
| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
223
dexterity
|
|
| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
224
cacti
|
|
| n.（复）仙人掌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
225
regiments
|
|
| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
226
ruse
|
|
| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
227
zephyrs
|
|
| n.和风，微风( zephyr的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
228
lurking
|
|
| 潜在 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
229
discretion
|
|
| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
230
shrubs
|
|
| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
231
exclamation
|
|
| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
232
erect
|
|
| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
233
hatred
|
|
| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
234
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
235
patrician
|
|
| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
236
dames
|
|
| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
237
attire
|
|
| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
238
considerably
|
|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
239
corps
|
|
| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
240
triumphantly
|
|
| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
241
aristocrats
|
|
| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
242
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
243
poignant
|
|
| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
244
butts
|
|
| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
245
crests
|
|
| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
246
drooping
|
|
| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
247
depreciated
|
|
| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
248
antagonist
|
|
| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
249
gauge
|
|
| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
250
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
251
lizard
|
|
| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
252
impatience
|
|
| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
253
murmur
|
|
| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
254
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
255
softened
|
|
| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
256
covert
|
|
| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
257
saluted
|
|
| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
258
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
259
degradations
|
|
| 堕落( degradation的名词复数 )； 下降； 陵削； 毁坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
260
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
261
serene
|
|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
262
softening
|
|
| 变软，软化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
263
mimic
|
|
| v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
264
sculptor
|
|
| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
265
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
266
luster
|
|
| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
267
thatch
|
|
| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
268
solace
|
|
| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
269
withhold
|
|
| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
270
obedience
|
|
| n.服从，顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
271
momentary
|
|
| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
272
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
273
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
274
gracefully
|
|
| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
275
humiliate
|
|
| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
276
haughtiest
|
|
| haughty（傲慢的，骄傲的）的最高级形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
277
adorned
|
|
| [计]被修饰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
278
injustice
|
|
| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
279
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
280
brutal
|
|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
281
bully
|
|
| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
282
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
283
serenity
|
|
| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
284
appraise
|
|
| v.估价，评价，鉴定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
285
habitual
|
|
| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
286
interceded
|
|
| v.斡旋，调解( intercede的过去式和过去分词 )；说情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
287
displeased
|
|
| a.不快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
288
trumperies
|
|
| n.中看不中用的东西( trumpery的名词复数 )；徒有其表的东西；胡言乱语；废话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
289
rascals
|
|
| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
290
dissent
|
|
| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
291
tolerance
|
|
| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
292
martyr
|
|
| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
293
awaken
|
|
| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
294
courteously
|
|
| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
295
ironic
|
|
| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
296
deign
|
|
| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
297
acquiescence
|
|
| n.默许；顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
298
rejection
|
|
| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
299
begrudged
|
|
| 嫉妒( begrudge的过去式和过去分词 )； 勉强做； 不乐意地付出； 吝惜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
300
wrought
|
|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
301
meditative
|
|
| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
302
awakening
|
|
| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
303
homage
|
|
| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
304
clinched
|
|
| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
305
repertoire
|
|
| n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
306
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
307
reviles
|
|
| v.辱骂，痛斥( revile的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
308
languor
|
|
| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
309
vindictive
|
|
| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
310
hovers
|
|
| 鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
311
cedars
|
|
| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
312
joyously
|
|
| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
313
mischievously
|
|
| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
314
fawn
|
|
| n.未满周岁的小鹿；v.巴结，奉承 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |